Sefer Yechezkel, chapter 20. "And it came to pass in the seventh year, in the fifth month, on the tenth of the month, that certain of the elders of Israel came to inquire of Hashem, and they sat before me." In the seventh year, in the fifth month, on the tenth of the month, Yechezkel describes that certain of the elders of Israel came to inquire of Hashem, and they sat before him in order to ask questions and to seek Hashem, and we will soon see the nature of their request. Rashi explains that "to inquire of Hashem" refers to their needs. They came and argued: if He does not listen to us, then we too will not be punished for the sins in our hands. And why? What was their claim? Chazal say that they told him: He has already sold us and He has no claim over us. After Hashem sold us, what can He now demand of us? They brought a parable for this: a slave whom his master sold, and a woman whom her husband divorced, does one still have any claim over the other? They came with the argument: a man divorces his wife, and afterward comes and says, you are betraying me. What betrayal? She is already divorced. What connection do you have with her? So the same thing they argued here: the Holy One, blessed be He, comes with a grievance against us that we are unfaithful and serve idols, but Hashem divorced us. And if Hashem divorced us, what grievance is there against us? We will see the answer later on, there is a detailed response in the words of the prophet, "Where is the bill of your mother's divorce whom I have sent away," we will see this later. But in any case this was their claim. Their claim was that after Hashem exiled us, after Hashem distanced us, there is no grievance against us now as to why we do not keep the mitzvot of Hashem. And we will see later how He answers them, "And that which comes into your mind shall not come to pass at all," all of this we will see later as a response to their claims.
The Malbim brings what the Abarbanel wrote, that Yehoyachin went into exile eleven years before the destruction of the Beit HaMikdash. At the beginning of the fifth year of his exile, Yechezkel saw the first vision. And from there onward until the destruction, every year he saw a vision, they showed him a vision, a prophetic vision concerning the people of Israel. The Malbim says that even though other prophecies came, in any case at the beginning of the year he would see one prophecy. There were other prophecies, but every year, at its beginning, Yechezkel would see one prophecy. In the seventh year Hashem arranged that the elders would come, and this was on the tenth of the fifth month. For at this time the Beit HaMikdash was destined to be destroyed, since the fifth month is the month of Av. And the tenth: the main burning of the House of our God took place on the tenth. What we do on the ninth is because it began toward evening of the ninth, and therefore we observe it on the ninth, the beginning of the calamity, but the main burning was on the tenth. So it turns out that the date we are now discussing, the seventh year, the fifth month, the tenth of the month, is in fact the day of the destruction, years before it was destroyed. And they come to him specifically on this day, the day on which the Beit HaMikdash was destined to be destroyed, they come to him and ask him to pray for the Beit HaMikdash that it not be destroyed. And the Holy One, blessed be He, answers him that He will not accept their prayer and Hashem will not respond to them.
In Seder Olam it is brought that these were Chananya, Mishael, and Azarya. But according to what the Malbim explained for us in chapter 14, we are dealing here with wicked elders, and not with the righteous among the people of Israel. It is brought that the righteous were called "the elders of Yehuda," while here it speaks of "the elders of Israel." Yehuda, these were the righteous, for in Yehuda there were entire periods when they served Hashem. In contrast, in Israel there was no period from the time of Yerovam onward when they served Hashem. All their kings were wicked, and the entire leadership and conduct of the people was in a wicked path. So when "the elders of Israel" is mentioned, it refers to those who acted wickedly. In contrast, when it speaks of the righteous, it speaks of "the elders of Yehuda." So according to this explanation, the men who come to argue their claims are specifically the wicked ones. And this fits with what Chazal say, that they came and argued: if Hashem abandoned us and divorced us, what further complaint does He have against us? He abandoned us, and consequently we can do whatever comes into our minds.
"And the word of Hashem came to me, saying: Son of man, speak to the elders of Israel and say to them, thus says Hashem Elokim: Have you come to inquire of Me? As I live, I will not be inquired of by you, says Hashem Elokim." Speak to the elders of Israel and say to them, thus says Hashem Elokim: Have you come to inquire of Me? The meaning is: surely your intention is not to inquire of Hashem, your intention is not to know His ways, to recognize His conduct, "Make known to me Your ways" in order to walk in His paths. Your intention is only, as we said, that you want to lighten your burden, you want to grant yourselves leniencies, you have not really come to inquire of Me. As I live, I will not be inquired of by you, says Hashem. And therefore, as I live, I will not be inquired of by you so as to answer your questions, for you have no genuine request to draw close to Hashem, may He be blessed.
Rashi says: it is a wonder, since here you say "Have you come to inquire of Me? As I live, I will not be inquired of by you," I will not respond to you. And yet at the end of the sefer He says "I will be inquired of by the house of Israel," meaning that the Holy One, blessed be He, does respond to them. So Rashi asks: how is this possible? He said He would not be inquired of, and now He will be inquired of? This is one of the places that teach us that the Holy One, blessed be He, retracts concerning evil. He tells you: the Holy One, blessed be He, concerning a good matter never retracts, except in one case as the Gemara brings, but concerning evil, Hashem relents from the evil. And regarding such a case, "He said and did not do." The Holy One, blessed be He, said and did not do. When? When it concerns an evil matter, then even though it is the decree of the Omnipresent, even though He said it, in the end it is not carried out. So even though He says here "As I live, I will not be inquired of by you," and this is a wonder, since "As I live" has the meaning of an oath. But we see that even when it concerns an oath, there is a case where Hashem retracts, when the oath is for evil. "For evil" means: if I will be inquired of by you, I will not be inquired of by you. But in the end the Holy One, blessed be He, did change His reasoning and was inquired of by them, because as we said, the Holy One, blessed be He, retracts concerning evil.
"Will you judge them, will you judge them, son of man? Make known to them the abominations of their fathers." Will you judge them? The Targum explains: will you rebuke them. The meaning is: do you wish to reprove them for their evil deeds? And not only that, but also make known to them the abominations of their fathers. That is, their provocation is not from today, already of old their fathers provoked Me. The Malbim explains that they came to the prophet either to inquire of Hashem, or that the prophet himself would judge them according to the laws of the Torah. Therefore He says to them: if you did not come to inquire of Hashem, but only so that you would judge them, then "Will you judge them, son of man?" As a human being you will be the judge and judge them, since judgment here is for a person on earth when it is a matter of judging according to the laws of the Torah. This judgment is according to one's intellect, according to one's knowledge of the Torah of Hashem. About this He says "Will you judge them, will you judge them, son of man?" The meaning is: from the aspect of being a human being, you will judge them. Not according to prophecy, but according to intellect, according to your knowledge of the Torah of Hashem. "Make known to them the abominations of their fathers," make known to them that they already strayed from the path back in the days of their fathers. That is, if they had come to me in order to be inquired of by Me, I would have transmitted to you a prophecy for them. But since this is not the reality, but rather, as we said, they come to argue and not to receive prophecy from Hashem, they do not come to straighten their ways, as we said they have no desire to know the ways of Hashem, He says: if so, then you as a human being will reprove them for their corrupt deeds and those of their fathers. But had they come to be inquired of by Me, how to correct their ways, then I would have responded to them and I would have spoken with them and transmitted to you a prophecy how to lead them in the right path, to straighten their ways toward My service.
"And say to them, thus says Hashem Elokim: On the day I chose Israel, and I lifted My hand to the seed of the house of Yaakov, and made Myself known to them in the land of Egypt, and I lifted My hand to them saying, I am Hashem your God." From here He begins words of rebuke. And His rebuke says: already from the day I chose Israel, from the time I chose the people of Israel and sent them prophets, and the prophets are Moshe, Aharon, and Miriam, He reproves them that already from then you did not listen and did not accept My words. And we will see later that Hashem tells them: already from the time I lifted My hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, I said to them, "Each of you, cast away the detestable things of his eyes, and do not defile yourselves with the idols of Egypt." And they rebelled against Me and would not listen to Me, as we will see all of this later, how He reproves them that already in Egypt I had rebuke against you, already in Egypt I sent My prophets to you and you did not listen. And why nonetheless did the Holy One, blessed be He, bring them out of Egypt? The Midrash says: this hatred was suppressed before the Omnipresent for close to 900 years, from those who were in Egypt until Yechezkel. And His love covered over them. But since Hashem's love was great, His love covered over them to continue to sustain them, to redeem them, to give them the Torah, to bring them to the land of Israel. But now the Midrash says that they multiplied their transgressions, and the hatred was aroused, that hatred which had been present since then, about this it is said "Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers over all transgressions." The present hatred will stir up strife over that old hatred, over what was then. And when there is love, then "love covers over all transgressions." This is very familiar: when two people quarrel, when friction arises between a man and his wife, then when something arouses hatred now, they begin to recall "what you did to me after the wedding" and "what your mother said to me after the sheva berachot" and what... married thirty years already, what now... yes, a woman keeps ledgers, the woman... it is known she keeps double bookkeeping. Yes, she keeps ledgers, she remembers everything, a woman is made from the bone, the bone is not something that gets erased, it is not wiped out. Man is from the dust, you come with water, wash it, it is finished. But a woman is from the bone, it is engraved. So this we see here as well. The Holy One, blessed be He, tells them: the hatred you are now committing arouses the ancient hatred, from long ago I came to you with words of rebuke through My prophets and you did not listen. And then, as a result of this, "And I lifted My hand to them saying, I am Hashem your God."
"And I lifted My hand," the Radak says the meaning is an expression of an oath. Right? "And I lifted My hand to them," He says: I swore to them to give the land, to give it to Avraham, to Yitzchak, and to Yaakov, I swore to them to give it to the seed of Yaakov, who are their children, the people who were in Egypt. "And made Myself known to them," what is "and made Myself known to them"? I became known to them through the prophets I sent to them. Through this, "and made Myself known to them." The Holy One, blessed be He, says: now come and see how they deteriorated after that reality. The Malbim explains that "On the day I chose," that is, He tells them: already from the time I chose you in Egypt, there were two things here. First, "On the day I chose," the Malbim explains this is a matter of choice. The Holy One, blessed be He, saw the merit of Israel, that they were worthy of the resting of the Shechina, that they were worthy that the Divine matter should cling to them, here there is a matter of "On the day I chose." Second, there is the aspect that they are the seed of Yaakov. "To the seed of the house of Yaakov." That is, even if in themselves they are not truly worthy, but you are the descendants of the holy forefathers. And to the holy forefathers I swore, to the holy forefathers I committed to redeem their children. So there were two matters here. One, that I chose you in your own right, and the second, from the aspect of the connection to the holy forefathers and the oath I swore to them. So corresponding to what He said "On the day I chose Israel," the meaning is from the aspect that you are worthy of providence, of the Divine matter, there is in you a virtue from the aspect of Israel, about this He says: I made Myself known to you already in the land of Egypt, the Divine matter was revealed to you, I sent you Moshe to perform for you signs and wonders. And corresponding to what He said "And I lifted My hand to the seed of the house of Yaakov," that is, from the aspect of the holy forefathers, that you are the seed of the house of Yaakov and therefore it is fitting to redeem you, He said to them "And I lifted My hand to them saying, I am Hashem your God." Already long ago I am Hashem your God, already from of old, to be your God.
"On that day I lifted My hand to them to bring them out of the land of Egypt, to a land that I had searched out for them, flowing with milk and honey, it is the beauty of all lands." Hashem says: on that day I lifted My hand to them, I lifted My hand to them, as we explained the meaning is I swore to them, to bring them out of the land of Egypt to a land that I had searched out for them. That is, to a land that I chose and searched out for them, which is the finest of lands. A land flowing with milk and honey, it is the beauty of all lands. What is "beauty" (tzvi)? Tzvi means splendor and desire. Tzvi is also from an expression of desire, something I want, something I covet. And what is the desirability of the land? For it is the middle region, the Radak says, and it is superior to the other regions, and its climate is temperate and better than all lands. There are people who say: if Hashem wanted us so much, why did He not put us in Switzerland? Look at these mountains, look at the greenery, look... When did you get to Switzerland? In the summer. Did you try being there in the winter? Put you in the freezer for more than half a year. So true, it is nice, it is nice to arrive there in the summer, everything is green after the snow melted, the air is also pleasant, there is no New York summer or Israeli summer there. The summer there is much more pleasant, much more airy, the Admorim do not travel to Davos for nothing. Fine, true, you are right, in the summer. How many months is that? How many months is that? Beyond that, you know that people there cannot leave the house. So to come to a place and see and say "ah, this is beautiful," that is not enough. He says here: the middle region is superior to the other regions, and its climate is temperate and better than all lands. How many other lands do you have where at one end of the land you have a tropical climate, you have a dry climate, a desert climate, and on the other side you have a snowy climate? In the same stretch of land, how much is it? Five hundred kilometers? What is the length of the land? Do you understand? In such a small place you have Eilat at one end and the Chermon at the other. And He says it is superior to the other regions, its climate temperate and better than all lands, temperate and better than all lands. The winter here is not a harsh winter, the summer here is not a harsh summer, the air is temperate, the crops that can be grown here are of all kinds of crops, there are crops of the Arava and there are crops that are grown in the cold countries, apples grown on the Golan Heights. In short, you understand that this place is the most temperate of all lands. So He says: if so, this place that I brought you to is flowing with milk and honey, it is the beauty. Tzvi, by the way, can also be explained, as we said, from an expression of desire and coveting, everyone covets it. You can see how much it has been coveted throughout the years. Everyone covets this place. What do they have to look for here? But everyone seeks the center of the Middle East, the land of Israel, which is what is called a strategic passageway among the nations. "It is the beauty of all lands," it is a place that everyone wants and seeks. The Targum Yonatan says tzvi means "praise." The place most praised of all lands. Now beyond all this, we surely understand that this speaks of spiritual virtues that the land of Israel has which no other land has, of the holiness of the land of Israel, of the air of the land of Israel, all of which is beyond what we speak of regarding the physical, in spirituality there is nothing even to compare, "the eyes of Hashem your God are upon it from the beginning of the year to the end of the year." The Malbim explains that from the time He brought them out of Egypt, Hashem took them under His individual providence. The Holy One, blessed be He, brought them out of Egypt with signs and wonders, brought them to a land He searched out for them, and all of this, as we said, with full providence. And He says: behold, see that I placed this people, I took it like the planting of a vine in order to plant it in the most special place, in the land of Israel which flows with milk and honey. And all their physical needs I provided for you so that you would be free only for the service of Hashem. Each man under his vine and under his fig tree, everyone with their heart directed only to His service, as it was in the time of Shlomo, as it was in other periods, the time of Chizkiyahu. So He says: if so, this place is the most excellent place.
And He says to them, already then in Egypt: "Each of you, cast away the detestable things of his eyes, and do not defile yourselves with the idols of Egypt, I am Hashem your God." Who is the one who "says to them" then, "Each of you, cast away the detestable things of his eyes"? Rashi explains: Aharon prophesied to them even before the Holy One, blessed be He, revealed Himself to Moshe at the bush. And this is what Moshe Rabbenu says to the Holy One, blessed be He: "Send, please, by the hand of the one You will send." Send, please, by the hand of the one You are accustomed to send. Who? The one who until now was sent. And who was sent? Aharon. Aharon was prophesying to them. And we learned this more explicitly in what the Holy One, blessed be He, said to Eli: "Did I not reveal Myself to the house of your father when they were in Egypt?" I revealed Myself to the house of your father even when the house of your father was in Egypt. That is, I revealed Myself to the house of Aharon. Aharon prophesied to the people of Israel already in Egypt, Aharon was greater than Moshe. The Radak says: and He said to them through the prophets that they had in Egypt before Moshe, as our early Sages said, that is Moshe, "Each of you, cast away the detestable things of his eyes." According to the Radak, we are speaking here of a prophecy that was transmitted through Moshe. And I said to them, "Each of you, cast away the detestable things of his eyes." The Radak asks: why did He mention the detestable things as "the detestable things of his eyes"? What is the connection of the detestable thing to the eyes? The Radak says: because the eyes bring a person to sin. As it says, "And you shall not go astray after your heart and after your eyes, after which you go whoring." And so He also said further, "For after their idols their heart went, and after the idols of their fathers were their eyes." Chazal say the eye and the heart are the two agents of sin. What are the agents of sin? An agent is the intermediary. The eye and the heart are the intermediaries of sin to the instruments of action. The moment the eye sees, the heart covets, the instruments of action complete it. It turns out, then, that were it not for the eye, a person would not be drawn to sin at all. How is a person drawn to sin? He saw something and greatly desired it. Everything a person sees is the beginning of the attraction. The Holy One, blessed be He, says "My son, give Me your heart." It is written, the Holy One, blessed be He, says: if you gave Me your eyes, you are Mine. So says the Midrash. Give Me the eyes. If you gave Me your eyes, the Holy One, blessed be He, says: you are Mine. You belong to Me. Because through this, once there are no eyes, a person does not go, does not see, is not drawn, does not desire. But when a person goes and sees, ah look what a new car this one bought, wow, come see what a... that one saw, did you see he added another floor? ah that... in short, a person goes and sees, all his seeing causes him afterward to begin to covet, to begin to want, to begin to aspire. Beyond the forbidden sights of illicit relations and the like. So He says "Each of you, cast away the detestable things of his eyes." Cast away the detestable things of the eyes, the eyes that incline after the detestable things, cast that away. "And do not defile yourselves with the idols of Egypt." The idols, which are the idolatry of Egypt, do not defile yourselves with them, for they were being assimilated into the idols of Egypt, they were serving their idolatries. The Malbim explains that the Holy One, blessed be He, made a condition with them that from now on they would be holy to their God, that they would not be like the other idolaters. And this holiness needs to be in two matters. First, to become holy in deeds. This is the matters of idolatry, for the matters of idolatry involved being drawn after immorality. We already explained this in the past, that in every place where a matter of idolatry is mentioned, a matter of immorality is mentioned. "Your harlotries." Why? The Gra says: for we have a tradition that in every place of idolatry there was also a place of a brothel. And their method was that the priests would draw the believers to idolatry through festivals of immorality. And through this they would draw them. Therefore, the Gra says, you will find many times the connection of immorality to idolatry. This was the way. So if you keep the mitzvot of Hashem, then you are restricted. Come to us, we, idolatry is liberal. It is liberal, everything is permitted. And then through this they would draw people to come to them. So they need to become holy in deeds, "cast away the detestable things of his eyes," that they not be drawn after the immorality attributed to the eyes. Another matter: "and do not defile yourselves with the idols of Egypt," which is the matters of idolatry, for they believed in vanity and emptiness. The Malbim explains that both the detestable things and the idols, both are idolatry. The only difference is that the detestable things were the figures that aroused immorality and intercourse. They had all sorts of figures that they would make into statues and the like in order to arouse the lust of intercourse. And this is what He says, this is "the detestable things of his eyes." And always when there are detestable things and idols, the difference between them is that the idols are idolatry and the detestable things are what was designed to draw toward the lust of immorality.
"But they rebelled against Me and would not listen to Me, each man did not cast away the detestable things of his eyes, and they did not forsake the idols of Egypt. And I said to pour out My wrath upon them, to spend My anger against them." To spend My anger against them (bahem) in the midst of the land of Egypt. It is "to spend My anger bahem" and not "bahem," even though usually it is "to spend My anger bahem." Since it comes in a construct state, the letters bet, gimel, dalet, kaf, pei, tav at the beginning of a word carry a dagesh. But if there is an aleph, hei, vav, yod adjacent, if the previous letter ends with one of the letters aleph, hei, vav, yod, if the previous word ends with one of the letters aleph, hei, vav, yod, then it removes the dagesh. All of this is true only when it is in a construct state, but if it is not in a construct state, then it does not remove the dagesh. So whenever it is written "to spend My anger bahem," that is correct because it is a construct relationship, the "My anger" to "against them," it removes the dagesh from the bet. But here there is a disjunctive cantillation mark above "My anger," "to spend My anger, against them." So therefore a dagesh does remain in the letter bet, the aleph-hei-vav-yod does not remove the dagesh. Let us explain. "But they rebelled against Me and would not listen to Me." About whom is this said here? Who are those who rebelled against Me in Egypt? Rashi explains: the wicked, the majority of Israel who died during the three days of darkness. "And the children of Israel went up armed (chamushim) out of the land of Egypt." How much is chamushim? One out of five, that is according to the most minimal opinion. Some say one out of fifty, some say one out of five hundred. In any case, it is certain that not all those who were there went out of Egypt. And if not all of them went out of Egypt, it turns out that the majority remained, this is agreed. How much is the majority? If we go by the most minimal measure, it is 80%. It turns out, then, that it is very correct to say "But they rebelled against Me and would not listen to Me." 80% of the people of Israel would not listen to Me and died during the three days of darkness. The Malbim explains: "they rebelled against Me," to do what I commanded them not to do, they went and did it. "Would not listen to Me," the meaning is they did not obey what I commanded them to do. So there are two things here. There is "they rebelled against Me" and "would not listen to Me." "They rebelled," what I said not to do, they did. "And would not listen to Me," what I said to do, they did not do. So both things are here. "Each man did not cast away the detestable things of his eyes." The detestable things point to the evil deeds, as we said, of immorality, which are things done in practice, this they did not cast away. "And the idols of Egypt," which point to heresy, that they believed in the idolatry of Egypt, this they did not forsake. Hashem says: "And I said to pour out My wrath upon them." Through there being wrath here, "to spend My anger against them." What is the difference between wrath (chema) and anger (af)? The Malbim already explained this matter several times, that chema is internal and af is external. Like fury (ketzef), which is external. The chema is internal, "and his chema burned within him." The chema is internal. In contrast, af is external, since when a person is angry, "a fire is kindled in My af and burns to the lowest depths." You see the nose (af) heating up, steam beginning to come out, this points to external anger. He says here: when there is a situation of "to pour out My wrath upon them, to spend My anger against them," if it is chema which is both internal wrath and external anger, then there is annihilation. So it is "to spend My anger against them in the midst of the land of Egypt," utter destruction.
What in fact was the cause that Hashem did not do so? "But I acted for the sake of My name, that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations among whom they were, in whose sight I made Myself known to them, to bring them out of the land of Egypt." The Holy One, blessed be He, says: and despite all this, "But I acted for the sake of My name." I acted so that My name should not be profaned. "That it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations among whom they were." If I do not redeem them, then My name will be profaned in the sight of the peoples among whom they are. Why? What is the meaning of "in whose sight I made Myself known to them"? This is the reason for the profaning of Hashem's name. Since there is here "I made Myself known to them," to whom? To the people of Israel. In whose sight? Of the nations. So the nations hear how the Holy One, blessed be He, transmits through His prophets: I will redeem the people of Israel, I will redeem the people of Israel, I will redeem the people of Israel. This they hear from the mouths of the prophets. And suddenly they see that the Holy One, blessed be He, did not redeem them. Ah, so He is weak, He has no power. This is what He says. "But I acted for the sake of My name, that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations among whom they were." And the prophecies that were transmitted, the nations also heard them. We said there were prophecies already when they were in Egypt. "In whose sight I made Myself known to them," in the sight of the nations. Now I can no longer retract, there would be a profaning of Hashem's name here. And what did I make known to them in their sight? To bring them out of the land of Egypt. I committed to bring them out of the land of Egypt. And if so, now the Holy One, blessed be He, says that My name should not be profaned, so to speak I am now as if obligated to redeem them. The Radak says that the prophets were promising to bring them out from among them even before Moshe Rabbenu, may he rest in peace, as we saw Aharon and others who prophesied to them, prophesied even earlier. The Radak says: but once Moshe Rabbenu, may he rest in peace, came to them on the mission of God, they did not hold to their evil deeds. In contrast to what we saw earlier, the Radak holds that the moment Moshe Rabbenu came to prophesy, they did not hold to the evil deeds, they did not continue in the corrupt path. So all that is written here is from even earlier. And now he brings a proof for this, for it said "And the people believed, and they heard that Hashem had remembered the children of Israel." And they believed in Moshe because of the signs he performed before their eyes. He says: and the earlier prophets did not do so. It turns out, then, that according to this opinion, they were already corrected from the time of Moshe. But in contrast, the Radak says: I do not disregard the words of our Sages. It is brought: once Moshe Rabbenu, may he rest in peace, came to them on the mission of God, there were wicked ones among them and they did not turn back from their evil path. Until when? This is astonishing, for here it is mentioned, he brings what Rashi says, that they died during the three days of darkness. But after darkness there were more plagues. Right? What was after darkness? The plague of the firstborn, right? Many. And there, what? Were they already righteous? What was after the plague of the firstborn? "Draw out and take for yourselves sheep." What do Chazal expound? Draw your hands away from idolatry. That is to say, we see that even when they already had to take sheep for themselves, they still needed to be warned about idolatry. Worse than that, if you think carefully, maybe fine, but already then "they drew out." So they drew out. Afterward, when they arrive at the sea, what does the sea claim against them? "These are idolaters and these are idolaters." And what does Micha take together with him into the sea itself? The idol. Right? It turns out that we see that even when they are already at the shore of the sea and are within the sea, we see that the matter of idolatry accompanies them. So what apparently needs to be said is that we are speaking here of percentages. When it speaks here of those who acted wickedly in Egypt, it is speaking to you about 80%. 80% who died in the darkness. Afterward, the 20% were surely refined on an entirely different level than the first 80%. Ah, "draw your hands away from idolatry." True, but that is not on the level of the 80% who were before. That is to say, within the 20% there were still some who were somewhat connected to idolatry, therefore it is needed "draw your hands away." It does not say to them "do not serve idols," it does not imply that they were actually serving. Rather only that they should draw their hands away. When they arrive at the sea, they already need great merit for the sea to split for them. Here it is enough that there already be a few idolaters, for the sea to say they are not worthy. Or it is enough that they were not completely purified from it, for the sea to say they are not worthy. The proof: one, the idol of Micha, passed through the sea, a distress. In contrast, with the rest we did not see any more idolatry that passed with them into the sea. So what must be said is that the others were not entirely purified from idolatry, but this is not like "each man cast away the detestable things of his eyes" that was before, when there were 80% who actually served idols. Here we are already speaking of different levels and of an entirely different quantity and percentage and of different degrees. And therefore this is considered two different situations.