"I will tend My flock and I will let them rest, says Hashem Elokim." He says, do not think that because they are in a high and distant place they will be left without a shepherd. Hashem says, I will tend My flock. And I will watch over them at the time of grazing, both while they are grazing and from the time they lie down at night. As it is written regarding Yaakov, "in the day the drought consumed me, and the frost by night." That is to say, even when the flock lie down, when they rest, which is at night, though in truth the Malbim brings that it is not necessarily at night, there are times too when in the heat of the day one causes them to lie down even at noon. One grazes them, one causes them to lie down at noon. But in any case, even while they lie down, Hashem says, I will continue and watch over them. "I will seek the lost and bring back the one that strayed, and I will bind up the broken and strengthen the sick, but the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will tend it with justice." I will seek the lost, and also the one that strayed, the one who was driven from her place as we saw regarding the aleph, now He goes according to what He spoke regarding the aleph. What the leaders failed to do, and against that Hashem says what I will do. These are four things that the shepherds, those who tended them, did the opposite of. Hashem says, the lost I will indeed seek. The one that strayed, whom they did not seek, I will bring back, the one who was driven from her place. The broken one who has a broken hand, a broken leg, her I will bind up. And the sick one, her I will strengthen. Hashem says, but the fat and the strong. What is the fat and the strong? These were the wealthy, they are the strong, through their wealth and through their might they ruled over the poor, they took from them by force, they collected from them draconian taxes. The poor were trampled under the hand of the wealthy. These are the wealthy, they are called the fat and the strong. Hashem says, these I will destroy. And through this the flock will be able to graze, and they will have sustenance in the place where they will have pasture, for Hashem says, I will tend it with justice. With justice means with fairness and righteousness, that each one will receive what is fitting for him, and the strong will not come and take by force from the lesser people, the poor, the weak.
Notice, here He said "and strengthen the sick." Seemingly regarding the aleph we saw that the ailing one, which is less than sick, is beginning to become sick, she needs strengthening. Whereas by contrast the truly sick one, we said she needs healing. Because she is truly sick. Here, notice, it is written "and strengthen the sick." He should have said I will heal, as He wrote regarding the aleph. Why here did He say "and strengthen the sick"? So the Malbim explains that He wished to say not only that the ailing one I will strengthen, but even the sick one, not only the ailing one who is beginning to fall ill as we explained, but even the one who truly fell into illness, her too, not only will I heal, for to heal is only to remove the illness from her, but further I will strengthen her. And therefore He went to the two extremes. That is, on one hand the worst is the sick one, and on the other hand He will bring her to the best state, that her He will strengthen. This means to care for them with the very best possible care. "And you My flock, thus says Hashem Elokim: behold, I judge between one sheep and another, between the rams and the goats." Corresponding to what He said regarding the fat, who are the wealthy, those who would take all the abundance and leave the poor nothing, ruling over the poor and taking their money, Hashem says, I judge between one sheep and another, between the rams and the goats. The rams and the goats, who were actually the strong, those with power and might, would take all the pasture and would not let the poor graze. This refers to the weak sheep, they would not let them graze, because they took the good pasture for themselves. And afterward, for the weaker sheep there was no longer anything left to graze. If we recall, it is written regarding David HaMelech that when he tended the flock, because of this matter, what he would do, at first he would bring out the weak ones, the young, and let them eat the upper part of the grass, which is soft. Afterward the middle ones, letting them eat the lower part. And afterward he would bring out the strong and mighty ones, who are able to pull the grass out from the root and eat the harder part, and that he would give to them. But here they would go, the strong ones, in the parable, these are the wealthy, they would go and take
all the grass that was meant for grazing, and would leave nothing for the weak sheep, for the poor. Hashem says, "Is it too little for you that you graze the good pasture, that you must trample with your feet the rest of your pasture? And that you drink the clear water, that you must foul the rest with your feet? And My flock must graze what your feet have trampled, and drink what your feet have fouled?" He says, is it too little for you, as if it is not enough for you that you come and graze the good pasture, but even the rest of your pasture you trample, you tread down? What is the meaning? When the great and strong ones come to graze, let us say they took, so to speak, the choice and the good. Fine. Go home, now leave the rest for the weaker sheep to take. But they would not do this. What they would do when they finished eating was trample all the rest, to make sure nothing remained for others. Do you hear how terrible? That is what He says. The good pasture you graze, and the rest of your pasture, what remains of the pasture, you trample with your feet. They would trample what remained with their feet. And what do you want, that My flock should graze what your feet have trampled? This refers to My flock, these are the weak, those who are not able to come and push in by force like you, what is left for them? To graze what your feet have trampled, what you trampled with your feet? And not only that, when they would come to the water, "you drink the clear water." Clear water means a place where the mud settles down into the depths of the water, and then the upper part of the water is clean, it is pure. So they would drink from the water in which the mud settled, you drink the clear water. And the rest, the water that remained, with your feet you would foul. What do they do? They put a foot in, into the settled water, all the sediment rises up, and from the water only mud remains. He says, and drink what your feet have fouled? And you want that afterward the remaining flock should drink what your feet have trampled, what your feet have fouled, what you fouled, meaning trampled with your feet, this they should drink? That is to say, we see here that there was more than merely a desire to enjoy themselves, there was also stinginess toward others, that even if something remained for others, it should not remain for anyone, that nothing should remain.
Therefore thus says Hashem Elokim to them, "Behold, I Myself will judge between the fat sheep and the lean sheep." Behold, I Myself, meaning I with My providence, I will judge between the fat sheep, meaning the sheep that is strong, fat like healthy, yes? And the lean sheep, that is weak. The meaning is that I will demand and judge the fat sheep, that she will give an accounting for having oppressed the poor, crushed the needy, taken from them even the little that remained to them. Hashem says, for this I will judge them. "Because you push with side and shoulder and gore all the weak with your horns until you have scattered them abroad." Corresponding to the strong one He mentioned earlier, they would shove the weak until they were forced to go out. And this is really a parable for the tyrants who would oppress the poor and the weak, and would take from them their portion, and would plunder their share and drive them from their inheritance. So although the weak ones here in the parable are the sick sheep, in the analogue He is actually speaking about inheritances, that they would take from them their inheritances and would scatter them from there abroad. "And I will save My flock and they will no longer be a prey, and I will judge between one sheep and another." I will save My flock in order to rescue them from those who plunder them, and I will judge between the oppressor and the oppressed, meaning to judge the oppressor for what he stole from the oppressed. "And I will set up over them one shepherd, and he will tend them, My servant David; he will tend them and he will be their shepherd." He prophesies that after Hashem judges and tends Israel Himself, then the kingdom of the house of David will be revealed. And then he will be the shepherd under Hashem. Meaning that the Holy One, blessed be He, who until now tended them, as if He handed His flock into the hand of a faithful shepherd, and this is David HaMelech. And here now He says that this will occur in three stages. At first Hashem says, he will tend them. Meaning a man from the house of David will arise. Here all the commentators explain, it does not mean My servant David himself, but a shoot from the house of David. A man from the house of David will arise who will lead Israel, and he will require them to do justice and righteousness, and not behave as the shepherds behaved until now. Afterward, he will be their shepherd. What is the meaning of he will be their shepherd? That they will accept him. Because at first he will tend them by force, compel them to do justice and righteousness. In the second stage they will already accept his leadership willingly. This is the expression he will be their shepherd. They will learn from him until he is their shepherd with their consent.
And the third stage, "And I, Hashem, will be their God, and My servant David a prince among them; I, Hashem, have spoken." I, Hashem, will be their God, they will accept upon themselves the kingdom of Heaven, and then the kingdom of Hashem will be revealed, until He is their God, they will no longer serve any idolatry and will no longer seek support and help from all sorts of other forces in creation, but rather I, Hashem, will be their God, I am the only power upon which they will rely. And David HaMelech will rise from the level of shepherd to the level of prince. This is the aspect of the King Mashiach. I, Hashem, have spoken. Hashem says, I have already spoken this through the prophets who prophesied about the Mashiach, as it is written "and a shoot shall come forth from the stump of Yishai." And indeed, I have already spoken and explained this matter of the Mashiach and the redemption through the prophets already in the past. "And I will make with them a covenant of peace, and I will banish the wild beast from the land, and they will dwell securely in the wilderness and sleep in the forests." Because they would be afraid to leave the flock in the wilderness, they were afraid and frightened since in the wilderness there were robbers, and they were also worried about placing them in the forest at night, since in the forest at night all the beasts of the forest creep about, so the wild beasts roam there at night, and therefore there too it is considered an unsafe place. So neither the wilderness by day nor the forest by night. Hashem says, I will make a covenant of peace, so that then no foot of enemy and robber will pass through. I will banish the wild beast from the land, and they will dwell securely in the wilderness and sleep in the forests. I will banish the wild beast, and through My making a covenant of peace, there will be no fear of dwelling and settling in the wilderness securely. They will not fear and be frightened of the robbers in the wilderness. And through My banishing the wild beast, they will not fear sleeping at night in the forests. "And I will make them and the areas around My hill a blessing, and I will bring down the rain in its season; showers of blessing they will be." And since the flock are still afraid, since there is no grass, then in any case what do they have to eat? He said and I will make them, meaning the wilderness and the forests, and also the areas around My hill, meaning the surroundings around Eretz Yisrael and Yerushalayim, Hashem says I will place there a blessing. This means that rain will fall there in its season, that grass will sprout there for the animals, and this will be rain of blessing. Why must it emphasize that this will be rain of blessing? Because the Gemara says that it is possible that on Rosh Hashanah it was decreed that rain should fall, but it may be that Israel afterward corrupted their ways and acted wickedly. What does the Holy One, blessed be He, do with this? He does not annul His decree. What does He do? He brings down the rain in the forest, He brings it down in the wilderness. So rain was decreed, the amount of precipitation allotted fell, but in a place where there is no benefit. So then perhaps there was room to think that here the Holy One, blessed be He, is promising that He will bring down the rain even in the wilderness, even in the forests, so that even in these places where they will be, first, as we saw in the previous pasuk, they will be protected, and second, as He now says, they will also have sustenance, they will also have pasture growing there that they can graze there and enjoy. So there was room to come and say, wait, then it could be that this comes at the expense of the settled places. Because as we said, when Israel corrupts their ways, then the Holy One, blessed be He, brings down the rain in the wildernesses and the forests. So perhaps you would think that the rain that comes there would be at the expense of the fields and the settled places? To this He says no, no, showers of blessing they will be. They will be showers of blessing, the rains of the fields and settlements will not be diminished on account of the rains that fall in the forests and wildernesses.
"And the tree of the field will give its fruit, and the land will give its produce, and they will be secure on their land. And they will know that I am Hashem when I break the bars of their yoke and rescue them from the hand of those who enslaved them." Hashem says, and the tree of the field will give its fruit. The Malbim says, observe, these blessings are already written in the Torah. "And I will give your rains in their season, and the land will give its produce," as it is written here "and the land will give its produce." "And they will be secure on their land," "and you will dwell securely in your land," it is written in the Torah. After this it is written "and I will give peace in the land, and you will lie down and none will make you afraid, and I will banish the wild beast," as He said here too, "and I will banish the wild beast from the land, and they will dwell securely in the wilderness." So all this is already mentioned in the Torah. These are prophecies that were already mentioned in the Torah. The Malbim says that now He describes for them how through having had evil judges, who are the wild beast and the sword and the famine, and they will know that I am Hashem. The meaning is, from what power will they know that I am Hashem? From the power of the evil judges. For when the Holy One, blessed be He, judges the nation, when the Holy One, blessed be He, punishes them, from this power they recognize Hashem. So here at first He describes them as if they are like a flock. He says, they will dwell securely in the wilderness and the forests, I will remove from them those evil judges. After this He describes them already at a higher level, they are already at the level of human beings. And therefore notice, and the tree of the field will give its fruit. Animals do not eat the tree of the field, animals eat the grass of the field. And if here it is already speaking of the tree of the field, that is to say it already moves to speak of human beings, He is no longer speaking of a flock as He spoke before. And then at first He describes them as those who dwell securely in the land of the nations, which means that although they are still in exile, He will remove from them the harshness of the servitude. And therefore He describes them as those who dwell securely in the wilderness, those who dwell securely in the forests. What does this come to describe? This describes our situation today, seemingly. That although most of Israel is in exile, this is not such a terrible exile. Most of Israel is in exile, but they feel quite good there, that they have no interest at all in coming here to the land. So that is to say that at first the harshness of the servitude in exile was removed. The Jew found today in the exile is not persecuted. So the harshness of the exile was removed. Although he is not really in full security, still he is not in a state of persecution. And afterward, He says, the Holy One, blessed be He, will gather them from all those places, and bring them and settle them securely in their land. And now He returns and explains that corresponding to how at first they dwelt securely in the land of the nations, that what we said, that the servitude of the kingdoms in the first stage would be removed from them, of this He says and they will know that I am Hashem when I break the bars of their yoke. In the first stage I will break the bars of their yoke, which means that although they are among the nations, the yoke no longer weighs heavily. The nations do not rule over them harshly. There is equality of rights, they develop and engage in economy and other matters even among the nations. This is first, the bars of the yoke I will break, they will still be among the nations, but without a yoke.
The next stage, "and they will no longer be a prey to the nations, and the beast of the land will not devour them, and they will dwell securely with none to make them afraid." Part of them were still a prey to the nations. This means the nations plundered their money. "You will no longer be a prey to the nations," the nations will not plunder their money. Part of them were at the level of wild beasts, meaning that they ate, the nations were in the aspect of a wild beast that ate the flock. He says, the beast of the land will not devour them. Those nations will not consume Israel, will not consume My flock. And also the nations, who are actually the wild beasts, so to speak, will not devour them, and they will dwell securely. Meaning they will dwell among the nations in security and quiet. "And I will raise up for them a planting of renown, and they will no longer be gathered up by famine in the land, nor bear any longer the reproach of the nations." Afterward, in the next stage, they already arrive at Eretz Yisrael. The previous stage was the calm among the nations. The next stage, they will dwell in Eretz Yisrael. Meaning that all of Israel will arrive here, and Hashem will plant them here in the land as a good planting, a planting of renown. For the sake of Hashem's name. And they will never be uprooted from there forever. And there will also be satiety, that they will not be gathered up by famine, those who are gathered up because of the famine. And they will no longer bear the reproach of the nations. The meaning is, when we are among the nations, we have the reproach that we are exiled from our land. And here they will not bear the reproach of the nations, but on the contrary, they will be in their land in prosperity and quiet. "And they will know that I, Hashem their God, am with them, and they are My people the house of Israel, says Hashem Elokim." And then all will know that I, Hashem their God, am with them. The meaning is, the Shechinah cleaves to them. They have miracles, they have prophecy, all that was in the time of the First Temple at the high levels of Israel, they will see that it all returns and cleaves to them. And they are My people the house of Israel. Hashem says, this will be mutual, since they too will cleave to Me. And they are My people the house of Israel, they will cleave to the service of Hashem. And then they will rise to the level of man. Until now we spoke of them at the level of a flock. "And you My flock, the flock of My pasture, you are man; I am your God, says Hashem Elokim." And you My flock, you are not like animals in My eyes, says Rashi, but you are man. You will rise above your previous status, when you were at the level of a flock, and you will reach the level of man. For one who serves Hashem is considered at the level of man relative to one who does not, who is considered at the level of an animal. So here you, My flock, the flock of My pasture, will rise to the level of man, for I am Hashem your God, says Hashem Elokim.
This pasuk, I say this as a footnote, we have actually finished the chapter. This pasuk served as grounds for a harsh accusation against Jews of Israel in the trial known and famous as the trial of Mendel Beilis. This was, I believe, the last trial of blood libel, which is very infamously known to us from history. There was some Christian boy who was found murdered in some factory, and there they accused the owner of the place of being the one who murdered him. And they put him on trial. And among other things in the trial they wanted to prove that the Jews regard the Christians, the gentiles, as animals, and therefore they have no problem at all with killing them. So there is supposedly no barrier according to Judaism to killing gentiles. And they actually turned a trial against a man into a trial against Judaism. As if to come and accuse all of Judaism regarding their manner of relating to the gentiles, and consequently it is no wonder that Mr. Mendel Beilis was capable of coming and doing what he did and murdering that Christian. And at the time Rav Mazeh, he was the one who guided the lawyer at the time, regarding all sorts of questions that the lawyer for the prosecution would ask, he would give instructions to the Jewish lawyer how to respond and what to answer. One of the things that came up there in the trial was this pasuk. "And you My flock, the flock of My pasture, you are man." Chazal expound, you are called man and the nations of the world are not called man. Here, what do you want, your honor the judge, do you see? The nations of the world are not man at all, they are animals in their eyes, so are you surprised that they are capable of slaughtering them? This says who, a gentile that all of history slaughtered Jews, yes? But no matter, never did the gentiles let the facts confuse them, yes, the facts did not confuse them. They have their theory and, well. He says, yes, what do you have to say in your defense? So as I said, Rav Mazeh took care to supply the material to the lawyer. So he said to him like this, he says, look your honor the judge, there is a man here called Mendel Beilis, he stands here on trial. This trial made a stir throughout the entire Jewish world. They collected donations for him, they took his matter to all sorts of forums of, I am speaking now for example of governments, of diplomacy, of who not, they tried to appeal to the government to leave Mendel Beilis alone, to prove that this is a staged trial, that they should let him go. With advocacy that simply embraced the whole world. He said, I want to ask you your honor the judge, if among you some gentile were sued in some lawsuit, he says tell me, I want to know, would anyone take an interest in him? He says to him, if he is a well-known person, he says to him, if he is a well-known person, then it could be that his neighborhood might mobilize a bit for him. If he is less well-known, perhaps his street. And if he is an anonymous person, then in the best case it is his wife and his children. He says to him, come observe what happened here. He says, there is a Jew whom no one knows, no one at the ends of the earth knows him, and Jews from all over the world... he said to him, observe, what is this suddenly, what is the connection? Why does a Jew at the ends of the earth feel connected here to the matter of some Mendel Beilis whom he never saw or heard of? He said to him, I will tell you what the reason is. He says, Chazal say, Israel is called a sheep. "A scattered sheep is Israel." And why, say Chazal, because a sheep, when it is sick in one of its limbs, all its limbs feel it. That is, it is weak, it is delicate, it has a small pain in the leg, and all of it becomes sick. He says, so too Israel. When one of Israel is stricken, when one of Israel, some Gilad Shalit is in prison, then this occupies the entire State of Israel for five years. Where did you find such a thing among the nations? Where, who does it interest, whom does it occupy, who even cares that someone is imprisoned somewhere? He says to him, this is Israel. "And you My flock, the flock of My pasture, you are man." He says, what are you saying, you are called man, so what, the nations of the world are not called man? He says no, whoever told you that does not know how to read Gemara. He says to him, the nations of the world are not called man (adam), they are called men (anashim). But man (adam) is only Israel. And if you ask what is the difference whether I say men or man? He said to him, the difference is that man (ish) is an expression that bears plurality. By contrast, adam is an expression that does not bear plurality. I can say ish (man), I can say anashim (men). I will not say adam, I will not say adamim. He says, Israel is adam. Adam means one unit, they are one entity. But the nations of the world are not called adam, they are called anashim. That is to say, each one lives his own life for himself, he has no connection with his fellow. Israel by contrast is called one aspect, called one reality, called one man. By the way, this argument was accepted, since it is an argument of truth. And there was there one of the prosecutors, he was some apostate person, who supposedly tried to help them find all sorts of Jewish sources that speak against the Christians and the like. As is known, all these were usually the helpers, they were the censors, they, "your destroyers and your wreckers come from within you." The New Fund did not arise yesterday. Israel suffers from these horns and from the gorings of these horns already for hundreds of years. In short, so the lawyer there wanted to show how much this one did not understand, that one who came supposedly to show that he is learned and that he knows, so he says to him... he asked him a question regarding... he asks him tell me, do you know the Bubbe... the Bubbe Basra? Now what, that one tries to think in Yiddish, bubbe is grandmother. So he says no, what does this grandmother have to do with anything? I do not know this grandmother. And in the whole hall they laughed, the Jews there, everyone understood, everyone laughed. He said look, this is a tractate that every child knows and knows exists, tractate Bava Kamma, tractate Bava Basra. He says everyone knows this, and he, Bubbe Basra, thinks they are speaking to him about some grandmother. He says do you understand what his level of knowledge is? Do you understand, and he wants to come and challenge us, he supposedly knows, he understands what is written here. So they say that there everyone laughed, so the judge had to silence them, there was noise and commotion from the joke, from the buffoonery of that one, that he had to silence them. I will mention one more thing which I mentioned at greater length, whoever wishes can study it in the teaching of the gilgulim. We spoke about this, I will really mention it in a word, this is a very long, very broad topic, there is a chapter there that I very much recommend studying, a wonderful approach of the Arizal on the secret of the exile of Egypt and the sin of Adam HaRishon. A complete approach of how for 130 years the drops of Adam HaRishon returned and were reincarnated in the generation of the flood, in the generation of the dispersion, in the men of Sodom, in the flock of Lavan, until they went down to Egypt, and in Egypt they gradually became refined, and this is actually Israel. And this is the rectification of those high and holy souls that came out of Adam HaRishon during the 130 years that he separated from his wife. And this is what is written here, this is hinted at here in this matter. And you My flock, it is written that Yaakov Avinu tended them. He tended that flock, those souls were reincarnated there. This is written, "and you My flock, the flock of My pasture," who are actually this flock? "You are man." You are actually the soul of Adam HaRishon. Since this flock is man, this is the rectification of Adam. Hashem says, I am your God, says Hashem Elokim, that they are destined to come and be redeemed through going down to Egypt, the flock of Yaakov went down to Egypt, and in the end from there they were redeemed and went out with great wealth. Yes, may Hashem redeem us with an eternal redemption speedily, amen and amen.