Yechezkel chapter 39.
And you, son of man, prophesy against Gog, and say: So says Hashem Elokim, behold I am against you, Gog, prince of Rosh, Meshech and Tuval.
And you, son of man, prophesy. What is meant by "And you, son of man, prophesy"? Why this introduction, "And you, son of man, prophesy"? Let Hashem tell him the prophecy, let him begin with the prophecy. Why does He turn to him as if giving a command? The Malbim explains that He comes and tells him: I have singled out for you a private prophecy in which the other prophets did not prophesy, one that the other prophets were not privileged to attain. And I add in this prophecy, I come and tell you: Know that Gog, after the downfall we saw in the previous prophecy in chapter 38, after the downfall that will befall him, will strengthen himself again and come to another campaign. As Chazal say, that Gog will come three times against the Land of Israel. And this campaign in which we now find ourselves, this is the final campaign.
And I will turn you back and lead you on, and I will bring you up from the far north, and I will bring you upon the mountains of Israel.
And I will turn you back and lead you on. What is the meaning of these words? "I will turn you back" (veshovavticha) is from the term of rebellion, a person who follows the ways of his heart, like a shovav (rebellious one), right? A person who rebels is called a shovav. "And I will turn you back" means: I will bring you to rebel, and as it were there will be a kind of rebelliousness in your heart so that you will stubbornly insist on going out. That is, naturally you would have no reason to go out, but like Pharaoh, I will spur you on. "And lead you on" (veshisheisicha). What is veshisheisicha? It is like hisheisicha, like "the serpent enticed me (hishiani) and I ate." Right? I will entice you, I will bring you counsel so that you go out. That is the meaning of veshisheisicha. There is another explanation that Chazal expound: that I will bring upon you at that same opportunity six plagues. I will judge you with six judgments. And this is what we saw that afterward he is judged with them: pestilence, blood, rain, hailstones (avnei elgavish), fire and brimstone. Six judgments with which he is judged. That is veshisheisicha. Another explanation the Malbim gives: six camps will fight there, three against three, and he will be the sixth. That is, as we saw in the previous chapters, the main war will not be between us and them, but the main war will be between the coalition forces and the forces of Yishmael, those who will be with Yishmael. And then they will in fact be three against three. So says the Malbim. Yishmael and his forces, which are three camps with him, against Edom, which includes the peoples of Europe, the peoples of America, right? who are the peoples of Edom. And I will bring you up from the far north and bring you upon the mountains of Israel.
And I will strike your bow from your left hand, and I will cause your arrows to fall from your right hand.
He tells him: I will strike the bow from your left hand. How does a person hold a bow? In which hand? The left. And he draws the string with the right hand. So He tells him: I will fight you so that you will not be able to shoot bow and arrows, through My striking your bow from your left hand and causing your arrows to fall from your right hand. In our terms today this would disable his artillery power. Right? The missiles, he will not be able to shoot bow and arrows. The Patriot will not work.
Upon the mountains of Israel you shall fall, you and all your troops and the peoples that are with you; to the birds of prey of every wing and to the beasts of the field I have given you for food.
He tells him: you shall fall upon the mountains of Israel, that is, I will bring you here in order that you fall upon the mountains of Israel. You and all your troops, meaning all those who are with you, helping you, assisting you, all of them will fall into whose hand? To the birds of prey of every wing and to the beasts of the field I have given you for food. We will see later on that your corpse, the corpses of your soldiers, will be given as food to the birds of prey of every wing, meaning the eagle, the birds of the sky, the birds of prey, and the beasts of the field. The animals that are in the field, the hyena, the fox and the other beasts of the field, they will eat your flesh. What is "birds of prey of every wing"? This seems to be redundant. You say "birds of prey," that is enough; "birds," that is enough; "every wing," that is enough. What is "birds of prey of every wing"? Says the Malbim: no, no, here he is now speaking of the corpses. Says the Malbim: the ayit is the bird of prey. Tzipor (bird) includes also birds that are not birds of prey. Even a common bird, a sparrow, whose way is not to eat flesh, it too will eat this flesh. Why? Because this flesh will be abandoned upon the field, there will be no one to bury it, so even a bird whose way is not to eat flesh will come and peck at this flesh, because it has nothing to eat, it will not find food, it will find this abandoned, it will eat it. That is tzipor. "Every wing" (kol kanaf), every wing includes flies and mosquitoes and wasps. All winged creatures. In simple words, they will all feast upon you, right? They will make a meal of you.
Upon the open field you shall fall, for I have spoken, says Hashem Elokim.
He says: upon the open field you shall fall. Its meaning is that when you come upon the mountains of Israel, then when you descend from the mountains in order to attack, then Hashem will strike you down and you will fall upon the open field. As we saw in Zechariah, "and they shall fall upon the open field."
And I will send fire on Magog, and on those who dwell in the isles securely; and they shall know that I am Hashem.
Hashem says: I will send fire against them, as we saw "fire and brimstone I will rain upon him." But beyond the fire He will send against them here, the prophet adds and says: He will send fire against them also in their own regions. Also in the places, also in their cities, there too they will be attacked. He says the destruction, the plague, will come also in their own country, upon those who dwell in the isles securely. Those who dwell in the isles and dwell securely, without fear, without concern, there fire will come upon their place, upon their region. That is, do not think that if the war is far from your home, then your home is guaranteed safe, your home is protected. Rather the fire will be also in your home.
And My holy Name I will make known in the midst of My people Israel, and I will no longer allow My holy Name to be profaned; and the nations shall know that I am Hashem, holy in Israel.
"My holy Name I will make known," that is, when I do this and exact punishment from the nations, then Hashem's Name will become known among the peoples. When the Holy One, blessed be He, exacts punishment from the nations, His Name is sanctified in the world. As we saw in the prophecy in Yechezkel in the previous chapter, "And I will magnify Myself and sanctify Myself before the eyes of many nations." When Hashem exacts punishment from the nations, through this His Name is magnified and sanctified. "And I will no longer allow My holy Name to be profaned." Until now there was an aspect of chillul Hashem, for behold the nations see Israel being struck, Israel wounded, and Hashem does nothing. There is here a chillul Hashem. Hashem says: I will no longer allow My holy Name to be profaned, there will no longer be a continuation of such a state of chillul Hashem, but now Hashem's Name will be sanctified in the world. And through this the nations shall know that I am Hashem, holy in Israel. All the nations will know that I, Hashem, am exalted in Israel, that I lead them with a supernatural leadership. For behold all the punishments that will befall them, pestilence and blood and hailstones and all that we saw there, these are in fact miraculous punishments. These are not natural punishments. When the nations see this, they will understand that the hand of Hashem is upon their livestock. They will understand that it is all from Him, may He be blessed. Here there will already be a kiddush Hashem. That is, then it will become clear to all that the fact that Hashem did not protect Israel until now was not because Hashem, as it were, God forbid, was limited, incapable. Rather it was because Israel were not worthy. And this we will see in explicit verses further on.
Behold it comes and it shall be done, says Hashem Elokim; this is the day of which I have spoken.
He says "this day," for it is written that it will not become known. It is written of this day that no prophet or seer knew what the day is. The Gemara says: the heart did not reveal it to the mouth. As it were, by Hashem, may He be blessed, His heart, as it were, did not reveal it to His mouth. That is, this matter is so hidden that it is within the heart, and even from the heart to the mouth it did not go out. Consequently, says the Malbim, it is not possible that this could exist in reality in the world of vision, in the world of prophecy; it is not possible that this matter could be reached if the heart did not reveal it to the mouth. Only when the matter occurs, only then will the reality come into being in practice, and then they will know that this is the day of which I have spoken. This is the day that Hashem spoke of. But in practice, until this day comes, it is not possible to grasp it through prophecy, for as it were this matter is sealed and hidden. As is stated regarding Daniel, "and the End is sealed and hidden, the End of Days." That is, this matter is in the category of a hidden thing that cannot be prophesied about in a clear and explicit manner.
And the inhabitants of the cities of Israel shall go out, and shall set on fire and burn the weapons, both shield and buckler, bow and arrows, hand-staff and spear, and they shall burn them as fire for seven years.
And the inhabitants of the cities of Israel shall go out. He now describes to us the magnitude of the downfall that will befall Gog and his men. He says: the weapons that will remain here from the war, what they leave behind here, these weapons will serve for heating. They will serve for cooking, as we will see further on. The weapon, the shield, the buckler, the bow, the arrows, hand-staff, spear, all these they will kindle with them and burn them as fire for seven years. For seven years they will not need to go chop wood from the forests in order to use it as heating material. How shall we interpret this for today's reality? It could well be that today, from our perspective, all that, I don't know, gunpowder will serve, I don't know what, the electric company for the purpose of producing electricity for seven years, for example. Right? The meaning is that those weapons will serve us for seven years, we will no longer need wood for heating. And why in fact will they use these weapons? Because we will reach a period of which it is said "nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore," and "they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks." This we already see today. There are today all sorts of pens made from all sorts of missiles. Ballistic missiles, there was once some agreement between America and Russia, certain missiles to destroy them. So what did they do with their material? They made from them all sorts of metal objects, among them there were special pens like this, precious materials that they made from those metal objects. So this is "they shall beat their swords into plowshares (itim)," I say. Not into itim, but into pens (etim), they made pens from it. Right? On that I will say no more.
And they shall carry no wood from the field, nor cut down any from the forests, for they shall burn the weapons as fire; and they shall spoil those who spoiled them, and plunder those who plundered them, says Hashem Elokim.
And they shall carry no wood from the field. A person who wants to make a fire goes to carry wood from the field. This is when there is no forest, so they gather thorns, they gather wood. Even in a place where there are trees, even there "nor cut down any from the forests," that is the second part of the verse. For they shall burn the weapons as fire. He tells you: what they will have to burn for seven years will be only in the weapons. And they shall spoil those who spoiled them. He says, since in any case they will go out there to the field in order to spoil spoil and plunder plunder, then they will also take from those weapons that remain there, and plunder those who plundered them, says Hashem Elokim.
And it shall come to pass on that day, that I will give to Gog a place there for a grave in Israel, the Valley of the Travelers east of the sea, and it will block the travelers; and there they shall bury Gog and all his multitude, and they shall call it the Valley of Hamon Gog (the multitude of Gog).
Here Chazal come and say: here the prophet comes and announces that we will treat Gog with a treatment that is beyond how a person treats his enemy. We, indeed, will act with humanity toward them. "And it shall come to pass on that day, that I will give to Gog a place there for a grave." I will see to it that Gog has a burial there. Chazal say: how did Gog merit burial? What merit did they have that they were privileged to burial? Chazal say: because when it was Canaan, "cursed be Canaan," he was cursed for what was done to his father, Cham the father of Canaan, then at that time Yefet and Shem took the garment. Who was the one who hurried in fulfilling the mitzvah to take the garment and cover their father's nakedness? Shem. And since Shem hurried, he merited tzitzit. Tzitzit, where is it? What mitzvah is it? In this world, it is here. In contrast Yefet, he was a bit lazy in the mitzvah. He came, but he was a bit lazy. He asked to finish the cigarette, he did not go with it, yes, with enthusiasm, he had more time. Since he was lazy, so too the reward he will receive will be a delayed reward, in laziness. He will not receive it in this world, he will receive it only in the future, when it will be Gog. He will not receive it in his lifetime, he will receive it after his death. From here we see how important is any hurrying to a mitzvah. In the merit of this mitzvah that Shem did, for it is written that we merit to see the face of the Shechinah, we merit tzitzit, we merit to see the face of the Shechinah, and this is also a protection for a person in this world. And therefore he tells you, in the future to come they will merit that Gog will have a place there for a grave in Israel. Now he says, where will this place of the grave be? The Valley of the Travelers east of the sea, and it will block the travelers. What is the Valley of the Travelers east of the sea? Rashi explains, and so too according to the Targum, this is a place where they used to cross the Kinneret Sea in order to bring the fruits of Ginosar. That is, this war will be in the region of the Kinneret Sea, there will be the main part of their downfall. And it is called the Valley of the Travelers, because there was a road there, a place where they would go to bring the fruits of Ginosar. The fruits of Ginosar, the Gemara in Berachot says that these were the choicest fruits, the richest and choicest. "East of the sea" (kidmat hayam) is like kedma. What is kedma? East. To the east of the sea. That is the meaning of "east of the sea," to the east of the Kinneret Sea. What is "and it will block the travelers"? There are several explanations here. One explanation says: "it blocks the travelers" means, from the abundance of corpses and bodies that will be there, it will not be possible to pass. The tremendous quantity of the fallen will cause a blockage so that it will not be possible to pass there. There is another explanation: "and it will block the travelers" means that the travelers will block their noses. Because they will not be able to smell from the abundance of the terrible odor that will come from all the corpses and bodies there that will rot there, to the point that there will be such a terrible odor that everyone who arrives will block his nose. That is "and it will block the travelers." The travelers block their noses.
And the house of Israel shall bury them in order to cleanse the land, seven months.
They will bury them. What will be the matter of burying them? In order to cleanse the land, seven months. The meaning of the matter is: a place where there is a dead body is impurity. And just as the Torah commands that all who are stoned are hanged, and after they hang them what do they do? They bury them. There is a prohibition, "his body shall not remain overnight upon the tree." Why? "For a hanged man is a curse of God." What is "a hanged man is a curse of God"? For man was created in the image of God. And if so, this is as it were a disgrace to the Creator of the world when the body is disgraced. Since this is so, Israel will come and bury them in order to cleanse the land, seven months. This means that the quantity of the bodies will be so tremendous that ZAKA will work seven months in order to cleanse the land. Soon we will see that they will not finish it all, but it will take them seven months to bury them. Now he tells you that in fact there will be such a situation that there will not remain of the enemies anyone to bury their brethren. Those who remain will be only us. We are the ones who will remain to bury them.
And all the people of the land shall bury them, and it shall be to them for a name, on the day I am glorified, says Hashem Elokim.
And all the people of the land shall bury them. They will bury there all the people of the land, all those who will die there, all of them they will bury. And it shall be to them for a name. What is the meaning of "and it shall be to them for a name"? It is known that people distance themselves from a corpse or from a dead body that has lain a long time without burial. And it is known in many places where there are natural disasters, one of the difficult problems is: who will afterward bury the dead, who will occupy himself with their burial. And why? Because it causes plagues. The dead body, after it begins to decay, there is a very great danger of plagues. A plague of pestilence, and this causes illnesses, truly a danger. Therefore they must hurry to bury the dead. There was such a problem in the tsunami, to hurry to bury the dead before plagues begin, especially in backward places where there are no vaccines, so this is a very, very difficult situation, they can become infected and it could be that afterward more will die than died initially. Here Israel will go and bury people for seven months. This means that there will be people there who will already be in a state of advanced decay. Who goes to bury such people? When they see that we bury them without fear that we might become infected by the illnesses and by the pestilence, then Scripture says "and it shall be to them for a name." This matter will be for us a name. What is the meaning of "it shall be to them for a name"? A name, honor. Everyone will glorify and honor Israel, they will say: look what devotion Israel had, look what a high level they have, that they go and occupy themselves, even though they come to danger, how they go and occupy themselves with such a thing, only so that those bodies not remain as dung upon the face of the earth. For this they will praise them, they will say: there is no nation as merciful as this nation. Do you have a person who buries his enemy who rose up against him to kill him? So says Rashi. That is, they will praise Israel for their level and their greatness. He says with this, on that day it will be the day I am glorified, says Hashem Elokim. What is "the day I am glorified"? When they see how Israel buries the nations, and this, as we said, is a great danger to bury in this state, and nevertheless none of Israel is harmed, nevertheless none of Israel is injured, the pestilence and the illnesses do not harm us, it will be the day I am glorified. Hashem's Name will be glorified in the world. Everyone will say: they see Hashem's providence over them. With this Hashem's honor will be magnified. How is it possible that they all touched and handled such a thing that surely causes harm, and behold nothing happened to them? Then they will say: Hashem will guard you from all evil, Hashem will guard your soul. Hashem watches over them.
And they shall set apart men who continually pass through the land, burying with the travelers those who remain upon the face of the land, to cleanse it; after seven months they shall search.
Now he describes their burial. He says "men who continually," that is, besides this there will be men whose task will be continually to bury the dead. These are "men who continually." That is, it is not some volunteer whom one day we brought there to carry out some one-time operation. Rather there will be men appointed over the burial of those people. These are "men who continually." He says these men shall set them apart, that they shall be set apart and designated for this work, to bury all those who remain upon the face of the land. Now they, these men, shall wander through the land. "Burying with the travelers those who remain upon the face of the land." The men who continually, whom they set apart, they pass through the land. What do they do? They pass from place to place. That is, there will be a place where the dead will be concentrated, and there it will not be a problem to bury them. But on the other hand, there will be many more dead scattered upon the face of the land, which will require searching and investigation, checking where more of them are located. For this purpose they will set apart special men, detectives, who will go to search for bodies. Fine, now they will need to go and search for all those who died, to see where they are. Therefore they pass through the land. Whom do they bury? The travelers. Those who are not concentrated at the place of the war, but died in other places, those who were passing in other places, those they would go to bury. How long will this take them? Seven months. Why seven months and no more? The Malbim explains: not because there will not be any more bodies, but because after seven months the flesh will already have decayed. And as we saw, the birds of the sky too will not rest quietly. They too will work, correct? And also the beasts of the earth. So consequently there will not remain anything more to bury. All that will remain is only bones. For Hashem called all the beasts of the earth, all the birds of the sky, to eat their flesh. So what will remain? Only bones. So what about the bones? After seven months, if they find some bones, those they will bury, as we will see in the next verse. That is, beyond seven months what remains? Only bones.
And the travelers who pass through the land, when anyone sees a human bone, shall build a marker beside it, until the buriers have buried it in the Valley of Hamon Gog.
And the travelers who pass through the land. Now he tells you, when the travelers pass through the land, the meaning is not those "men who continually" whose task it was. Rather says the Radak, rather ordinary people, the travelers through the land, when they pass and see a human bone, they will see and behold a human bone cast upon the face of the field, for as we said, what will remain will be only the bones, and shall build a marker beside it. Beside this bone, or actually upon this bone, he will make a marker. What is the meaning of "he will make a marker"? In their times they used to mark the graves. Whoever knows, in their times it was not customary to make upon the grave a tombstone with a name and a date and words of praise, it was not customary to do this. What did they do? They bury a person, they place upon his place of burial a stone, and paint it with white lime. What is the point? A marker. And he makes a marker upon it. What is a marker (tziyun)? From the term siman (sign), to mark. Like regarding Israel in Egypt, it teaches that they were distinguished (metzuyanim) there. It is not that in all the tests they received "very good." That is not the meaning of "distinguished there." What is "distinguished"? Everyone who saw said "this is a Jew." They were marked there. It was as if marked upon them, the name Israel upon it. Part of the matter. Now, it was not their custom, incidentally if you know, also in Yemen many graves were not inscribed, in general it was customary in many places not to inscribe the name. They bury the person, the person comes to the cemetery, they place a stone there, they did not make a tombstone with engraving and such, they did not do it. Either it may be that it was inscribed for him, or he would come to the cemetery in a general manner, and in general the people of Yemen would not come to the cemetery, they did not have a culture of visiting graves except when there was trouble. When there was trouble they would come, they call out with the whole synagogue, they go out to the cemetery, weep, repent, return. At home it would already be raining. This was a fixed thing with them. They go to the cemetery, they pray, rain falls. On the way the rain would already catch them. It was not their concern to go up again and again to the grave, no, that was not customary. So also here he tells you, when people pass, one will see a bone, he will bury it in the ground and make a marker upon it. Why is it important that he make a marker upon it? Why is it important for us to mark the graves if in any case I do not know who is buried here? The importance is from the fact that now a kohen will pass here, and this kohen is forbidden to pass over a grave. And besides this, it is forbidden for any person to tread upon a grave. But mainly the problem is if a kohen or a person passed there with items requiring purity, they became impure, for he overshadows the grave of the dead. And therefore they would make signs and markers: be careful, here there is a grave, pass around it. If there was a place, for example, where there was a grave and it was lost, what is this place called? Beit HaPeras. Correct? A place where a grave was scattered (nifras), we do not know where. It is known to us that here there was a grave, where is it? We do not know, a plow passed, it may be the dead body is scattered here. This is a problem, a kohen cannot enter there. Therefore they would sign and mark the graves so that the whole land not be full of their burials, but rather there would be certain places and they would know that here is a place where there is a grave. And then through this people would be able to pass around, they would not pass over the place of the grave so that they not become impure.
And also the name of the city shall be Hamonah; and they shall cleanse the land.
And also the name of the city shall be Hamonah. That is, just as the valley, as we said, the valley will be called the Valley of Hamon Gog, correct? they will bring him to the Valley of Hamon Gog. What is the meaning of the matter? They will concentrate the bones, they will strive to concentrate the bones in a place called the Valley of Hamon Gog, and if not, then they will make a marker upon that place. Just as the valley will be called the Valley of Hamon Gog, so too the city where they pitched their tents, close to the valley there, in order to come to fight here against us, this place will also be called "the name of the city Hamonah." This place will be called "the name of the city Hamonah." What is the meaning of "the name of the city Hamonah"? The Targum says: "there too they shall cast the slain of Rome, the city that raged greatly, and the land shall be cleansed." That is, there they will come, they will cast all those slain, the slain of the men of Gog, right? who were many who came and raged, yes, to come to fight against the land. So now, in order to come and be careful of this place, that this place is an impure place, therefore they will come and call it a name, they will call it "the name of the city Hamonah." Hamonah means the people, a great multitude (hamon rav) that came against us. Right? And through this they cleansed the land, for they knew that the dead are concentrated specifically in that place and not in the rest of the city.