"All of us like sheep have gone astray, we have turned every one to his own way, and Hashem has laid upon him the iniquity of us all." Now it becomes clear that all of us have gone astray like sheep, each turning to his own way. The Radak explains, what does "all of us like sheep have gone astray" mean? We were like sheep without a shepherd, and that is why it says "like sheep." The Malbim says: in what did the straying consist? In the fact that they tormented them unjustly. This corresponds to how they would force the Jewish people to worship idols, and whoever refused to worship idols they would torment and afflict, as happened during the period of the Inquisition and other periods in history. So then, he is oppressed because of our iniquities, and we ourselves have gone astray like sheep. What does the prophet mean? Sheep go astray because their shepherd leads them on the wrong path. They say "we have gone astray like sheep" because our shepherds, and who are our shepherds? These are the heads of the idol worship, the heads of the church, those very ones who led their people to persecute and oppress the Jewish people so that they would accept upon themselves the religion of love, and whoever was not willing to accept the religion of love they murdered with a great deal of love. And where did all of this stem from? "We have gone astray like sheep": we had shepherds who led us astray onto such a path. And who are the shepherds, as we said? These were the leaders of their religion, or the leaders of the idol worship in earlier generations, or the leaders of Islam or Christianity, the various Crusades.
From you. You are the one they abandon, everything of mine is mine. So what the gentile pursued of the Jew, whoever knew of the Gold Train, the train of millions that was in Hungary I believe it was, an entire train with millions upon millions of dollars of money robbed from the Jews. The Jews were bankers, the Jews were wealthy, they were men of means. So then part of all the persecution was not only that we wanted to turn them into idol worshippers like ourselves, but rather "we have turned every one to his own way," each one sought his personal gain.
And whoever knows, part of the persecution of the Jews, the pogroms that took place against the Jews in the lands of Europe, much of it stemmed from the fact that the Jew was not permitted to engage in any trade, and the work that was left for them to engage in was lending money at interest. And when it comes to lending money at interest, no one likes to pay interest, and they had a very great hatred toward the Jew, who was their creditor. And as a result of murdering the Jew, he erased the debt. So each time they would organize some pogrom, and by this they would eliminate the Jews. There was a very great hatred of the gentile toward the Jew because the Jew was the gentile's creditor, the Jew was demanding and collecting interest from him. And so then, "he was crushed for our transgressions," since all that we did was because of our transgressions, from the fact that we took and transgressed against them to extract their money from them, for "we have turned every one to his own way," each one of us went his own way, what is my profit from killing the Jew.
"And Hashem has laid upon him the iniquity of us all." He was the target of the arrows of our sins. What does this mean? Our sins are what we inflicted on him, the pain and distress we caused him for nothing, that was our sin. Until all our sins struck him. That is to say, everything we did, all the evil things we did, that is what harmed and ruined and grieved the Jew.
"He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb led to the slaughter, and like a ewe that is silent before her shearers, so he opened not his mouth." "He was oppressed, and he was afflicted." "Nigash" is from the language of "nogsim," oppressors. There are some who read "nigash," yes? That is what emerges from the Targum, but simply according to our text and what appears in all the books, it is from the language of "he shall not oppress his fellow." "He was oppressed, and he was afflicted," the Radak says: oppressed regarding money. Like "he shall not oppress his fellow," they would go and demand money from him, they would rob money from him. "And he was afflicted" refers to the affliction of the body. They would afflict him not only in money but also with actual beating. Rashi explains "and he was afflicted" as referring to verbal wronging. Verbal wronging means that they would not only grieve and beat the Jew, but create for him some demonic image, something monstrous, something subhuman, something one must keep away from, something harmful. So we were not content with oppressing his money, but also "and he was afflicted" with verbal wronging.
And through all of this, "yet he opened not his mouth." He had no permission to cry out, to complain about what we would do to him. Rather he was like a lamb led to the slaughter. Like a lamb that is taken to be slaughtered and does not open its mouth and does not cry out, like the ewe that is taken to be shorn. And this is more of a metaphor for the robbery of money. "A lamb led to the slaughter" is about the physical suffering, what they killed of us. And "a ewe that is silent before her shearers" comes to hint at the money they would take from us, just as a ewe has her wool shorn from her and she cannot open her mouth. Why specifically a ewe and not a ram? The Radak explains that the ewe is weaker, for in all species the female is weaker than the male. So too this comes to express the weakness of the Jewish people, that the Jewish people in their exile were in such great weakness that they did not even have the right to plead their case.
And whoever knows, whoever asked all those grandfathers and grandmothers who came from abroad, a Jew could never receive a just trial before the Qadi. Before the Caliph, before the Arabs' court, there was never a situation where a Jew would receive a just trial. The starting assumption was always: you, the Jew, are a swindler, a thief, and a heretic. That is the point, now let us hear what you have to say. It is always the same point, it is almost exactly like a Charedi wanting to receive just judgment in the Supreme Court. Exactly like that. And if he is Charedi and Sephardic, Weinroth, attorney Weinroth, currently the number one attorney in the country. Attorney Weinroth said to such a person, I advise you, reach a plea bargain, do not come to court. Justice you will not receive. There was an uproar, much uproar when he said this, but no one could argue with him because he, I do not think anyone has such seniority as he does in the courts, he represents all the biggest sharks. He is exceedingly sharp. He said he was a yeshiva bachur from Ponevezh, he says he could put a Supreme Court justice in his little pocket. In terms of mind, analytical sharpness, sharpness, he says I studied in Ponevezh, he says it is a joke, these judges and all that. He says in terms of sharpness, a yeshiva bachur in Ponevezh, he says he could put him in his little pocket. And he said back then, he said if a Charedi comes to me, and all the more so if he is Sephardic, I strongly recommend that he not come to court, reach a plea bargain, justice you will not receive. And this is what it says, "a ewe that is silent before her shearers," meaning he does not even have the right to plead. Even to come and justify himself, they will not listen to that either, they will not accept that either. The Supreme Court always demands the welfare and benefit of all the minorities and all those who are on the margins of society, unless you are Charedi. If you are Charedi, do not go looking, as someone once said, that in the Supreme Court justice (tzedek) is only the name of a star.
"By oppression and by judgment he was taken away, and who shall relate his generation? For he was cut off from the land of the living, for the transgression of my people was he stricken." "By oppression and by judgment he was taken away." The prophet is announcing, says Rashi, that the gentiles will say these things at the end of days, when they see how the Jewish people were held in their grip, judged in their grip, and now "by oppression and by judgment he was taken away." The Holy One, blessed be He, will redeem them, will bring them out from the oppression and the judgment that were in the hands of the nations. Both physically and spiritually, the Jewish people will emerge from the exile. "And who shall relate his generation?" And who shall recount his generation, the years that passed over him? Who shall recount the troubles and hardships that befell him from time immemorial? "For he was cut off from the land of the living," who can recount the troubles the Jewish people went through in exile? The prophet is already describing what will be at the time of the redemption, that then, "his generation," all that passed over him during the years of his generation, who can express and relate and describe all the troubles he went through? "For he was cut off from the land of the living." The land of the living is the Land of Israel, from which they were exiled, and this refers to the Land of Israel. "For the transgression of my people was he stricken." This means: because of the transgression of the gentiles this plague came upon the Jewish people. Or "the transgression of my people," referring to the Jewish people, the wicked among them, brought a plague upon the righteous among them.
The Radak explains "and who shall relate his generation" not the way Rashi explained it as referring to the past, who can express how many troubles the Jewish people had in earlier generations. Rather he says it speaks of the future greatness. What greatness will there be for his generation, who shall relate it? Who will be able to speak and describe the tremendous force of the greatness of the glory that is destined to be for the Jewish people? As though the words will be taken from his mouth, it will not be possible to relate and describe the greatness and the tremendous stature of the Jewish people at the time of the redemption. The Malbim explains that you should not say that everything we described earlier about the troubles of the Jewish people, about the persecutions, how he was crushed for our transgressions and all that they went through, the Malbim says, do not say and do not think that all this was done by individuals, what is called an outbreak of a few lawless individuals. He says no, that is a mistake. "By oppression and by judgment he was taken away." According to the Malbim, this verse is a continuation of the description of the wrongs of the gentiles. "By oppression and by judgment he was taken away" means, when they took him to torment him, from where did they take him? From the place of judgment. That is to say, one must distinguish between whether you live in a certain place where there were a few individual criminals who oppressed you, in which case you cannot say the place as a whole is an evil place, or the government is an evil government, or the courts are evil, versus if the wickedness is institutional, if it comes by the power of the courts, by the power of the government, if they do these things in a legal manner, then it is a corruption and distortion that is much, much greater. And this is what he is coming to say here, "by oppression and by judgment he was taken away." After they arrested him and took him to the place of judgment, they judged him in their courts, and there they sentenced him to afflictions and torments. There were the courts of the Inquisition. These were actual courts, that tried and judged them, sentencing them there to afflictions and torments.
And do not say that this was because there was some iniquity in him. Do not say that perhaps because they truly found some flaw in him, perhaps he was a thief, perhaps he harmed society, perhaps he did things that were not good. Because "who shall relate his generation." "His generation," the Malbim says one should read the verse this way: his generation, which because of the transgression of my people was cut off from the land of the living, who shall relate that a plague was in it? Even though through the crooked transgression and the false accusations they laid upon him he was cut off from the land of the living, they decreed upon him a death sentence through their libels, who shall relate a plague in his generation? Who can relate and say and find a reason in his generation that there was some plague in it? That is, you cannot say that this was done because we transgressed against them, because we did something dishonest against them. There is no one who can relate against his generation to say that there was a transgression in it. And indeed, whoever will examine and see, sixty years ago, seventy years ago, in the terrible and horrific Holocaust that took place, may trouble not rise a second time, there was no reason they found in the Jew for why he needed to be killed and destroyed. So there was a well-oiled propaganda machine of Goebbels and his cohorts, to prove and to blacken the face of the Jew, as one who spreads diseases, as a parasite, as one who... one might think this was the Israel of 2013 in the service of Mr. Lapid. They blackened the face of the Jew, they created delegitimization of him, until the most natural thing was that when one sees a Jew one murders him. What do you mean? What, one like that is so negative. The same was also the case in the period of the Inquisition. The same thing, there was no defect in the Jew. And by the way, ever since the Jews left Spain, Spain went further and further downhill. The period of the Jews in Spain was the period of the Renaissance, it was the Golden Age. Not only of the Jews, but of all of Spain. As a result of the Jews leaving Spain, the Spanish economy declined and collapsed, until today we see it is a country in bankruptcy. And the same thing, by the way, I read, there was some letter that a reliable newspaper brought, that someone, I do not know in what place on the internet, someone published a letter that was distributed in hundreds of thousands of copies, someone supposedly a gentile, who wrote a letter in his language, I do not know in what language it was written, and he writes about the... they have in Europe, for whoever does not know, they have a very serious problem of the Arab proliferation. And only for reasons of political correctness, meaning there is a manner, it is not respectable to speak of the Arabs as unwanted guests, so they let them proliferate and try not to remark to them and not say to them any unkind word, because they are capable of rioting, because they are capable of burning cars, because they are capable of setting half the country on fire. So they hold back, so they are silent, so they... and then they write, someone wrote them a long letter there. And he wrote the truth, that we deserve this. Sixty years ago there was here a very wise people, an educated people, a people that had an open mind, a people that advanced the economy, they were the heads of the banks, the heads of the theaters, the heads of... not that we look at this as a virtue, but I am looking at how the gentile saw it. There were educated people here, people with a broad horizon. He says, and we went and sent them to Auschwitz. And in their place we received a people ignorant of knowledge, in their place we received people lacking knowledge, lacking understanding, people... very sharp words. Unproductive people, this is one of their troubles, that all the Arabs arrive there and sit on the tap of economic benefits that the country grants its residents. And since the average European has no children, meaning the birth rate there is very low, in Europe most of the European public itself is aging. That is to say, those who are born, the new generation, is already Arabs and all sorts of assorted colors. And then they say, what is happening is that in practice we expelled from among ourselves tremendous minds, we expelled from among ourselves an engine for growth, and we brought into our midst ignorant people who spread terror and death. He says, these are the ones we brought into our midst and we fund them and pay them, and keep them in our universities and we pay them an absorption basket and whatever else you like. Simply unbelievable. But this is what teaches us that when there is hatred of the Jew, no logic and no sense works. Back in the day the Steipler said, it is written that when there was in Egypt the frog, "and the frog came up." So the Gemara brings that Rabbi Akiva's view was that there was one frog and they would strike it and it would produce swarms upon swarms of frogs. So he asks, I do not understand. If you struck it and you see it produces swarms of frogs, then stop. Why do you keep striking and it produces more swarms and you keep striking and more... where is the logic? The Steipler says, this is to teach you the power of hatred. There is a frog here that annoys me very, very much, whack, a strike. It produces swarms, I do not care, but I will give another strike. Let my soul die with the Philistines. That is it, he does not care, he sees that he is harming himself, but he does not care, that is hatred. So too here. The hatred of the Jew was so great that the nation knew we are harming ourselves, but nevertheless they were willing to do it as long as the Jew received blows, as long as the Jew was tormented. And this is what he says to us here, behold, come and see, who can relate and tell of some transgression of my people that was a plague in it? What plague is there in the Jewish people, what transgression is there in the Jewish people because of which we pursued them in this harsh way?
"And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his deaths, although he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth." "And he made his grave with the wicked," and he gave himself over to be buried in the burial of the wicked. What is the burial of the wicked? Rashi says it is the burial of a donkey. What is the burial of a donkey? It is the entrails of dogs. A donkey that dies, they do not hold a funeral for it. Unless it is the prime minister or something like that, but ordinarily, they do not hold a funeral for it. Rather the dogs eat its flesh, so this is the burial of donkeys that he will be buried in. "He made his grave with the wicked," to the detriment of the wicked he was willing to be buried, as long as he would not deny the God of the heavens. He was willing to be buried like the wicked. "And with the rich in his deaths." And according to the will of the ruler, that is, according to the ruler's desire, he gave himself over to all kinds of death that the ruler decreed. There is a difficulty here, what is "in his deaths"? It should say "in his death." "His deaths" is in the plural. So he says, yes, the gentiles were very creative. They had several types of death. Several types of killing. So whatever death the ruler would decree upon him, the Jew was willing to give himself over. The Radak explains "and he made his grave with the wicked" to mean that they killed him as if he were a wicked man. For a wicked man deserves death, the gentiles killed the Jew as though he had some sin, as though he had done some wicked thing. "And he made his grave with the wicked," the Radak says, why is it written "and he made"? "And he made" because he himself gave himself over to death. For the gentile would say to him, if you deny your God, I will let you be. Accept upon yourself the religion of love, I will let you be. But no, the Jew was willing to make his grave with the wicked, meaning to give over his soul to death as long as he would not accept upon himself to deny the God of the heavens. As it is written, "for Your sake we are killed all the day, we are counted as sheep for the slaughter." What is "and with the rich in his deaths"? The rich man too, says the Radak, they would kill because of his wealth. And he was not killed because of his wickedness, but only his iniquity, his entire iniquity was that he was rich. His iniquity was that he was rich. And moreover, since they were rich, they wanted his money. "And with the rich in his deaths," they would kill him with strange deaths, as we said, some by burning, some by killing, some by stoning, and to all of this they gave over their souls. The Malbim explains that what is written "and with the rich in his deaths" means that they placed the grave of the rich man with the wicked in his deaths. Even when they put the rich man to death, they gave him, they dug him a grave beside the wicked. The meaning of this is: when the gentile wants to kill the Jew, he needs an argument. He needs a reason. It does not matter if it is a reason that is no reason and an argument that is no argument and does not hold water, it does not matter. He needs something he can tell. So when he killed the rich man, it did not go over well, it did not photograph well. What, you are killing him in order to take his money? So they would pin guilt on him. So they would place an iniquity in him. What did Ahab do when she wanted, what did Jezebel do when she coveted Naboth's vineyard? She accused him of blessing God. Naboth cursed Hashem. And the honor of Heaven was very, very important to her as is known, right? And therefore she went and brought witnesses so that they would kill him. The Malbim there explains, whoever wishes can hear this in the Book of Kings, that even the gentiles, when they would do a wrongful thing, would wrap it in a cloak of justice and law, because the people would not accept wickedness. The people would not be willing to accept a wrong. So they had to sew for him some story in order to attach to him an iniquity, so that through this it would be more readily accepted as legitimate. And this is what is written here, "and with the rich in his deaths," as though it is written "and he made his grave with the wicked," and also the grave of the rich man in his deaths with the wicked. That is to say, where did they bury the rich man? In the grave of the wicked. In the grave of those who rebelled against the king, in the grave of those who were punished for iniquities they committed. And then, as it were, they say to the people, do you see? This man is wicked. See where they buried him. Do you see where we bury him? Among the wicked. No, what... he also has money, so we took the money, but we did not kill him for the money. And therefore they would go and bury him in the grave of the wicked, as one who did wickedness, and through this they had, as it were, legitimacy that their deed stems from a need to impose order, from a need to exact retribution from the criminals, therefore we killed the wicked one, the rich one.
"Yet it pleased Hashem to crush him by disease; if his soul shall render itself an asham, he shall see seed, he shall prolong his days, and the desire of Hashem shall prosper in his hand." "Yet it pleased Hashem to crush him by disease." Rashi says, the Holy One, blessed be He, desired to crush him and return him to the good, and therefore Hashem made him ill. That is "to crush him by disease." The accent in "hecheli" is on the lamed. "It pleased Hashem to crush him by disease." Not "hachli," right? "Hecheli," meaning the Holy One, blessed be He, made him ill in order to crush him and return him to the good. "If his soul shall render itself an asham, he shall see seed, he shall prolong his days." The Holy One, blessed be He, says: I will see whether his soul will be given over in holiness, to render to Me an asham for all that he was faithless, meaning if the Jewish people repent, I will requite him his reward for this, "he shall see seed, he shall prolong his days." What is "if his soul shall render itself an asham"? "Asham," says Rashi, is like a ransom. Like "you shall not send him away empty, for you shall surely return to him an asham." Where is that stated? "You shall not send him away empty, for you shall surely return to him an asham." The Ark of Hashem, right? With the Philistines, who captured the Ark of Hashem and were suffering from hemorrhoids and afflictions and all the mice, the rats, that were eating their entrails. And then they did not know what this was on account of, and they came to their priests and they told them, return the Ark of the Covenant of Hashem. They saw Dagon with his hands cut off and fallen on the threshold, yes, whoever wishes can hear this on the disc on Shoftim. And then there, as a result of this they told them, return, restore an asham. Asham is atonement for what you did. So here too, says Rashi, asham is a term of ransom. "If his soul shall render itself an asham," if I will see that he repents, giving a ransom for his soul for his deeds, says the Holy One, blessed be He, with this I will requite him, "he shall see seed, he shall prolong his days."
The Malbim explains that here the Holy One, blessed be He, says, as it were: since their forefathers in the earlier generations we saw were killed for the sanctification of Hashem's Name. "It pleased Hashem to crush him by disease." The Holy One, blessed be He, pay attention, this is an explanation different from Rashi. The Holy One, blessed be He, desired to appease and placate the crushing of that generation. "It pleased Hashem to crush him," as a result of his crushing, as a result of how that generation was crushed, "disease." Hashem desired to entreat him, meaning like "to entreat his face," "I will entreat your face." The Holy One, blessed be He, as it were, wants to appease the Jewish people for all that was his crushing, for all that the Jewish people suffered throughout all the generations. And therefore the Holy One, blessed be He, will do good to their children after them in the final generation. As it is written, "as in the days of your coming out of the land of Egypt I will show him wonders." And as it is written that corresponding to the days that the Jewish people, corresponding to the time they suffered in their exile, so too they are destined to see days of goodness. "Make us glad according to the days You afflicted us, the years we saw evil." That corresponding to those days that You afflicted us, then make us glad. And this is what he says, "it pleased Hashem to crush him by disease," to entreat their face on account of his crushing, on account of all that we suffered when we were crushed in the hand of the gentiles. Therefore the Holy One, blessed be He, says, I say to you, the enemy, even if you render his soul an asham, even if you kill the Jew because you render his soul as guilt, judging him as one liable to death, says the Holy One, blessed be He, in any case know: it pleased Hashem to crush him, one who was crushed Hashem desires to appease. How? Through him seeing seed that will prolong days. Even though you succeeded in killing that one, so you eliminated the Jew, so you finished off the Jewish people, He says nothing will help you. In history there were many kings who took upon themselves as a hobby or a life's goal to eliminate the Jewish people, and the kindnesses of Hashem, the kindnesses of Hashem that we are not consumed, for His mercies have not ended. The gentile will never succeed. So even if you succeed in killing this Jew, He tells you know: from him Hashem will see seed that will prolong days. Hashem will bring it about that from this son, from this person, from this Jew, there will be seed, and this seed will prolong days, "and the desire of Hashem shall prosper in his hand." The desire of Hashem, what Hashem desired, that the Jewish people should endure forever, shall prosper in his hand. Even if not in the hand of the Jew who died, then in the hand of his son who will endure, in the hand of his seed who will endure, through this the divine thought and will shall be fulfilled.
"From the toil of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall My righteous servant justify the many, and their iniquities he shall bear." "From the toil of his soul," Rashi explains, from the toil of his soul he would eat, he did not rob, he did not extort, but rather what he toiled for himself, from that he would take, from that he would eat. "From the toil of his soul he shall see and be satisfied." "By his knowledge shall My righteous servant justify," he would judge My servant with a judgment of truth, everyone who would come before him for judgment, "by his knowledge shall he justify the righteous," he would justify the righteous and condemn the wicked. And their iniquities, "shall My righteous servant justify the many, and their iniquities he shall bear." The righteous, as it is written, "you and your sons shall bear the iniquity of the Sanctuary." The righteous bear upon themselves the iniquities of the generation. The righteous are afflicted on behalf of the generation, as the Ramchal in Derech Hashem, whoever wishes can hear on the disc, elaborates at length on this matter of how the righteous bear the iniquities of the generation, and how this thing is for their good, how this thing is a kindness with them, that afterward the Holy One, blessed be He, will give them in the world of truth an enormous and mighty eternal reward, for the entire state of the Jewish people, the entire state of the generation endures only in their merit. The Radak explains "from the toil of his soul he shall see and be satisfied," the Radak says, from the toil of his soul, what he suffered in exile, his reward will be that he shall see and be satisfied. He shall see good, and with this good he shall be satisfied. From the toil of his soul, all that he toiled and all that he labored and wearied himself, what is the kindness that the Holy One, blessed be He, will do with him? That you will merit to see at the end of days, you will merit to see the kindness of Hashem upon you. How all these sufferings paid off, how in the end all of this led to the future redemption, how through those very sufferings we merited those very virtues. "By his knowledge shall My righteous servant justify the many." As it is written, "the earth shall be full of the knowledge of Hashem," "for they shall all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them." And then My servant Israel, who is righteous, and Hashem knows the way of the righteous, that he shall justify the righteous of the many, as it is written, "and many peoples shall go and say, come, let us go up to the mountain of Hashem and to the house of the God of Yaakov, and He will teach us of His ways." This righteous one, through his deeds, all the gentiles it is written will take hold of the corner of the garment of a Jewish man, and say to him, come, take us to the mountain of Hashem, we want to serve the Holy One, blessed be He. And their iniquities, "and their iniquities he shall bear." He, in his righteousness, will bear the iniquities of the gentiles, that there will be peace for the nations in their land in whose merit? In the merit of the righteous one having borne their iniquity.