הכזה יהיה צום אבחרהו יום ענות אדם נפשו הלכוף כאגמון ראשו ושק ואפר יציע הלזה תקרא צום ויום רצון להשם. The Holy One, blessed be He, says: Is this the fast that I choose? A day for a man to afflict his soul, to bow his head like a bulrush and to spread out sackcloth and ashes? Is this what I want, that you bow your heads like a bulrush and put on sackcloth and ashes? Do you call this a fast and a day acceptable to Hashem? All these things are only external. They are only for show. But in truth there is no inner change in them. There is no regret over the past. There is no acceptance upon oneself for the future. Therefore the Holy One, blessed be He, says: I do not want this fast. I want a fast that truly contains an inner change. A fast that truly contains regret over the past. A fast that truly contains acceptance upon oneself for the future.
The Radak explains, is this the fast that I choose? Says the Radak, the Holy One, blessed be He, asks them: Is this the fast that I choose? Is this the fast that I want? For this fast is only external. It is only for show. But in truth there is no inner change in it. There is no regret over the past. There is no acceptance upon oneself for the future. Therefore the Holy One, blessed be He, says: I do not want this fast. I want a fast that truly contains an inner change. A fast that truly contains regret over the past. A fast that truly contains acceptance upon oneself for the future.
The Malbim explains, is this the fast that I choose? Says the Malbim, the Holy One, blessed be He, asks them: Is this the fast that I choose? Is this the fast that I want? For this fast is only external. It is only for show. But in truth there is no inner change in it. There is no regret over the past. There is no acceptance upon oneself for the future. Therefore the Holy One, blessed be He, says: I do not want this fast. I want a fast that truly contains an inner change. A fast that truly contains regret over the past. A fast that truly contains acceptance upon oneself for the future.
הלוא זה צום אבחרהו פתח חרצובות רשע התר אגודות מוטה ושלח רצוצים חופשים וכל מוטה תנתקו. He tells them: Is not this the fast that I choose? What is a fast that I truly choose? Loosen the bonds of wickedness. Chartzubot, explains the Radak, means bonds. The bonds of wickedness. As it is written, there are no bonds (chartzubot) at their death. What does this mean? When the wicked act, when they increase in wickedness, when wickedness grows strong, it appears as if it is bound with strong knots. Says the Holy One, blessed be He: Untie these knots. Loosen the bands of the yoke (motah). Motah is a yoke. Loosen the yoke that you place upon people. And send the crushed free. People whom you crush, whom you oppress, send them free. And break every yoke. Every yoke that you place upon people, break it. This is the fast that I choose. A fast that contains inner change. A fast that contains regret over the past. A fast that contains acceptance upon oneself for the future. A fast that contains correction of deeds. A fast that contains helping one's fellow. A fast that contains mercy on the poor. This is the fast that I choose.
Like a firm bond that cannot be separated. A firm bond that cannot be broken. When we look today at all the moves of the party of hatred and its offshoots, it looks like a kind of firm bond that cannot be separated. What are the plans? The commentators say the government has many long years ahead. We ask of the Master of the world, loosen the bonds of wickedness. The wicked have bound themselves together, made bonds among themselves, made connections among themselves. Master of the world, untie these knots, remove the bonds of wickedness.
Loosen the bands of the yoke. What is motah? Motah is from the language of mimet, to bring death, not with a tav but with a tet. As the wicked man crushes the poor man, brings disaster upon him, yes, with a tet. It means he brings disaster upon him or crushes him. Or another possibility that the Radak says is that motah is a noun. Motah is the yoke that lies upon the head of the animal, upon the neck of the animal. As it is written, and Chananyah took the yoke (motah), there it is brought regarding Chananyah ben Azzur, who took the yoke and placed it on his shoulders. What does he mean to say? In that they oppressed the poor, as the Radak explained earlier that they were pressing the poor, and all the people cried out violence, for they were pressing the poor to pay them their debts, about this he says, this pressing is like a yoke, it is like a yoke that you place upon the head of the neck of the animal, so too you place such a yoke upon the poor who have nothing with which to pay their debt, you press them and place a yoke upon their necks.
The Targum brings, and so Rashi brings it, that what is written, and break every yoke, says the Targum, and remove every crooked judgment. Every crooked judgment means every wicked judgment, a judgment that contains deviation, that deviates from the straight path, this you shall remove. And send the crushed free. What does and send the crushed free mean? The slaves who were crushed at the hand of their masters, you transgress do not rule over him with rigor, send them free at the end of seven years. As we see that Yirmiyahu had to rebuke the people of his generation about this matter, that they were keeping their slaves more than seven years, because they still had debts that they needed to collect from them, and there it is brought that he persuaded them to send the slaves. So he tells them, part of the correction of the path is send the crushed free, the slaves whom you dominate, send them free.
The Malbim says, is not this the fast that I choose, loosen the bonds of wickedness. The Malbim explains not like the Radak that chartzubot means a bond, says the Malbim, chartzubot is a combination of two words. Chor, tzav. Tzav means covered. Covered wagons (eglot tzav) means covered wagons. Yes? In contrast to open carriages, yes? They are without a cover. There are covered wagons, they are covered. Chartzav means a covered hole. The wicked man is a chartzav, meaning he is hidden in his hole and covered. And this needs to be opened. Loosen the bonds of wickedness. It is known that generally in roots, in the Holy Tongue there is no four-letter root. There is a dispute about this, but the accepted view is that there is no four-letter root. Rather, if there is a four-letter root, it is a combination of two roots that are paired. For example, marzeach. There is no root of marzeach. Rather marzeach is a compound of two words, mar, zach. By going to the marzeach house and becoming addicted to the bitter drop, the bitterness departs from him. Zach means departs. As in the choshen shall not depart, as we call today a pier (maziach), yes? That shifts channels and so on. It means to remove. Mar zach means removing the bitterness, therefore it is called marzeach.
According to that same principle where it is written chartzubot, the Malbim too explains that it means a four-letter verb divided into two words, char and tzav. Chet reish is from the language of hole, and tzav is from the language of covered wagons, meaning a covering. If so, open the covering of the wicked. The wicked man who is hidden, who conceals himself and his deeds, bring him out. Since the main point of the fast, the main point of the gathering, is, says the Malbim, that during the assembly the wickedness of individuals which is buried in holes should be revealed. The wicked do their deeds in darkness, so that they will not be discovered. And then at the time of the assembly one must focus on these points and act on these matters. And then anyone who knows about some negative deed that was done will expose that deed, and through this the matter will become public.
Today we live in the age of communications, so admittedly the opportunities for fraud have grown enormously. Once, who could steal credit cards, for example, card numbers and so on. You had to steal from someone, break into his house, search for the money, dig it out, take it out and take it. Today there are so many ways of fraud without meeting you at all. He only sees your money. And so on. On the other hand, just as there are opportunities for fraud, so too there are opportunities to catch the fraud. And today one person who was defrauded can create a media echo about it, and then very quickly the breach of that fraud is sealed. For example, there used to be those who call you, tell you there is some problem with the phone, press two or three numbers. And you press the numbers out of innocence, you think it is Bezeq, and what you did by this, you enabled the phone line that just called you to call through your phone freely. All your calls go through, all his calls go through you freely. So now, yes, to the whole world. And suddenly you receive a bill of 3,000 shekels, you ask, from where? They tell you, sir, you authorized a person to call through your phone. You must trace me. And he goes and calls with a Talkman, from Izzy and all sorts of unidentified ones, that are not registered anywhere, and holds festivities on your account. Once he could do this endlessly, since there was no way for people to know. But after this matter became public, then today anyone who asks you to key in some number, you are immediately suspicious. No no, I do not want to, I will call Bezeq. I will ask them what they want. I do not accept anonymous phone calls like this, an unidentified number, with all sorts of instructions. The opportunities for wickedness developed, and also the opportunities for identifying and publicizing the deed of wickedness developed. What do you see? That the matter of exposing wickedness is to create publicity for it. By creating publicity for the wicked man, the person can no longer employ this scheme, they immediately catch him. And this is loosen the bonds of wickedness.
For this there is a fast. What is a fast? We explained, an assembly. For this everyone gathers, so that if someone knows about some wrongdoing, by all of us being together, each one telling the other and keeping the others away from that wrongdoing so that they will know to be careful. And then the deeds done in secret are also revealed. Many times a person has some particular complaint about a certain person, and he suddenly searches and discovers that many others complained about him too. And then through this there is the power to strike at that harmful person. I do not know what harm he causes, he works somewhere and causes damage, whatever the damage may be. In understanding that my problem is not an individual problem but a general problem, through this it is possible to bring about that person's dismissal. If, for example, when people gather it becomes clear that that wrongdoing is not a solitary wrongdoing but a system, a whole apparatus of wrongdoing, through this it is possible to loosen the bonds of wickedness. And this is what he says. Incidentally there is a legal expression that sunlight disinfects, or is the best disinfectant. So said once one of the High Court justices. And this only explains why they appoint their judges in darkness. Without anyone knowing and without accountability. Because of this, that they know that sunlight is the best disinfectant. How will a friend bring a friend? How will we bring in our people? How will we not allow anyone with an agenda that does not fit our moves, how will we not allow him? How will we prevent, forgive me, such people? How will we prevent them, from the unenlightened public, in the definition of Barak, and do not be confused, he means you, yes. How will we prevent them, so that their views will not be expressed? Afterward he regretted the expression, but that expression was enough for us to understand the mindset of a person for anyone who had not caught on. So this is done in darkness. The way to expose wrongdoings is simply to expose them. To present them, to speak about them, through this the wrongdoing will be nullified anyway because people will know to beware of it. Therefore he says, for this one must connect, one must gather, to remove bonds, to remove the covering.
Only if it is in an association, if many have joined and connected, then you can remove that yoke. Loosen the bands of the yoke. It means, it will be possible through this to prevent the perverting, the things they do unlawfully. And especially if this perverting is in associations. This means, it is not individuals, many have already seen that this is a profitable path of crime, so they already formed crime associations. They are already banding together, the crime becomes organized. How can we act against it? Only by all of us gathering together and acting against them. For to act individually against them, certainly the lone individual cannot stand against a crime gang.
And this is what he says, admittedly, says the Malbim, admittedly one must act both against the individuals and against the many, but to act against the individuals, he says, you must be precise about every small thing. But regarding the sin of the community, it is enough for us to remove their association. This means, if I caught one criminal, I must be precise with him about every crime he committed. But if I caught a crime association, it is enough for me to scatter them. By scattering them, through this the crime itself dissipates. Therefore he says, loosen the bands of the yoke. Those who joined together to pervert, loosen them, scatter them. And through this, and send the crushed free. Through this it will be revealed who are the bands of the yoke, those who were crushed under them, they will send free. And those who were, this corresponds to loosen the bonds of wickedness. By opening the bonds of the wicked, the wicked man who hides himself, through this I will send the crushed who suffer from him free. And by loosening the bands of the yoke, through this, and break every yoke. Every yoke, every association that joins together to pervert judgment, we will break them from their negative and corrupt deeds, and by virtue of this we will be able to remove the deeds of wickedness and bring about a state of correction of character and deeds.
הלוא פרוס לרעב לחמך ועניים מרודים תביא בית. כי תראה ערום וכיסיתו ומבשרך לא תתעלם - Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and to bring the wandering poor into your house; when you see the naked, that you cover him, and that you do not hide yourself from your own flesh. Says the Holy One, blessed be He, what is truly demanded of a person? Share your bread with the hungry. Paros means to break off, give him, break off for him some of your bread. And bring the wandering poor into your house. What is a wandering poor man (ani marud)? What does the expression marud mean? Rashi explains, marud means he groans and sighs over his trouble. As in my affliction and my wandering (merudi). I mourn (arid) in my complaint and moan. Arid in my complaint means I moan and sigh in my complaint, in my prayer. So about this he says, wandering poor, those who groan and sigh, them you shall bring into your house. The Radak explains that merudim means those who are tossed about. Remember, O Yerushalayim, in the days of her affliction and her wandering (merudeha). What is merudeha? Her being tossed about. So it either means groaning or means being tossed about. And do not hide yourself from your own flesh. This means, to feed the hungry and the naked is an obligation for all of Israel. But those who are your flesh, says the Radak, this is a much greater obligation. This is a much more pronounced obligation. Do not hide yourself from your own flesh, rather give to him even before he reaches the state where he must beg at the doors, give him enough for his livelihood. From your flesh, as it is written, any man to any of his near of kin. One who does this is truly the pained and righteous person.
We once told here about that wealthy man to whom they turned to solicit a donation. So he said, what are you talking about? I have a needy brother. What is a wandering poor man, what are you talking about? I have one, you are asking to give to you? What will I give you? I have such a poor brother. Fine, some time passed, suddenly the poor brother comes to them. He tells them how terrible his situation is. They said to him, but you have a wealthy brother. He says, what wealthy one? A mighty wealthy man. He said, I have never in my life seen a penny from him. They said, we approach him, he says I have a poor brother, this one is now telling us. They approached him, said to him, what, what, what did you tell us? He says, what, did I say I give to him? I told you I have a wandering poor brother, and no, I do not give to you, would you receive it? That is what I meant, what did I mean to say, that I do not give. He does not receive it, would you receive it? Yes. Verse 8.
אז יבקע כשחר אורך וארוכתך מהרה תצמח. והלך לפניך צדקך, כבוד השם יאספך - Then shall your light break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring forth speedily; and your righteousness shall go before you, the glory of Hashem shall gather you in. Then shall your light break forth like the dawn, says Rashi, like the morning dawn that breaks through the thickness of the darkness, so shall your light break forth. And your healing shall spring forth speedily. Arukhah is healing, as in I will bring healing (arukhah) to you. And if you do these deeds, explains the Radak, you will not need a fast, you will not need sackcloth, you will not need ashes. The good deeds take the place of all the atonements we saw earlier. Through this your light shall break forth like the dawn. Just as the dawn gradually gives light little by little, your light shall shine. And this is truly what is also written in the holy books, that regarding self-mortifications, there is a way to do all this, and break off your sins by righteousness. By a person giving charity, this takes the place of the mortifications. For we know that bloods touch bloods. And bloods in place of bloods. That a person takes out money (damim) from his pocket, this takes the place of the blood (damim) that he takes out of himself when he fasts and his fat and blood diminish. So that with the power of charity there is tremendous strength to atone for one's sins even without suffering. There are those for whom the suffering of opening the hand and the pocket is harder than the suffering of fasting, yes? So that without any doubt these damim are in exchange for those damim. And the Baal HaTanya says an interesting thing, that although they said one who is generous should not be generous with more than a fifth, this is speaking about a person who has no transgressions. But one who has transgressions, for all that a man has he will give for his soul. He says, if so, he should spend all his money for the atonement of his soul. About this we do not say do not be generous. For a person now needs surgery, they tell him either you sell the house or you die. Would we tell him no, one who is generous should not be generous with more than a fifth, do not sell? What is the question at all? Skin for skin, says Iyov, and all that a man has he will give for his soul. So he says, so too spiritually. So all that they said, do not be generous with more than a fifth, is when he has no transgressions. But if he wants to give charity because of correcting his sins, he says, even all his money. And then if you do such deeds, says the Radak, you do not need fasts, you do not need mortifications. With this kindness you atone for everything. And your healing shall spring forth speedily. The healing, if until now you had damages, evil, illnesses in body, in money, now when you improve your deeds, your healing will spring forth speedily like a plant of the earth. Therefore he uses the expression it shall spring forth. Just as the plant of the earth hurries to sprout, so too your healing shall spring forth.
The Malbim explains that after he explained to us which fast I choose, what is loosen the bonds of wickedness, loosen the bands of the yoke, he tells us, know that Hashem does not desire affliction of the soul. The Holy One, blessed be He, does not desire that you not eat. Hashem desires that you give the poor man to eat. This is what Hashem desires. And this is what he continues, is it not to share your bread with the hungry and to bring the wandering poor into your house. The goal is not that you not eat, but that you give the hungry to eat. And now he explains to us that there are levels in charity, and they are two levels one above the other. First, give the poor man his needs. This speaks of bread, clothing, dwelling, give the poor man his needs. Corresponding to bread he says, share your bread with the hungry. That is, even if you have a whole loaf, break off half of it, give it to the hungry. This means, do not give the poor man some meager food. Do not give the poor man leftovers, but what you have as your bread, what do you take for yourself? Are you eating a bagel? Give the poor man half. Share your bread with the hungry. Your bread.
It is told that once there was a certain great miserly wealthy man. And the gabbai came to him, told him on Friday morning, take into account that you have guests this Shabbat. He said, oh woe, guests this Shabbat. What do we do? What do we do? Fine, he ran quickly to the market, bought some fish at a sale price, because their time had long passed, and such small fish, so the guest would have something to eat. For himself he bought some fine fish, proper and fitting. Fine, now what do we do for himself? He said, fine, we will give to the hungry, we will first bring out the small fish, give the guest to eat, he will fill his belly, and afterward we will bring out the big fish, what will he eat already? He is already full. Fine. Rabbi Ibn Ezra was hosted at his table. And then Rabbi Ibn Ezra went to wash his hands, he apparently caught out of the corner of his eye that there was some fish there like the ones for great rebbes waiting there in the corner, and to him himself they served such a few sardines. And also the smell, well, these fish had seen better days. Fine, so they serve him to eat, and he already understands the scheme. Rabbi Ibn Ezra was an immense genius, a mighty genius in all the depths of Torah and in all the wisdoms known in his time. So he immediately caught on to the matter. The man serves him three such small, scrawny fish, and he sees him approaching them, starting to chatter with them, speaking with them. Then he approaches the second, speaks with it too. Then he approaches the third, speaks with it too. The man is seized with fear, says to him, tell me, what is this, are you doing witchcraft? What are these incantations? What, what is happening here? So he told him, no, I will tell you the truth, I am always very very curious to know how it was, how the splitting of the Red Sea looked. How the splitting of the Red Sea looked. I am very curious to know. And these fish looked to me fairly old, so I decided to ask them. So I asked one, he tells me I do not know, I was not there then, but ask my friend, it may be he was there then. I asked him, he tells me although I am older, I too was not there then, ask my friend, he was there then. I asked the third friend, he says the truth, I am older than both of them, but I too was not there then, but I have a friend who is very old and big in the kitchen, he says he surely remembers. So the wealthy man, yes, was exposed in his disgrace, was forced to bring out the old and remembering friend, yes, from the kitchen and serve it to the guests. About this he says, is it not to share your bread with the hungry. Your bread, the fine one, this you shall give to the hungry. Do not give him bread from two days ago, and go take fine and choice bread for yourself.
There was an incident with the Rebbe of Gur, that once they came and told his son, that the Rebbe gave the tefillin of the previous Rebbe to some wanderer who came now to ask for tefillin. He was stunned. Tell me, what is this, you give a chasid the tefillin of the Rebbe of Gur? Once someone paid 100,000 dollars for the tefillin of the Rebbe of Gur. He heard that some poor man came, told the Rav that he had no tefillin, and the Rav gave him these tefillin. Incidentally, so that it should not be light in your eyes. Once they asked some rabbi, of the chareidim, they asked him why they belittle Herzl and speak about him and they... He said, God forbid, do I belittle him? And know that I esteem him greatly. He said, know, if now someone brings me the tefillin of the Gaon of Vilna, I am willing to pay for them 100,000 dollars. If you bring me the tefillin of Ravina and Rav Ashi, I am willing to pay a million dollars. Bring me the tefillin of our teacher Moshe Rabbeinu, I am willing to pay 100 million dollars. And if you bring me the tefillin of Herzl, I am willing to pay a trillion dollars. He says, so do I belittle him? Are you not ashamed? Do I belittle him? Just bring them. See how much I am willing to pay for his tefillin. Come on, what are you talking about? A person did not lay tefillin, so you ask why they belittle him. Fine, in any case, so the man does not understand, the man takes it, the Rebbe gives it to him. He goes into the Rebbe, says to him, Rebbe, what, the Rav gave grandfather's tefillin there... So he tells him yes, why are you astonished? He tells him what, such precious tefillin and... He tells him, do I lay them? He tells him no, the Rav has his own tefillin. So he tells him, it is written that when a poor man comes, the Rambam writes, that when a poor man comes, give him from the finest, from the choice and beautiful. So says the Rambam, this is explicit halachah. So what did you want, that I give him something bad? What is the finest and most beautiful thing I have? He says it is these tefillin. So I gave it to him to lay them. I gave it to this Jew. Which of us would have thought of such a thing? We would immediately think economically, what can be done with these tefillin. But what does he think? That to the poor man one gives the beautiful and the finest. Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, says the Malbim. From your bread, from the finest, from this you shall give the poor man.
So we said one must help him with bread, with clothing, with a dwelling. Corresponding to the dwelling he says, and bring the wandering poor into your house. Give him a dwelling with you. Corresponding to the clothing he says, and do not hide yourself from your own flesh. That is, when you buy a garment, let it be important in your eyes as if you placed it on your own flesh. So too buy a garment for the poor man. All human beings are one flesh. So do not feel as if you are giving to someone else. Feel as if you are giving it to someone who is part of you, to someone who is flesh of your flesh. And if so, through this you will merit the great level of your righteousness shall go before you, the glory of Hashem shall gather you in, your light shall break forth like the dawn, your healing shall spring forth speedily. By virtue of what? By virtue of giving the poor man from the good and from the finest.
אז תקרא והשם יענה, תשוע ויאמר הנני. אם תסיר מתוכך מוטה, שלח אצבע ודבר אוון - Then you shall call, and Hashem will answer; you shall cry, and He will say, Here I am. If you remove from your midst the yoke, the pointing of the finger and speaking wickedness. Then you shall call, when you pray and ask of Hashem, you shall cry and Hashem will answer. Earlier we saw, why have we fasted and You have not seen? Master of the world, we fast and You do not answer us. But if you do not merely fast a fast about which the Holy One, blessed be He, asks, is this the fast that I choose, but rather you act with the trait of kindness, share your bread with the hungry and so on, then truly you shall call, says the Holy One, blessed be He, and I will answer. With the goodness, with the goodness of your deeds, I will answer you, I will see your fast, I will hear your prayer. What else does he say? If you remove from your midst the yoke. It means, we saw earlier that he said, and break every yoke. Remove from your midst every perverting. Perverting means deviation from the straight path. And this is a subtler matter than wrongdoing, robbery. Here there is only perverting, here there is only deviation. This too remove from your midst. The pointing of the finger and speaking wickedness. What is the pointing of the finger and speaking wickedness? It means, even if you remove from your midst, not only the yoke, remove from your midst also the pointing of the finger. Remove from your midst as if repeating everything. Remove from your midst the yoke, remove from your midst the pointing of the finger, remove from your midst speaking wickedness. What is the yoke? We explained. What is the pointing of the finger? Says the Radak, that many people, they say, it is you, it is him, pointing at the other. Blaming the other. You know that generally when someone blames another, the blame is in himself. For note that when a person points a finger forward, there are three fingers pointing back at himself. That is, you say he is guilty, note, three fingers say you are guilty. So before you cast blame on others, check yourself well. So if you remove from your midst even the pointing of the finger, quarrel, even without striking him, only an accusing finger. Remove from your midst speaking wickedness. What does it mean? Also quarreling with words. This is what we said earlier, loosen the bonds of wickedness. It means even matters of wickedness, of speech. This too remove from your midst. Then you shall call and Hashem will answer.
Says the Malbim, note that there are two expressions here. Here there is you shall call and Hashem will answer, you shall cry and He will say, Here I am. What is the difference? Says the Malbim, calling is when not in a time of trouble. Crying out (shava) is always in a time of trouble. Who said, I cried out (shivati)? King David, this appears often, but who else? In Yonah, quite right. Yonah says that from the depths I cried out, from the depths of the sea. Always, says the Malbim, crying out means in a time of trouble. You shall call when not in a time of trouble, and Hashem will answer. Hashem will respond and answer you, fulfill your requests. And if you cry out, that will already be truly in a time of trouble, then not only will Hashem answer, but He will say, Here I am. What is Here I am? It means, I am ready to save you even before you called. He will say, Here I am, it means I have already long been here. That is, if it will be a matter of trouble, he says, you will see that the Holy One, blessed be He, as it were, will already be ready to save you even before the trouble. For many times we see that the Holy One, blessed be He, prepares the cure before the blow. There is trouble, and suddenly it becomes clear to you that already some time before the Holy One, blessed be He, brought forth salvation. Like Esther, who was there long before the actual decree of Haman. We see that the whole dispute of Achashverosh with Vashti and everything was many long years earlier. This was in the third year and this was in the twelfth year of his reign. Nine years passed since then. What did the Holy One, blessed be He, do? He prepared in advance a situation in which Vashti would be banished, Esther would be the queen, and then when the trouble comes, behold the cure is already ready. So if you cry out, Hashem will say I am already waiting for you here. He will say, Here I am, I am already waiting for you here with the salvation.
And this will be if you remove, on condition that you remove from your midst the yoke, the pointing of the finger and speaking wickedness. Says the Malbim, there is here a turning from evil in three matters. And already with turning from evil you will merit this. We have not yet reached doing good. Doing good is already a higher level. But only if you already turn from evil, says the Holy One, blessed be He, I will already fulfill your desire immediately, and even if you are in a time of trouble, I will already be ready there. Says the Malbim, note, the turning from evil must be in three matters. Thought, speech, deed. Thought, if you remove from your midst the yoke. What does from your midst mean? This is from within the heart, from the conscience, inside. Every slight inclination, every deviation in views, this is called the yoke. Corresponding to deed, the pointing of the finger. That you even merely point a finger against your fellow. This is already called a deed, and even not the whole hand, only a finger. This too is such a negative deed, remove it from your midst. Corresponding to speech, he said, if you remove from your midst speaking wickedness. Speaking wickedness means negative speech, corrupt speech, evil speech, lashon hara, gossip, falsehood, flattery. If you do these three things, you will already call and I will answer. You shall cry, and He says, Here I am.