Yeshayahu chapter 11. And a shoot shall come forth from the stump of Yishai, and a branch shall sprout from his roots. And the spirit of Hashem shall rest upon him, a spirit of wisdom and understanding, a spirit of counsel and might, a spirit of knowledge and fear of Hashem. And his delight shall be in the fear of Hashem, and he shall not judge by the sight of his eyes, nor decide by the hearing of his ears. And he shall judge the poor with righteousness, and decide with equity for the humble of the earth, and he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall slay the wicked.
The matter here is in fact a continuation of what we spoke about earlier, about the great forest of Sancheriv's camp, that Hashem will cut down this forest. And in contrast to that forest, He comes and shows you a different kind of growth, another kind of sprouting that will take place. And that is: a shoot shall come forth from the stump of Yishai, and a branch shall sprout from his roots. One shoot will emerge, a shoot meaning a branch, from the stump of Yishai, and it will become a great forest. As it is written, In days to come Yaakov shall take root, Yisrael shall blossom and bud.
And if so, says the Malbim, seemingly it follows from here that this prophecy is about Chizkiyahu. But here, what is being described to us, a shoot from the stump of Yishai and the spirit of Hashem resting upon him, a spirit of wisdom, all of this speaks of the King Mashiach. And his delight shall be in the fear of Hashem, he shall smell the one who fears Hashem, or with the fear of Hashem that is in him he shall smell and be able to judge only through what he smells, and by this he will know the truth, he shall judge the poor with righteousness and decide with equity for the humble of the earth. The Malbim asks, seemingly this part of the prophecy has not yet been fulfilled. If you are speaking to me here about a period that is the era of Chizkiyahu, we did not see that in Chizkiyahu's time the Mashiach came. The Malbim says, the assurances promised in it were not fulfilled then. Everything written up to here was already fulfilled, but what is written from here on, a shoot shall come forth from the stump of Yishai, meaning the dynasty of the house of David will arise and return to rule, this was not fulfilled then. And therefore, says the Malbim, the truth attests to itself, one need not bring other witnesses for it, that this is a prophecy about the End of Days.
Before this he brings that Rashi wanted to explain the continuation of the verses through what he said, that the essence of this prophecy was spoken about the ten tribes who were exiled in the days of Chizkiyahu. They did not return, they remained in Chalach, Chavor, and the river Gozan. And therefore after the downfall of Sancheriv, he says, if you ask what will be with the lost and the cast out who are there in the lands of Sancheriv, in the places to which he exiled them, he says, there is yet a vision for the appointed time. A shoot shall come forth from the stump of Yishai, there is here a future prophecy, this is what will be with the ten tribes. According to Rashi, it turns out that in fact there are two prophecies here. One prophecy about the salvation of Chizkiyahu, and a second prophecy about the ten tribes, in which he informs them: you shall wait, your situation will yet change, but in the future. This is a prophecy about a future that is very distant from here, a future that we still await.
But the Malbim has a somewhat different explanation. The Malbim says, know that from the time of the first exile that took place in the days of Sancheriv, from that time began the period fit for redemption. From that time began the period in which the people of Yisrael could already be redeemed. That is to say, from then on we already see the prophets beginning to prophesy that the Holy One will gather the scattered ones from the four corners of the earth, and the exile, for even the redemption that took place in the Second Temple was a partial redemption. How many came here? Fewer than 50,000 people. 40,000 people and about another 7,000 servants. That is what came here. A very partial redemption. That is to say, we are still in the category of those who await the redemption. From when? From the era of King Chizkiyahu, when the ten tribes had already been exiled. From that era we await the redemption.
Now this redemption has two times. There is the aspect of "if they merit," and there is the aspect of "in its time." This is what the Gemara says: if they merit, I will hasten it; if they do not merit, in its time. The time that is fixed, which we will not pass, is called "in its time." That is the appointed time. And there is "if they merit," if we purify our deeds, if we purify our deeds, through this the redemption will be brought forward. Through this the redemption will come even before its time. And therefore he comes and says, behold, you shall see, in that era the people of Yisrael were capable of redemption. See what a wonder of wonders this is. The people of Yisrael were capable of redemption, which means that had we merited it through the aspect of "they merited and purified," the Midrash says, Hashem wished to make Chizkiyahu the Mashiach and Sancheriv Gog and Magog, only that sin caused it not to be. Do you hear? That is to say, the prophecy here, a shoot shall come forth from the stump of Yishai, the prophet says: know, this is a time, this is an opportunity. For behold, in this opportunity a shoot could now come forth from the stump of Yishai and a branch sprout from his roots, that Chizkiyahu would be in the category of Mashiach and there would be the complete redemption. So this means we are not speaking here about something in the future that will happen thousands of years from now. No. Rather he is speaking about an opportunity that is now opening before us. Had we merited it, then it would have happened now. And therefore this is placed adjacent to the downfall of Sancheriv, to tell you that immediately after the downfall of Sancheriv there was a golden opportunity, that had we merited it, we would already have merited to be in the redemption.
But the prophet comes here and says, know, there are conditions in this. The prophet says, a shoot shall come forth from the stump of Yishai and a branch shall sprout from his roots. And you already recall, according to the Malbim, there is no superfluous expression. And here seemingly this is a double expression that is superfluous. A shoot shall come forth from the stump of Yishai, and a branch shall sprout from his roots. What is the difference between a shoot from the stump and a branch that comes from the roots? The Malbim says, there is a difference between a stump and a root. The root is what is beneath the ground, as in today's spoken language. The stump is what grows above the ground, close to the ground, that is called the stump. In contrast, the root is what is beneath the ground. Now, he says, a shoot shall come forth from the stump of Yishai and a branch from his roots. We understood what a stump is, we understood what roots are. Now, what is a shoot and what is a branch? The Malbim says, when a tree is cut down, its stump still remains. It grows back from the stump. And then what happens is that it produces a shoot, meaning it produces a branch, and this is a strong branch that comes out of the stump itself. And sometimes it widens and continues the stump itself. This is something very strong because it comes out of the stump. And sometimes the tree is uprooted entirely. What remains? Some roots in the ground. If from these roots new growth begins, what comes out of them? A weak branch, as if you had just now planted a tree. Just as if you take a seed and place it in the ground, some small branch begins to emerge like a seedling. This is a small, weak branch, in contrast to the stump, from which if a branch emerges, it emerges a strong branch that sometimes constitutes a continuation of the stump itself.
And now, therefore, these two metaphors come to express two situations that can occur among the people of Yisrael. He says to them, know one of the two. Either a shoot shall come forth from the stump of Yishai. If you are worthy and deserving, then the future redemption will be now. What is there now? Are we now in a situation where the stump has been uprooted or not yet uprooted? Not yet uprooted. For Chizkiyahu is a king from the dynasty of the house of David. True, it was cut down, true, the kingdom here is divided, true, we have a king over only two tribes, but there is still here the portion of the stump's remnant that still exists. So if you have merit, then the general redemption will be now, immediately. And then there will be a shoot from the stump of Yishai. You will merit a strong branch that will continue the kingdom. But if you do not merit this, but rather this opportunity is squandered by us, what will happen is that afterwards in the end there will be exile, and years and thousands of years of exile will pass, and in the end a branch shall sprout from his roots. Since the stump will be uprooted, what will remain is only the roots. For the roots of the dynasty of the house of David will never be cut off. Yes? We await Mashiach ben David. So there will be some root that remains, but this root, what will it produce? It will produce only a branch. A branch means this will be a kingdom that begins in weakness. Not a strong kingdom as it would have been had we continued with Chizkiyahu, for Chizkiyahu is a stump that produces a branch and a shoot. A shoot, from the language of a hump, a protrusion, it is strong. In contrast, from a new king who will arise thousands of years later, only a branch will emerge from the roots. A branch, from the language of a thin branch that must be guarded, that must be protected. You place a stick for it, you wrap it, you place a fence around it so that no one steps on it. This is a branch. This is the branch that will come out of the roots. So as it were the prophet says to them, seize the opportunity. Now you still have a possibility to produce a shoot from the stump of Yishai. Because if not, afterwards what will be will only be a branch that emerges and sprouts from its roots.
And the spirit of Hashem shall rest upon him, a spirit of wisdom and understanding, a spirit of counsel and might, a spirit of knowledge and fear of Hashem. Now he will describe for us the special qualities that the King Mashiach will have. And he says one thing: know, the Mashiach will be perfect in three things. First, the perfections that depend on the intellectual soul. This is wisdom, this is understanding. What is the difference between wisdom and understanding? The Malbim says, wisdom is what a person receives from others, what a person receives from his teachers. In contrast, understanding is what comes from himself; after the foundations that he received, he goes and contemplates matters and derives one thing from another. He goes and is fruitful and multiplies in Torah. This is understanding. He contemplates matters and adds knowledge. That is the definition of understanding. In contrast, wisdom is what I receive from others. It is impossible for me to have wisdom unless I received it from others. So this is what he says, the spirit of wisdom shall rest upon him, since wisdom must be received from others, therefore it "rests" upon him. And understanding is what he himself will contemplate on his own.
This is the first part. The second part is the perfections that depend on him as a human being. And this is counsel and might. Counsel, says the Malbim, includes the perfection of the faculty of imagination. The faculty of imagination means the faculty of thought, that a person can estimate concerning a certain matter, can estimate what will happen, can think of all the aspects and advise the correct counsel. For this one needs a very strong power of imagination. This is considered the power of counsel. Might comes from the perfection of the faculty of arousal. The perfection of the faculty of arousal means that within himself there is an arousal of a power of might. For might is not necessarily dependent on physical strength. There can be a person who is not particularly strong, but he is a mighty man. He has strength and vigor in his soul. In contrast, there can be a person who is a huge, brawny man, but on the other hand he does not have might. He sees a cockroach and he runs away. But you have strength? True, one is not necessarily dependent on the other. So he says, he will have a spirit of counsel and might. First, a spirit of counsel, his power of imagination will be exceedingly strong, so that he can estimate all situations, all possibilities, and give the correct counsel. Second, strength and vigor in his soul, which is a spirit of might.
The third thing, the perfections that depend on the holy soul within him. Since the level of his soul is high, he has perfection in his soul, and this will cause him to have a spirit of knowledge and fear of Hashem. He will have knowledge of Hashem. Knowledge of Hashem means he will attain, in complete attainment, the providence of Hashem, the ways of Hashem. Like the prophets, who attained all of this through prophecy. He will have such broad knowledge that he will grasp all matters of the existence of Hashem and His providence. And he will have a spirit of fear of Hashem. First, a spirit of knowledge of Hashem, meaning knowledge of God, to know and comprehend the ways of Hashem, the governance of Hashem, as the prophets comprehended. Second, also fear of God. The Malbim says, for knowledge without fear is nothing, and fear without knowledge is nothing. And why? Knowledge without fear is nothing, for a person who has knowledge but does not have fear of God, what do you do with this knowledge? What does this knowledge give you? How does it influence you for good? When you have fear of God, then you use it to serve Hashem the Blessed. And likewise the reverse, if you have fear without knowledge, you are very fearful, but of whom? You have no knowledge to know of whom to be in fear. There needs to be knowledge of Hashem and then to combine with it the fear of Hashem. And he says that the Mashiach will have all three of these perfections, and this will be an aspect of a supreme spiritual power, something supernatural, which by nature a person does not possess.
And his delight shall be in the fear of Hashem, and he shall not judge by the sight of his eyes, nor decide by the hearing of his ears. And his delight shall be in the fear of Hashem, the Malbim says, through the fear of Hashem the Mashiach will be an aspect of spirituality, so that the physical powers, as it were, will strip away from him. He will not hear and see as every person hears and sees with his physical powers, but rather all his actions will operate through the power of the intellectual soul within him. An ordinary person sees with eyes of flesh, hears with ears of flesh. But if we had spiritual hearing, we would be able to hear far beyond what we hear. And if we had spiritual sight, we would be able to see far beyond what we see with the physical instrument of sight. For the physical instrument of sight is limited. There is a wall, I no longer see what is behind the wall. But in contrast, if I have a spiritual instrument of sight, I can know from one end of the world to the other. And this was the light of Adam HaRishon, with which he could see from one end of the world to the other. What, through walls and through spans? He would see, since it was spiritual sight. The Mashiach, and his delight shall be in the fear of Hashem, the Malbim explains, his "scent" in the fear of Hashem, the intention is from the root "ruach," spirit. He will have a spiritual power in him, the power of an angel. In contrast, for example, to Egypt, about whom it is written, And Egypt is man and not God, and their horses are flesh and not spirit. That is to say, Egypt is man, something physical, only that which is the limited physical power, that is what they have. But the Mashiach, he tells you no, and his delight, he will have an aspect of spirituality. He will have an aspect of spirituality by virtue of which he shall not judge by the sight of his eyes, nor decide by the hearing of his ears.
Judgment, says the Malbim, is that which is between man and his fellow, to save the oppressed from the hand of his oppressor. He judges according to what he sees with his eyes, every judge judges, a judge has only what his eyes see. But the Mashiach shall not judge by the sight of his eyes. He shall judge according to the power of the spiritual eyes. For when a person judges according to the sight of his eyes, it is possible also that he will err. For a judge has only what his eyes see. If they deceive him, it is also possible that he will err. It is possible that he will issue a distorted judgment. But the Mashiach shall not judge by the sight of his eyes, but rather he will know the truth from the aspect of spirituality within things. Nor decide by the hearing of his ears. Rebuke is when one wants to rebuke someone for the misdeeds he does, for deeds that are not good, deeds that are not proper. Now, when I go to a Rav and I say to him, honored Rav, it would be desirable for the Rav to speak about this and that matter. One goes to a great man, there is some matter that must be protested against. The great man is not in the midst of all the muck, he does not know, he is not acquainted with what the third generation is. He does not know what it is, he is not familiar with it. But one must come and tell him, there is such and such a problem, and there is a very great stumbling block there. And then the great ones of Yisrael issue some ruling, for example to buy a kosher phone. But when it comes to the Mashiach, one will not need to come and tell him in order for him to rebuke. Rather he will have the hearing of the spiritual ear, and from it he will be able to rebuke. And why? Because even the wise man can be deceived. If one tells him about some problem, that it is a serious problem, when it is not really a serious problem, then it is possible to deceive him. So it follows that when he wishes to rebuke according to the hearing of his ears, it is possible that he will rebuke over something that he should not have rebuked over. The Mashiach, if he will rebuke the generation for some distortions and corruptions that exist, it will not be according to the hearing of his ears. Not what someone tells him. Rather he will have spiritual hearing, so that he will truly know the troubles and the problems that exist in the generation, and according to this he will be able to rebuke with fairness.
And he shall judge the poor with righteousness, and decide with equity for the humble of the earth. And he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall slay the wicked. Before we explain this verse, I wanted to mention regarding the previous verse the explanation of the Radak. For the Radak explains what "and his delight shall be in the fear of Hashem" means. We explained according to the Malbim that the intention is that he will have a spiritual power. But the Radak explains that it is from the language of scent. And his delight, or his scent, shall be in the fear of Hashem, says the Radak, the most refined sense is smell. It is a slight sensation, and a person already senses it. It is not touch, where he needs to actually touch the thing. A person is able to smell from a distance. Or there is the expression, as when the flaxen thread is broken at the smelling of fire. They want to say only this, that he only smelled the fire, and he is already burned. So too here, and his scent shall be in the fear of Hashem. With a small measure of understanding he will sense the good and evil people, and will know how to distinguish between them, what is called he will smell a bit, and already know who fears Heaven and who does not. And his scent shall be in the fear of Hashem. Through this he will also be able to judge them according to smell. That is, smell, as we said, is the slightest sensation. He will not need investigations and examinations. As soon as they approach him, he already smells where the stinking side is here and where the side that gives off a good scent is here. He knows who here is the upright and proper side and who is the side that tries to lie and deceive. He brings another explanation in the name of his father. The Radak explains in the name of his father, and his scent, the intention is from the language of his speech. How is smell connected to speech? He says, you see it is written, and the breath of his mouth. We see that speech is also characterized by breath. For speech, when a person speaks he emits breath, we will see this further on. And if so, when it is written, and his delight shall be in the fear of Hashem, the intention is that in his speech there will always be the fear of Hashem. All that he will speak and all his matters will be only matters of closeness to Hashem and fear of Hashem and matters of spirituality. The Mashiach will be such a holy and spiritual person that all his words will be exclusively about matters of spirituality.
Let us return to our verse. And he shall judge the poor with righteousness, and decide with equity for the humble of the earth. And he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall slay the wicked. The Malbim says, the two halves of the verse are parallel. That is, our verse is a continuation of the previous verse. In the previous verse he told us about the Mashiach, he shall not judge by the sight of his eyes, but rather he shall judge the poor with righteousness. That is, righteousness itself will be, as it were, the scale by which he examines the judgment. As it were, he does not need to arrive at righteousness, but rather righteousness will be in his hand. With righteousness he will judge the poor. He will not be misled by the litigants deceiving him. Nor decide by the hearing of his ears, we said, and the continuation is in our verse, and decide with equity for the humble of the earth. Equity, that is, uprightness itself, this will be, as we said, the scale in his hand, by which he will rebuke the humble who will accept reproof. Why for the humble of the earth? So according to the Malbim, the intention is: who accepts reproof? Only the humble person. A person who is arrogant does not accept reproof. Who are you to preach morality to me? But one who is humble accepts reproof. And therefore this is what is written, and decide with equity for the humble of the earth. Who will be willing to accept the rebuke? These will be the humble.
In contrast, the Radak has a different explanation. The Radak says that "and decide with equity for the humble of the earth," says the Radak, he will rebuke the strong with equity for the sake of the humble of the earth. The intention is, he will rebuke the strong that they should not rob the humble of the earth. The humble of the earth are the humble people, the lowly people, who are usually trampled underfoot by the wealthy. So the Mashiach will rebuke with equity those who oppress the humble of the earth. This is the meaning of "for the humble of the earth," like "for the sake of the humble of the earth," those he will rebuke with equity.
And he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth. If he finds some land or country that will not accept his words, he will smite it. But he will not need an army, he will not need wars, he will not need fighter jets. Rather he will smite the earth with the rod of his mouth. With the rod of his mouth, with the curse with which he curses them, that will be enough. He does not need a rod in order to smite, but rather the rod of the mouth. The rod is the staff. With the staff of his mouth he will smite a land and a country. And with the breath of his lips he shall slay the wicked. And if there is some individual wicked person, not a country or kingdom, some individual wicked person who rebels against him, there too he will not need to curse him, but rather even just the breath that comes from his lips he will slay him with. What does this mean? When he spoke about a land, then he said he will smite with the rod of his mouth. The Malbim says, his mouth and his lips are two different things. The mouth symbolizes the entire mouth. The lips are only the outer part. It is the way of a person who speaks, that after he finishes speaking, an ember comes out of him, air comes out of him, a light breath comes out of his lips. So he now as it were tells us, after he smites a land, for that he will need the entire mouth. The land he will smite with the rod of his mouth. To slay a wicked person, which is what is called it will be a small matter for him, the breath of his lips will suffice. What is called the additional breath that comes out of his mouth after he finishes speaking, this light breath will suffice to slay the wicked person. He will not even need, what is called, to emit speech. To slay a country he will need actual speech, he will need the rod of his mouth. But to slay the wicked person, the additional breath that comes out of his lips at the conclusion of speech suffices to slay the wicked person.
The Radak says, regarding what is written here, and he shall judge the poor with righteousness, and decide with equity for the humble of the earth, the Radak says, since it is the way of the world to show honor to the face of the great. A great man comes before him for judgment, ah, this is an important, publicized case, some case that makes an impression. But in contrast, when some poor person comes for judgment, then he does not have much desire to deal with him, he finishes with him quickly. It was once said, there was in its time a case, a legal matter that stirred up a commotion in the entire Torah world. This was the case of the Widow and Brothers Romm printing house. Whoever knows, in its time there was truly an enormous struggle regarding the printing of the Shas. The Widow and Brothers Romm had rights, as opposed to others who claimed against them. Who did not write about this matter? The responsa of Rabbi Akiva Eiger, and all the great ones of Yisrael dealt with this matter. This topic appears frequently in their responsa books. Rabbi Yisrael of Salant was greatly distressed over this. He said, look, why is it that regarding this matter everyone speaks? He says, because here it concerns millions. Here it concerns enormous rights. But the Torah said, the law of a perutah is like the law of a hundred. And if so, the case between one person and another over a chicken egg or over five shekels, this according to Torah law is as precious in the eyes of Hashem as the case of this matter of the Widow and Brothers Romm, which all the great ones of Yisrael attended to. He says, they needed to attend to every case as well, even a small case. We see that usually priority is given to a case that is large, and usually honor is shown to the face of great men. But the Mashiach will not be like this. And he shall judge the poor with righteousness. So he tells you, know, the Mashiach, and he shall judge the poor with righteousness, the poor he will judge. That will be his greatness. He will deal with the case of the poor, those whom usually there is no one to judge for. And decide with equity for the humble of the earth, those who need to be rebuked over the fact that they oppress the humble of the earth, them too he will rebuke. There is in this verse the mention of, and he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall slay the wicked. There was an incident, you know, in the time of Shabbetai Tzvi, may the name of the wicked rot, as he appears in the books as "Tzvi Shavur" (a broken deer). Yes, after the "Tzvi Shavur" (broken deer) mentioned in the Mishnah in Shabbat, they call him Tzvi Shavur, as if to hint at him. About that Shabbetai Tzvi, may the name of the wicked rot, who claimed that he was the Mashiach and was a great kabbalist and performed all sorts of matters of wonders, and everyone erred after him. There were a few of the great ones of Yisrael, here this is another example that there is a situation where even great people can err. Certainly we will not suspect, in every case, that perhaps the great one is erring, we must go with faith that the Holy One protects the great one from error. But in that case of Shabbetai Tzvi, most of the great ones of Yisrael, almost all of them, followed after him. Except for Rabbi Yaakov Sasportas and a few others who came out and composed books against him, Tzitzat Novel Tzvi and other books, in order to prove the falsehood in him. Until his end proved about his beginning; in the end he converted his religion, he became a Muslim, and he was also killed by the king. So the story there was, that when in its time his name began to go out in the world, then the great ones of Yisrael sent to examine his situation, to see who this man is, is he truly fit to be the Mashiach? So it is told, the Chida tells this about the Bach. The author of the Bayit Chadash, who sent his son-in-law to test him. In fact I have already seen that they note that this is not correct, because the Bach passed away even before Shabbetai Tzvi arose at all and became a Mashiach. He passed away some 15 years earlier. But in any case, it is brought that it was the Taz, the Turei Zahav. He himself sent his sons to size up Shabbetai Tzvi. So it is told there that when he came before him, he told him that in his place, in his land in Poland, he said there is some tyrannical wicked ruler, and he mentioned his name. And then it is told that Shabbetai Tzvi went out to the garden and plucked some grass from the ground, and said that by this act he was, as it were, uprooting the soul of that tyrannical nobleman from Poland, uprooting his soul from the world. And afterwards when he returned to Poland, the son of the Turei Zahav, he told this to his father, and it turned out that exactly at that time when Shabbetai Tzvi performed this wonder with the uprooting and plucking of the grass, exactly at that time that wealthy nobleman died, that wicked man died in Poland. So this aroused great amazement. They tell that the Turei Zahav told him that there is nothing to be excited about from this at all. He says, this is certainly not the Mashiach. Because about the Mashiach it is written, and he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall slay the wicked. Why does he need to perform an act? One who is truly the Mashiach, with the breath of his lips he kills the wicked. He does not need to perform acts in nature in order to bring about the death of the wicked. And from here he proved that there is really no substance in him and that this is not the true Mashiach. There are those who found this proof in another matter. It is once told that they went to see him, one of the great ones of Yisrael, and he saw him lying down to sleep, lying on his back (or belly). Lying supine, some say lying on his back, lying on his belly. And according to halachah it is forbidden to lie supine. It is forbidden for a man to lie supine, either on his back or on his belly. One must lie on his right or left side, but he may not lie supine. And when he saw this, he said, he cannot be the Mashiach who transgresses a halachah in the Shulchan Aruch. One who transgresses a halachah in the Shulchan Aruch, certainly he is not the Mashiach. And with this he decided that this is certainly not the Mashiach. And likewise many great ones of Yisrael saw all sorts of signs, but many also followed after him and erred to think that this was the Mashiach. But in any case, our verse, in which we see a characteristic of what the Mashiach must be, what quality the Mashiach has.