"And the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of the seven days, in the day that Hashem binds up the breach of His people, and heals the wound of their blow." Rashi explains "sevenfold as the light of the seven days" to mean seven sevenths of the light of the seven days. That is, like the light of seven times seven sevenths, altogether forty nine sevenths, which come to three hundred and forty three. This is what the light of the sun is destined to be in the future. The Malbim explains the matter more deeply. The Malbim says: it is well known that trouble is compared to night. A person who is going through a difficult period will say, "I am now going through a time of darkness." "Yavan darkened the eyes of Israel." Trouble is always compared to night, to darkness. In contrast, relief is compared to day. "He brought them out of trouble and gloom to a great light." Relief is compared to day. So he says, relief can also be compared in stages, even when it is just beginning. If there is night, night is dark. If I want to say that the situation is beginning to change for the better, then I say, there is already moonlight. The moonlight begins to break through and to remove the gloom of the night. It is no longer so dark. This is what the Malbim says: relief that comes in the midst of trouble is compared to moonlight that shines in the middle of the night. But complete success, which a person has when he enjoys tranquility, not out of trouble, not a bit of relief beginning in the midst of trouble, but rather complete tranquility, this is compared to day. This is compared to the light of the sun. Now he explains: according to this you will understand the order of the pasuk. "And the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun." We explained that moonlight is the beginning of salvation. There is night and some light breaks through, salvation begins. He tells you: the beginning of the salvation that will come after the great troubles, after this night, the beginning of the salvation will be as great a light as the light of the sun. "And the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun." That is, when there is great trouble and salvation begins, we are still, as we say, bleeding. We have taken blows, salvation begins but we are still licking our wounds. He says: no, that will not be the situation. Rather, when the salvation begins it will not be of the nature of a moon shining at night, it will be as though there had never been trouble at all. The salvation will begin and it will immediately be full daylight. This is what he says: moonlight, which naturally means we are still a bit affected by the damage of the night and only the moonlight is beginning, he says: no, no, there will not be moonlight, but immediately the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, as though there had never been night, as though there had never been trouble. "And the light of the sun" refers to success as we said, success that comes out of tranquility. He says: if the light of the moon will be as the light of the sun, that is, after troubles there will be such tranquility as though there had always been tranquility, then what will it be when there has always been tranquility? It will be many times greater. This is what he says: "and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold," many many times more, when there will be a light that comes from tranquility, from contentment, until it will be like the light of the seven days. Like the light that served during the famous seven days, which are the seven days of Creation, when the light was the divine light, the light that shone upon reality, that same light that the Holy One, blessed be He, stored away for the righteous in the future, a light that is self existent. The Malbim explains that during the six days of Creation, it is written that until the fourth day the luminaries did not yet function. So what is "and it was evening and it was morning"? Where is there evening and where is there morning? There are no luminaries at all. Rather, the Malbim explains, there was the light of the seven days, a light that would begin to shine in the morning and gradually fade at night, and it was a self existent light. Light without a sun globe, without anything, self existent light. This is the light of the seven days. And this light the Holy One, blessed be He, is destined to reveal to the righteous in the future, that same light that the Holy One, blessed be He, stored away, because this light had special properties: a person could see with it what was behind walls and inside handbreadths and so on. So that the wicked would not use it to break into people's homes, since one would know where the safe is and where someone hides his dollars and in which mattress he put the... in short, so that the Holy One, blessed be He, hid away this light so that the wicked would not make use of it. But in any case it was an immense light that existed during the seven days of Creation. He says: so too the light of success in the future will be a beautiful light and even more, a most radiant light like the light that existed during the seven days. When will this be? "In the day that Hashem binds up the breach of His people, and heals the wound of their blow." That is, Israel at that time will be like a person who fell from the fourth floor. I am speaking on the assumption that he survived, so what is he now surrounded by? Bandages and casts, right? He is now all in a cast. "In the day that Hashem binds up the breach of His people." So this will be the condition of Israel after all the troubles, after all the suffering, after all the pain and wounds. First one must bind up the breach. In the second stage, "and heals the wound of their blow." This means to heal the crushing of the blow, the flesh that was crushed on the outside. There is the breach, which is internal, but a person who received some hard blow from the outside, then the flesh too is consumed, the flesh too is damaged, along with the bones inside. So he says: "binds up the breach of His people" is the internal repair of the inner bones, and "the wound of their blow" is the blow from the outside, the blood that came out and all the skin that was ruined and damaged on the outside, "and heals the wound of their blow," afterward Hashem will heal that too. What does this mean? That their inner success will return to them, which symbolizes the breach, the inner bones. Their inner success will return to them, and their outer success too, meaning the physical, material success. They will have both spiritual success, meaning spiritual accomplishment, and physical success. So in the day that Hashem binds up the breach of His people and heals the wound of their blow, then the light of the sun will shine sevenfold as the light of the seven days, meaning the light of success will be a great and immense light.
"Behold, the Name of Hashem comes from afar, His anger burning and heavy with smoke, His lips full of fury and His tongue like a devouring fire." Now he will describe for us what he already began to describe earlier, what will happen when Assyria comes. This is what all our chapters deal with, what will be when Assyria comes and besieges Yerushalayim in the days of Chizkiyahu, and how the Holy One, blessed be He, will exact punishment from him. "Behold, the Name of Hashem comes from afar." The Holy One, blessed be He, says, as it were, that He Himself comes from afar. He brought Assyria here to Yerushalayim, for we said "Woe to Assyria, the rod of My anger." "The rod of My anger" means, the Holy One, blessed be He, says: when I want to strike, no stick comes down from heaven and strikes. Rather, I have a rod, and who is this rod? It is Assyria. And when there is "My anger," when there is wrath against Israel, whoever serves as the rod to strike them, that is "My anger." So sometimes it is Assyria, sometimes it is Hezbollah, sometimes it is Hamas, sometimes it is the madman from Iran, and sometimes it is the media. Each time we have a different Assyria, which is the rod of the anger of the Holy One, blessed be He. And always in such situations, what we need to see is what we need to repair, what is being asked of us. So the Holy One, blessed be He, on one hand brought Assyria here, and this Assyria is, as it were, full of smoke, full of fire, judgment, wrath, coming from afar, his anger burning and heavy with smoke, meaning outwardly it appears that he comes to burn everything. This Assyria comes to destroy Israel. But on the other hand, He describes to you that inwardly, as it were, the Malbim says, He is full of mercy, full of compassion, trying to extinguish that fire. How? If these represent the attribute of might, then He extinguishes that fire with the attribute of kindness. How? Pay attention: "Behold, the Name of Hashem comes." The Name of Hashem represents mercy. "The Name of Hashem comes from afar." The Holy One, blessed be He, says: who brought Sancheriv? Hashem. Hashem brought him, burning with fire, his nostrils blazing like the plume of smoke that comes out of burning nostrils. "His lips full of fury," for he came and cursed and reviled the ranks of the Almighty, he and Shevna and all those who were there with him who came to revile and curse Chizkiyahu and the people dwelling in Tzion. He says: not only does his anger burn, which is something internal, but a further stage is that he even utters the curse outwardly, "and His tongue like a devouring fire." The tongue is more internal, beneath the lips, his tongue is like a devouring fire from the intensity of the wrath that comes to burn everything.
"And His breath like an overflowing stream that reaches to the neck, to sift the nations with the sieve of destruction, and a misleading bridle upon the jaws of the peoples." He tells you: know that all this will be on the outside. Outwardly it is a burning fire, outwardly it is someone who comes to curse, who comes to burn everything. But he says: "His breath," meaning the inner breath, will be like an overflowing stream reaching to the neck. A stream extinguishes fire. That is to say, although outwardly it appears that there is something here that comes to burn and consume everything, inwardly there is an overflowing stream reaching to the neck. And this stream reaching to the neck is like a stream flowing from the neck upward, as it were, there is fire, and the stream up to the place of the neck separates, so that its upper half is fire and up to the place of the neck there is a stream that extinguishes that fire. What does he mean to say? That although outwardly the Holy One, blessed be He, comes in great wrath, for behold He brings Assyria here and Assyria lays siege and reviles and blasphemes, but know that the Holy One, blessed be He, is "the channel of God, full of generous rain," full of water. As it were, the Holy One, blessed be He, in the attribute of kindness will come and extinguish that fire. And this will be the salvation from Assyria. And if so, why was that fire needed? So that the people would awaken to repentance, so that the people would return to Hashem, and then they would truly be worthy that the kindness should come. Water symbolizes kindness. The kindness will come and prevail, the acts of kindness will prevail over the judgments, will prevail over that attribute of judgment prosecuting against Israel, and through this the water will come and extinguish that fire. And this will be "to sift the nations with the sieve of destruction." He says: what appeared to us to be, as it were, fire and wrath, he says will only be for outward appearances. It will be to mislead the nations, so that it will appear to them as though the Holy One, blessed be He, now wants to bring them and settle them in some very beautiful landscape. How is Yerushalayim described? "Beautiful in situation, the joy of the whole earth." "To sift the nations with the sieve of destruction," and they will be certain: behold, the Holy One, blessed be He, is coming to settle us in the landscape of Yerushalayim, behold we are coming, we are conquering, we are succeeding. But in truth he says "a misleading bridle upon the jaws of the peoples." When you want to lead an animal, with what do you lead it? With a bridle. "With bit and bridle its ornament, to curb it," right? You lead it with a bridle. He says: this will be a misleading bridle. The Holy One, blessed be He, placed on them, as it is written, "I will put My hook in your jaws," right? The hooks are in the jaws in order to lead the animal. The Holy One, blessed be He, wants to draw Assyria here. How will He bring him here? He has to give him the illusion: the fire is burning, you are about to destroy everything, everyone is delivered into your hand, the landscape of Yerushalayim is yours. And then through this he comes here with all his armies, and the more he comes here with larger armies and more silver and gold, so too the salvation will be greater and the silver and gold that Israel will receive will be greater, as we will see later that they first went to Kush, Tirhaka, and there they fought against them and took from them much silver and gold, and then came here. Why? So that they would not come empty handed, right? So that they would come full, so that Israel would not only have corpses, but that Israel would also have silver and gold. So it emerges that all this was meant to encourage him. Hashem drew him with a bridle. He did not sense that all this enthusiasm was a bridle by which Hashem was drawing you, "misleading upon the jaws of the peoples."
"The song shall be to you as in the night when a festival is sanctified, and gladness of heart as when one goes with a flute to come to the mountain of Hashem, to the Rock of Israel." When was this? At what time did Assyria come? When did his downfall occur? The night of Pesach, right? It is written that they then recited Hallel. "The song shall be to you as in the night when a festival is sanctified." Rashi says: on the night of Pesach this joy shall come to you. "In the night when a festival is sanctified," "as in the night when a festival is sanctified." What does "as" mean? The kaf of comparison, like the night on which the festival was sanctified. Rashi says: like which night are we speaking of? Like the song of the paschal offerings that you sang in Egypt. He says: just as then in Egypt you sang a song over the paschal offering, you sang a song and Hallel, for when one eats the korban Pesach one recites Hallel, so like then you will have a song when Sancheriv comes here, like the night on which the festival was sanctified then. "As when one goes with a flute," you will rejoice at the downfall of Sancheriv like one who brings the bikkurim. What accompanies the bringing of the bikkurim? What is written? That the flute would strike before them, right? It is not always so clear to me what "the flute strikes" means. It implies from here that the flute is a percussion instrument. It does not imply that it is a wind instrument. Because if it is written "the flute strikes," it is not written that the flute plays. I do not know, one must look into it there, the commentators discuss it, but it always sounded a bit strange to me that the flute strikes before them, unless we say that this flute was some kind of percussion instrument. The Malbim explains: "the song shall be to you as in the night when a festival is sanctified." As we explained, the downfall of Sancheriv occurred on the night of Pesach. And then Israel sang Hallel. And he says: just as then there was great joy in reciting Hallel, in eating the thanksgiving offering over their paschal offerings, so on the other hand, know, panic spread in the camp of Assyria. When you will have the song as in the night when a festival is sanctified and gladness of heart as when one goes with a flute, so too it will be for them, for then the Holy One, blessed be He, will overturn their fortunes. "And Hashem will make His majestic voice heard, and the descent of His arm will be seen," and so on. When? When you have the song. In short, among you there will be, as it were, a tumult of joy, and among them there will be a tumult of grief, of sorrow, of loss. "As in the night when a festival is sanctified." There is a joy, the Malbim explains, from the aspect of the time, like the joy of the festival. There is a joy from the aspect of some cause that produces that joy, the Malbim says, like the joy of the pilgrimage. Why is a person joyful? He merits to see the face of the Lord, Hashem. So he says the joy then will be twofold. First, "as in the night when a festival is sanctified." The night when a festival is sanctified is a joy from the aspect of the time. It is a festival time. Second, "gladness of heart as when one goes with a flute to come to the mountain of Hashem." Like the joy that the pilgrim has over the very fact that he is going to see Hashem. And these are two different kinds of joy. There is a joy that stems from the time, the time is a time of joy. And there is a joy that stems from the fact that I am now going to meet someone close to me, his son or daughter is getting married, some particular cause for joy. He says: here there will be both joys together. "As in the night when a festival is sanctified" is a joy from the aspect of the time, and "gladness of heart as when one goes with a flute to come to the mountain of Hashem, to the Rock of Israel" for the bikkurim, which is the joy of meeting the Lord, of seeing the face of Hashem. He says: these are two kinds of joy, and this joy of yours will be composed of both these kinds of joy.
"And Hashem will make His majestic voice heard, and the descent of His arm will be seen, with raging anger and a flame of devouring fire, with scattering and downpour and hailstones." "And Hashem will make His majestic voice heard," to terrify the camp of Assyria through His majestic voice. "And the descent of His arm will be seen," He will show them the descent of His arm. The Malbim explains the difference between "His arm" and "the descent of His arm." The Malbim says: "descent" is from the word for resting or placing. As it were, He only placed His arm upon them, He did not yet strike them the blow they deserved. This is what he says: "and the descent of His arm will be seen," He did not yet strike them with the arm, only the resting of His arm, in order to frighten them. "With raging anger," "anger" means wrath, "and a flame of devouring fire," corresponding to the fact that they came here, as we explained, they came here "from afar, His anger burning, heavy with smoke, His lips full of fury" and so on, "devouring fire," corresponding to this the Holy One, blessed be He, will destroy them with fire. "And a flame of devouring fire, with scattering and downpour and hailstones." This means He will scatter them like a downpour and hailstones, like hail that falls and rain that comes with force, so too Hashem will destroy them. What is "the flame of devouring fire"? The commentators explain: how was the camp of Assyria struck? We explained previously that a fire consumed them from within. "A burning shall be kindled." The fire consumed them from within. How was this? Through the fact that they heard the sound of the song of the angels, through this their souls expired and, as it were, they were burned from within. They could not withstand that lofty spirituality of hearing the voices of the angels. So this is what is written here: "and a flame of devouring fire." There was here a flame of devouring fire that consumed them from within. And it is written that this was a burning of the soul while the body remained intact. That is, their bodies remained the same. They arose and everyone saw them as dead corpses. That is to say, their bodies still remained as they had been before.
"For at the voice of Hashem Assyria shall be shattered, He will strike with the rod." "For at the voice of Hashem Assyria shall be shattered." Rashi says: He opened their ears and they heard the song. From here you see "at the voice of Hashem," the very hearing of the voice of Hashem, blessed be He, they heard the song from the mouth of the celestial beings and died. "He will strike with the rod," Assyria who was accustomed to strike you with his rod. That is, there are two ways to understand "He will strike with the rod" here. "For at the voice of Hashem Assyria shall be shattered, He will strike Assyria with the rod." Do you understand? It is as though "He will strike with the rod" refers back to the Holy One, blessed be He. Assyria will be shattered, broken by the voice of Hashem, for Hashem will strike him with the rod. And there is a way to understand it differently, that "He will strike with the rod" refers back to Assyria. "For at the voice of Hashem Assyria shall be shattered," which Assyria? The Assyria who always struck with the rod. The Assyria who always struck with his rod, the one whom everyone feared and dreaded, now he shall be shattered by the voice of Hashem. That is, the Holy One, blessed be He, says: I do not need to strike him with My hand, but only the resting of My arm, even resting His arm upon him gently, he will already be struck. How? Only that he hear the voice of Hashem, and that will already be enough to shatter and break him.
This was at the beginning. But afterward, "And every passage of the appointed staff, which Hashem lays upon him, shall be with drums and lyres, and in battles of brandishing He shall fight against them." Rashi explains what "battles of brandishing" means. Rashi says: the brandishing of the harvest of the omer stood for Israel in that war. For it was the night of the sixteenth of Nisan. And since it was so, what was the merit of Israel then? It was the merit of the omer. What was their merit? That Israel offered the omer. Where else do we see that the merit of the omer stood for Israel? With Haman and Mordechai. There he told them: your few shekels and the handful of the omer, he showed them the handful, he told them: this handful, this bit of the omer, is what defeated all my thousands of shekels. "And every passage of the appointed staff." The Malbim explains: all the passages, all the places of the staff and the firmly established tribe, "established" meaning strong, firmly founded, all the places of the tribe of Yehudah, "which Hashem lays upon him," the Holy One, blessed be He, will lay His might upon it there, all the passages, all the places of the tribe of Yehudah, were "with drums and lyres." This means all those strong places, there everyone rejoiced in the markets and streets with the joy of the festival. He says: so too in that war it will be "and in battles of brandishing He shall fight against them." The meaning is that just as on one hand there will be great joy in the camp of Israel, in all the strong places, in all the places where the great markets are, there will be great joy, corresponding to this "and in battles of brandishing He shall fight against them," corresponding to this there will be war against Assyria. So what does he mean to say? That only the sound of the joy, as it were, terrified Assyria. Only the sound of the joy, the joy of the festival that they rejoiced with here, for it was Pesach as we explained, all the festival joy that they rejoiced with here, only this noise, as it were, only this sound, already this fought against them, this was already enough to terrify Assyria. And this joy spread throughout all the streets of Yerushalayim, for in every place where they were eating the paschal offering, they were also reciting Hallel. So Hashem, as it were, intensified His war against Assyria "in battles of brandishing He shall fight against them," in all those places in the camp of Assyria where at first they thought they would come to conquer Yerushalayim, there Israel sang the song of the festival over the offering, and this sound was enough to terrify Assyria.
"For Tofteh has long been prepared, it too is made ready for the king, He has made it deep and wide, its pyre is fire and much wood, the breath of Hashem like a stream of brimstone kindles it." "For it has long been prepared." "Long ago," the commentators explain, is like "yesterday." "For Tofteh has long been prepared." Tofteh is Gehinnom. He comes and says: Gehinnom has been prepared long ago. When is "long ago"? The Sages say: when was Gehinnom created? On the second day. How do we know it was created on the second day? Because it is written "for Tofteh has long been prepared," and "long ago" means it did not have a day before it. Which day has a "yesterday" but no "day before"? The second day. The second day is a day that has no "day before." Meaning the second day of the creation of the world. If you say the second day of the week, then it does have a day before, which is Shabbat. But if you are speaking to me about the second day of the creation of the world, that is a "yesterday" that has no "day before." And this is what the Gemara says: "for it has long been prepared" refers to Gehinnom. But this seems difficult, because we have another source, in which what is written? That one of the seven things that existed before the world was created was Gehinnom, right? So it seems to imply that it existed even before then, even before the world was created at all. What is the answer? The commentators there in the Ein Yaakov explain that there are two things. There is the space of Gehinnom, the hall called Gehinnom, and there is the fire within it. So the hall of Gehinnom, this was prepared long ago, this was already prepared even before, excuse me, from ancient times, even before the world was created. In contrast, the fire of Gehinnom was kindled only on the second day. This is "prepared long ago," meaning that they had already kindled it and arranged it, placed the wood in it in quotation marks, right? This should not be understood that Gehinnom is fire in the literal sense, but rather they want to characterize for us the magnitude of the suffering, so they say it is like fire. But it is a great shame that is expressed through a parable we can understand. They tell you "shame," but we would not understand what shame is, so they say it is a shame that burns, as if you take and multiply a hundredfold, a thousandfold, the fire you know here in this world, that is the magnitude of the shame that is there. The Sages ask: what is "Tofteh"? The Sages say it is "tofet," right? Tofet is the fire of Gehinnom, the fire of tofet. But the Sages also expound: everyone who is enticed by his evil inclination falls there. So "Tofteh has long been prepared" means its tofet, and this also hints at how a person arrives there: through her enticing him. Through the fact that a person is enticed by his evil inclination, he falls into Gehinnom.
"It too is made ready for the king." This too, this Gehinnom too, was prepared for whose sake? For the sake of Sancheriv and his army. "He has made it deep and wide, its pyre." The pyre is the fire they kindled there. He made it deep and wide. This means, first of all, what is a "medurah" (pyre)? Who knows what a medurah is? What does the word medurah mean? A medurah refers to the wood arranged one upon another. This is called a medurah. The Gemara gives an example: he arranges them like a medurah. "Like a medurah" is the wood arranged one upon the other. Only because they would arrange the wood before kindling the fire, therefore they call the fire, they call it a medurah. But the fire itself is not called medurah, rather that is the name for the arrangement of the wood. The arrangement of the wood is called a medurah. So he says here too, just as they do on Lag BaOmer, they arrange the wood. So he says this too will be ready, its pyre prepared long ago. "Fire and much wood, the breath of Hashem," meaning Hashem, as it were, blows breath into that pyre so that it will be "like a stream of brimstone that kindles it," so that it will be a most consuming fire. All this is prepared for whom? For the king, for Sancheriv. The Malbim also follows the same line. The Malbim says: and if you ask, after you describe for me what will happen in the camp of Assyria, tell me what will happen to the king of Assyria himself. What will happen to Sancheriv? He tells you "Tofteh has long been prepared." How did Sancheriv die? He fled and his sons killed him with the sword, right? How? The Sages say that Sancheriv asked: tell me, what is the power of this nation? How do they always win? How can they always stand against their enemies? They told him: listen, they had a great grandfather, his name was Avraham. This Avraham took his son and bound him for the sanctification of Hashem's Name. He was ready to burn him, to offer him upon the altar for the honor of Hashem, blessed be He. He said: oh, is that so? I have two sons. I will offer both of them. I will win even more, right? He was a large scale father, he said I will offer two sons. Who were his two sons? Adramelech and Sar'etzer, right? Adramelech, "eder" from the word for a cloak, a garment. Adramelech means the garment of the king. He was the son who was to inherit him. Adramelech, he was supposed to receive the cloak of the king. And Sar'etzer, "sar" is an official, "etzer" from the word for treasury. He was the treasury official. These were his two important sons. He had other sons too, Esarchadon, yes, the sons of Sancheriv. What was the second son's name? Sar'etzer, yes. Esarchadon and Sar'etzer his sons. Now they heard him, he went into seclusion there in the house of idolatry, and there he said this, he promised it to the idol: listen, I have also decided to go all in, I will offer both my sons to you. They were standing there behind him, hearing, what is this, what a large scale father we have, he is about to offer us up. They said: we think it would really be much better for the idol if the king himself were offered. The father himself. For they said, if so, we will eliminate him and solve all our problems here. And there they went, when was this, where exactly was he at that time? Prostrating himself in the house of Nisroch his god. Who is Nisroch? His idol. Where, why was he called Nisroch? There was a plank (neser) from Noach's ark, which he took and set up as an idol. He made an idol from the plank of Noach's ark. Therefore it was called Nisroch his god. Now the place where they would offer the sons to the idol, what was it called? The Valley of Ben Hinnom, right? And what did they call the fire there, the place of the tofet? This is what they would call it. Who knows why they called it tofet? They would drum on drums. Why would they drum on drums? So that the parents would not hear the cries of the child when they took him out to be burned, God forbid, and then the parents might change their minds, regret it. So they would drum on drums so that the cries would not be heard, there they would burn their children. So this is what he comes and tells: know that this tofet that Sancheriv prepared for his sons, who ultimately was delivered there? He himself. This is what he says: "For Tofteh has long been prepared." Prepared long ago for whom? It was actually for his sons. But know that "it too is made ready for the king." He thought he was preparing a tofet for his sons, but they prepared it for him, "it is made ready for the king." They said it would be better for it to be for the king, that is more fitting, right? And he wanted to burn them and ultimately they killed him. For whom? For the king, who "made it deep and wide, its pyre." This means he made the pyre great there, that is, he wanted the fire to be a great fire so that, as it were, there would be an immense sacrifice for the tofet. But "the breath of Hashem," the will of Hashem, blessed be He, "burned in it like a stream of brimstone," so that the very one who prepared that tofet was ultimately burned in it. Who caused this? The breath of Hashem. The will of Hashem, blessed be He. For "if it is your soul (nefesh)" means your will. So here too, when it says "the breath of Hashem," it means the will of Hashem. The will of Hashem burned like a stream of brimstone that kindles it. In whom did it come? In that very one who wanted to prepare the tofet for his sons, this fire burned him himself. "So may all Your enemies perish, Hashem." Amen.