The Holy One says: Your children hastened. If your children had hastened to repent, then your destroyers and those who ruined you would long ago have departed from you. Long ago the enemies who ruined you would have gone out from you. If your children had wanted, if they had hastened to turn back from their sins, they would long ago have been redeemed. In other words, God's answer is: had your children hastened, then immediately your destroyers and those who ruined you would have gone out from you. Immediately those who destroy and ruin you, the nations who corrupt and destroy, would immediately have departed from you, and you would have merited redemption. This is one of the pesukim that I give as an example of how among people a certain corruption takes hold, and a homiletical interpretation of the pasuk becomes rooted in them, and they forget the plain meaning of the text. This is an example of one such pasuk. Ask anyone, give me an explanation, what does "your destroyers and those who ruined you shall go out from you" mean? They will tell you: this refers to those who destroy the people of Israel coming from within it. A fifth column that is among us, they destroy us. That is very nice, it is a lovely homily, but it is not the plain meaning of the text. The promise in the plain meaning of the pesukim, look in all the commentators, the plain meaning of the pesukim, "your destroyers and those who ruined you shall go out from you," is a promise that those who destroy us and corrupt us, generally referring to the nations, will go out from us. "Shall go out" means God will remove them far from us. That is the plain meaning of the text. But the problem is, everyone remembers the homily and forgets the plain meaning. So remember that the plain meaning of the text, "your destroyers and those who ruined you shall go out from you," is a promise that those who corrupt and destroy us will go out and be removed far from us. The Holy One says: all this was on condition that your children hasten. Had your children hastened to return, then I would immediately have redeemed them with an eternal redemption. So do not ask why I have delayed until now. The delay, says the Holy One to Knesset Yisrael, is your own fault.
Lift up your eyes all around and see, they all gather together and come to you. As I live, says God, you shall clothe yourself with them all as with an ornament, and bind them on as a bride does. The Holy One says: do not look in one direction only, but look in all directions. This is how the Holy One turns to the Land of Israel, which, as we explained, is like a widow and desolate, because she did not notice that the redemption had begun. And why did she not notice? Because for her nothing had yet changed. She was still in her desolation, in her ruin, so she still did not feel that the redemption had begun. Therefore she comes and asks: God has forsaken me and God has forgotten me. The Holy One comes and says: open your eyes, see that the redemption has begun. Even though you yourself have not yet been rebuilt, still see, lift up your eyes all around and see how they all gather together and come to you. And do not look in one direction only, but all around. For suddenly the redemption will come, says the Malbim, from the four winds of heaven, suddenly they will all come here. How they all gather together and come to you. And there are two astonishing things here. First, the gathering from the great dispersion, that is "they all gather together." Second, that they will come from a distant land. "They all gather together and come to you," and this "come to you" means they have reached you from a distant place. And then perhaps you will still be troubled, and you will come and ask: Master of the Universe, where will I have room to hold all my children? How will the Land of Israel suffice for all those coming out of the exile? The Holy One answers her: about this too you need not worry. As I live, says God, you shall clothe yourself with them all as with an ornament. The Malbim says: here he gives a metaphor, as if the place that was ruined of its inhabitants now gets dressed. Who is the clothing? It is the people of Israel. The Land is bare of its inhabitants, and when we dwell upon it, it is as if it is clothed. The Holy One says: as the meadows are clothed with flocks, so too here, the Land of Israel will be clothed with those who dwell in her. But even after there is this clothing, among them there are still the officers and the important ones.
Who are the officers and the important ones? Who are these officers and important ones? In the analogy here, in the metaphor here, they are the ornament. So at first "you shall clothe yourself with them all as with an ornament, and bind them on as a bride does." There is the clothing and there are the important ones who will come and be like an ornament. What is an ornament? A piece of jewelry, right? An ornament is jewelry. So he says this will be like an ornament upon the garments. "You shall clothe yourself with them all as an ornament," they will all be to you for honor and glory. And also "bind them on as a bride does." What is "bind them on as a bride does"? The Malbim says that the groom used to give the bride a special ornament on her hand for the betrothal. Apparently he means the betrothal ring. And he says this is the sign of the bond between her and her husband. "And bind them on as a bride does." Through this ornament the bond between her and her husband is preserved. That is, the children will be bound like the bond of a wife to her husband, who does not separate from her, so too your children will come from afar and be bound and attached to you with a firm bond, so that they will never leave again. For this is "I will betroth you to Me in faithfulness," that it will be a complete betrothal of faithfulness, true faithfulness, meaning something that is not severed, that will not separate.
For your ruins and your desolate places and your ruined land, for now you shall be too cramped for the inhabitants, and those who swallowed you shall be far away. Do not think that your place is too narrow to contain all the children who will come to be redeemed. You will clothe yourself with them, for your ruins and your desolate places, the ruined and desolate places, you will clothe yourself with them, as if, as we explained, the people of Israel are like clothing, and the Land of Israel is like something without clothing, and when we come she is dressed, as it were, in us. Moreover, he tells her that what will now be too cramped for the inhabitants, the places where there is seemingly no room to sit, do not worry, I promise you, they will yet say in your ears: The children of your bereavement will say, the place is too cramped for me, move over for me so that I may dwell. This is an answer to the complaint that it will be too cramped for the inhabitants. But before that, we did not finish the previous pasuk. "And those who swallowed you shall be far away." The Malbim says: "and those who swallowed you shall be far away" is a parenthetical statement. It should have read: your ruins and your desolate places and your ruined land, for now you shall be too cramped for the inhabitants, they shall yet say in your ears, the children of your bereavement, the place is too cramped for me, move over for me so that I may dwell. "Those who swallowed you shall be far away" is like a parenthesis, a parenthetical statement. What does he mean to say? That which will be too cramped will be from the inhabitants, that is, from the people who settle you. I promise you, they will come and fill you so that you will be too cramped for the inhabitants, as if the place would be too narrow to seat them all. But do not worry, it will be too cramped for you from the inhabitants. Not from nations, not from destroyers, not from those who ruin, because they, as we explained, will go out from you. So from whom will the place be too cramped for you? From the inhabitants. That is, do not think it will be too cramped for us because there will be many Arabs here, who will realize the right of return and all kinds of other evils. He says: no, no, no, all these I have already promised will go out from you. So from whom will you be cramped? From whom will the place seemingly be too narrow for you? From the inhabitants. From those who came to settle here, from the people of Israel. "And those who swallowed you shall be far away," of them I do not speak. Those who swallow you will be far away. It will not be too cramped for you from them, but only from the people of Israel who alone will be here, and that alone will cause it to be too cramped for you.
Your ruins. The Malbim says: what is the difference between your ruins and your desolate places? The ruins are the cities. The desolate places are the entire land. Whenever there is a ruin and a wasteland, the ruin is the city and the wasteland is the whole land that has become a wasteland. And the Malbim always says: ruination is more than destruction. Because ruination is always deliberate, someone went to destroy the thing. Destruction is as if something was ruined on its own, and I also call it destruction. So this is what he says: your ruins and your desolate places and your ruined land, even the place that was actually ruined, deliberately, from the outset, all of it will return and rise anew.
They shall yet say in your ears, the children of your bereavement, the place is too cramped for me, move over for me so that I may dwell. And then the children of your bereavement, who are the children of your bereavement? The children from whom until now you were bereaved, until now you were like a bereaved mother whose children went away seemingly without returning. No, they shall yet say in your ears, the children of your bereavement, the place is too cramped for me. I cannot, there is not enough room in the Land of Israel. The Land of Israel is too small for us, the place is too cramped for me. Therefore move over for me so that I may dwell. The Malbim offers an original interpretation here of "move over for me so that I may dwell." The Malbim says: since the people of Israel will be so numerous, the Land of Israel will not be able to contain them and will be forced to expand its border. Therefore "move over for me so that I may dwell," as if the Land approaches those who dwell outside and says to them: come, I am giving you additional area, and therefore I give additional area, she expands her borders. So it is as if we say to the Land: move over for me so that I may dwell, you move toward me and allow me to dwell here in this place, because I cannot enter the Land, there is overcrowding here. The Land does not contain all those who dwell in her. So he says they will all come until the Land, as it were, approaches us, expands her border so that we can enter and dwell there. And this is what is written, "Enlarge the place of your tent." What is "enlarge the place of your tent"? It means that in the very place where until now was your tent, you will expand, and those places where she expands are the place where we will dwell. Whoever wishes may hear in Daniel, where in the redemption, in the prophecies about the redemption, one can hear on a recording, we detail what the prophecy says about Jerusalem expanding. It is destined to be very broad. Whoever reads the descriptions there, it will be many times greater than its current reality. So that the reality of Jerusalem will change completely. This will come about through the Land of Israel itself also expanding. Our Sages say she is called the Land of the Deer. Why is she called the Land of the Deer? Like the skin of a deer. When you see the skin while it is on the deer, it contains it. But if you skin the deer, suddenly you see it all shrink. You look at the skin and say: how did this contain the deer? Where did the deer fit in here? What is this, maybe Bambi, but not a deer. What, a whole deer fit inside this? So it is with the Land of Israel. Now she seems small to you, but know that the Land of Israel is destined to expand, and in the end she will be able to contain all the people of Israel who will come into her.
And you shall say in your heart: Who bore these for me? I was bereaved and barren, exiled and turned away, and who raised these? Behold, I was left alone, these, where were they? What are all these questions? And you shall say in your heart. We saw that the redemption is destined to be, and Jerusalem still does not know that the redemption has begun, since Jerusalem was still desolate. And then you will ask three questions when you see your children beginning to return to you. He compares her to a woman whose children died and who was barren, meaning without a husband afterward, and exiled from place to place, finding no rest for the sole of her foot, and there was no one to gather her home, and suddenly there arrive some from a country across the sea, from a distant place, children arrive who say to her: we are your children. And then she asks three questions about this, saying: how can it be? First, who bore these for me, when I was bereaved and barren? First of all, it cannot be that these children were born to me. I am bereaved, my children have already died. What will you say? Fine, but afterward new children? But I am also barren, without a husband. And if I have no husband, that means it cannot be that new children were born. So this is "I was bereaved and barren," so who bore these for me? Another matter: exiled and turned away, and who raised these? You will ask: it also cannot be that someone raised these children. For who raised and trained them? For I was exiled and turned away. And as one exiled and turned away it cannot be that I raised children. I myself was not capable of raising children. "Exiled" means I was exiled from my place, I could not rest in one place, so I did not have the rest to raise children. Second, I was "turned away." "Turned away" is from the word turning, turning from place to place without rest. For one can be exiled to one place, but "turned away" means not just to one place, but also after I was exiled I further turned from place to place. So where did I even have the possibility to raise them? So the first question: who bore them? For I am bereaved and barren. The second question: I am exiled and turned away, so who then raised these? How could they have grown? Who raised them? Who nurtured and increased them? Behold, I was left alone, these, where were they? The third question. Behold, I was left alone, these, where were they? Its meaning is: and how did they arrive here now? Even if we imagine that they were born to me, and even if we imagine that they grew on their own, who brought them here? I did not bring them, for I was left alone, far from them. And if so, these, where are they from? This is the meaning of "where were they." Where are they from? From what place did they come? Who brought them here?
What is the analogy? Jerusalem was bereaved because her children were killed, her children went into captivity before the enemy, Jerusalem is bereaved. Since then she sits barren, barren also in the sense of being removed from the Master of the Universe. And then she wonders and says: who bore me these children? For I was certain that the moment my children went out from me, I was certain that this was it, it was over, they had all died, been captured and killed. Second, ask: even if some of them remained, they were exiled, dwindling, how did they survive? Who raised them? How did they survive two thousand years? It will be hard for Jerusalem to accept such a thing, such a reality, that the people of Israel, after going out wounded and beaten, captive before the enemy, still survived, and suddenly after two thousand years my children begin to return to me. How can it be? And who raised these? Behold, I was left alone, these, where were they? The third question, even if they endured until now, who gathered their scattered ones? Who set them free? Who brought them to Zion? This is another thing she will wonder about. So there are three questions here that Knesset Yisrael, that Jerusalem, will ask at the time of the future redemption.
The answer: Thus says the Lord God, Behold, I will lift up My hand to the nations, and to the peoples I will raise My banner, and they shall bring your sons in their bosom, and your daughters shall be carried on their shoulders. Thus says the Lord God, behold, I will lift up My hand to the nations and My banner. What are My hand and My banner? It is a signal for bringing the exiles. "My banner" is like "as a banner upon the hill," it is a signal of ingathering. They take a large garment, a pole, they hang a garment on it and raise it aloft. What is called today a flag. This is called raising a banner. "Lift up a banner toward Zion." It means: lift up the banner and flag as we ascend to Zion. This is what the town Ness Ziona is named after, right? So this is called a banner. Behold, I will lift up My hand to the nations, and to the peoples I will raise My banner. And they shall bring your sons in their bosom, and your daughters shall be carried on their shoulders. "In their bosom" - the Radak explains, either it means in the arm, or it means like the corner of a garment. As it is written "I shook out my lap." Who said "I shook out my lap"? Did you not hear the recording on Nechemyah? "I shook out my lap," when he saw that Jerusalem was in ruins, he had to come to build her walls, so "I shook out my lap" and I girded and I supported my loins and I began to build the walls of Jerusalem. So "the bosom" is the corner of the garment. And they shall bring your sons in their bosom.
The Malbim explains: here the Holy One gives her three answers to the three questions, as we saw, and God answers her in order. What you asked, and pay attention, the order here is now reversed. He answers, as it were, from the last to the first. It is in order, but starting with the last and then gradually the first. What you ask, "these, where are they," who gathered them, who brought them here? The Holy One tells her: He who scattered Israel will gather him. He who scattered them, He who dispersed them, He is the one who also gathers them. He is the one who in the end gathers them. For I will lift up My hand to the nations, I will signal them to bring the children of the exile here to the Land. And to the peoples I will raise My banner. What is this repetition? To the nations I raise My hand and to the peoples I raise My banner? What is the difference between nations and peoples, between My hand and My banner? Seemingly it is a repetition of the same thing twice.
The Malbim explains that there are peoples and there are nations. The nations are lower than the peoples. "Peoples" generally refers to the developed, orderly nations, who have religion, justice, law, order, that is called peoples. In contrast, "nations" is a jumble of people who are not necessarily orderly. For example, one could say that in large parts of Africa there are nations. In contrast, say, in Europe there are peoples. Because they are orderly, law, justice, not factions, right? In Syria there are nations, right? In America they are called peoples, since they are organized according to law and justice. So then, I will lift up My hand to the nations. It will not be complicated with the nations. I will merely raise My hand to them and they will immediately return, release the people of Israel and bring them back to their land. But the peoples will not accept it right away. Until I raise a banner to them. When do they raise a banner? In war. They would go out to war, they would raise a banner, the flag, and go to fight. The Holy One says: with them it will not be simple. There will have to be a war. What war is spoken of here? Gog and Magog. The war of Gog and Magog, that will be the final war through which "I will lift up My banner to the peoples." I will raise the banner and flag of what? Of war and battle, and only then will they agree to release the people of Israel. They will fall there in battle, and then the people of Israel will return to their land.
And through this "they shall bring your sons in their bosom." "Bosom" - the Malbim explains it is the chair in which they carry the officers. As it was in their times, some kind of ornate chair, like a rickshaw, right? Only with poles on which they carried the important officers. And your daughters shall be carried on their shoulders. Why are the daughters really not on the chair? Are they of that kind? The Malbim says: because the daughters are afraid to sit on this chair. Afraid of falling, they have a lack of confidence. Ever since she was a bride and they lifted her up on the table, that is it, she has a trauma. Since then she is anxious, she will not get on such a thing, she has a fear of heights. So they will be carried on the shoulders. They are taken on the shoulder and brought here to the Land.
And kings shall be your foster fathers, and their queens your nursing mothers; with their faces to the ground they shall bow down to you and lick the dust of your feet. And you shall know that I am God, that those who hope in Me shall not be ashamed. Good, this is regarding the last question you asked, "these, where are they?" that is, where from? The Holy One says: I gathered them. He who scattered them brings them back. And regarding the second question you asked, "who raised these?" I was exiled, turned away, how can it be, how did they grow? Who raised them? Who nurtured and increased them throughout this whole period? How did they endure over two thousand years? The Holy One says: to raise a child two things are needed. First, one must nurse the infant until it is weaned. Second, after it is weaned, one needs a foster caregiver to continue caring for it until it is independent. The Holy One says: the kings will be your foster fathers and their queens will be your nursing mothers. That is, they will guard, they will protect you from every harm, until you grow. They will foster you like a caregiver who trains the infant until it grows. And as a result, since they raised them and they are the foster fathers and nursing mothers, as a result, with their faces to the ground they shall bow down to you. Until you become great and then they will still bow down to you. That is, normally when you raise someone, you expect them to bow to you. Here it will be the opposite. They will feel it such a privilege to raise the people of Israel, to be your queens and nursing mothers, that when the people of Israel have grown, they will afterward bow to them.
And the third question you asked, who bore these for me, which is actually the first question. For I was not, my children had died and I was not with my husband, so who bore these for me? I was bereaved and barren. To this He says: and you shall know that I am God, I am God, that I have the ability to do this, that those who hope in Me shall not be ashamed, and whoever hopes in Me will never come to shame. And here we see that what is written, that in the future whoever wears tzitzit will have 2,800 servants, and all that is written, we must know that this does not mean that they will bring us slaves from Africa. The servants spoken of here are "kings shall be your foster fathers, and their queens your nursing mothers." Right? The servants will be the kings. The great kings. Obama will come and mop your floor and ask you also windows? Do the windows too? Blinds? The blinds too? No, no, no, that is fine, no need for that. Next time you have, tell him. Mrs. Clinton will come, ask has the child eaten well already? Perhaps you would like me to make Pesach? Right? Are we done, is everything ready for Pesach? They, the kings, the officers, will come and plead with you. They will grasp the corner of a Jew's garment and say: come, let us go up to Zion. They will plead with the people of Israel when they understand the greatness of the people of Israel's stature.
And behold: Shall the prey be taken from the mighty, or the captive of a righteous one be delivered? And you, that is, as if Jerusalem wonders, how can it be that such a thing will happen? Shall the prey be taken from the mighty? That is, this thing arouses great wonder. For Israel was taken captive, Israel was taken as slaves, in whose hands are they now? In the hands of the mighty. Is it possible to take the prey from the hand of the mighty? And this is essentially what she asks, the question that Knesset Yisrael asks, that Jerusalem asks: I am bereaved and barren, my children were prey and captives in whose hand? Not in the hand of the weak, in the hand of the mighty. And how can one take from the mighty and extract from him such a thing that is placed under his hand? Shall the prey be taken from the mighty? Or the captive of a righteous one be delivered? And can one extract someone who is a righteous captive? "Righteous" according to the Malbim means captured justly. It means according to the law. Can one deliver him? I will preface this before we see the answer. Essentially Jerusalem asks, as it were: Master of the Universe, what You tell me seemingly is not reasonable, it is not acceptable to reason that such a thing could be done. Notice, there is here "prey" and there is here "captive." What is the difference?
So the Malbim in the book of Bamidbar explains, and with this he will also explain here later, that captive and prey both apply to a person. One can take a person captive, one can take a person as prey. In contrast, animals are only prey. Animals are not taken captive, animals are taken only as prey. But a person, the expression "captive" applies to him, and the expression "prey" applies to him. What is the difference between the enemy taking a person captive and taking him as prey? If he takes a person captive, it means he captures him like a prisoner of war. Gilad Shalit. That is called taking captive. What is taking as prey? It is like the people of Israel who were taken from here following the destruction of the Temple, sold as slaves. Prey is taken as a purchase. I take him as prey in order to sell him as a slave or in order to take him as a slave for myself. Therefore it applies both to a person and to an animal. Because animals are not captured. Animals are taken as a monetary acquisition. So if you also take a person as a monetary acquisition, I do not call him captive, I call him prey. But if you capture a person, for what? So that they will come to redeem him, so that they will spend money on him, but not as prey, no, I do not take him as an acquisition, that is called captive. If you take him as an acquisition to use him as a slave, then we call that prey.
"הֲיֻקַּח מִגִּבּוֹר מַלְקוֹחַ וְאִם שְׁבִי צַדִּיק יִמָּלֵט. כִּי כֹה אָמַר ה' גַּם שְׁבִי גִבּוֹר יֻקָּח וּמַלְקוֹחַ עָרִיץ יִמָּלֵט וְאֶת יְרִיבֵךְ אָנֹכִי אָרִיב וְאֶת בָּנַיִךְ אָנֹכִי אוֹשִׁיעַ" - Shall the prey be taken from the mighty, or the captive of a righteous one be delivered? For thus says God: Even the captive of the mighty shall be taken, and the prey of the tyrant shall be delivered, and I will contend with the one who contends with you, and your children I will save. Let us first explain according to the Radak, and afterward we will follow the Malbim's line. The Holy One says: "even the captive of the mighty shall be taken," meaning I am mightier than the nations and can take from their hand the captive whom they captured. So do not wonder, "shall the prey be taken from the mighty?" And regarding what you might say, that the nations think they are righteous in that they captured and took from us the captive and the prey, the Holy One says: no, no, they are not righteous, but tyrants. "And the prey of the tyrant shall be delivered," I will extract from the hand of the tyrant and the wicked one the prey that he took, unjustly and without lawful judgment. Thus the Radak explains, an interpretation in the name of his father.
But let us return to the Malbim's interpretation. The Holy One says: "even the captive of the mighty shall be taken," God will extract them from captivity and from slavery. Now pay attention, the Malbim here explains a whole progression, so it is worthwhile to grasp the main point. The Malbim says: there is a difference between captive and prey. As we explained, prey is slaves and maidservants. Captive is that he captures him in some place, puts him into some prison, some pen, where he places all those he captured in war. The prey, it is hard for him to escape. Why? Because the prey is taken as a slave. So they are dispersed among people. He is my slave, he is in my house, it is hard for him to flee. He is not a free man. He is in each person's house. He is not in some prison that one needs to break out of and escape. It is hard to escape because there is close supervision over each and every one, since he is a slave in someone's house. It is hard for him to escape. But it is possible that if some bigger, stronger bully comes now, he can take him from him by force. To escape alone is hard for him, since, as we said, there is a watchful eye of the boss over him. But someone by force, yes, if he is stronger than the one who took this slave, he can overpower him and take him from him by force. Why? Because truly to hold him as a slave is unlawful. Captivity is accepted among the nations, that they take a captive, they take him into captivity. But how could you turn him into a slave? To take him as a slave is not according to law, not according to justice. There were tyrannical kings who would do this freely, because justice did not concern them, justice concerned them as much as it concerns Assad. So there were such kings who truly took captives as slaves, like Nebuchadnezzar for example. He would take them as slaves. There were such kings. But normally, the accepted Geneva Convention of their times was that you take a nation, take them captive, you do not take them as slaves. So a mighty one will come and can extract the slave from your hand. It is enough that he is stronger than you, because you did not take him justly. According to law you have no right to enslave him. All this if the one who took him is truly weak. But if he is mighty? Can you extract from his hand the slave he took? Go try to extract him from him. He will stand before you and even wound you, and even strike you, and even fight against you. About this he says: "shall the prey be taken from the mighty?" Can one take from the mighty the slave he took for himself? He is mighty. So even though it is unlawful, can you contend against him? Can you extract it from his hand by force?
With the captive, says the Malbim, it is the opposite. One cannot take from captivity, cannot extract from captivity by force. Why? Because the captivity is lawful. The law says, a country that conquered another, took its people captive, that is it, they are its captives. You want to get them out? Then give, make an exchange of captives, pay with a person. That is the norm. Captivity was accepted, that a country could indeed take captives. So then it turns out, to take by force is impossible, it is according to law. But in any case, it is possible for him to escape. From captivity they often escape. Why? Because there is no close supervision over him. What is captivity? A large pen, they brought all the captives there. If he is clever enough, he can escape from captivity. He can flee and slip away from this situation. And this is what he says: "or the captive of a righteous one be delivered?" Is it possible that he will escape from captivity? For it is not possible to escape from captivity. "Shall the captive of a righteous one be delivered?" For he was captured justly. So it also cannot be that he will escape. What does it mean that he was captured justly? The Malbim explains, in the analogy, it means through our iniquities. Through our sins. As a result they were captured. And if they were captured justly, then there is no basis to come and deliver him, there is no basis for him to escape. It cannot be that he will escape, that is, he will not have enough merits to escape. For although we said one can escape from captivity, one needs merits. And if you were judged, and if you were captured justly, because God delivered you into his hand, then "shall the captive of a righteous one be delivered?" So in simple words: to take the slave from the mighty is not feasible. "Shall the prey be taken from the mighty?" Try to stand against him. "Or the captive of a righteous one be delivered?" To deliver the captive, when he was captured justly, to deliver him is also not feasible. So then Knesset Yisrael wonders: how can it be? How will we come out of the exile? How will we escape this? We have no chance to leave.
The Holy One comes and answers them about this. But the Malbim says, the people of Israel were both in the category of captive and in the category of prey. Some of them were captives in the hand of the gentiles. They were captives in their hand. And some were prey. What is prey, as we explained? It means slaves in the hand of the gentiles. And they wonder, is it possible for us to come out? The Holy One says to them: "even the captive of the mighty shall be taken, and the prey of the tyrant shall be delivered." Notice? Here he switched. At first he said "shall the prey be taken from the mighty." Now what does he answer them? "Even the captive of the mighty shall be taken." Earlier we said "captive of a righteous one," here "captive of the mighty shall be delivered." Now he says "captive of the mighty." What happened, he reversed them? He should have said "shall the prey be taken from the mighty," thus says God "the prey of the mighty shall be taken." You are speaking of the mighty, and we said the mighty is spoken of regarding taking, right? Why here does he say "even the captive of the mighty shall be taken"? The Malbim says: the Holy One answers them: "even the captive of the mighty shall be taken." Not only will the captive escape. The Holy One says: for the captive, as we explained, it is easy to escape. This is not a slave, over whom there is close supervision. So to escape is easier for a captive. So he says, not only will the captive escape, which is what is called still in the natural way. Not only that, but "even the captive of the mighty shall be taken." Even one who is captive in the hand of the mighty will be taken. And why? Because it is not really a righteous captive. He is not captured justly, but through might and force. Ah, captured through might? God says: I am mightier than him. I will have the power to extract the captive from the hand of the mighty. And also "the prey of the tyrant shall be delivered." Not only that the prey from the mighty can be taken by force, for this we said, from the mighty one can take the prey by force if you are stronger than him. The Holy One says: not only that, but even against nature, he will escape. For a slave naturally, we said, finds it hard to escape, he is under the close supervision of his master. The Holy One says: when I manage matters, then "even the prey of the tyrant shall be delivered." He will be able to escape, even though he is in the category of prey, he will escape by himself from his hand. And even though he is a tyrant, a tyrant is stronger than the mighty. In any case he will be able to escape from his hand. So as it were, with God the action is against nature. That the captive, who is captive of the mighty, the Holy One says, will be taken. In this there will be a possibility that he will be taken. And with the tyrant, one who is a slave to the tyrant, he will escape. Which are two things contrary to nature.
The Holy One says: but perhaps you will worry, lest a slave who escapes from his master be handed over. A slave who escapes from his master ultimately gives account. Perhaps, God forbid, they will hand us back over into their hand? To this God says: "and I will contend with the one who contends with you." The Holy One says: do not fear that it will happen to you as with a slave who flees from his master, that he will come to contend with him and prosecute him in judgment. I will contend on your behalf. I will argue against them. And what is the argument? Why do you take My people as slaves? For the children of Israel are servants to Me, and not servants to servants. Why did you go take My servant? So the Holy One says: I will contend with them in judgment, so that they will not be able to justify their deeds. And corresponding to what he said, "even the captive of the mighty shall be taken," the Holy One says: "and your children I will save." I will take them from captivity. This is the end of the pasuk, "and your children I will save," and I will take them from the house of their captors.
"וְהַאֲכַלְתִּי אֶת מוֹנַיִךְ אֶת בְּשָׂרָם וְכֶעָסִיס דָּמָם יִשְׁכָּרוּן וְיָדְעוּ כָל בָּשָׂר כִּי אֲנִי ה' מוֹשִׁיעֵךְ וְגוֹאֲלֵךְ אֲבִיר יַעֲקֹב" - And I will feed those who oppress you with their own flesh, and they shall be drunk with their own blood as with new wine; and all flesh shall know that I am God, your Savior and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Yaakov. "And I will feed those who oppress you with their flesh." What is "those who oppress you"? Everyone explains "those who oppress you" is from the word "afflict." "Afflict" - not from the word "answer" but from the word "cause suffering." "You shall not wrong one another," one who afflicts his fellow. And often this refers to speech. Affliction is in speech, one afflicts his fellow with words. "And I will feed those who oppress you with their flesh." What is "their flesh"? So Rashi explains, "and I will feed those who oppress you," as if the verse is incomplete. "And I will feed those who oppress you," those who cause you suffering, I will feed their flesh, he did not finish saying to whom. As it were, according to Rashi, the meaning is "and I will feed those who oppress you their flesh" to the beasts of the field. So it is according to Rashi. It does not say to whom, but the meaning is to the beasts of the field. "And they shall be drunk with their blood as with new wine," and like new wine, so will those who are accustomed to drinking blood become drunk from their blood. Who are those accustomed to drinking blood? Rashi brings, they are the birds of the sky. So he brings from the Targum Yonatan. So it is as if there is missing here who eats and who drinks, it is the beasts of the field and the birds, they are the ones who will eat and drink the blood and flesh of the nations that afflicted us.
The Radak, in contrast, explains that no. "And I will feed those who oppress you," your enemies who afflict you, I will feed them their flesh. What does this mean? They will eat their own flesh. "Each shall eat the flesh of his own arm." One could say this is a figurative way of saying that they will consume themselves. Yes, there is an expression today, the person consumed himself. Someone once said, what will kill you is not what you eat, but what eats you. Much worse is what happens inside the person, that is much worse than what he eats. That is what shortens his life. The Holy One says: they will see, their eyes will grow faint, they will consume themselves. How did we do this to such a people? How did we do such things? And now they see them in their greatness. It is written that in the future the Holy One will resurrect the dead, and these shall be for shame and everlasting contempt, and these for everlasting life. They ask, why is it necessary to bring them to shame and everlasting contempt? Do you have a greater anguish for Hitler, may his name and memory be blotted out, than to rise and see the people of Israel in their greatness and stature, and to understand how foolish his deed was, and to consume himself and be grieved and be for shame and everlasting contempt? There is no greater shame and disgrace than this. So those who rise will be for shame and everlasting contempt, which is the most terrible punishment of all that can be for those nations. So according to the Radak, what is written here, "and I will feed those who oppress you with their flesh," they will consume themselves. They will eat their own flesh.
There was an incident, a parable that the Maggid of Dubno brings regarding what is written that the righteous suffers, and the wicked prospers. And we see that a person, there are wicked ones who enjoy themselves here in this world. So he told a parable: to what is the matter comparable? To a man who rebelled against the king. And the king had, this man was a close friend of his, and he truly revealed to him all his secrets, and placed complete trust in him. And suddenly it became clear to him that this man had acted against him, and undermined him. His anger was terrible and awful. He sought the most creative punishment one could give this man, in order to illustrate the severity of the deeds he had done. So he said, any death I give him is an easy and simple death. I do not want that, I want him to die through suffering. What did he do? He shut him inside a building, inside a transparent pavilion, inside a glass building in the town square, without food, without nourishment, without drink. That he should perish there slowly, before all the crowd, so that all would see and fear. And this man truly reached terrible states, to the point that from the great hunger he had his mind became deranged, and he began to cut pieces from his flesh and eat them. One day, one passed by that place, and saw the man there eating meat. He says, ah, what do you say, poor fellow, he has no... the man is eating meat, what are you talking about? He tells him: my dear, he is eating his own flesh, that is what he is eating. So says the Maggid of Dubno, a person looks here and says: ah, look at what you say, the wicked one, it is not worthwhile, it does not pay. Behold, look at that man, this one has such, that one has a fleet, this one has airplanes, this one has happiness, the third has a villa, the fourth... behold, he has it. Do not envy him, he is eating his own flesh. His portion in the World to Come he eats here in this world. So there is nothing, nothing to envy in him.
They tell about one of the great ones of Israel, I believe it was the Rebbe of Gur, that once a certain wicked man came to him and said to him: how, how is it written that "you shall soon perish from the good land"? He says, look, I have transgressed all the transgressions in the Torah. Except one transgression. What is it? Suicide. Yes, once someone said to a Rav: Rabbi, I have transgressed all the transgressions in the Torah except one transgression, suicide. The Rav said to him: that is not a transgression, the moment you kill yourself you will fulfill "you shall remove the evil from your midst." You will fulfill a mitzvah. Anyway, in short, that man says to him: honored Rabbi, I have transgressed all the transgressions in the world, and look how good I have it, and behold I have this world. What do you say, is this... behold I have a house, I have a swimming pool, I have a car, I have and I have and I have. The Rav said to him: fine, and where is your this-world? He said to him: what do you mean where is this world? Here now I have listed. The Rav said to him: no, no, that is your World to Come. But where is your this-world? Your World to Come they threw to you here, so you have a pool and you have this... they threw you the World, they gave you some bones here. This is your World to Come. But where is your this-world? If a person is God-fearing and righteous, then when he has something here in this world, that is this world. What about the World to Come? It is stored up for him above. But if he is wicked, then his entire World to Come they threw down to him here. So where is your this-world? All that you received is your World to Come.
"וְהַאֲכַלְתִּי אֶת מוֹנַיִךְ אֶת בְּשָׂרָם" - And I will feed those who oppress you with their flesh. They, the enemies, will eat their flesh. Their flesh they will eat. The Malbim explains, "and I will feed those who oppress you with their flesh," those who afflicted you until now. What does "afflicted" mean? What would they say? There is no chance, the people of Israel will not be redeemed, the Holy One abandoned them, the Holy One took for Himself another nation, you will forever remain in your terrible state. These are the ones who afflict us, who cause us suffering. And if once it was only in words, then today all the decisions of the Security Council and all these, they are all against the people of Israel. The Goldstone Report and all these things, these afflict us. We have become the leper of the world. All the world's problems are because of us, we are the cause, we are the problems. Assad can slaughter seventy thousand people to this day, and there is not a peep, and there are still nations that help him and give to him and send him weapons. But here if one Aldura is killed, and afterward it becomes clear that it was not, it was not we who killed him, it was they who killed him, but it does not matter. Do not confuse them with facts. They have a theory, so do not confuse them with facts. And about this they will make noise in all the world. To this day we still have damage from this matter. And if not, each time they will find a new matter for us. This is those who afflict you, those who cause you suffering. The Holy One says: they, "and I will feed those who oppress you with their flesh." "Their flesh," what does this mean? The flesh of your adversaries, they will eat. It turns out according to this, according to the Malbim, this is a third interpretation. "And I will set Egypt against Egypt." They will already fight against the enemies. They are the ones who will fight against those who rise against us. And then it turns out that we will not need to make the war. From us there will be no casualties in battle, because they are the ones who will fight one against the other. And why? "For I am God your Savior." The Holy One says: because I save the people of Israel above nature. God, His power is the power of the One with all ability. "And your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Yaakov." The Holy One says: I also have a bond with the people of Israel from the aspect of Yaakov. It means from the aspect of their merits, of the people of Israel, which is symbolized by the Mighty One of Yaakov. It means might, might is from the word strength, the power of Yaakov who overcame, of Yaakov who served God. The Holy One says: and consequently it is assured that by this merit, through this the nations will fight one against the other and the people of Israel will be saved.
One more small point, what is "and they shall be drunk with their blood as with new wine"? What is asis, new wine? "The mountains shall drip with new wine." What is the meaning of the word asis? Where does the word asis come from? So the Radak explains, the new wine, how does one reach it? First of all, what is the new wine? Asis is the wine that comes out of grapes, out of pomegranates, that is called asis. Where does the asis come from? By taking grapes, putting them through a process of pressing, extracting the asis. So too pomegranates. "And you shall tread the wicked." "From the juice of my pomegranate." So the asis comes about through crushing, through pressing. What is that? It is called pressing, isui. And since this is so, what comes out of it is called asis. "And they shall be drunk with their blood as with new wine."