The Malbim explains that the verses describe a nation with the imagery of a forest full of trees, a growing forest. This appears in Yeshayahu and also in Zechariah. Kingdoms, on the other hand, they compare to a building. Why? Because a kingdom is essentially built stone upon stone. The nations are like an entire forest of trees. That is when they describe a nation. But when they describe a kingdom, a kingdom is built slowly, stone upon stone, and therefore a kingdom is compared to a building.
Corresponding to the nations and the kingdoms: regarding the nations He says to uproot, to destroy and to plant, because we said nations are described as a forest. So here He describes the nation as a forest, and thus we are speaking of uprooting the forest, that is to uproot and to destroy. And if afterward, following the destruction, I want to rebuild anew, that is to plant, because we are speaking of a forest. When I speak of a kingdom, then when I want to demolish the existing kingdom, that is to pull down and to destroy, and afterward, in the next stage, we said that the Holy One blessed be He builds, because it is destruction for the sake of building. So afterward comes to build, an expression fitting with respect to a kingdom.
What does "to destroy" (le'ha'avid) mean? To destroy adds to "to uproot" (lintosh). Its meaning is that when I uproot a tree or a sapling from its place, it is still alive in reality, it is only not in its place. That is called "to uproot." In contrast, the one that is destroyed (ne'evad) is lost completely. As we will see below in chapter 12 verse 17, "uproot and destroy." Uprooting is the removal, destruction is the next stage, that I lose it entirely. That is why you see the expression "to uproot and to destroy."
And what is "to pull down and to demolish"? Why here too is the expression doubled? The Malbim says that demolishing adds to pulling down. Demolition and pulling down are two matters. First, pulling down applies even to a single stone. I can take a stone and pull it down. I cannot say I took a stone and demolished it. I demolish a building, I do not demolish a stone. But I can indeed pull down a stone. Demolition applies to the entire building. So it turns out that the term demolition is a more comprehensive term. And sometimes the pulling down is greater than the demolition, if it is after the demolition. For I can, for example, demolish a building and afterward pull it apart stone by stone. That is to say, not only did I carry out the great demolition, but I also crumbled it into pieces, and that too is an aspect of pulling down.
So then let us summarize. The Holy One blessed be He says: I have appointed you over the nations, which are in the category of a forest, and over the kingdoms, which are in the category of a building, to uproot and to pull down and to destroy. When we speak of the forest, it is uprooted and destroyed, and when we speak of the kingdoms, they are pulled down and demolished. And the whole purpose is ultimately to build and to plant. The goal is really that in the end, out of the reality of destruction, something good, something positive, will be built.
The Griz, Rav Soloveitchik, explains: it is written here "I have appointed you this day over the nations and over the kingdoms, to uproot and to pull down, to destroy and to demolish, to build and to plant," and "the word of Hashem came to me saying, for I am watchful over My word to perform it, from the north the evil shall break forth upon all the inhabitants of the land." He has a difficulty: what is meant by "I am watchful over My word to perform it, from the north the evil shall break forth," how is "from the north the evil shall break forth" expressed here, how is it connected to the kingdoms?
So he offers a wonderful parable. When a king has a son whom he loves, the king protects him from all harm, from all mishaps, from anything that could cause him distress. Where? In the palace. He maintains excellent protection over him so that nothing will harm him, a sterile room. But if the son sins, if the king now wants to banish the son from him, then he worries: although I want to expel him from the palace, I do not want him to die. I do not want him to be harmed. So although he deserves banishment, he does not deserve destruction. What does he do? The king takes care to issue a proclamation in the city, to arrest all the robbers, all the murderers, all the dangerous people, to kill all the dangerous and evil beasts in the land, because he is banishing the son, and the son now wanders about the land, and who knows who could harm him. So by the king arresting all the robbers and murderers and killing all the harmful animals, now his son, even though he will wander about the land, will not be harmed. And then, after he has done this action, he banishes his son without concern.
Says the Griz, the difference is that beforehand the son was protected and the country was abandoned, but now the son is abandoned and the country is protected. So says the Griz. See how wonderful this is. Before Israel sinned, then Israel was protected and the country, that is, the world, was abandoned. All the horrors were out there. Now that Israel sinned and became liable for exile, the Holy One blessed be He first, over the nations and over the kingdoms, uproots and pulls down, destroys and demolishes, builds and plants. The Holy One blessed be He now sends to put order among the nations. I am about to exile My son there. I am about to send Israel there. And if so, the place there must be an orderly place, so that there will not be a situation in which Israel would be destroyed, God forbid. And this is how the verse concludes: "for I am watchful over My word to perform it." Why is all this upheaval needed among the nations? Because I am watchful over My word to perform it. Now, what is My word? To send Israel into exile. And since this is so, one must arrange a place there where Israel can be, so that there will not be beasts and bandits and robbers and murderers and rapists, so that Israel can survive among the nations.
One can explain in an additional sense, based on what we already learned in the Malbim on Sefer Yonah, that Yonah was sent to rebuke Nineveh. And what has Yonah to do with Nineveh? What do we have to do with them? And why is there any need to rebuke them at all? Is it really our problem if the nations commit sins? What difference does it really make? So there the Malbim has an original explanation. He explains that Yonah was sent to Nineveh because Nineveh is the capital of whom? Ashur. Correct, from there came Ashur. Nineveh is Ashur. And we know "woe, Ashur, the rod of My anger." It is the rod of the Holy One blessed be He's wrath. That is to say, it is the staff of the Master of the World. And since the Holy One blessed be He is about to strike Israel with Ashur, this staff must be a worthy staff. And if this staff is itself a criminal, then how can Hashem use it? Therefore He sends Yonah so that Yonah would rebuke Nineveh, so that they would correct their deeds, and then this staff is worthy, it can be used to strike Israel. And then He exiles Israel and afflicts Israel. And by the way, this is why Yonah refused to go on the mission, for Yonah said: what am I going to do? Make this staff fit to strike us? So that the Holy One blessed be He, as it were, will not use a defective staff, so I am going to make them fit by having them correct their deeds, and through that they will be able to strike us? So he refused. He preferred to be harmed and to be a prophet who suppresses his prophecy and to be punished, as long as harm would not come to the people of Israel through him.
So it may well be, and I am now following this line together with what the Griz says here, that the idea here may well be this: since the Holy One blessed be He wants to exile Israel, what must now be done? Correct the nations. And since this is so, one must uproot and demolish and so forth among the nations in order to straighten them out, so that they can act upon Israel, as we said, so that they will be our chastising rod. The Griz explained that this is so that when we arrive there they will not harm us. But we will explain according to the Malbim that the intent is so that they will truly be able to be a vessel for bringing the plans of the Holy One blessed be He into effect, that they will make themselves fit to be the executors of the word of Hashem.
"And the word of Hashem came to me saying," what do you see, Yirmiyahu? And he says, I see an almond rod. We already explained in the past that the prophets who received prophecy often received the prophecy by way of a parable. And then the prophecy was completely clear to them, that is, they understood in their minds what this parable was really meant to say, and this is something that recurs frequently in the words of prophecy. The purer the prophet's idea, the more he could receive things in an open manner without parables. Moshe Rabbenu: "mouth to mouth I speak with him, in a vision and not in riddles." An almond rod, an inflated pot, all these matters, an inflated pot, all these things are riddles. In contrast, with Moshe Rabbenu it is in a vision and not in riddles. In a vision I speak with him. There was no need to compose riddles for him and give him parables in order to clarify the idea for him.
So Hashem says to him, what do you see, Yirmiyahu? Yirmiyahu says to Him, I see an almond rod. I see an almond rod. The Radak says: this vision, this revelation, was in the first vision. Since at first Hashem tells him "you shall go wherever I send you," and afterward, in that same prophecy itself, the Holy One blessed be He shows him an almond rod. What is an almond rod? The Radak says, know that He showed him a rod without leaves, but Yirmiyahu recognizes about this rod that it is a rod of almond wood. What forced him to explain it this way? Because if you explain that the Holy One blessed be He showed him a rod with leaves and buds and flowers and everything, so that one can see it is an almond rod, what is the meaning of Hashem saying to him "you have seen well"? Does it really require great skill of vision to see that the rod is an almond rod? That is an obvious thing. Rather, no, it is speaking of a bare rod, and Yirmiyahu, by contemplating the rod, recognized that it was an almond rod, even though it had no leaves nor bud nor flower, he recognized it to be a rod of almond wood.
And what does the Holy One blessed be He really want to show him by this? The Holy One blessed be He says to him, "for I am watchful over My word to perform it," as we will see in the next verse. The Malbim explains: what do you see? The hand that was sent to his mouth and touched his mouth was pictured in Yirmiyahu's imagination in some form, in some parable, and this parable is connected to the matter of the prophecy that the Holy One blessed be He wants to send to him. Says the Malbim, this is what is written "through the hand of the prophets I appear (adameh)." Adameh means that the matter comes as some image. The Holy One blessed be He asks him, what do you see in your imagination? Yirmiyahu says to Him, an almond rod is captured now in my imagination. As it were, this form, this picture of the scene of the hand that touched him. The hand that touched him pictured in his imagination an almond rod.
Note, the Malbim says there is a difference between a rod (makel), a staff (mateh), and a support (mish'enet). These are three different terms, and in each place a different term is used. The staff is something made for honor. Usually princes would take staffs. Like "a staff of strength, a scepter to rule," as is written in Yechezkel. Or like "the staff of Aharon among their staffs." These were princes; each prince walks with a staff, like some Rebbe who walks with a certain rod. The rod, the staff, symbolizes importance. That is when the term staff is written. If this staff is meant to be leaned upon because a person is old, and he has a "grandfather's cane" as the children call it, then this rod is called a support. It can also be an ill person, on his support, and it is called a support. A support is a staff on which one leans. "And each with his support in his hand from great age," as is written regarding the future redemption in Zechariah. If it is made for striking, it is called a rod (makel). Since shepherds usually have a rod in hand, as is written "and he struck the donkey with a rod." A rod expresses striking. So then let us summarize: a staff is made for honor, a support is made to lean upon, a rod is made to strike with.
The Malbim gives another introduction: "shaked" (almond) is not the name of the fruit here, but "shaked" here is a verb. An almond rod, I see here a rod that is watching (shoked). Shaked means like shoked (watching). I see here a rod that is watching. This is what I see here. What does all this express in the idea of the matter? By the way, the Malbim explains that "an almond rod" means that the rod became clothed in almonds during the vision. As it happened, the rod became almonds. Do you understand? That is, it became clothed in almonds. And not as the Radak explained, that he actually saw an empty rod, only as a rod on its own.
What does all this come to say? "And Hashem said to me, you have seen well, for I am watchful over My word to perform it." You have seen well; so Chazal say the almond is the quickest to produce a flower of all the trees. As the children say, the almond tree is blossoming, right? As soon as you go out, what is the first thing you see full of flowers? It is the almond tree. This comes to tell you "I am watchful over My word to perform it." This means that My word will be fulfilled quickly like this almond. A midrash aggadah: the almond, from the time of its budding until the completion of its ripening, is 21 days. It is very swift. What does this come to say? How many days are there between the 17th of Tammuz and the 9th of Av? 21 days. To tell you: prepare yourselves, there are here 21 difficult days that will pass over Israel. We are speaking of Yirmiyahu, who is the prophet of the destruction.
The Holy One blessed be He says to him, you have seen well. The Malbim explains that what you have now seen is directed toward the matter of the prophecy and the message that I want to tell you about what you are grasping. And now see how precise this is. First He says to him, what did you see? You saw a rod (makel). Note, you did not see a staff, you did not see a support. A staff expresses honor, a support expresses something upon which you have to lean. But that is not what you saw. What did you see? A rod. A rod, we said, expresses something with which you strike. That is, Yirmiyahu, you see here a prophecy that comes to express that there will be blows to Israel. That is the first thing. Therefore he grasped here the word rod. So too with the Chaldeans in the hand of Hashem, they are like a chastising rod to afflict the sinners. It is not a staff of honor nor a support.
Second, shaked. We said that as the words were spoken he now sees it becoming almonds. He now sees it as one blossoming almonds. That is the meaning of shaked. At this moment, almonds. This shows that out of great swiftness it will now produce its fruit, produce its almonds. All this, though normally it takes time, 21 days, but here it will be immediate. And if you wish, you could also say 21 days is fast, it is immediate, compared to other fruits that take much longer. So too, as we said, these are the 21 days from the 17th of Tammuz until the 9th of Av, which is immediate, within a short time the Temple was destroyed. From the siege, yes, until the Temple was destroyed.
Third, even the name of the fruit is not without reason. What is the fruit called? Shaked. Shaked indicates diligence (shekidah), effort. "For I am watchful (shoked) over My word to perform it." I am watchful over My word, as it were I exert Myself and endeavor to do this thing quickly. And diligence always hints at or teaches a constant action, to be diligent about the matter until the matter comes to fruition. Like "in vain does the watchman watch (shakad)." "To watch at my doors day by day." The Malbim also says it is like in Aramaic, "he was watching (maskid) over his brother," where too the intent is in the sense of constant.
The Malbim says: sometimes the Holy One blessed be He brings evil by hiding His face, and then the evil comes on its own. "I will hide My face from them, and they shall be devoured." And sometimes there is a situation in which the evil comes from Hashem by providence. The Holy One blessed be He does not hide His face, but on the contrary, reveals His face to harm us. Like "and Hashem watched over the evil and brought it upon us." "I am watchful over My word," says the Holy One blessed be He, how to bring the evil in a way of providence. And then the Holy One blessed be He says to him, in this you have seen well, how the speech itself became a rod. We saw "and He placed His word in my mouth." What is His word? It is the speech that touched, the hand that touched his mouth, this became a rod, and this rod itself became the rod that afflicts them.
And indeed this matter of advancing the punishment, "I am watchful over My word," Chazal say was for the good. And why? Because it is written in the Torah, "when you beget children and grandchildren and you have grown old (venoshantem) in the land and you act corruptly and make a graven image of any likeness," and so on, and then the Holy One blessed be He says, God forbid, Israel would be gathered, God forbid, they would be destroyed. Chazal say, the Holy One blessed be He had mercy on Israel and the Holy One blessed be He advanced it by two years relative to "venoshantem." What is the gematria of "venoshantem"? 852. And the Holy One blessed be He advanced it, to 850. For if He had done "venoshantem," God forbid it would have been complete destruction. So here it is good for us: "I am watchful over My word to perform it," I hurry and am watchful to do it quickly so that it not be delayed, for if it were delayed then, God forbid, the end of the verse stated there would also be fulfilled in us, destruction, God forbid, to Israel. And therefore Hashem is watchful over His word, and this matter was for the good of Israel and their salvation. By the way, a very, very interesting thing: we know that in gematria there is a concept of "with the total" (im ha'kolel). What is "with the total"? A difference of one in gematria is not counted; it is considered the same. Even if it is 20 or 21, it is considered the same. We do not say, no, this is a different gematria. "With the total," that is what it is called. Once they asked a young married man, how is it to be married? So he told them, look, "ishah" (woman) has the gematria of "ye'ush" (despair). So they told him it is off by one. He told them, with the total. Anyway, this matter of "with the total" is a very interesting thing, and the Terumat HaDeshen, who was among the early authorities, brings a proof, listen, a proof from the midrashim of Chazal for this concept of "with the total." There is a kabbalistic explanation for it, but we have apparently not seen sources for it. He found a source. What is the source? The source is from us. "Venoshantem," the derashah I just mentioned. For what did the Holy One blessed be He do? The Holy One blessed be He wanted to postpone to the maximum, to the maximum postpone the trouble upon Israel, but on the other hand, if I postpone it too much, up to the deadline, 852, then woe, there would be destruction. What did the Holy One blessed be He do? The Holy One blessed be He said, I will postpone to the maximum possible and on the other hand so that there will not be destruction. What is the maximum possible while there is no destruction? If destruction is 852, then the Holy One blessed be He should have done 851. For behold, one year before the destruction. And then, on the one hand we would have dwelt the maximum time in the land, and on the other hand we would not have reached 852. What do you learn from here? That 851 is 852. With the total, it comes out the same, this is the gematria of "venoshantem." And therefore, so that it would not be the gematria of "venoshantem," it must be 850. That is the maximum one can postpone the decree. If you postpone it to 851, you have reached 852, because 851 with the total is 852. Wonder of wonders, a most wonderful proof, to see how much the Holy One blessed be He has compassion and mercy upon us, and how much is hinted at in the Torah.
"And the word of Hashem came to me a second time saying," what do you see? And he says, an inflated pot I see, and its face is from the north. Another word of prophecy, "a second time saying," that Hashem asks him, what do you see? He says to Him, an inflated pot I see. Targum Yonatan says "a king who seethes like a pot I see." I see a king seething, meaning coming in anger and rage, like a pot boiling. "And the strength of his camps which advance and come from the north." Meaning, and his armies which come from the northern side. An inflated pot: the Radak explains, "inflated" is a description of the pot. And what is meant by inflated? It is boiling. And why do we call it inflated? Because when it boils it raises vapor. And therefore this is called inflated, like a person who blows on a fire, who expels vapor from his mouth at the time of blowing, this is called blowing. The pot too blows and expels, for what comes out of the pot if not steam? And this is like a person who now goes out in a cold place, what comes out of his mouth? From his mouth comes something like steam. Therefore this is called an inflated pot, a pot that raises boiling. "And its face is from the north," what is meant by its face from the north? There are several explanations in this. Its face, according to the Radak's explanation, means the side of the pot from which one pours is called its face. In the pot, by the way, when they wanted to pour, it had a place that stuck out a bit like a kind of spout, and this side is called the face of the pot. "Its face from the north" means the side from which it will be poured, this is the north side. Rashi explains its face means its boiling. The side of its boiling is toward the north. In contrast, the Radak brings an explanation in the name of his father, that its face means the stove on which the pot is set, or the opening of the stove where they would insert coals, meaning that the side of the fire will be from the north. That is, the pot is on top of the fire, and from where did they direct the fire? The direction of the fire is from the north.
And the Malbim explains that here the words of the prophet are arranged in three utterances. First, the Holy One blessed be He appointed him to the mission, informed him of the essence of the mission, to uproot and to pull down. And afterward the Holy One blessed be He designates two more utterances for him. One utterance to tell him the time of the fulfillment of the prophecy. This we saw earlier, "I am watchful over My word," any moment now, it will be soon, it will be quick. The second utterance was meant to tell him the place from which the punishment will come. After the spiritual matter, says the Malbim, is connected to neither time nor place, for those are only physical, earthly things, and spiritual things have no time or place, as we see that the Holy One blessed be He is above time and above place, so the Malbim says, this inflated pot comes as a parable to give physical form to the spiritual matter, for the spiritual matter has no time and place, and a parable is needed to give it form in order to understand it. We see that in Yechezkel Jerusalem is compared to a pot and Israel is compared to meat. Like the meat in a cauldron, which is turned over there inside the pot, this is a parable for Israel inside Jerusalem, that Jerusalem will be like boiling, like a pot on top of the fire, and the people there, as it were, God forbid, undergo a process of cooking. The Malbim says, the pot on its own is meant to protect what is inside it so it will not burn. If I place a piece of meat on the fire it burns. I place it inside a pot, the fire does not overpower it. So too the city and the fortress are meant to protect the people so they will not be attacked. So we had walls, let us say, around Jerusalem, this is like the pot inside which is the meat. So too the walls that protect us all around. So he now compares Jerusalem to an inflated pot, a pot that raises boiling. So first he tells you, when this pot is on the fire, the flame will grow so much and the pot is not covered on top, and this shows that, as it were, there will be here fire beyond the capacity of the pot. The pot has the ability to receive fire at a certain level, otherwise it can burn along with all that is in it. So he tells you here, it will not be covered, it will have no protection, no upper cover, and the fire will be high. And second he tells you, the pot, as it were, will not help and will not protect what is inside it. And this is what comes to express the matter, "remove its cover and it will be for burning, break down its fence and it will be for trampling." The Holy One blessed be He is like a cover for the pot. The Holy One blessed be He says, you have the pot, the walls of Jerusalem, but if I am not here serving as a cover, this pot will not protect you. It will not help you at all. So the Holy One blessed be He, "remove its cover and it will be for burning." Its cover means what shelters over them. The Holy One blessed be He, as it were, removes the cover, and then through this it will be for burning, so the fire will overpower and burn here the people dwelling in Jerusalem.
The way of the inflated pot, says the Malbim, is that from the same side where the fire mostly overpowers, its boiling rises. You can see when you put a pot on a hotplate, then there it is more common since not the whole hotplate is one heating element, there are heating elements located in two spots or in one place, depending on the size. You can see that on a certain side the boiling rises. Not the whole pot is boiling. From which side does it boil more? Bubble more? From the side of the fire where the fire burns more, there the boiling rises. These boilings, note when a pot boils, what does it seem like? That the water is trying to escape. The water jumps and wants to escape outward. If it is things like milk and the like, then they really escape, not just try to escape. But with water it seems they are constantly jumping and seeking to boil. And on the same side where the fire overpowers strongly, the water escapes from there to the opposite side. So too "from the north the evil shall break forth," meaning from there will be the fire. The boiling of the pot will mainly be from the north side. And who is from the north side? From the north side means the nations who came from the side of Bavel, for Bavel is to the north of the Land of Israel. From there will come the fire, and we said when the fire arrives what happens to the water? It escapes to the other side. The people dwelling in Jerusalem, they will empty out, they will want to flee to the other side. And with all this it will not help them, for the Chaldeans will capture them and ultimately exile them to Bavel. So that the protection of your covering from the side of the pot, which is really the walls of Jerusalem, will not help you, but rather you will be like meat in a cauldron that ultimately this meat will be harmed and burned by the abundance of fire.
"And Hashem said to me, from the north the evil shall break forth upon all the inhabitants of the land." "From the north the evil shall break forth," Bavel, as we said, is to the north of the Land of Israel. And what does "shall break forth" (tipatach) mean? The Radak explains that it is from the language of loosening. Like "and he untied the camels," meaning he loosened their bindings. What until now, says the Holy One blessed be He, was bound, the evil was as if bound there, I as it were bound it and did not let it go out, know that from the north the evil shall break forth, it will now be loosened, the opposite of bound, to come upon Israel.
"For behold, I am calling to all the families of the kingdoms of the north, says Hashem, and they shall come and each shall set his throne at the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem and against all its walls round about and against all the cities of Yehudah." The Holy One blessed be He says, I am calling to all the families of the kingdoms of the north. The families means the people. The kingdoms, we speak of the kings, of the heads of the kingdom, they are called kingdoms, these are the kings of Bavel. The great king among them is Nebuchadnezzar. What are the kingdoms? These are Nergal-Sarezer and Rav-Mag, all the ministers of Bavel are called kingdoms. The Holy One blessed be He says, as it were I have a lawsuit with Israel who sinned against Me, and I call to all the families of the kingdoms of the north who will be, as it were, judges between Me and the people. They will come and each will set his throne at the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem. What is "each his throne"? A throne expresses judgment. A king sits on a throne of judgment. A throne expresses judgment. So they will come and sit, each will set his throne at the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem. The gate of the city too expresses the place of judgment, since in the city gate the judges would sit. "Each set his throne at the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem," they will sit there in the gate to hear the claims of the litigants. And they will sit at the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem, they will sit also upon all its walls, and they will sit also in all the cities of Yehudah. As it were, they will divide into several courts, a great Sanhedrin, a lesser Sanhedrin, with a thousand distinctions. As it were, there are several places of judgment there.
The Malbim says, note, conquerors usually, when they begin to conquer, start from the unwalled cities, proceed and advance toward the walls, and afterward already right up to the entrance of the gate. That is, the conquest is slow. But here, note, "each set his throne at the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem." That is, they come as masters of the land. He comes to sit here as a king sitting over his kingdom. At the entrance of the gates of the land, and then from there upon all its walls and upon all the cities of Yehudah. Exactly the opposite. It always begins from the cities, then the walls, then the gate. Here not; they will begin from the gate, then the walls, then the cities. This teaches you that they will not come here as someone who comes to fight, but rather they will come here as masters, as rulers. This is part of the difficulty of the subjugation of the trouble that is meant to come, and beyond the fact that our enemies are judges, they will be our judges, they will as it were judge us for how we rebelled against Hashem, which is another difficult thing in itself.
"And I will speak My judgments with them concerning all their evil, that they have forsaken Me, and burned incense to other gods, and bowed down to the works of their hands." "And I will speak My judgments with them," Rashi says, I will contend with them, with Yehudah, with Jerusalem. Dispute and argument. "And I will speak My judgments with them," the Radak explains, the intent is not actual speech, but rather the very bringing of the kings upon them, the bringing of the punishment, that is the speech. When the Holy One blessed be He brings the kings upon them, that is the way in which the Holy One blessed be He rebukes Israel; He does not need to speak with them face to face. Who will be the judge? The Malbim says, I will speak My judgments with them, and the judge will be the nations, as it were. The nations will be those who exact retribution from them. Hashem, as it were, will arrange His judgment and His claims before these judges concerning all their evil, to demand justice from them for having forsaken Me. And their sin is threefold. First, they forsook Me. Second, if you had forsaken Me, one could have found merit in you, that My service was too hard for you. So therefore you forsook Me, you chose to be free. The Holy One blessed be He says, but they went to burn incense to other gods, whose service is heavier. That is, there is no seeking of freedom here, for if it were seeking freedom, why did you go to serve another idolatry? And if they had exchanged their glory to receive some benefit, well, then I would still have said, that god promised you what I do not promise. But behold, they bowed down to the works of their hands. Do the works of your hands have any substance? Something you just carved, can you receive benefit from it? So there is here sin upon transgression, that you further went and built yourself a god that you know has no substance, and what did you expect to receive from it, something you would not receive from Me?
"And you, gird your loins and arise and speak to them all that I command you. Do not be dismayed before them, lest I dismay you before them." "And you, gird your loins," gird your loins is a language of urging, like a man of valor, go with alacrity. As is written of Eliyahu, "and he girded his loins." "Lest I dismay you," He warns him, be careful, do not be dismayed before them. For if you are dismayed before them, meaning if you fear to tell them the things that need to be said without embellishment or coating, if you are afraid of them, I will cause you to fall before them, I will dismay you before them. That is to say, the more you display courage and strength, so too your protection from Hashem will be greater. And the Malbim explains that even before I seat these cruel judges, the Holy One blessed be He says to Yirmiyahu, I want to warn Israel through you. You will go to Israel and warn them before I cast them down before these terrible judges, before the inhabitants of the north, before Bavel and the Chaldeans. And this is like it is customary to warn a litigant through a court agent. Therefore gird your loins, do not wait for them to come to you, but rather you go to them, go to Israel and rebuke them. "And arise," you arise, "and speak to them" all that I command you, that I command you, without omitting anything of My commands. And He tells him, do not be dismayed before them, meaning do not flatter them. Its meaning is, sometimes when there is someone before whom I feel uncomfortable, then I flatter him, tell him words of praise that have no truth and no substance in them, and this is only in order to find favor in his eyes. The Holy One blessed be He warns him, be careful not to flatter them, for if you do so, I will dismay you before them. I will cause you to fall before them, and therefore you must be bold-faced against them. The Malbim notes here the precision of the language, "all that I command you." "I command you" is what I command. "Anochi" is I. Why is it necessary to say "anochi command you"? This is a superfluous redundancy. Do all that I command you. Who is "I command you" if not "I"? On this the Malbim says, that when "anochi" comes with "command you," it means that which I command you, but by Myself alone. It could be "anochi command you," for example, through a prophet in My name. You would also say that this is "I command you." You would also say that this comes from Me. On this He tells him, no, He tells him "anochi command you," that is, I command you to listen only according to what comes from My mouth. That is, you shall not convey any prophecy that comes from another power. You shall not convey any prophecy that someone tells you to convey, even if it comes from Hashem. Meaning from the king, from the sages of the community, from those who have a connection with the Master of the World. The Holy One blessed be He tells Yirmiyahu, you receive instructions and commands only from "anochi command you." Not "command you" alone, and then it could be through another power from Hashem, but rather no, only directly from the Holy One blessed be He.
"And I, behold, I have made you this day a fortified city and an iron pillar and walls of bronze against the whole land, against the kings of Yehudah, its ministers, its priests, and the people of the land." He tells him, do not say that they will not pay attention to you in order to rise up against you, that they will perhaps ignore, perhaps your words will not have effect. He says, I have made you this day, you will be in their eyes like a fortified city. And afterward like an iron pillar. And afterward like walls of bronze. Until they fight against you in a very difficult war, as one fights to conquer a fortified city. In simple terms, they will not ignore you. They will try in every way to fight against you. And so too you will be in the eyes of the whole land, also against the kings of Yehudah, not only the kings of Yehudah who, out of their arrogance, naturally hate rebuke, and especially rebuke such as this, for what is its idea? To say a king will come and conquer our king. A king will come and exile our king. What king likes to hear such a thing? As it were they tell him, you here in a little while, you are banished from here. This is essentially a kind of rebellion against the monarchy. The king surely will not want to hear this. He tells him, not only him, but also his ministers and also his priests, who are really those who are supposed to teach knowledge to the people, they are the ones who are supposed to straighten them according to the way of the Torah. And also all the people of the land, all of them will fight against you and oppose your words.
But Hashem promises him, "and they shall fight against you but shall not prevail over you, for I am with you, says Hashem, to deliver you." They will fight against you and they will not prevail over you. The Holy One blessed be He tells him, why? Because I am with you to deliver you, so that they will not put you to death. And we already mentioned, they will not put you to death, but that they will not harm you, He has no promise for that. It may be that they will harm you, and they will try to harm, as we will see later. But to put you to death, they will not put you to death. The Malbim says that really here the Holy One blessed be He tells him, know, you will have no helper. For sometimes if I am against, say, the upper class, then the lower class helps me. If I am against the middle class, then perhaps the upper decile and the lower class will help me. And so on in this manner. But here He tells him, know, from no class will you have assistance. And this is what He enumerated earlier, the kings of Yehudah, its ministers, its priests, and also the people of the land. Both the middle class and the lower decile. Do not expect that you will have salvation. Well, if I will have no salvation, then Master of the World, how do You send me to commit suicide? "And they shall fight against you but shall not prevail over you, for I am with you, says Hashem, to deliver you." Although I told you that they all will oppose you, the Holy One blessed be He tells him, but do not forget that I am with you. And when I am with you, you have nothing to fear from anyone. And the Malbim explains that the term "fight" can be connected with the letter bet: fought against him (bo), fought with him (imo), fought with him (ito), or fought against him (alav). And the Malbim has for each of these a separate explanation, and we will not enter into it now; he too does not here explain all the differences between them. Only here he explains what it means when it is written "fought against (el)." It does not say "they fought with you" or "against you" or "with you," but rather "to you (elecha)." What does "they fought against (el) you" mean? "They fought against you" means he does not come head-on. He comes to try to outflank you from all sorts of sides, with schemes. This is "they fought against you," he does not fight you directly, but rather toward you, he will come and make all sorts of schemes from the side in order to trip you up. And ultimately the Holy One blessed be He says, you have nothing to worry about, although all are against you, I am with you. It is told of a certain rabbi, I believe it was Rav Kahaneman, who was a rabbi in a town in Europe, and he came before the Chafetz Chaim and told him that he was already thinking of giving up. He tells him, I do not know what to do against the maskilim in my town. They conquer area after area and take over the community and the buildings and the educational institutions, and he no longer knows what to do. The Chafetz Chaim tells him, what is the question? When there are two sides, one goes after the winning side. After the strong side. So he says, wait, I am alarmed. What do you mean? So the rabbi is telling me to go with them? The Chafetz Chaim tells him, you did not hear. I am telling you the winning side. You make a calculation of who will win in the end. These maskilim or the opposing side, which is the Master of the World, for behold, they are fighting against the Master of the World. Whoever you think will win in the end, go with him. This is what the Holy One blessed be He tells him here. They all fought against you, but do not worry, I am with you, says Hashem, to deliver you. It could be that everyone is with them, but it is enough for you that only Hashem is with you, that is sufficient, no more is needed. If only Hashem is with you, then all will be against you, but what shall I fear if Hashem is with me? When the Holy One blessed be He is with me, "I will fear no evil, for You are with me." So therefore the Holy One blessed be He tells him, I am, says Hashem, to deliver you.