"Declare this in the house of Yaakov and proclaim it in Yehudah, saying." Here the prophet says: state this rebuke and proclaim the message concerning the sand as the boundary of the sea. That is, he now moves to speak of a rebuke that contains within it a parable, and about this rebuke and parable the prophet says to all who hear his word: publicize the matter, declare this in the house of Yaakov and proclaim it in Yehudah. What is the house of Yaakov, and what is Yehudah? The Malbim explains that the house of Yaakov refers to the masses of the ten tribes. They do not know, so they must be told. The house of Yehudah, who do know, needs only to have the matter proclaimed and publicized among the many. We have already seen the difference between telling (hagadah) and proclaiming (hashmaah). Telling means you must relate something that you do not know, that must be told to you. Proclaiming refers to a known matter, that need only be sounded out and publicized. The house of Yaakov refers to the ten tribes, who are not here, so they must be told. In contrast, the two tribes who are here, Yehudah and Binyamin, do not need to be told; what they need they already know from the prophet here, and it need only be proclaimed and publicized. Why does the house of Yaakov allude to the ten tribes? Because, first of all, Yehudah is certainly speaking of those who are here, so who stands opposite them? Those who are not here, the ten tribes. That is one point. But beyond that, the people of Israel are divided into Israel and Yaakov. Why these two expressions? When the people of Israel are at their height, they are called Israel, from a term of dominion. When they are at a lower level, they are called Yaakov, from the word akevah, from akev, heel. The lowest part of the body is called the heel. This expresses the lowly state. Who are in the lowly state? The ten tribes. Therefore he says, declare this in the house of Yaakov, state and convey the message to the house of Yaakov, to the ten tribes.
"Hear this now, O foolish people, without a heart; who have eyes and see not, who have ears and hear not." The prophet gives them a rebuke and says: hear this now, O foolish people without a heart, that is one thing. "Who have eyes and see not" is a second thing. "Who have ears and hear not." We already know that the prophet does not repeat his expressions in different words unless he has something to add in each expression and statement, as the Malbim has already taught us. The Malbim says: at first he says, hear this now, O foolish people without a heart. What is a foolish people without a heart? A person understands and grasps the Holy One, blessed be He, through three paths. The first path is through the proofs of reason and knowledge: depth, contemplation, much thought. This is when there is a heart. But if it is a foolish people without a heart, then how will you grasp Hashem? A second possibility is through sensory observation: a person contemplates reality and sees, and can perceive Godliness in all kinds of workings of creation. He says: but they have eyes and see not. The eyes are the expression of sensory perception, behold before my eyes I see. The third path is through received tradition (kabbalah). By kabbalah we do not mean the concept of the Zohar, but tradition, kabbalah as in the chain of received tradition, handed down from generation to generation. How do I know? Because I heard from my father, and my father heard from his father, back to Moshe Rabbenu, back to the standing at Har Sinai. This is called "through received tradition." This kabbalah comes by way of the ear, not by way of sight. He cannot show it to me, what would he show me? Can he show me, why is this matzah that we eat? He can show me, but that is not the same matzah. What can he do? He can tell me about it. Therefore the received tradition is expressed through the ears. The message of what I received from my father, I convey to my son through the ears, through speech, through relating the matters. So he says: they do not have the mind to delve deeply and contemplate on their own, they do not have eyes to open to see with their senses the reality of the Creator, and they also do not have received tradition to accept from a prior generation, and this is what he says, "who have ears and hear not." And they do not hear, meaning they are unwilling to perform the act of listening and to heed the proofs and evidence that there is a Creator of the world who gives reward and punishment, and that whoever transgresses His will is stricken, and whoever does His will receives reward. They have none of these tools that were supposed to lead them to the correct conclusions. These expressions appear in several places in the verses, as it is written, "lest it see with its eyes and hear with its ears and its heart understand." Again we see the three elements: ears, eyes, and heart. "And Hashem has not given you a heart to know, and eyes to see, and ears to hear." "Do you not know," that is in the heart. "Do you not hear," that is in the ears. Excuse me, "do you not know" is with sight, "do you not hear" is with the ears, "have you not understood" refers to the heart. This refers to the conceptual, the sensory, and the received, which is through the ears as we explained. And so too in the following verse we will see that this is what he confronts them with regarding these two matters.
"Do you not fear Me, says Hashem? Will you not tremble before Me, who placed the sand as the boundary of the sea, an everlasting decree that it cannot pass; though its waves toss, they cannot prevail, though they roar, they cannot pass over it." The Holy One, blessed be He, says: do you not fear Me? For there are two witnesses whom you cannot deny. One is in the world at large, and the second witness is within you yourselves, and we will explain. He tells them: the witness that is in the world at large is the sea. When the Holy One, blessed be He, created the world, "In the beginning God created," the spirit of God hovered over the waters, and the waters covered the entire world. The Holy One, blessed be He, said, "Let the waters be gathered to one place and let the dry land appear," and then all the waters were concentrated in the place called today the sea. When the waters were gathered to one place, they naturally wanted to burst out, but they gathered as a heap because the Holy One, blessed be He, decreed upon them not to leave that place. And what did He place around it? The Holy One, blessed be He, said to them, "You shall come this far and no further," and He set the sand as a boundary for the sea. This sand is meant so that the sea will not break out and cross over and leave the boundary that Hashem set for it. The sand is not a high wall standing before the waters. Moreover, the Radak says that the waves of the sea are constantly roaring and constantly threatening to break through this sand, and they reach the shore and return. And again another, larger wave comes and reaches the shore and returns. And if the Holy One, blessed be He, decides one time not to stop it, then there are three hundred thousand dead, Hashem have mercy, some mighty tsunami that sweeps away cities and villages, and who can stand before it. So essentially He says: see how the Holy One, blessed be He, is in nature, you can contemplate how the Holy One, blessed be He, runs His world, and the Holy One, blessed be He, prevented the waters from bursting their fence and boundary, and He set a limit for them. Through this you can recognize and observe that there is individual providence from Hashem, and Hashem does with it as He wishes, so how can you not fear Me? How can you not tremble before Me and not consider that I can do as I wish if you transgress My commandments? If I can set a boundary for the sea, can I not carry out some action against you?
The creation of the world... what did I mean to say from the creation of the world? Then let Him say, "I am Hashem your God who created you and created the entire world in six days," and so on. That is far more staggering. Why "I am Hashem your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt," which is something small? True, "I brought you out of the land of Egypt" is small next to the creation of the world, but it is small that I saw. The exodus from Egypt I experienced. The splitting of the Sea of Reeds I experienced. In contrast, the creation of the world I believe in, but I did not experience it. It is far easier to convince a person from experiences he himself has had than from experiences for which he must exercise the power of faith. The Radak says, this is also the answer in our matter. The Radak says here: when I come to convince this people, this people is a nation of deniers, so if I come and tell them stories from history, who said so? Not necessarily, not always true, these are folktales, these are legends that developed over the years, and all kinds of heretical claims that are hard, one cannot convince them because it is hard to confuse them with facts. Yes, they have their theory, and he will bring proofs and he will not, it does not speak to him, he simply does not want to hear. But this matter of the sand as the boundary of the sea, this is an inviolable law, everyone can see it at all times. In this they cannot deny; they see it with their eyes, they hear it with their ears, and one cannot argue against it or offer explanations against it, and therefore specifically from this he brings proof.
"But this people has a stubborn and rebellious heart; they have turned aside and gone." "But this people has a stubborn and rebellious heart." The Malbim says: it is written here "heart." What is the meaning of a stubborn and rebellious heart? The heart, says the Malbim, denotes the arousing faculty in a person, the faculty from which the traits, the character qualities, the desires emerge, everything in the soul emerges from the power of the heart. "You have given him his heart's desire." When a person wants something or aspires to something, where does it begin? The arousing faculty in a person, the desiring faculty in a person, everything begins from the heart. The heart is like the leader of the body, and it is not without reason the pump that drives everything, for it is actually the governing force that leads everything. The Malbim says: behold, they have a heart, and their heart is stubborn. What does this mean? True, there are proofs, and the proofs, as we said, are essentially proofs of the mind, as we saw at the outset, but the heart does not want to accept the proofs. So what is the heart? The heart is stubborn. Through the desires, through the character traits, they are like the waves that come to conquer the shore. So a person's desires come to conquer the solid and stable thing, which is the intellectual, rational proofs, the evidence for the existence of the Creator, the logical proofs that can be proven from history and from a thousand and one paths, that there is a Creator of the world and that man has a role. But the heart is like a raging sea of desires and wants, and this causes a person's heart to be stubborn and rebellious. That is, his heart is stubborn, it has turned aside from the path, it is not interested in accepting the proofs, not interested in agreeing with what the mind accepts as something seemingly self-evident.
He says: behold, but see, it would have been fitting for the mind to prevail. And if the mind prevails, what does that mean? That the agitation of the heart is waves, they come to sweep in, but the mind is the shore, it will stop them. He says: but here it is not so. A stubborn and rebellious heart, they have turned aside and gone. There is a shore, but these waves sweep it away. In short, this heart is a tsunami heart. It sweeps away even the shore. Instead of these waves stopping when they reach the shore, the heart here is a stubborn heart that sweeps away even what is on the shore, and through this they have turned aside and gone, completely turned aside from the path, and they fall into the category of a stubborn and rebellious heart. And through this there is really no one to talk to, since they are stubborn and rebellious, and being stubborn they also cross the boundary that Hashem set, which is the boundary of the mind; they act according to desire against the mind.
"Nor did they say in their heart: Let us now fear Hashem our God, who gives rain, the early and the late rain in its season, who keeps for us the appointed weeks of the harvest." "Nor did they say in their heart: Let us now fear Hashem our God." After we saw that He said, "Do you not fear Me," meaning it is fitting to fear Hashem with the fear of His exaltedness, now He comes and says to them: it is fitting that at least you not tremble before Me, that is, even if you do not have the fear of exaltedness, which means to be in awe of the majesty of His grandeur, and this is truly a level of fear, do you not tremble before Me? Do you have no fear of punishment? For even a person who does not have the fear of exaltedness, punishment everyone understands. To put your hand in fire burns, and no one does it. But in contrast, to do something that defies the word of Hashem, which requires of me the fear of exaltedness, in this we see that a person is not, not, not so concerned. So this is what He said earlier: do you not fear Me, then at least do you not tremble before Me? You should at least have feared out of fear of punishment. And what is the fear of punishment? This matter of the rain, the early and late rain, we know that there is a special influence upon the Land of Israel, that "the eyes of Hashem your God are upon it." And it is not like the land of Egypt, "which you watered with your foot like a vegetable garden." And though it would seem there is an advantage in Egypt because there is always the Nile there, while here we are subject to the mercies of the Creator, but this is precisely the virtue. As Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai says: the wayward son, the father gave him his wages and sent him off. But the righteous son, the father said to him, I want you to come every day to receive your bread, and not come once a year. That is, the very fact that "the eyes of Hashem your God are upon it from the beginning of the year to the end of the year" itself shows your virtue, it shows your greatness. And on the other hand, this is a double-edged sword. Because if you stray from the path, we have already spoken several times, when providence is close, on the one hand it is a great advantage, because when one does good he immediately receives good, but on the other hand it is also a great difficulty, because when one does evil he is immediately struck. And if so, then from this very thing you should have seen: let us now fear Hashem our God, who gives rain, the early and the late rain in its season. You should have seen, behold, from Hashem, the Holy One, blessed be He, Himself, we obtain our needs. Rain in its season, for if the rain fell arbitrarily, there is still no forecaster who can tell us what will be, even in forecasts of what will be this year, they are wrong. Even in what will be this week, endlessly you see them tell you it will be rainy this week, and apparently the rain in the heavens did not hear the forecast. Otherwise, there is no explanation for why it did not come. And all sorts of such things where you see how deficient their forecasts are, certainly when it comes to years ahead. If so, it is clear to everyone that the rain, though it, pay attention, this is a very interesting matter, though it is a natural phenomenon, and a natural phenomenon we should be able to predict with the utmost precision, since all the natural data exist, you have a synoptic map, so if so, let us determine clearly when rain will fall, how and what. And yet we see that there is no such possibility. That is, rain constitutes a proof that there is providence. And it is providence that determines when it will fall and how it will fall, and sometimes you can say rain will fall on such-and-such a date, and everything is clear. The wind data and the cloud data and the amount of precipitation and whatever you want, everything is correct. Only there was one small problem, the wind took it another three kilometers and the rain fell in Jordan. They predicted it for us here, but it is not here, it did not fall in Jerusalem, it fell in Jordan. That is, you can have all the data, but you still understand that there is providence here that will decide whether it is coming to you or not coming to you. Whether it will fall or not fall. And if it falls, where will it fall? And it may be that it fell for you, but where? You will have a flood in the Judean desert. From the beginning of the season enormous amounts of precipitation fell, and they say it did not move the Kinneret at all. Because all, because all the precipitation fell in the south. There were floods there. And in this, in the north they say that in terms of precipitation, for the Kinneret it was very little. That is, it may well be that rain fell, but if it does not fall in the appropriate place, then it does not give much. "One field would be rained upon, and the field upon which it did not rain would wither." That is, the Holy One, blessed be He, is the one who determines exactly how and what. So in this you should have seen how the Holy One, blessed be He, is the one who determines and gives, so to speak online, in the moment of truth, according to your situation, right now, the rain. So is this not a reason for us to fear Hashem? For it is fitting also that the heart, which as we said earlier is the desires and wants, from the side of the desires and wants you want to have good. From the side of the desires and wants you want to have a livelihood, to have abundance, to have... so how do you oppose the existence of Hashem when you do not understand that this harms you yourself? You want good, you want pleasures, this harms you, you have no rain. "Who gives rain, the early and the late rain in its season," each time with individual providence. Beyond that, there are needs, says the Malbim, that we obtain through the nature that the Holy One, blessed be He, engraved from the six days of creation. "The appointed weeks of the harvest." The Holy One, blessed be He, engraved from the six days of creation heat and sun in the days of the harvest, when rain does not fall. And here too we need Hashem, that He not change this nature. That He leave nature as it is. "The appointed weeks of the harvest," even though there are seven, he says these are the seven weeks from Pesach to Atzeret, these are the appointed weeks of the harvest, "who keeps for us." That the Holy One, blessed be He, keep this time so that it not change. For in their time, if rain had fallen during the harvest, the entire harvest would have gone to ruin. The grain would rot, would spoil, it could not be dried, it could not be separated from the chaff, all the work would be ruined. So He says: behold, see, the Holy One, blessed be He, if He wanted to punish you, could punish you by stopping the rain, which is providence at every single moment, and could punish you by changing the times of summer and winter. That in wintertime you expect rain, no rain falls, and then all the grain rots in the ground or dries up, and in summertime when you expect the sun to dry the grain, He gives you a bit of rain and this turns all that you managed to harvest into rot and ruin. So in simple words: how do you follow the power of desire that seeks pleasures, and you do not fear Hashem who can cause you harm and pain in your bodily pleasures, in what you seek to enjoy here in the physical? So why do you not fear Hashem?
"Your iniquities have turned these away, and your sins have withheld the good from you." "Your iniquities have turned these away." This means, iniquity (avon), as the Malbim says, is the sin committed through heresy and willfully. Sin (chet), in contrast, is generally something done inadvertently or something done out of desire. Iniquity is greater than sin. Because a sin still has some justification: his desire overcame him, or I was inadvertent. But an iniquity, which is a distortion of the mind, heresy out of deliberate thought, for this what is the excuse? Iniquity is greater than sin, and therefore the punishment of iniquity, the Holy One, blessed be He, punishes so to speak actively, He overturns nature, He changes it to our detriment. This is what He says: your iniquities have turned these away. Through the willful iniquities, we cause the appointed weeks of harvest to be turned. Even though it is a law of nature, the Holy One, blessed be He, so to speak changed nature on our account. Why? Because there is iniquity here, and iniquity is very severe. "And your sins have withheld the good from you." In contrast, sin, as we said, is inadvertent or out of desire, and it is lighter. Pay attention, the sins do not, they do not have the power to bring upon us an active operation of evil, but what do they have? They have the power to hold back the good. Understood? Not to bring evil, but to prevent good. Therefore He says: your sins, which are lighter, they caused the withholding of the good, which is the passive (do not do), for if rain was coming to you, the sin stopped the rain. In contrast, the iniquities, they have the power to bring evil upon you, to change the appointed weeks of harvest, that is, to bring upon you even a rain of curse. This is the power of iniquity. So He says: behold, see that these things are what brought upon you all those troubles and disasters, so upon whom do you have to complain? You have no one to complain about but yourselves.
"For among My people are found wicked ones; he lies in wait as fowlers crouch; they set a trap, they catch men." "For among My people are found wicked ones," the prophet says: among the people there are wicked ones. "He lies in wait (yashur)." Yashur means he lurks, as in "for my adversaries (shorerai)," "I behold it (ashurenu), but not near," which is from the term of seeing, watching, and lurking. "As fowlers crouch (keshoch yekushim)." When the trap crouches, what is a yakush? A yakush is a snare. The snare is the trap they would set, a trap they would set to catch deer in the forest. When the deer would place its leg in the place of the trap, there was a spring, and the spring would cause it to be, this is two half-circles with teeth at their edges, when it is open it is like a full circle, and when it folds it is like a biter, half a circle closing on half a circle, and then these teeth grip the leg of the deer and it is attached by a chain or the like, and it cannot walk away from there. So this is what he says, "keshoch yekushim," when the snare, the trap, bites the leg of the deer caught there, so too "they set a trap, they catch men." The wicked ones set a trap, they would make ambushes on the mountains, on the roads, and they catch men. There in the trap they would not catch deer, but they would catch men. The Malbim explains that here there is actually an explanation of what the sins are for which the Holy One, blessed be He, says that He will stop the heavens, that He will change the appointed weeks of harvest. About this the prophet here says: know, the iniquities are robbery and murder. The Malbim says: I have already written in Parashat Bereshit that iniquities which are contrary to the laws of nature and the sustaining of the world, nature itself exacts payment from the sinner. What does this mean? If we speak of a transgression between man and God, a person did not put on tefillin, I cannot call this a transgression against the laws of nature and the sustaining of the world. But if a person murdered, that is against the laws of nature and the sustaining of the world. The world cannot exist when there are murderers in it. If a person stole, that is against the laws of nature and the sustaining of the world, because the world cannot exist when there are thieves in it. And indeed all the nations are warned about the seven Noahide commandments, for in the seven Noahide commandments there are essentially social warnings, how the world can exist. So if there is murder, and if there is adultery, and if there is theft, and if there is idolatry, these are things that prevent the world from existing. And therefore establishing courts, and eating a limb from a living animal, all these are things that a gentile too is commanded in, because these are things needed for the sustaining of the world. And this then is what he says here, says the Malbim: know, when there are transgressions against the sustaining of the world, the world exacts payment from them. That is, there is no external punishment, rather nature exacts payment from the sinners. As it is written, "the voice of your brother's blood cries out to Me from the ground." That is, the earth will not give its produce when there is a voice of blood crying out from within it. Nature, so to speak, punishes one who commits transgressions that cause the sustaining of the world according to the laws of nature to be unable to continue.
The Malbim says, what is written here, "he lies in wait as fowlers crouch," the Malbim explains, he compares the hunting of the men whom they would catch in a trap, that is, in a snare, to men who hunt birds. When they hunt the bird, the bird falls into the net and is caught in it. What does the hunter do? He stands at a distance and lies in wait, he watches. And not only lies in wait, but crouches. What is "crouches (shoch)"? Shach means he waits until the fowlers crouch. "Keshoch yekushim," the Malbim explains, until the bird calms down in the trap, ceases its fluttering, and then he sets up a new trap again. And the reason is simple: as long as the bird flutters inside, it scares off its fellows. Other birds will not come to be caught in the traps. Therefore he always waits from setting a trap until the fowlers crouch, until the snared ones, those already caught, are still, like "when the sea calms (kshoch) from its waves," that is, calms down, until there is calm and quiet, then he sets an additional trap. For as long as the birds are moving in the net, he cannot set an additional trap because the coming birds will sense the movement of the trapped birds. And this is what he says: he lies in wait and watches until the fowlers crouch. Until they calm down, then they set the destroyer, then they set the trap a second time to catch others. But this is an accepted technique in bird hunting. He tells you: do not be confused, they catch men. What I am telling you here, this is how men are caught. In this way they would catch men. What does this mean? When some person was caught in their net, they wait until they kill him, and then, as it were, the matter no longer makes waves, they no longer talk about it, and they return again and catch another and kill another. And they act in such a way, they do not do deed after deed immediately, that makes many waves, much noise, the media talk, it could cause them problems. Therefore they wait until the fowlers crouch, until the people, the matter calms down, and then again they go and catch another man, go and murder another man.
"As a cage full of birds, so are their houses full of deceit; therefore they have become great and rich." "As a cage full of birds." The cage is the place where they would fatten the birds. A cage, the Radak explains, is a vessel made of boards, in which they raise birds and fatten them there. That is, today we know the cage also as a place for raising birds, not necessarily as a place of fattening. But it may be one and the same, because they would essentially leave the bird there until it fattened, they would feed and feed and feed until it fattened. Therefore it is also called the place of fattening birds. And then he compares them here to a cage; just as the cage is filled with birds according to what it can hold, and food and drink are placed in it, so too the houses of these wicked ones, says the Radak, are full of deceit. Money that they gathered through deceit, and they come into their houses, into their cage, and delight in that money, like the birds that delight in the food and drink placed into their cage. The Malbim explains that this is actually a continuation of what we said earlier. We said that they would set a destroyer for men just as they would set the net for birds. So he describes and says: after he finished the deed, he puts the birds he caught in the cage. He continues with the parable. The parable was hunting birds, the analogue was hunting men. He continues with the parable and says: after he finished hunting the birds, he puts the birds in the cage, and this cage is full of birds from all the hunting. So too, after the completion of their deeds, they fill their houses with the deceit, with the stolen money, with the extortion they extorted from those men. And since this is so, therefore they have become great and rich. Therefore you see that they have become great and rich, do not err, it is not from the labor of their hands, it is not from the livelihood they went to earn, but it is from the murder we described earlier, it is from the theft of money we mentioned earlier.
Naturally, people who commit such wicked deeds in an orderly, well-run state, which has proper government and courts, then such people would be prosecuted, brought to trial, they would fear the judges. He tells you: come and see what happens here. "They have grown fat and sleek; they also overpass in deeds of evil. They do not plead the cause, the cause of the orphan, that they may prosper, and the judgment of the needy they do not judge." He says, "they have grown fat and sleek," the Radak explains, this is by way of metaphor, like "and Yeshurun grew fat and kicked." They multiplied their possessions. And there is here also a certain figure of speech, as though he says: the rich, from their great fatness and richness, "eshtu," like ivory (eshet shen), meaning when a person's flesh grows fat, it becomes shiny, it gleams. So he says it is like eshet, that eshet means something shining, something gleaming. "They also overpass in deeds of evil." Their wealth is not enough for them, but they rob abundantly, plunder abundantly, until they overpass all the deeds of an evil man. This means, they exceeded and did things beyond what evil people do. This is the meaning of "they overpass, they overpass in deeds of evil." The things you know from people, things that evil people do, deeds of evil, they exceeded that. They did beyond what is familiar to you in matters of wickedness. The Targum Yonatan says: they transgressed the words of the Torah, they did what is evil. They transgressed what the Torah says, and did evil. So there are here as it were two things: they transgressed the Torah and did evil. "They do not plead the cause, the cause of the orphan, that they may prosper." The Malbim explains: come and see, they have grown fat and sleek from all the good they robbed; not only do they not fear punishment, but they also overpass in deeds of evil. That is, no evil is spoken of them at all. That is, they carry out their wicked deed without fearing what will be said, what they will say, that we will be held to account. Why? "They do not plead the cause." This means, since there is no case brought against them, therefore they do not fear. What is "there is no case"? There are no plaintiffs. There are no plaintiffs, they do not plead the cause, no one comes to prosecute us. You robbed, you murdered, you took, no one comes to prosecute. And why indeed? He continues and says: the cause of the orphan, that they may prosper. Because who really would have had to prosecute them? The orphan. They murdered his father, so who needs to prosecute? The orphan. Who would have had to prosecute? "The judgment of the needy." The needy is the one robbed, so the needy ones are his friends, his relatives, they are the ones who should prosecute. And since the cause of the orphan they did not plead, and since there in that place they did not judge the cause of the orphan, because the orphan, who will hear his cry? He is not powerful, he has no connections. So since in this place they do not judge the cause of the orphan and do not judge the cause of the needy for that same reason, if you come as some factory manager or company head or a person of renown, then they will pay attention to what you say. But when you are an orphan and needy, then in any case "the words of the poor man are despised." So in such a situation they can feel that they can freely continue in the wicked deed they are doing. They can continue to rob the orphans and the needy and to murder, because really who will go and judge them? Who? The cause of the orphan? The cause of the orphan is in any case not judged. The judgment of the needy is in any case not judged. So therefore they permit themselves, they overpass in deeds of evil, to do more and beyond deeds of evil, and no one speaks evil of them, as the Malbim explained, they transgress these deeds of evil, they do not fear what will be said of them as evil, since here in any case they do not judge the cause of the orphan nor the cause of the needy, so this is what is called passing under the streetlamp and no one talks. The media has no interest in making noise about it, these are not their people. So in any case through this these people permit themselves to do whatever comes to mind. The Malbim explains here another interpretation: "they have grown fat and sleek, they also overpass in deeds of evil," so one interpretation is the interpretation that the Radak and also the Malbim explained, that it is from the term ivory (eshet shen), which means pure and clear and gleaming. The Malbim brings an additional interpretation, that he says that "eshet" is from the term eshtonot, thoughts. That is, according to this it comes out: they have grown fat, they schemed, they also overpass in deeds of evil. "Eshtu" is from the term eshtonot, thoughts, they planned evil and also overpassed in deeds of evil, they also carried out the plans into action. So then what is written at first, "eshtu," this speaks of what is called the theory, the potential, and afterward "they also overpass in deeds of evil," afterward they also carried out the matters into action; what was for them at first only in thought, in their schemes, they rose up and did so in practice. "That they may prosper," why? Because the judgment of the needy they did not judge, since no one prosecuted them for their corrupt deeds.
"Shall I not punish for these things, says Hashem, shall My soul not avenge itself on a nation such as this?" The Malbim says: pay attention, in our chapter he enumerated three severe transgressions: idolatry, sexual immorality, bloodshed. At first he mentioned the matter of sexual immorality, "each one neighs after his neighbor's wife." And afterward what is written there? "Shall I not punish them for these things, says Hashem." That is, He said: could it enter one's mind that they committed such a severe transgression and the Holy One, blessed be He, will not exact payment? After this he mentioned idolatry, "for they have forsaken Hashem." And then he said, "Behold, I am bringing upon them a nation from afar." And here he mentions bloodshed, and about this he says, "Shall I not punish for these things, says Hashem," concerning the matter of the bloodshed they commit, shall I not punish? And therefore Hashem says: "An appalling and horrible thing has come to pass in the land." "Shammah," says Rashi, is a term of astonishment. "Shaarurah," a thing disgusting to all. "Shammah," the Radak explains, means from the term of wonder, as in "many were appalled (shammu) at you," like "he will be appalled (yishom) and hiss." What is "yishom"? Stunned, astonished. This is the meaning of shammah. Shammah, there is about to be here in the land something that will cause people to be astonished, to wonder at the evil thing that occurred, from the term of a thing of wonder. "And shaarurah." Shaarurah is a thing of filth and defilement, like "the loathsome (shoarim) figs," meaning that there will be here something that is a thing of corruption. The Malbim brings, excuse me, the Radak, explains another interpretation, he says that there are versions where it is written "teimah," tav-yod-mem-aleph, which is from the term of finishing off, teimi from the term tammu, they ceased, they ended. Yes? So what is written here, shammah and shaarurah, means there is about to be here annihilation, from the term of orphaning, that is, nothing will remain. The Malbim explains: what is the redundancy? The Malbim says: through bloodshed and robbery there will be shammah, as we explained that there will be an aspect of, according to the Malbim in the plain sense it means from the term desolation (shemamah), meaning there will be no continued existence. And through the adultery and idolatry there will be shaarurah and loathing. And there is no hope that they will repent through the rebuke of the prophets. Why? The next verse explains: "The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule at their direction, and My people love it so; and what will you do at its end?" "The prophets prophesy falsely," or prophesy in falsehood, says Rashi, the prophets, their false prophets, would say: rob and coerce. This is the recommendation of the prophet. The prophet would tell you: do this, rob, murder, coerce. "And the priests," who were their judges, they were their taskmasters, they "ruled the people at their direction," "al yedeihem," Rashi explains, meaning after. Like "and all the people passed by his side (al yado)," where the meaning is after him. We will soon see additional interpretations in this, but this is how Rashi explains. So the prophets prophesied falsely, and the priests ruled at their direction, meaning and afterward, after them will come also the priests and rule the people, and here what is the meaning of after them? They come after them to act according to the words of the prophets. That is, it is not enough what the prophets instruct, but the priests come after this and act according to the words of the prophets, that the prophets teach falsehood, and the priests still act after them. The Radak explains that here there is actually an explanation of what the shammah and shaarurah are that came to pass in the land. The prophets prophesied falsely to the people, they would tell them: peace will be with you. This is more likely than what Rashi says, that their prophets would say: rob and coerce. And this is more reasonable, since here essentially the prophets are not saying commit a wicked deed, but they were merely saying Hashem loves you, and there will be peace for the people; they were so likable, very likable people, the people loved them very much. Because the prophets always prophesied good things to them. The false prophets, why, it was media: it will be good, and we have a wonderful nation, and our youth is special, and everything is fine, everything will be fine, no, do not tell stories and all kinds of apocalyptic forecasts and do not frighten the people with Gog and Magog and Gog and Magog, no need, everything will be fine, the nation is wonderful and everything is fine and everything is excellent. And everything is excellent. And then through this he adapts the people to an evil path. What happens? A true prophet would come, telling them: gentlemen, you are doing corrupt deeds and the Holy One, blessed be He, will exact payment from you, there will be exile, the enemy will come here, he will annihilate everyone. The false prophets would come, saying: no, you have nothing to worry about, it will be fine, you are excellent, everything is good, everything is wonderful. And you have no idea how much Hashem loves His people Israel, and if only a person would love the completely righteous one as much as the Holy One, blessed be He, loves the greatest wicked one. And all sorts of, one can always quote endless citations to explain how beloved we are before Hashem, and you can continue, continue what you are doing, Hashem loves you in every situation, and a father always loves his children, and a mother loves her children, you have nothing to worry about, continue. This was the false prophecy. And this is what it says: the prophets prophesied falsely. And the priests ruled at their direction. The Radak has an interesting explanation here, he explains what "yardu" is: yardu like "they scooped honey (radu)." Taking, from the term of scooping honey. The priests would take a bribe in order to pervert justice. And they take "al yedeihem." What is "al yedeihem" (with their hands)? When a person has good honey, then he eats it with his hands. He licks his fingers. This is what he says, they scooped with their hands, they would scoop from the people the honey, the money, for the bribe, with their hands, wanting so to speak to describe the extent of their lust in this, he tells you "al yedeihem," they lick their hands as a good and sweet thing. Another interpretation he explains, more in the direction of rule and dominion, from the term "you shall not rule (tirdeh) over him with rigor," and "he ruled (rodeh) over all the region beyond the river from Tifsah to Azzah." And the prophets ruled, the priests ruled at their direction, meaning the priests would rule the people to act according to the word of the prophet. And then according to this, what is written here "al yedeihem," the meaning is he was ruling the people through the prophets. What the prophet would instruct, who would rule at his direction? The priests. They are the ones who would give the instructions and carry them out according to what the prophet was directing them.
And about this he says: "and My people love it so; and what will you do at its end?" "And My people love it so," for really, why not? It is very pleasant to hear words of encouragement, how good we are, how wonderful we are, how upright we are. Far more pleasant than hearing Yirmiyah, who constantly says how bad we are, how not good we are, how corrupt we are. So My people love it so, the nation is excellent, this is a prophet, I very much love to hear him. This prophet, he has a program in the media, a bombshell of a prophet, really excellent this prophet, what good things he says, I tell you truly, he has a positive view of the people, he is not one of those religious types who constantly only love Gog and Magog and all kinds of curses and some, he is really very likable, this prophet is very likable. My people love it so. The prophet says: and what will you do at its end? But when the whole thing blows up in your faces, what will you do at its end? Is this not what happened then at Oslo? For all the false prophets said: behold peace upon Israel, behold now a hundred years of conflict are ending, how wonderful, even Arafat is about to shave. Just one more sure bet, we tell you, this will all end, you will see, there will be a peaceful state here, so the new Middle East will come about, you will see what beauty, you just need to develop them, they want to live here in peace, they want us to, for them to have it good with us, we can wipe up hummus in Damascus. Go explain to them that in another twenty years there will be no Damascus. What hummus are you talking about? Other things they will wipe up there. But, but the false prophets so wanted this falsehood to take hold, so they sold the people illusions. And when they sold the people illusions, the people bought them. I remember at the time Rabbi Ezran, I was a young man, I remember at the time, then there was the great enthusiasm about Oslo and peace, and there is about to be peace and Rabin and the historic handshake and we are done, they have abandoned the path of war, and everyone said to them: an Arab remains an Arab and a hater of Israel remains a hater of Israel, and nothing will help, and listen to what he says to his people, listen to what he says to his people, you do not need us to report on it, listen to what he says. And he tells them: this is only a Quraysh agreement, and we, this is an agreement that was so to speak outward but afterward was meant only to trap the enemies, so he told them: this is only outward, we still, do not worry, we will get rid of them, we will expel them, in short, they said listen only to what they have to say. And they did not, there was such euphoria. So there was, there was some broadcaster who interviewed Rabbi Ezran at the time. So she says to him: tell me, Rabbi Ezran, but you see that most of the people are in favor of the Oslo accords, you see that they, why do you oppose it? You see that most of the people are... So he told her, Rabbi Ezran was a very shrewd Jew, so he told her: correct, you are right, but give me the media for two weeks and after that we will see what the opinion of most of the people is. The opinion of most of the people, for you are false prophets, the prophets prophesied falsely, you sell them illusions, and this people is already suffocated, it only wants someone to tell me something good that is about to be here, and the people wait, so the false prophets tell them, and My people love it so, it falls on attentive ears, because the people really await good things, it already wants peace, it is already sick of the conflict, it is already looking for this whole matter to end. The prophet says: correct, but one does not live afterward on illusions. The illusion bursts at some stage. And therefore he says: and what will you do at its end? And what will you do when all this bursts? And what will you do when the magnitude of the mistake becomes clear to everyone? And by then they already have weapons, and by then they already have autonomy, and by then they already have the ability to launch missiles across the whole country, all that they told them then, do not give them rifles, they will slaughter us, they will draw close to us, they will fire missiles at us, all that they said then, no, you always love only to predict dark forecasts and constantly this, and one must give hope, and one must give peace a chance, and all kinds of false prophecies that the prophets prophesied falsely. And then in practice we saw what the results were. This had already been in ages past. Then too, at the time of the destruction of the Temple, the false prophets sold them illusions. The prophet says: but at its end what will you do? When all this bursts before your face, what will you do then at its end? This illusion cannot be continued without limit, this illusion will in the end burst in everyone's face. The Malbim explains: the prophets prophesied falsely, he says the prophets prophesied falsely and not by force. Why? Because they had the priests. The priests ruled at their direction. The prophets would say false prophecies, but the one who was afterward the enforcing arm, these were the priests who ruled with force to punish those at the hands of the transgressors. But he says, instead of punishing transgressors, they would rule at their direction. That is, according to the instructions from the prophet. And then it comes out that instead of driving them to the service of Hashem, they would drive them to the service of the Baal, to the false worship, to all the illusions they were selling them. The priests would rule at their direction. What will you say? Fine, but perhaps there is still hope that the people themselves will understand the falsehood? That the people themselves will take to heart to repent? He says: but it is not possible, because My people love it so. That is, this pleased the people. So there is no reason for the people to come and rise up against something that did in fact seem good to them. So what will you do at its end? For all this comes because of the wickedness of their deeds; what then will they do?