אִם יִרְצֶה הַשֵּׁם
י״א חֶשְׁוָן תשפ״ז
Continues from The mem stands closed.
Under his glory a fire will burn like a conflagration.
Ve-tachas kevodo yikad yekod ki-yekod esh.
They jest at the places of exile
They spoke to the discredit of Eretz Yisrael as they were led away. Not every man of the ten tribes. Some made jests.
At Shavish one said shavye ki aren: it is worth as much as our land. At Olmin some said it is as good as our olamim, the everlasting home that is Yerushalayim. Others said the place is twice as good.
Rav Miller zt"l: this is the way of disloyal people. They give a kick to what is their own and admire what is foreign. Some Jews who came to America said Cincinnati is Yerushalayim and there is no more need to wait for Mashiach. The communists said Marx's books are now the Bible. The end of those Jewish communists was the firing squad.
Fire under his glory
Sanheriv did not come equipped only for battle. He brought pomp, wealth, palace people, women and servants to display power. Josephus records an earthquake, the earth split, and fire consumed one hundred eighty-five thousand.
Rav Yochanan: tachas kevodo mamish. Under the glory itself, not the glory. The garments remained. The bodies inside were consumed. Garments are the honor of mankind; only man wears them. When the people of Yerushalayim came out in the morning they saw richly clothed corpses. That the body burns and the garment does not is a nes.
Rav Elazar: under the true glory, which is the body itself, the garment of the soul. The flesh remained intact. The fire entered the nostrils and burned inside, like Nadav ve-Avihu. Or like the method of Bezden: molten lead poured down the throat so the body stays whole. Guf kayam.
Paroh spoke himself
Paroh who was disrespectful personally, ki mi Hashem asher eshma be-kolo, was repaid by Hashem Himself: va-yena'er Hashem es Mitzrayim ba-yam.
Sanheriv who blasphemed by means of a shaliach, Ravshakeh, was repaid by means of a shaliach.
Midah keneged midah. The one who will not even deliver the insult with his own mouth receives the greater insult of an underling. The language of the pasuk itself is part of the repayment. Rav Simcha Zissel noted that the way a thing is written in Tanach can itself be reward or punishment. The books are actualities in the briah.
First below, then above
One verse writes meromim kitzo, the height of his end. Another writes melon kitzo, the lodging place of his end.
Sanheriv said: first I will destroy his dwelling below, then his habitation above. The Beis Hamikdash is the place where the Shechinah lodges between the badei ha-aron, ben shodai yalin. There is no king without a people. Destroy the worship below, take the people into exile so they are lost among the nations, and Hashem will have to retire from His upper place as well.
These nations believed every people has its own god. The boast is sequential: the lower lodging, then the upper.
He read the Shiloach as a license
Sanheriv boasted: is it without Hashem that I have come up against this place? Hashem said to me, go up against this land and destroy it.
He had heard Yeshayahu.
Ya'an ki ma'as ha-am ha-zeh es mei ha-Shiloach ha-holchim le'at u-mesos es Retzin u-ven Remalyahu.
Because this people rejected the gentle waters of the Shiloach, the mild kings of Beis David, and rejoiced in Rezin and Pekach ben Remalyahu, Hashem would bring upon them the great river of Ashur. Some in Yehudah plotted to unseat the Davidic king and put Ben Tovah on the throne.
The navi said only that the waters would reach to the neck. Sanheriv took the words as permission to drown Yerushalayim. The prophecy was aimed primarily at the ten tribes who had already rejected Malchus Beis David entirely.
The gentle waters
Rav Yosef was blind and therefore expert in Targum. One does not recite Tanach from memory. Ilmalei targuma de-hai kra: were it not for the Targum of this verse, he would not know what it is saying. The Targum reads: because they rejected the Malchus Beis David that leads them gently, like the waters of the Shiloach, and desired Rezin and Pekach.
Therefore Hashem brings the raging river. Ki lo mu'af la-Shem mutzak lo: not those who are weary in Torah will be handed to the distressers. Eretz Yehudah under Chizkiyahu was the land of Torah. The ten tribes were not.
Rav Miller zt"l notes the same pattern later: people who reject the real leaders of the generation and look up to false ones receive a taste of what they admired.
Pekach's table
Me'eras Hashem be-veis ha-rasha u-neveih tzaddikim yevorach.
Pekach ben Remalyahu used to eat forty se'ah of broiled pigeons for dessert with his company. Some in Yehudah admired him: there is a leader. Chizkiyahu ate a litra of vegetables for his meal. Some despised him: a king who keeps so poor a table is not a real king.
The curse sits on the house that never has enough. The blessing sits on the dwelling of the tzaddikim.
They made the yoke heavy
Ka-eis ha-rishon hekel al-eretz Zevulun ve-artzah Naftali ve-ha-acharon hichbid derech ha-yam eiver ha-Yarden Galil ha-goyim.
The first ones, the ten tribes, lightened the yoke of Torah upon themselves. That is why Yerovam could tear them away and why they went into exile. The later ones, Eretz Yehudah under Chizkiyahu, made the yoke of Torah heavy upon themselves. Therefore they were fit for a nes like the crossing of Yam Suf and the crossing of the Yarden.
All three events, Makkas Bechoros, kriyas Yam Suf, the fall of Sanheriv, occurred on leil Pesach. Because they were occupied with Torah they merited the miracles of that season.
If he retracts
If Sanheriv retracts after he has carried off the ten tribes, it is good. He has fulfilled the mandate. If he presumes to take Yerushalayim, Hashem will make him gilul goyim.
A football of the nations, kicked from place to place until his sons assassinate him. A manure-heap among the nations, discarded. When he fled in disgrace after the loss of his army and wealth, his sons saw the opportunity and killed him while he bowed in the house of his idol.
Assyrian inscriptions later confirmed the assassination by his sons. Had he stayed within the words of Yeshayahu he could have returned a conquering king. He went past the mandate and received a dagger.
The oath to bring him
Achar ha-devarim ve-ha-emes ha-eleh ba Sanheriv melech Ashur.
The formula is not a mere chronological note. It marks a sequence.
After Chizkiyahu had strengthened Torah, Sanheriv came. Such a gift for such a ruler? The words and the truth are the oath of Hashem: I will bring Sanheriv before you and hand him into your hand for a great kiddush Hashem. When Chizkiyahu hears the news he will pray that I send him back. I will not listen. An oath is required so that the demonstration will not be cancelled by the later pleas.
I have broken Ashur in my land and upon my mountains I will trample him. Yehudah was a small country surrounded by rising powers, Bavel, Mitzrayim, Persia. Hashem chose to give the defeat in the land of Torah. The yoke and the burden will depart.
A feeding-trough
Rav Yochanan: let Sanheriv and his company come, and let him be made an avus, a feeding-trough, for Chizkiyahu and his people.
The word is related to avusenu, I will trample. They used to trample the fodder in the trough to make it easier for the animals. Sanheriv arrived with nobility, gems and wealth. That wealth becomes the trough from which Chizkiyahu's people feed.
The oil of Chizkiyahu
Ve-hubal ol mi-penei shamen.
The yoke is destroyed because of the fat. A yoke on a fat ox rots. On a lean ox it lasts.
The oil is the oil of Chizkiyahu: shemen delik ba-vatei knesios. He sent oil so that every beis midrash would be lit all night and people would study. He also planted a sword at the entrance of every beis midrash: anyone who does not come to study will be pierced by this sword.
Inspectors went from Dan to Beersheva and could not find an am ha-aretz. Even a boy or a girl knew the complicated laws of tumah and taharah. In that generation one calf and two sheep were enough. A thousand vines worth a thousand pieces of silver were left for thorns because the people had no time. Hashem therefore sent them the wealth of the camp.
Each for himself
Ve-usaf shalalchem ke-osef he-arbeh.
The navi told them to interrupt their studies and collect the plunder.
Should each take for himself, or should they gather everything and divide it? Like the locust: each for himself. Gathering and redistributing wastes too much time from Torah.
The money of the ten tribes is mixed in. Is it gezel? Once the goods fell into the hands of the nations the previous owners despaired (yeush), and the goods became hefker. The navi compares it to the pits of water that raise a man from tumah to taharah: when Jewish money falls to the nations it becomes purified for the taker.
Ten journeys in one day
Sanheriv, loaded with equipment and plunder, made ten journeys that an ordinary camp would make in ten days. Hashem expedited the passage.
He came against Ayos, passed Migron, deposited his things at Michmas, passed Mavora, lodged at the large Geva, Ramah trembled, Givas Shaul fled. Ten places either fell or were deserted.
From tzali kolech bas galim the navi is no longer listing stations. He is speaking to the Jewish people: raise your voice, daughter of the waves, as the enemy draws near. Use the moment for greater tefillah.
What precisely does bas galim name in the people at this hour, and how does the next clause continue the call once the camp is already at the gates?
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