In this part of the chapter, the prophet Amos moves from the general lamentation over the fall of Israel to the root of the illness: the attitude toward rebuke. A nation that cannot tolerate reproof cannot be rectified. From this point forward, the prophet details the sins, the measure-for-measure punishment, and the final opening that still remains for repentance. We will follow the order of the pesukim according to the commentary of the Malbim.
שָׂנְאוּ בַשַּׁעַר מוֹכִיחַ וְדֹבֵר תָּמִים יְתָעֵבוּ׃ (י) - They hate the one who rebukes in the gate, and they abhor one who speaks uprightly. (10)
The prophets sought to rebuke them, but they hated those who came to reprove them. And who are the reprovers? Radak explains: the true prophets and the righteous among them. And what is "in the gate"? The gate is always an idiom for the place of justice: "to the gate, to the elders," "and turn away the needy at the gate" - who turns them away? The judges who sit at the gate; "and establish justice in the gate"; "and Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom" - on that very day, they appointed him as a judge over them.
One must understand why the gate is called the place of justice. We are accustomed to thinking in modern terms: a gate is simply a gate, an entrance door. But that was not how it was. Anyone who looks at the ancient entrance to Jerusalem sees massive walls, which were extremely thick, sometimes with entire houses built right on the wall. Upon the wall itself, at the entryway into the city, they constructed the court of justice. Therefore, whenever Scripture speaks of judgment, it says that the judges sit in the gate. This does not mean they sat by the door blocking those who entered, but rather in a structure built within the city gate, where court proceedings were conducted.
The Malbim explains: this was the reason for their fall without anyone to raise them up - "The maiden of Israel has fallen, she shall rise no more." They hated the reprovers who sought to straighten them out and return them to the proper path. Whether the reprover addressed matters of civil justice - which is "in the gate," since judges sit in the gate, referring to sins between man and fellow man; or whether the reprover addressed sins between man and God, which is "and they abhor one who speaks uprightly" - one who tells them to make their ways whole, for tamim means complete, to make their ways complete with their Creator. They listened neither to this one nor to that one.
Whom did they hate more, the one who reproved matters between man and fellow man, or the one who reproved matters between man and God? The Malbim explains: abhorrence (ti'uv) is always greater than hatred (sin'ah), as it says, "I hate and abhor falsehood." The linguistic principle is that expressions escalate in intensity. A person does not say, "I hate falsehood immensely and also a little bit"; the progression is always upward: I hate it, and even abhor it. Thus, abhorrence is more severe than hatred. Therefore, Scripture is precise: those who reproved them regarding interpersonal matters they hated, but those who reproved them regarding mitzvot between man and God they abhorred.
And this can be understood. One who reproves regarding interpersonal matters touches on things that human intellect comprehends: there is theft here, there is injustice here, and a person inwardly senses that something needs fixing. But rebuke regarding matters between man and God stepped on raw nerves. He already felt that he had settled his debt with the Master of the Universe: he had his golden calf, and everything was taken care of. Then suddenly someone comes and reminds him that this is completely false. That is far more irritating, and therefore "they abhor one who speaks uprightly."
There is no hatred in the world like religious hatred, and this can be seen to this day. The fiercest wars are not fought over territory. Wars of blind hatred, such as ISIS, are religious wars. To decapitate a human being, to put people in a cage and burn them alive - where does such horrific hatred come from? From the fact that their religion differs from ours. That is religious hatred.
And so it is with those who hate observant Jews. Amalek - why did he come to wage war? Our Sages enumerated five reasons why a nation goes to war against another (as discussed at length in the commentary of the Malbim, in the Purim lectures, and in the weekly Torah portions), and none of those reasons existed for Amalek. What, then, drove him? Only one thing bothered him: hatred of religion. Therefore it is written, "Hashem will be at war with Amalek." What troubled him? That there was an awakening to the service of Hashem, "Nations heard and trembled," the Master of the Universe proved His sovereignty - and that they could not tolerate. Therefore it is said of him, "and he did not fear God": what bothered him? That there was someone here who feared God. And because this is hatred of religion, we were commanded to eradicate Amalek in the most uncompromising manner.
Today, too, one can see this in the media: whenever matters of mitzvot are discussed, it is with utter disgust. Woe betide us, there is a fear of "religionization" (hadatah) in the schools, because someone mentioned Kiddush there. A boy anxiously reported that his sister told him that after eating at a meat restaurant, having a dairy ice cream pop is forbidden - "Where did you learn such things?" "They told me in kindergarten." Woe betide us, such things are taught in kindergarten! There is religious coercion here, and who knows, Heaven forbid, she might even become observant. And the entire media celebrates the story of this terrible "religionization" taking place through creeping erosion beneath the surface, warning that we are not vigilant enough, and our children might end up with concepts in Judaism.
Likewise with "exclusion of women": in the IDF one sees too many kippot, and these soldiers do not want to listen to women singing and do not want to serve in mixed battalions - and immediately all the feminist organizations, which always march hand in hand with anti-religious groups, mobilize to save the Jewish people from the most terrible thing of all.
And why does everyone suddenly rally on behalf of the Reform at the Kotel? Does the Kotel actually interest the Reform? After all, they themselves wrote in their prayer books that "And to Jerusalem Your city return in mercy" should be deleted, because Berlin is Jerusalem - until the Nazi oppressor came and showed them what Berlin was. They have no connection to Jerusalem. A section of the Kotel was arranged for them, and someone photographed it on the seventeenth of Tammuz - completely empty. Not a single person came. For if they do come, they come for the spectacle, for the fight against the religious. That is why the New Israel Fund and all those groups fund them to come. And then you see that "righteous woman" arriving with tefillin on her head. Has her husband ever put on tefillin? Is she strictly observant and meticulous with tefillin and tallit? All of this is designed solely to provoke, because it stems from hatred of religion.
And one must wonder: you, the journalist, are a secular skeptic, and if you deny religion, you deny everything, Reform religion just as much as authentic Judaism. So why do you enlist on their behalf? The answer is that if they can be used to batter the Orthodox and those who tremble at the word of Hashem, and to crumble them from within - the Reform will do the job. In the United States they worked brilliantly and succeeded: fifty, sixty, and in some places seventy percent assimilation, the fruit of their labor. So bring them here as well, and they will succeed here too, and then we will be "a state of all its citizens," with no need for a Jewish state at all, and then what is a Jew anyway, and what is the difference between a Jew and a gentile?
לָכֵן יַעַן בּוֹשַׁסְכֶם עַל דָּל וּמַשְׂאַת בַּר תִּקְחוּ מִמֶּנּוּ בָּתֵּי גָזִית בְּנִיתֶם וְלֹא תֵשְׁבוּ בָם כַּרְמֵי חֶמֶד נְטַעְתֶּם וְלֹא תִשְׁתּוּ אֶת יֵינָם׃ (יא) - Therefore, because you trample upon the poor and take exactions of grain from him: you have built houses of hewn stone, but you shall not dwell in them; you have planted pleasant vineyards, but you shall not drink their wine. (11)
There are several interpretations for the word boshaskhem, and we will explain according to the approach of the Malbim: boshaskhem is like bosaschem, from the language of trampling (mevusas) - you trample and plunder the poor, robbing and extorting him, "and take exactions of grain from him" - stealing his produce. The Holy One, Blessed is He, says to them: If there were any purpose in speaking to you, that you might repent, I would wait; but I see that there is no hope of your return. And since you trample the poor, and from this ill-gotten gain you built houses of hewn stone, magnificent residences of precious stone - the punishment will be that you shall not dwell in them. And from that same theft you planted pleasant vineyards, lovely estates - in this too you will be punished, that you will not drink their wine, for you will go into exile. Measure for measure.
כִּי יָדַעְתִּי רַבִּים פִּשְׁעֵיכֶם וַעֲצֻמִים חַטֹּאתֵיכֶם צֹרְרֵי צַדִּיק לֹקְחֵי כֹפֶר וְאֶבְיוֹנִים בַּשַּׁעַר הִטּוּ׃ (יב) - For I know that many are your transgressions and mighty are your sins: oppressors of the righteous, takers of bribes, and they turn aside the destitute at the gate. (12)
There is a duplication here: "many are your transgressions (pesha'eikhem)" and "mighty are your sins (chatoteikhem)." What is the difference between a pesha and a chet, and why did he describe the transgressions as "many" and the sins as "mighty"? The Malbim explains: a pesha is rebellion - one who acted with criminal intent has rebelled. A chet, on the other hand, is a sin of desire, where one's inclination overcame him for the sake of pleasure, with no intention to rebel. Therefore, a chet always conveys an element of inadvertence (shegagah); even though he may have transgressed intentionally, since there was an overwhelming temptation of desire, it is considered relatively inadvertent. But a pesha is an act committed with the explicit intent to rebel, not out of an aroused craving.
Which is more common in a person, sins or rebellious transgressions? Surely sins. It is far less common for a person to commit an act simply to rebel, especially someone who is observant of mitzvot. And which is more severe? Certainly the pesha, for you did it with the deliberate intention to rebel against Hashem without any desire. Like Amon, who lived with his mother, and when they asked him whether he derived any pleasure from it, he replied: "Am I driven by lust? I do this for no other reason than to anger my Creator!" That is to say, he did everything "for the sake of Heaven" - solely to provoke Heaven.
To this the prophet says: Both traits are found among you, and both in intensified measure. Transgressions (*pesha'im*) are usually not numerous, yet among you "your transgressions are many" - you have multiplied intentional rebellion. And sins (*chata'im*) are usually not colossal in their severity, yet among you "your sins are enormous" - in quality as well. Thus, there are two expressions here showing that your condition is far more severe than any ordinary reality.
And corresponding to "your transgressions are many," he says "persecutors of the righteous": you subvert the judgment of the righteous, neither out of monetary gain nor out of physical pleasure, but simply out of malice toward one who is vindicated in judgment. For a wicked person rebelling against Hashem finds the righteous intolerable, and therefore hates and fights him. This is rebellion for the sake of rebelling, without any profit. And corresponding to "your sins are enormous," he says "takers of bribes [ransom], who turn away the destitute at the gate." A sin is driven by desire for pleasure, and here the pleasure is bribe money. Why, then, did he call it "enormous"? The Malbim explains: Had the bribe merely been taken to pervert monetary cases, it would still be an ordinary sin of bribery for pleasure - severe, but not monstrous. But they are "takers of ransom (*kofer*)," and ransom always pertains to capital cases, as in "You shall take no ransom for the life of a murderer who is guilty of death." They accept ransom for one sentenced to death, ransoming him from execution and corrupting capital justice. Although it is a sin motivated by monetary pleasure, its gravity is terrible and monstrous, for through this the land becomes defiled with blood and corruption spreads in the world. And from this follows "and they turn away the destitute at the gate" - the destitute person has nothing, and at the gate, which is the court of law as we saw earlier, he cannot obtain justice, for both monetary and capital cases - all of them are perverted.
לָכֵן הַמַּשְׂכִּיל בָּעֵת הַהִיא יִדֹּם כִּי עֵת רָעָה הִיא׃ (יג) - Therefore, the prudent person at that time keeps silent, for it is an evil time.
Perhaps someone might still come to rebuke and correct them? To this the prophet replies: Since you have become so deeply rooted in sins and rebellions, the prudent person - those who know Torah and recognize your evil deeds, who ought to say something to you - keeps silent, placing his hand over his mouth and holding his peace. Why? Because whoever rebukes you, you kill him; you have no tolerance to heed the voice of a reprover. If so, there is no chance that you will mend your ways, and nothing remains but to execute the decree upon you.
דִּרְשׁוּ טוֹב וְאַל רָע לְמַעַן תִּחְיוּ וִיהִי כֵן יְהֹוָה אֱלֹהֵי צְבָאוֹת אִתְּכֶם כַּאֲשֶׁר אֲמַרְתֶּם׃ (יד) - Seek good and not evil, that you may live; and so Hashem, God of Hosts, will be with you, as you have said.
The Radak explains: He is still attempting to admonish them, in the hope that they might listen. If you seek what is good and not what is evil, you will still have life. And the Malbim explains that this is a continuation of what was said earlier, "Seek Me and live," and of the warning "Do not seek Beit-el" - do not go seeking the calves and the idolatries you made for yourselves; if you wish to live, seek Me, and through seeking Me you will live. This is the meaning of "Seek good and not evil": do not seek Beit-el, but Hashem alone, and then Hashem, God of Hosts, will be with you as you desire. For you yourselves say that you want Hashem to save you and prevent enemies from harming you, yet you choose means that drive Hashem far away from you.
For much of ancient idolatry was not practiced as independent deities, but as an intermediary for worshiping Hashem. Idolaters believed that the Holy One, blessed be He, is an exalted, transcendent King and that one cannot address Him directly; rather, one must approach Him through His "ministers": the sun, the moon, and the stars, drawing down divine bounty through them. They would say: Of course Hashem exists! How did Nebuchadnezzar describe Him? "The God of gods" - there are subordinate forces below while He is above, detached from the mundane affairs of this world, having entrusted the world to the forces of nature. The prophet tells them: With this mindset, you yourselves push Hashem away from you. Indeed, even the Golden Calf made in the wilderness was intended as a vehicle to serve Hashem, as demonstrated from the Kuzari and the Torah portions. The verses show this explicitly: "Tomorrow shall be a feast to Hashem," Aaron proclaimed, not a feast to the calf; and they said, "These are your gods, O Israel," rather than "this is the Baal" or "this is the idol" - "for the divine presence clothed itself in bodily form," in the phrasing of Ibn Ezra. Thus, idolatry was frequently used as an instrument meant to serve God. To this the prophet says: You are mistaken. "Seek good," which means seeking Hashem directly, and only then will "Hashem, God of Hosts, be with you, as you have said." This also explains the precise title "God of Hosts": you go and worship the sun, moon, and stars, which are the hosts of heaven - yet He is the God over those very hosts. Turn directly to Him, and not to His hosts.
Now, one might ask: Earthly kingship reflects the heavenly kingdom (*malchuta de'ar'a ke'en malchuta dirki'a*), and on earth, one never turns directly to the prime minister with personal problems - not only because he would not help, but because there is a hierarchy. Nor do you call the mayor because the trash was not collected; he would tell you: There is a sanitation department, a hotline, people assigned to handle this - leave me alone, there are officials. Why is it not so with the Holy One, blessed be He? The answer is: Heavenly kingship does indeed mirror earthly kingship. However, if the king himself comes down to tour among his people and arrives for a public audience, and a citizen has an important personal petition - would he turn to a minister or directly to the king? Surely to the king himself, for turning to an official while the king is standing right there is an insult.
In this regard, a story is told about one of the Torah luminaries: There was a synagogue that was legally required to hang a portrait of the king, and indeed such a portrait hung on the wall. One day the king came to visit. A certain assimilationist *maskil* who sought to harass the community secretly removed the portrait and hid it before the king's arrival. The king entered, and there was no portrait. The community members were stunned and hoped the matter would pass unnoticed, but an informer spoke up: "Your Majesty, the law requires your portrait, yet here in the synagogue they have not hung it; in fact, I believe they took it down specifically in honor of your arrival in order to disrespect you." The king, profoundly indignant, confronted the rabbi: "What do you have to say for yourself?" The rabbi replied: "Your Majesty, allow me to offer an analogy, and you will understand. We Jews put on tefillin every day - black boxes containing sacred parchments that bind and connect us to God. Yet there is one day a week when we do not put them on: the Sabbath, because on that day the Holy One, blessed be He, is, so to speak, present with us Himself. When the Holy One, blessed be He, is present with us, would we require a reminder through tefillin, 'so that you may remember'? When He is with you, look upon Him, not upon the tefillin! So too here: it would be an insult for us to gaze upon a mere picture when Your Majesty comes to visit us, while we have the privilege of beholding the king himself." The king accepted the explanation and praised his wisdom.
And this is "wisdom preserves the life of its possessor." When speaking of the presence of the Holy One, blessed be He, the reality is unlike any mortal king. With an earthly monarch, when he is absent, one approaches his officials; but with the Holy One, blessed be He - "whenever we call upon Him," He is constantly with us, not merely on an occasional visit. And when Someone is always right beside you, why would you turn to His subordinates? Therefore, it is always forbidden to turn to intermediaries, but to the Holy One, blessed be He, alone. This is also why a person should pray to Hashem for everything, even for the most mundane physical needs: if someone needs new shoes and lacks the money, he should pray, "Master of the Universe, please provide me with shoes." Does the Almighty care about your shoes? Yes! The Holy One, blessed be He, desires that in all matters you turn to Him, and not to His subordinates. That is why the prophet tells them: Hashem is the God of Hosts and He is with you; and if He is with you, one does not turn to subordinates. Why then did you go to seek and inquire of idols? Turn directly to Him - "Seek good and not evil," "Seek Me and live."
שִׂנְאוּ רָע וְאֶהֱבוּ טוֹב וְהַצִּיגוּ בַשַּׁעַר מִשְׁפָּט אוּלַי יֶחֱנַן יְהֹוָה אֱלֹהֵי צְבָאוֹת שְׁאֵרִית יוֹסֵף׃ (טו) - "Hate evil and love good, and establish justice in the gate; perhaps Hashem, the God of hosts, will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph." (15)
After telling them, "Seek good and not evil" - meaning seek and pursue only the good - he adds: it is not enough merely to seek good; you must actively hate evil. When a person sees that something is merely less recommended, he says, "This is preferable and that is less preferable"; but when he sees something that caused him real harm and tormented him, he does not say "less preferable," but rather, "I hate this! It harmed me, it ruined me, it destroyed me." The prophet tells them: When you contemplate how much damage the wicked deeds you chose have caused you, you will naturally come to hate evil, through which you are stricken, and you will love the good. You will no longer be "persecutors of the righteous," hating justice and the righteous, upright person and perverting his verdict; on the contrary, love the good, and out of that, "establish justice in the gate" - act with righteousness and integrity. By virtue of this, "perhaps Hashem, the God of hosts, will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph."
And what is the "remnant of Joseph"? Since the primary thrust of the prophecy is directed toward the Northern Kingdom of Shomron, and Yeravam ben Nevat came from the tribe of Joseph, they are referred to as the children of Ephraim or Joseph, being his descendants. There are also times when the entire nation of Israel is called Joseph, because Joseph sustained and provided for his brothers, so all of them are considered the seed of Joseph and the children of Joseph; in that sense, the verse would refer to the nation as a whole rather than only the northern tribes. The prophet tells them: You still have a potential remnant and hope, and perhaps Hashem will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph - if you seek good, hate evil, love good, and establish justice in the gate.
The Malbim explains further: "Seek good" pertains to matters between man and God, whereas "hate evil and love good" pertains to matters between man and his fellow. What the previous verse said about seeking good refers to what is between you and Hashem, doing what is good and upright in His eyes. What is stated here, "hate evil and love good," is explained immediately in the continuation of the verse: "and establish justice in the gate" - that is, civil laws and interpersonal conduct, executing justice. By seeking good, which is between you and Hashem through faith and good deeds, "so Hashem, the God of hosts, will be with you" - a promise that Hashem will draw close to you. And by establishing justice in the gate, which is between man and his fellow, "Hashem will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph."
Why is this so? Because exile is brought about primarily by sins between man and his fellow, as we saw earlier: "Because of your trampling on the poor," and as Chazal taught: Why was Jerusalem destroyed? On account of Kamtza and Bar Kamtza, because of the baseless hatred that was among them. This is even more severe than the three cardinal sins, as the Gemara remarks: Go and learn from the fact that the Sanctuary was restored to the earlier generations, but was not restored to the later generations. The First Temple was destroyed on account of the three cardinal sins, yet it was rebuilt; the Second Temple was destroyed on account of baseless hatred, and we remain in an exile that has stretched on for two thousand years. We see from this that interpersonal sins are far more severe. Therefore, if you "establish justice in the gate," rectifying what is between man and his fellow, He will "be gracious to the remnant of Joseph," and you will merit clemency so that the Holy One, blessed be He, will not exile you.
The prophet points directly to the root of their downfall: a nation that hates its rebukers in the gate and abhors those who speak uprightly cannot endure, for there is no hostility quite like animosity directed against faith. From that hatred, systemic exploitation thrives: they trample upon the destitute, build hewn-stone mansions, and plant delightful vineyards through robbery - and are punished measure for measure, never to dwell in them or drink their wine. Their rebellious transgressions are numerous, even though open defiance is normally rare, and their sins are immense, even though common misdeeds are not usually so weighty: they persecute the righteous for no personal gain, accept ransoms in capital cases, and turn away the destitute in judgment. And when no one is willing to accept rebuke, the prudent person is forced into silence. Even so, a gateway of repentance remains open: "Seek good and not evil" - turn directly to the King Himself rather than to His intermediaries; and "Hate evil and love good, and establish justice in the gate" - rectify interpersonal conduct, which is the primary cause of exile; and then, "perhaps Hashem, the God of hosts, will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph."