Chapter 3 in Yechezkel is the chapter of the prophet's preparation for his mission. After eating the scroll and being sent to the House of Israel, Yechezkel arrives among the exiles, sits in silence for seven days, and then the Holy One, Blessed be He, defines his true role: "I have appointed you a watchman for the House of Israel." From this point onward, an extensive prophecy unfolds concerning the obligation of rebuke - directed at the wicked, at the righteous, and regarding the heavy responsibility placed upon the one appointed to watch and warn. Here we will examine this section of the chapter, from verse 15 to the end, following the commentaries of the Malbim and the Radak.
וָאָבוֹא אֶל הַגּוֹלָה תֵּל אָבִיב הַיֹּשְׁבִים אֶל נְהַר כְּבָר וָאֵשֵׁב הֵמָּה יוֹשְׁבִים שָׁם וָאֵשֵׁב שָׁם שִׁבְעַת יָמִים מַשְׁמִים בְּתוֹכָם׃ (טו) - And I came to the exiles at Tel Aviv, who dwell by the Kevar River, and I sat where they were sitting, and I sat there for seven days, desolate among them. (15)
"Tel Aviv" - Radak explains: this is the name of a place, like Tel Melach and Tel Charsha, and perhaps it is one of them. This is not a location in Eretz Yisrael, but a place in exile, and the verse explicitly specifies that it was by the Kevar River. "And I sat where they were sitting" - the prophet sees them sitting there, and sits down with them.
The Malbim explains: although I sat in the place where they were sitting, that is, among the people, and although I sat with them for seven days - despite all this, I sat "desolate among them," stunned and silent, uttering nothing. And why? For seemingly he ought to have spoken a word of prophecy. But the word of Hashem had not yet reached him with specific instructions detailing what to say, and for this reason he sat in silence.
וַיְהִי מִקְצֵה שִׁבְעַת יָמִים וַיְהִי דְבַר יְהֹוָה אֵלַי לֵאמֹר׃ (טז) בֶּן אָדָם צֹפֶה נְתַתִּיךָ לְבֵית יִשְׂרָאֵל וְשָׁמַעְתָּ מִפִּי דָּבָר וְהִזְהַרְתָּ אוֹתָם מִמֶּנִּי׃ (יז) - And it came to pass at the end of seven days that the word of Hashem came to me, saying: (16) Son of man, I have appointed you a watchman for the House of Israel; when you hear a word from My mouth, you shall warn them from Me. (17)
After the seven days, he does receive prophecy. A "watchman" was a familiar concept in their time: in the era of walls and towers, they would build a wall and a watchtower, and a person would climb the tower to serve as a lookout - to watch and observe whether anyone was approaching the wall, whether enemy troops were already in the distance preparing to advance. The same holds true today: there are observers whose entire role is vigilance, except today it is done before a screen - surveillance soldiers sitting in a command bunker watching monitors, with the entire perimeter fenced and wired with sensors, and their duty is to observe. Time and again, alerting superiors to a suspicious development has thwarted a major attack. Not everything can be detected by purely automated means; there is no substitute for human eyes. And if the watchman, in contemporary parlance, falls asleep on duty - woe to us, a profound disaster.
"When you hear a word from My mouth, you shall warn them from Me" - when you hear a matter from My mouth, you must warn them in My Name with the words you have heard from Me. The Malbim explains that there is a rebuke here directed toward the prophet. After all, we saw that the prophet sat for seven days "desolate" - silent. Hashem rebukes him for this: Why are you not speaking? It is human lives at stake! I placed you as a watchman atop the tower to see and warn the people, and if you do not warn them - know that you will bear their guilt.
בְּאׇמְרִי לָרָשָׁע מוֹת תָּמוּת וְלֹא הִזְהַרְתּוֹ וְלֹא דִבַּרְתָּ לְהַזְהִיר רָשָׁע מִדַּרְכּוֹ הָרְשָׁעָה לְחַיֹּתוֹ הוּא רָשָׁע בַּעֲוֺנוֹ יָמוּת וְדָמוֹ מִיָּדְךָ אֲבַקֵּשׁ׃ (יח) - When I say to the wicked, "You shall surely die," and you do not warn him, nor do you speak to warn the wicked man from his wicked way to keep him alive - that wicked man shall die for his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand. (18)
When I say to the wicked, "You shall surely die," decreeing upon him the penalty of death, and I send you to deliver these words - the repetition of "and you do not warn him, nor do you speak to warn" teaches that two distinct tasks are required here. The first: you must inform him that death has been decreed upon him. The second: you must speak to him through rational persuasion, by way of gentle rebuke, even without overt threats and harsh words. Some people are merely alienated when spoken to about Gehennam; therefore, speak to him logically and rationally in order to keep him alive.
And if you spoke with him and he does not accept - "he is a wicked man, he will die in his iniquity." You are not to blame for his death; he dies for his own sin. But nevertheless, "his blood I will require from your hand," because you could have prevented it by rebuking him.
And do not say to yourself: It is better not to say anything, for when I speak to him I turn him into an intentional sinner (meizid), and as long as I have not spoken, it is better that they be unintentional sinners (shogegim) rather than intentional ones, and perhaps by being an unintentional sinner he will be saved and not die. The Holy One, blessed be He, says to him: You are mistaken; the opposite is true. First - he will die either way; what do you think, that you will save him by leaving him an unintentional sinner? No, know that he will die. And second - he will die wicked. Had you spoken to him, there was a chance he might be saved, and even if he were to die, he would at least die as someone who repented. Whereas you, by remaining silent, did not prevent his death and he died, and moreover, he died as a wicked man. It turns out that you did not help him at all, but only harmed him.
וְאַתָּה כִּי הִזְהַרְתָּ רָשָׁע וְלֹא שָׁב מֵרִשְׁעוֹ וּמִדַּרְכּוֹ הָרְשָׁעָה הוּא בַּעֲוֺנוֹ יָמוּת וְאַתָּה אֶת נַפְשְׁךָ הִצַּלְתָּ׃ (יט) - "Yet if you warn a wicked man, and he does not turn from his wickedness or from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but you have delivered your soul." (19)
"From his wickedness or from his wicked way" seems repetitive, but the meaning is: he did not repent of his past wickedness done up to this day, and he also continues to walk in his wicked way going forward. And do not think that he died because of you - as if to say: "I warned him, and he continued and became an intentional transgressor, and because of that he was punished, so it turns out that he died on account of me." The Holy One, blessed be He, says to him: That is a mistake. "He shall die in his iniquity," and you bear no guilt for him; on the contrary, "you have delivered your soul" by warning him. Therefore, you have nothing to fear from going and rebuking them; on the contrary, I command you to go and rebuke, and not to refrain.
וּבְשׁוּב צַדִּיק מִצִּדְקוֹ וְעָשָׂה עָוֶל וְנָתַתִּי מִכְשׁוֹל לְפָנָיו הוּא יָמוּת כִּי לֹא הִזְהַרְתּוֹ בְּחַטָּאתוֹ יָמוּת וְלֹא תִזָּכַרְןָ צִדְקֹתָו אֲשֶׁר עָשָׂה וְדָמוֹ מִיָּדְךָ אֲבַקֵּשׁ׃ (כ) - "And when a righteous man turns from his righteousness and commits iniquity, and I lay a stumbling block before him, he shall die; because you did not warn him, he shall die in his sin, and his righteous deeds that he did shall not be remembered; but his blood I will require at your hand." (20)
Why would Hashem lay a stumbling block before him? Rashi explains that this refers to a righteous person who commits wicked deeds in secret - externally he gives the impression of being righteous, but deep down he does wickedness. The Holy One, blessed be He, says: What shall I do in such a situation? I will present him with a sin that will publicize his evil deeds. And why? Because if people see this "righteous" man suffering misfortune, they will say: "Did you see? Here is a righteous man suffering; here is evil befalling a righteous person." Therefore, I will cause him to stumble in something he never anticipated, and through an unexpected stumbling block his wickedness will be exposed, and everyone will know that he merely posed as righteous and only appeared righteous. Consequently, when he receives his punishment, they will understand that it is a deserved punishment - "and when they see it happen to him, they will not question My ways," they will not question the deeds of Hashem.
And unfortunately, today we see all kinds of self-styled "babas," illusionists, charlatans, and people who make easy money off the unsuspecting public, in whom the Holy One, blessed be He, fulfills this verse. Every so often, another scandal is uncovered involving some new "baba," exposing him in a disgraceful light so that people realize who he truly is and keep their distance, lest they be misled by him.
This is puzzling: Why should his righteous deeds not be remembered? After all, we are dealing with a person who did good deeds and bad deeds, and we know that in Heaven there are no offsets - for the good he receives good, and for the bad he receives bad. And although Chazal teach that a transgression extinguishes a mitzvah, they did not say that a transgression cancels out a mitzvah. That is, the mitzvah loses its power to illuminate temporarily, but when the person repents for the transgression or is cleansed of it in Gehinnom, the transgression is gone, it no longer extinguishes, and the mitzvot return to shine. In simple terms: there are no offsets up Above.
Chazal raise this question and answer that this refers to a toheh al harishonot - one who regrets his former good deeds: a person who performed many righteous deeds, was God-fearing, righteous, and served Hashem, but at a certain point became completely irreligious. And then he said to himself: "What a shame that I wasted my youth at the shtender" - dust in his mouth; "what a shame that I observed mitzvot; in my youth I could have enjoyed myself and had fun, what a pity about all the mitzvot I performed." They say to him: You think it was a shame? They have been wiped clean for you. You regret them? They are erased. But an ordinary person who committed sins, no matter how many sins he commits, will not have his mitzvot erased: for his sins he will receive the punishment due to him, and for his mitzvot he will receive the reward due to him as one who observed mitzvot.
And what is this "stumbling block" that Hashem places? The Radak explains in the name of his father: the stumbling block is that he will experience success in all matters of this world. And what kind of stumbling block is that? Since he is due a great reward, the Holy One, blessed be He, gives him his reward here - and that is his stumbling block. This is what Moshe Rabbeinu says: "He will not delay to repay His hater to his face," and Rashi explains: to his face, in this world He will pay him his reward for the World to Come.
This is something terrible and awesome, because when a person sees someone succeeding, he often envies him. But if he only understood that there is nothing to envy - for "I will place a stumbling block before him," and what is the stumbling block? The success itself. Not only is this not true success, but it is the very downfall: all the success you see now is the stumbling block, the reward of the World to Come being paid to him here in this world. According to this, "his righteous deeds will not be remembered" - because he has already received the reward for them here in this world.
We therefore have two explanations: one is that he regrets his earlier deeds (toheh al harishonot), and the second is that the Holy One, blessed be He, pays him the reward of his World to Come here. Regarding one who regrets his earlier deeds, there is a famous question that Reb Elchanan Wasserman asked the Chafetz Chaim: Why is the author of Sha'arei Teshuvah so marveling at the fact that Hashem granted the possibility of teshuvah? He marvels that if a person sinned against a king, would it ever occur to anyone that he could simply come and say "I have sinned, I have done iniquity, I have transgressed," and have his sin wiped clean? Yet here, a person comes, confesses, and Hashem wipes away his iniquity - a wondrous thing, contrary to the laws of nature, an immense chesed that Hashem performed through teshuvah.
Reb Elchanan asked: Where is the chesed? Behold, you see that it works in reverse as well - a person who performed mitzvot all his life, but at the end of his days regretted his earlier deeds and recanted, has all his mitzvot erased! If so, why marvel that Hashem erases sins? After all, the measure of goodness exceeds the measure of retribution five hundredfold! And if, regarding retribution, the Holy One, blessed be He, says: "You did good deeds and regretted them - they are erased," all the more so when a person did evil deeds and regretted them, they should be erased! It turns out that this is simply strict justice, a law that the Holy One, blessed be He, established in creation: whoever regrets what happened in the past has it erased, whether for good or for bad. So where is the great chesed in the Holy One, blessed be He, accepting a person in teshuvah?
The Chafetz Chaim answered him: It depends on which type of teshuvah we are discussing. In teshuvah out of fear (yir'ah), indeed, there is no great chesed here, for Hashem erased the sins just as He erased the mitzvot for someone who regretted them. But in teshuvah out of love (ahavah), we find that intentional sins are transformed into merits, and that is an immense chesed! For on the other side of the coin, we find no such thing: when He erased his mitzvot, did He turn them into sins? There is no such thing - He merely erased the mitzvot and nothing more. But here, He erases the sins and transforms them into merits, and that is something to marvel at.
Even so, Reb Elchanan himself did not accept this resolution, saying that this is not the plain meaning of Rabbeinu Yonah's words. For from Rabbeinu Yonah and other sources, it is implied that the very fact that a person sinned and his iniquities are erased - that fact alone is an immense chesed without equal on earth, and that is the meaning there, even without the additional chesed of intentional sins being transformed into merits. The very fact that you are forgiven is already a chesed beyond all bounds of logic. Whereas according to the Chafetz Chaim, it is indeed logical: just as mitzvot are erased, so sins are erased, and the chesed lies in their transformation into merits.
There is another answer: In every action a person performs, he affects two dimensions. The first dimension is that the Holy One, blessed be He, commanded him to act and he did not act - there is defiance of Hashem's word. The second dimension is that he generated damage throughout all the upper realms. These are two separate dimensions, and furthermore, their rectification is entirely different as well.
Many ask: It is written that when a person does teshuvah, he is forgiven. How can this be? Go and see what is written in the works of the Arizal, the Reishit Chochmah, and other books - how many rectifications are needed for each and every sin, how many mortifications, half a lifetime of fasting! Yet where are we told that he is forgiven immediately - "he does not move from there until he is forgiven," "if he did teshuvah, Yom Kippur atones," and if a person does not believe in the atonement of Yom Kippur, Yom Kippur does not atone? This implies that there is immediate atonement.
The answer is: it depends on which dimension. On the dimension of defying Hashem's word, he is forgiven immediately - and even here there are categories of atonement: positive commandments, negative commandments, teshuvah suspends and Yom Kippur atones, teshuvah and afflictions, and there are cases where the day of death atones; there are several categories of atonement. But regarding the damage he caused in the upper realms, that is a matter unto itself, requiring an entire process to rectify: through self-mortification, through fasts, and through what the Vilna Gaon states, that a person should guard his mouth from speaking forbidden words, which is far greater and better than any restraint of his mouth from eating. And above all of them is the engagement in Torah study, which is the greatest rectification for all sins.
Now consider: when a person performed mitzvot and later regretted them, what happened here? Two things. He performed a mitzvah and brought rectification to all the realms, built worlds, and also fulfilled Hashem's will. What does the Holy One, blessed be He, erase in "they will not be remembered"? The fulfillment of Hashem's will - "I commanded and My word was done," the fulfillment of the command. But the rectifications across all the worlds remain forever; this is an enduring reality, and it will never be erased. In contrast, with a sin, through which he created blemishes in all the realms, a person can, through teshuvah, regret, self-mortification, Torah study, and prayer, rectify even all the damage he caused in those realms. Thus, in teshuvah there is a far greater chesed: it has the power to remove even the damage in the worlds, whereas with one who regrets his earlier deeds, only the aspect of fulfilling the command is erased, while the rectification in the worlds endures.
There is another answer, very simple and wonderful. Imagine that you owe me a thousand dollars, and one day I come to you and say, "I am not demanding the money; I forgive the debt." That is completely legitimate. But if I owe you a thousand dollars, can I come and say, "What happened is wiped away"? Absolutely not! You borrowed a thousand dollars and you are going to wipe it out? The lender can forgive a debt; the borrower cannot wipe it away.
And so it is in our case: a person comes and says, "Master of the Universe, You are my debtor, so to speak; You owe me Olam Haba, a million dollars in the World to Come. I forgive it; I do not need it; do not give it to me." What happens at that moment? He has no Olam Haba. "Do I have merits with You? Erase them; I give them up; I do not want Olam Haba; I regret that I fulfilled mitzvos." This is one who regrets his former deeds (toheh al harishonos): "Neither You nor Your Olam Haba, and it is a pity I kept mitzvos" - fine, you regretted them, they are erased. But then that same person comes and says, "Master of the Universe, I owe You a hundred million dollars, and I regret taking the loan - erase the debt!" From where do you have the power to say such a thing? If Hashem desires, He says, "I erase it"; but for you to say "erase it" - that is not up to you. You can give up your merits; you cannot cancel your debts. Thus, strictly from the perspective of strict justice (din), teshuvah has no logical basis, and it is entirely chesed. This is a wonderful and compelling explanation to resolve the matter.
The Malbim does not interpret the verse in the manner of Chazal, as referring to one who regrets his former deeds, but rather explains that it refers to a righteous person who committed an iniquity unintentionally (beshogeg). He is genuinely a tzaddik, but he stumbled into sin inadvertently. "When a righteous man turns from his righteousness and commits iniquity" - the iniquity he committed is relative to his righteousness: because he is a great tzaddik, for him this is considered an iniquity. It is not talking about grave sins, but about turning from his high level of righteousness, where relative to his stature even an unintentional slip is deemed an iniquity. For the Holy One, blessed is He, is exacting with the righteous down to a hairsbreadth, and unintentional missteps are treated for them like deliberate sins. If a wicked person had committed such a minor infraction, it would not have been counted against him as an iniquity, nor would he have been punished for it.
And this is the meaning of "and I place a stumbling block before him" - specifically "before him," in that relative to his stature this is considered a stumbling block; had it been placed before a wicked person, it would not be a stumbling block at all. And therefore this causes death, for from the righteous, accountability is demanded to a hairsbreadth, even for a minor matter for which another person would never be punished.
Now, you, the prophet, might think: I do not need to warn about this. First of all, it is only an unintentional slip, and it is not as severe as an intentional sin, so perhaps I am under no obligation to caution and warn the tzaddik. Second, this tzaddik possesses many merits, and even if he stumbled into something unintentionally, his merits shelter and protect him against what he committed by accident, and if so, I am exempt from rebuking him in this case.
Hashem says to him: In this, too, you are mistaken. If you do not rebuke him, "because you did not warn him, he shall die in his sin." You say it is merely an unintentional slip? There are unintentional sins for which one dies. After all, the Holy One, blessed is He, says to Moshe, "Go up... and die on this mountain" - because you did not believe in Me. Did Moshe Rabbeinu act intentionally? The commentators scrutinize with a magnifying glass to understand what the sin even was; the Ohr HaChaim HaKadosh cites ten explanations, refutes them all, and presents his own, which demonstrates how thoroughly one has to search by candlelight to find that sin. And despite all this, he was punished with death and did not enter the Land. Thus, there are cases where, even for an unintentional slip, a tzaddik "shall die in his sin."
Furthermore, do not think that his merits will protect him against the sin; regarding this Scripture says, "and his righteous deeds which he has done shall not be remembered." Those merits do not have the power to shelter him and save him from punishment. Moshe Rabbeinu, with all his colossal merits - he brought Israel out of Egypt, bore them as a nursing father carries an infant, defended them countless times, and brought down the Torah to the Jewish people - and despite all this, his righteous deeds were not remembered on the day of Hashem's wrath; when death was decreed upon him for that unintentional misstep, his righteous deeds did not shield him. Consequently, if you as a prophet were sent to rebuke this tzaddik over these unintentional sins and you did not rebuke him, "his blood I will require at your hand" - I will demand accountability for his death from your hand.
וְאַתָּה כִּי הִזְהַרְתּוֹ צַדִּיק לְבִלְתִּי חֲטֹא צַדִּיק וְהוּא לֹא חָטָא חָיוֹ יִחְיֶה כִּי נִזְהָר וְאַתָּה אֶת נַפְשְׁךָ הִצַּלְתָּ׃ (כא) - "And if you warn him - the righteous man - that the righteous man should not sin, and he does not sin, he shall surely live because he took warning, and you will have saved your soul." (21)
"You warned him, the righteous man" (hizhartô tzaddik) - this is like "he changed his behavior" (vayešanno et ta‘mô), "his life abhors bread" (vezihemattô chayyato lechem), and similar verses, as the Radak explains: the pronoun appears first, and afterward the subject is specified. The meaning is: "And if you warned the righteous man." A person who was already righteous, and you warned him not to stumble into sin, not to turn from his righteousness and not fall into the category of one who regrets his former deeds, and he indeed listened and did not sin - "he shall surely live because he took warning," he will have true vitality through this, "and you will have saved your soul."
The Malbim explains: "When you warn him, a righteous man" - precisely because he is righteous. You say to him: You are a tzaddik, so you are obligated to be careful even about an unwitting, minor misdeed. He might say to you, "What is this? It is nothing, a trivial matter" - and you reply: But you are a tzaddik, and from a tzaddik accountability is demanded even for things like this. Then you will have a double gain. First - "he shall surely live": for according to the Malbim's approach, we are dealing with a tzaddik, and when he hears that there is a sin here that must be avoided, even if it was unwitting and minor, he will listen to you, and you will save his life so he will not die. And second - "and you have saved your soul": for had he died, Hashem would have held you accountable for his blood for not warning him; but now that you warned him and he lived, you have also saved your own soul.
The Malbim offers an additional explanation: Do not assume he will not listen to you and thereby turn into a wicked person by refusing to heed your words. Rather, "and when you warn him, a righteous man" - even if you warn him, he will not reject your words and become wicked; he will listen to you, remain a tzaddik, and accept what you say.
According to the Malbim, it becomes clear why all this elaboration was necessary: "When I say to the wicked man, 'You shall surely die,' and you did not warn him," "And you, when you warn a wicked man and he does not turn back," and "When a righteous man turns away from his righteousness and commits an injustice." The Holy One, blessed be He, covered every conceivable rationale Yechezkel might have used to exempt himself from rebuking a particular matter or a particular person: with the first, I might turn him from an unwitting sinner into an intentional one; the second is a tzaddik, and if he is a tzaddik, an unintentional error is not so severe, he will not die over it, and his merits will shield him. The Holy One, blessed be He, said to him: Do not think there is anyone whom you are exempt from rebuking. Therefore, He provided several distinct scenarios to emphasize that with every single person, rebuke is both necessary and obligatory.
וַתְּהִי עָלַי שָׁם יַד יְהֹוָה וַיֹּאמֶר אֵלַי קוּם צֵא אֶל הַבִּקְעָה וְשָׁם אֲדַבֵּר אוֹתָךְ׃ (כב) - And the hand of Hashem came upon me there, and He said to me, "Arise, go out to the valley, and there I will speak with you." (22)
"There" - in Babylon, in the place called Tel Aviv, and from there He commanded him to go out to the valley. The valley was a more special place, purer than Tel Aviv - and we are not speaking of modern-day Tel Aviv, but of the Tel Aviv of their time. Why? Because a valley is an uninhabited place, where there are no sins; whereas in a place inhabited by people, they can fall into many transgressions: theft, baseless hatred, wrongful deception, interpersonal sins, endless examples. Therefore He told him, "Go out to the valley, and there I will speak with you" - a purer setting, more fitting for the Shechinah to be revealed.
The Radak adds: Babylon was built in that very valley. The Holy One, blessed be He, says to him: Come and see, in this place I confounded their language and foiled their plot. They planned to build a tower and wage war against the Master of the World, and in this place I acted against those who acted wickedly. This is the place where you will see the hand of Hashem - and since Divine Providence was already demonstrated here in the past, understand that it is now fitting for Providence and Divine revelation.
The Malbim explains: "Arise, go out to the valley" - so that he would be in seclusion. When a person secludes himself, he becomes worthy and prepared for prophecy. This is what the prophets would do: either they would seclude themselves, or play music as in "when the musician played" - all of these being ways to draw down the flow of prophecy upon themselves. Furthermore, similar to what we explained according to the Radak: the people were not worthy of having the spirit of Hashem rest upon them, so he needed to distance himself from the people. According to the Radak, the reason is that the valley is a pure place, while according to the Malbim, the people act as an impediment. As we find in the Gemara: "This man was worthy of having the Shechinah rest upon him, but his generation was not deserving," and they cast their eyes upon Shmuel HaKatan. We see that the generation can serve as a hindrance: there, among the people, it was a hindrance; but once he distanced himself from them, he was no longer in the company of those who obstruct prophecy.
וָאָקוּם וָאֵצֵא אֶל הַבִּקְעָה וְהִנֵּה שָׁם כְּבוֹד יְהֹוָה עֹמֵד כַּכָּבוֹד אֲשֶׁר רָאִיתִי עַל נְהַר כְּבָר וָאֶפֹּל עַל פָּנָי׃ (כג) - So I arose and went out to the valley, and behold, the glory of Hashem stood there, like the glory that I had seen by the Chebar River, and I fell on my face. (23)
Rashi explains: He arrived there ahead of him. That is, Hashem sent me there, and I saw that He had already preceded me and was waiting there - an expression of extraordinary humility, something that flesh and blood do not typically do. Normally, the student waits for the teacher, but here the Master waits for the student. In ordinary circumstances, the teacher enters only after the entire class has arrived; he does not come early and wait for everyone to gather around him. Yet here, come and see that the Holy One, blessed be He, was the One who arrived first.
The Malbim notes that here Hashem showed him a second time that even though the Shechinah was prepared to go to Jerusalem to destroy it - which is what He showed him in the vision of the Chariot, displaying an aspect of fire to indicate that Jerusalem would be burned - nevertheless, "and behold, the glory of Hashem stood there": the Holy One, blessed be He, is still here, present with the people who are here, watching over them. Do not imagine that because divine wrath is now aroused and the glory of Hashem is going to destroy Jerusalem, He has removed His providence from the people dwelling in exile. Therefore He shows him, "like the glory that I had seen by the Chebar River" - that even when they are in the land of their enemies, I have not rejected them or spurned them to destroy them and break My covenant with them, and My providence is still resting upon them.
וַתָּבֹא בִי רוּחַ וַתַּעֲמִדֵנִי עַל רַגְלָי וַיְדַבֵּר אֹתִי וַיֹּאמֶר אֵלַי בֹּא הִסָּגֵר בְּתוֹךְ בֵּיתֶךָ׃ (כד) - "And a spirit entered me and stood me on my feet, and He spoke with me and said to me: 'Come, shut yourself inside your house.'" (24)
The Radak explains: initially, He commanded him to remain silent, for his silence was like speech. Why? As we have seen - "for they are a rebellious house"; they are rebellious. Afterward, He commands him to shut himself inside his house, so that he will not even go among them or rebuke them, until the Holy One, blessed be He, finishes delivering all the prophecies to him - until the verse, "And a spirit lifted me and brought me to Chaldea" in chapter 11, where he is finally sent to begin speaking the prophecies. At this stage, he is still being "charged": Hashem is loading him with the words of prophecy and rebuke, and only later will he put them into practice. From this one can understand why He told him not to rebuke them now - "for they are a rebellious house" - and why He told him, "Shut yourself inside your house." Everything indicates that now is not the time for words of rebuke; the rebuke will come only later, and in the meantime, I am instructing and teaching you what to say.
The Malbim explains that the confinement here is an introduction to what we will see in the next chapter: throughout the days of the siege, he will have to remain secluded and lie on his side for the iniquity of the House of Judah and the iniquity of the House of Israel - "lie on your left side," "lie on your right side," as will be explained later. Therefore, He tells him here, "Come, shut yourself": the confinement is for the purpose of lying on his right and left sides.
וְאַתָּה בֶן אָדָם הִנֵּה נָתְנוּ עָלֶיךָ עֲבוֹתִים וַאֲסָרוּךָ בָּהֶם וְלֹא תֵצֵא בְּתוֹכָם׃ (כה) - "And you, son of man, behold, they have put cords upon you and bound you with them, and you shall not go out among them." (25)
Rashi explains: you shall be confined in your house as if you were bound with ropes; "the decree of My word is upon you like the binding of braided cords" - the decree of My judgment rests upon you as though you are bound and tied. According to Rashi's approach, the purpose of the confinement is to show that they are unworthy of rebuke, and "they have put cords upon you" is not meant literally.
The Malbim explains that what is written here, "they have put cords upon you," corresponds to what we will see later in chapter 4, verse 8, where the Holy One, blessed be He, tells him, "And behold, I will put cords upon you, and you shall not turn from one side to the other." Here, the prophet suffers as a result of the people's sins, and it is therefore as if they placed the cords upon him: since it was on their account that the decree came for him to be shut in and bound as if by ropes, it turns out that the one who caused it is considered the one placing the cords. This is the meaning of "behold, they have put cords upon you" - the people are considered as having placed cords upon you, "and you shall not go out among them," nor will they come to you.
וּלְשׁוֹנְךָ אַדְבִּיק אֶל חִכֶּךָ וְנֶאֱלַמְתָּ וְלֹא תִהְיֶה לָהֶם לְאִישׁ מוֹכִיחַ כִּי בֵּית מְרִי הֵמָּה׃ (כו) - "And I will make your tongue cleave to the roof of your mouth, and you shall be mute, and you shall not be to them a reproving man, for they are a rebellious house." (26)
His tongue would be as if glued to his palate, and he would be struck mute. The meaning is: you shall not speak to them nor rebuke them, but rather be just like a mute person whose tongue cleaves to the roof of his mouth. The Malbim explains the repetition, "and you shall be mute, and you shall not be to them a reproving man": not only will you not speak words of prophecy to them, but you will also refrain from words of rational rebuke. There is a situation where the prophet comes to speak the word of Hashem, and even though these are words of harsh rebuke, it is the word of Hashem. And there is a situation where the prophet gathers the people and delivers mussar on his own initiative, as a leader and a rebuker. Hashem tells him: even this will not happen. Not only must you not convey what I give you in prophecy, but you must not speak as a reprover on your own initiative either. And why? "For they are a rebellious house," and they certainly will not listen to your rebukes.
וּבְדַבְּרִי אוֹתְךָ אֶפְתַּח אֶת פִּיךָ וְאָמַרְתָּ אֲלֵיהֶם כֹּה אָמַר אֲדֹנָי יֱהֹוִה הַשֹּׁמֵעַ יִשְׁמָע וְהֶחָדֵל יֶחְדָּל כִּי בֵּית מְרִי הֵמָּה׃ (כז) - "But when I speak with you, I will open your mouth, and you shall say to them: 'Thus said the Lord God: He who hears, let him hear, and he who forbears, let him forbear; for they are a rebellious house.'" (27)
Hashem says to him: When I desire to speak with you, I will open your mouth. But even then, you will not reprove them as a "reprover" who delivers ethical exhortations on his own initiative; rather, you shall say to them a brief statement: "Thus said the Lord." Whoever merits to heed the rebuke of mussar will surely live, and whoever desists from heeding the rebuke will cease from the world. Do not speak to them at length, and do not deliver stirring words meant to move the heart; say: "Thus and so has Hashem said; let whoever wishes to listen, listen, and whoever does not wish to, let him not." This is the meaning of "let him forbear" according to the Malbim - he will cease from the world.
Others explain this differently: "He who hears, let him hear," and whoever hears - "and he who forbears, let him forbear," meaning that through listening, he will cease from his evil deeds. According to this interpretation, it does not refer to two opposing groups - one that listens and one that desists from listening - but rather to the one who listens and consequently desists from doing his evil deeds.
In this part of the chapter, Yechezkel comes to understand his role: not merely a prophet, but a "watchman" - like the watchman atop the tower, who, if he falls asleep on his watch, disaster strikes the city. The seven days of silence at Tel Aviv were met with Hashem's rebuke: you imperil lives by your silence. The Holy One, Blessed is He, closes off any avenue of exemption from giving rebuke - regarding both the wicked and the righteous, intentional sin and unintentional error - teaching that the one who warns saves his own soul and even the soul of the listener, while the one who remains silent is held liable for his blood. In the context of "his righteous deeds shall not be remembered," we learned that there are no offsets in Heaven, and that erasure applies only to one who regrets his former righteous deeds, or through receiving the reward of the World to Come in this world - which is itself "the stumbling block." From there we saw the greatness of teshuvah, whose power is not only to forgive rebellion against Hashem's word, but also to repair the damage wrought in the upper realms, and which is entirely an act of chessed that transcends the logic of strict justice. Finally, in the valley, in isolation and distance from the disruptive populace, the glory of Hashem reveals itself to him, having arrived beforehand - to teach us that even in exile and divine wrath, "I have not rejected them, neither have I loathed them," and His providence is ever bestowed upon Israel.