In the first part of the chapter, the prophet rebuked the shepherds of Israel - the leaders who pastured themselves rather than the flock: they did not strengthen the weak, heal the sick, bind up the broken, bring back the strayed, or seek out the lost. From here on, the chapter takes a turn: the Holy One, Blessed be He, proclaims that He Himself will take the pasturing into His own hands, and against everything the leaders failed to do, He enumerates one by one what He will do. From there, the prophecy continues to depict the gradual stages of the redemption: from lifting the yoke of exile, through the ingathering of the exiles and dwelling in the Land, to the revelation of the kingdom of the House of David and the elevation of the Jewish people from the level of sheep to the level of man.
אֲנִי אֶרְעֶה צֹאנִי וַאֲנִי אַרְבִּיצֵם, נְאֻם אֲדֹנָי יֱהוִה׃ - I Myself will pasture My flock, and I will cause them to lie down, says the Lord God.
In the preceding verses, it was stated that the flock would graze on the lofty mountains of Israel, in high and distant places. Therefore, the verse comes and says: do not think that simply because they are in a high and distant place they will remain without a shepherd. The Holy One, Blessed be He, says: I will pasture My flock. That is, divine providence will accompany them both during grazing and during resting, in repose. Just as Yaakov Avinu said concerning his toil with the sheep: "By day the heat consumed me, and the frost by night." The Malbim emphasizes that resting is not necessarily at night alone, for the flock is sometimes made to lie down during the heat of the day at noon - one grazes and another rests. In any event, even while they lie down, Hashem says, I will continue to watch over them.
אֶת־הָאֹבֶדֶת אֲבַקֵּשׁ וְאֶת־הַנִּדַּחַת אָשִׁיב וְלַנִּשְׁבֶּרֶת אֶחֱבֹשׁ וְאֶת־הַחוֹלָה אֲחַזֵּק, וְאֶת־הַשְּׁמֵנָה וְאֶת־הַחֲזָקָה אַשְׁמִיד, אֶרְעֶנָּה בְמִשְׁפָּט׃ - I will seek out the lost, and bring back the strayed, and bind up the broken, and strengthen the sick; but the fat and the strong I will destroy, I will pasture them with justice.
Here the prophet follows the order of what he stated earlier: that which the leaders failed to do, the Holy One, Blessed be He, promises to do Himself. Four things in which the shepherds did the opposite: the lost which they did not seek, I will seek out; the one strayed from its place which they did not bring back, I will bring back; the broken, having a broken foreleg or hindleg, I will bind up; and the sick, I will strengthen.
"And the fat and the strong I will destroy" - these are the wealthy, the powerful. Through the power of their wealth and might, they tyrannized the poor, taking from them by force and levying draconian taxes on them, leaving the poor downtrodden beneath their hand. Hashem says: them I will destroy, and thereby the rest of the flock will be able to graze and find sustenance in pasture. "I will pasture them with justice" - with equity and righteousness, so that each one will receive what is due them, and the strong will not come and take by force from the lowly and the weak.
Notice the precise nuance of the language. Earlier, the prophet distinguished: the weak, which are only beginning to fall ill, must be strengthened; whereas the truly sick, which has already succumbed to illness, must be healed. Yet here it says, "and the sick I will strengthen," when it should have said "I will heal." The Malbim explains: the verse comes to teach that not only will I strengthen the weak, but even the one that has actually fallen ill, I will not merely heal - for healing is nothing more than removing the illness - but I will furthermore strengthen it. Therefore, the verse takes the two extremes: the worst condition, sickness, is brought to the best possible state, strength. This is care of the highest possible order.
וְאַתֵּנָה צֹאנִי, כֹּה אָמַר אֲדֹנָי יֱהוִה: הִנְנִי שֹׁפֵט בֵּין־שֶׂה לָשֶׂה, לָאֵילִים וְלָעַתּוּדִים׃ - "And as for you, My flock, thus says the Lord God: Behold, I judge between sheep and sheep, between the rams and the he-goats."
Corresponding to what was said regarding the fat and the strong - referring to the wealthy who took all the bounty and left nothing for the poor, dominating them and seizing their wealth - Hashem says: I judge between sheep and sheep, between the rams and the he-goats. The rams and the he-goats are the strong ones, the mighty and powerful, and they would take all the pasture and not allow the weak sheep to graze, for they took the choice pasture for themselves, leaving the weak sheep with nothing to graze on.
By way of comparison, we may recall David HaMelech. It is told of him that when he shepherded the flock, he acted in the exact opposite manner: first, he would take out the weak and young sheep, allowing them to eat the upper, tender part of the grass. Next, he would take out the intermediate sheep to eat the lower portion. Finally, he would lead out the robust and strong sheep, which were capable of pulling the grass up from the roots and eating the tough part, and that was their portion. Here, by contrast, the strong - in the parable, the robust sheep, and in the message, the wealthy - would go and consume all the grass, leaving nothing at all for the weak sheep, the poor.
הַמְעַט מִכֶּם הַמִּרְעֶה הַטּוֹב תִּרְעוּ, וְיֶתֶר מִרְעֵיכֶם תִּרְמְסוּ בְּרַגְלֵיכֶם, וּמִשְׁקַע־מַיִם תִּשְׁתּוּ וְאֵת הַנּוֹתָרִים בְּרַגְלֵיכֶם תִּרְפֹּשׂוּן׃ - "Is it too small a thing for you to graze on the good pasture, that you must trample the residue of your pastures with your feet, and drink clear, settled water, that you must muddy the remainder with your feet?"
וְצֹאנִי מִרְמַס רַגְלֵיכֶם תִּרְעֶינָה, וּמִרְפַּשׂ רַגְלֵיכֶם תִּשְׁתֶּינָה׃ - "And as for My flock, must they graze on what your feet have trampled, and drink what your feet have muddied?"
The prophet says: Is it too small a matter for you that you come and graze upon the choice pasture? Even if the prominent and powerful took the best for themselves - at the very least, go home and leave the rest for the weak sheep! But they did not do so. When they finished eating, they would trample all that remained underfoot so that nothing would be left for others. "And you trample the residue of your pastures with your feet" - they trampled the leftovers. And then the verse asks: Do you truly expect My flock - the weak ones, those unable to push their way through forcefully like you - to graze on what your feet have trampled, on what you have crushed?
And so it was with the water. "Settled water" refers to a place where the silt settles to the depths, leaving the upper water pure and clear. They would drink from the clean water whose sediment had settled, and then foul the remaining water with their feet: they would thrust their feet into the water, stirring all the sediment up so that the water turned into mud. Concerning this the prophet asks: "And drink what your feet have muddied?" Do you truly expect the remaining sheep to drink what you have fouled with your feet? We see from this that this was not merely a desire to indulge themselves, but sheer malice and ill will toward others: if anything was left over, let no one have it, and let nothing remain.
לָכֵן כֹּה אָמַר אֲדֹנָי יֱהוִה אֲלֵיהֶם: הִנְנִי־אָנִי וְשָׁפַטְתִּי בֵּין־שֶׂה בִרְיָה וּבֵין שֶׂה רָזָה׃ - "Therefore, thus says the Lord God to them: Behold, I, even I, will judge between fat sheep and lean sheep."
"Behold, I, even I" - I, through My Providence. I will judge between the fat sheep, which is the strong one - beriyah, meaning healthy and robust - and the lean sheep, which is the weak one. I will demand an accounting and sit in judgment over the robust sheep, holding it accountable for oppressing the poor, crushing the needy, and robbing them of even the little they had left.
יַעַן בְּצַד וּבְכָתֵף תֶּהְדֹּפוּ וּבְקַרְנֵיכֶם תְּנַגְּחוּ כׇּל־הַנַּחְלוֹת, עַד אֲשֶׁר הֲפִיצוֹתֶם אוֹתָנָה אֶל־הַחוּצָה׃ - "Because you thrust with flank and with shoulder, and gored all the weak ones with your horns, until you scattered them far outside."
This corresponds to the force mentioned earlier: they would thrust aside the sick until they were forced outside. In the nimshal, this is an allegory for tyrants who oppressed the poor and the weak, seizing their estates, plundering their portions, and banishing them from their lands. In the mashal, ha-nachlot refers to the sick sheep, while in the nimshal it refers literally to estates (nachalot) - they would take their estates from them and scatter them far away.
וְהוֹשַׁעְתִּי לְצֹאנִי וְלֹא־תִהְיֶינָה עוֹד לָבַז, וְשָׁפַטְתִּי בֵּין שֶׂה לָשֶׂה׃ - "I will save My flock, and they shall no longer be a prey; and I will judge between sheep and sheep."
I will save My flock to rescue them from those who plunder them, and I will judge between the oppressor and the oppressed - judging the oppressor for what he robbed from the oppressed.
וַהֲקִמֹתִי עֲלֵיהֶם רֹעֶה אֶחָד וְרָעָה אֶתְהֶן אֵת עַבְדִּי דָוִיד, הוּא יִרְעֶה אֹתָם וְהוּא־יִהְיֶה לָהֶן לְרֹעֶה׃ - "And I will set up one shepherd over them, and he shall tend them, even My servant David; he shall tend them, and he shall be a shepherd to them."
After Hashem judges and tends the Jewish people Himself, the kingdom of the House of David will be revealed, and he will be the shepherd under Hashem. As it were, the Holy One, Blessed be He, entrusted His flock into the hands of a faithful shepherd, King David. All the commentators explain that this does not refer to David himself, but to a scion of the House of David, a leader who will arise from the House of David.
This will occur in three stages. The first stage: "He shall tend them" - a man from the House of David will arise and lead the Jewish people, compelling them to practice justice and righteousness, unlike the way the shepherds acted until now. The second stage: "And he shall be a shepherd to them" - they will accept him. For at first he will tend them with authority, compelling them to act with justice and righteousness, but afterward they will willingly accept his leadership, learning from him until he becomes their shepherd with their full consent.
וַאֲנִי יְהוָה אֶהְיֶה לָהֶם לֵאלֹהִים וְעַבְדִּי דָוִד נָשִׂיא בְתוֹכָם, אֲנִי יְהוָה דִּבַּרְתִּי׃ - "And I, Hashem, will be their God, and My servant David a prince among them; I, Hashem, have spoken."
This is the third stage. They will take upon themselves the yoke of the Kingdom of Heaven, and the sovereignty of Hashem will be revealed to the point that He will be their God: they will no longer serve any idols, nor will they seek support and help from other forces in creation; rather, the Holy One, Blessed be He, alone will be the sole power upon whom they rely. And King David will ascend from the level of shepherd to the level of prince (nasi), which is the aspect of King Messiah. "I, Hashem, have spoken" - I have already spoken of this through the prophets who prophesied about the Messiah, as it is said, "A shoot shall come forth from the stem of Yishai"; I have already spoken and explained the matter of the Messiah and the Redemption through the prophets in the past.
וְכָרַתִּי לָהֶם בְּרִית שָׁלוֹם וְהִשְׁבַּתִּי חַיָּה־רָעָה מִן־הָאָרֶץ, וְיָשְׁבוּ בַמִּדְבָּר לָבֶטַח וְיָשְׁנוּ בַּיְּעָרִים׃ - "And I will make a covenant of peace with them, and banish wild beasts from the land; and they shall dwell safely in the wilderness and sleep in the forests."
Shepherds had two main fears: leaving the flock in the wilderness, because of bandits in the wilderness; and leaving them in the forest at night, for "in it all the beasts of the forest creep forth," and wild predators roam there at night. Neither the wilderness by day nor the forest at night. Hashem says: I will make a covenant of peace, and the foot of an enemy or bandit will no longer pass through; thus they will dwell safely in the wilderness and fear no bandits. And I will banish wild beasts from the land; thus they will have no fear of sleeping at night in the forests.
וְנָתַתִּי אוֹתָם וּסְבִיבוֹת גִּבְעָתִי בְּרָכָה, וְהוֹרַדְתִּי הַגֶּשֶׁם בְּעִתּוֹ גִּשְׁמֵי בְרָכָה יִהְיוּ׃ - "And I will make them and the places round about My hill a blessing, and I will cause the rain to come down in its season; they shall be showers of blessing."
The sheep still have cause for concern: even if they are safe from bandits and wild beasts, what will they eat if there is no grass? To this He says: "And I will make them" - the wilderness and the forests - "and the places round about My hill" - the areas surrounding the Land of Israel and Jerusalem - I will bestow blessing there, so that rain falls there in its season and grass grows for the livestock.
Why is it necessary to emphasize, "they shall be showers of blessing"? Because the Gemara explains that sometimes rain is decreed on Rosh Hashanah, but Israel subsequently sins and goes astray. What does the Holy One, blessed be He, do? He does not rescind His decree, but rather sends the rain down upon the forest and the wilderness. The allocated amount of precipitation falls, but in a place where it serves no purpose. Following this logic, one might have thought that here, when the Holy One, blessed be He, promises to bring rain even in the wilderness and the forests - so that they will both be protected there and have sustenance with growing pasture - perhaps this would come at the expense of the fields and inhabited settlements. To this He says: not at all; they will be showers of blessing. The rains for the fields and inhabited areas will not be diminished on account of the rain falling in the forests and wildernesses.
וְנָתַן עֵץ הַשָּׂדֶה אֶת־פִּרְיוֹ וְהָאָרֶץ תִּתֵּן יְבוּלָהּ וְהָיוּ עַל־אַדְמָתָם לָבֶטַח, וְיָדְעוּ כִּי־אֲנִי יְהוָה בְּשִׁבְרִי אֶת־מֹטוֹת עֻלָּם וְהִצַּלְתִּים מִיַּד הָעֹבְדִים בָּהֶם׃ - "And the tree of the field shall yield its fruit, and the earth shall yield its produce, and they shall be safe on their land; and they shall know that I am the Lord, when I break the bars of their yoke and rescue them from the hand of those who enslaved them."
The Malbim notes: Observe, these blessings are already written in the Torah. "And I will give your rains in their season," "and the land shall yield its produce" - corresponding to "and the earth shall yield its produce" here. "And you shall dwell safely in your land" - corresponding to "and they shall be safe on their land." "And I will give peace in the land, and you shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid," "and I will rid evil beasts from the land" - corresponding to what is stated here. These are prophecies that were already mentioned in the Torah. Here the prophet describes how through the severe judgments, which correspond to wild beasts, sword, and famine, "and they shall know that I am the Lord": by virtue of what will they know? By virtue of the severe judgments. For when the Holy One, blessed be He, enters into judgment with the people and punishes them, through this they come to know Him.
Notice the shift: at first, the prophecy depicts them as sheep - dwelling safely in the wilderness and the forests, with those severe judgments removed from them. Afterward, it portrays them at a higher level, the level of human beings. Therefore it says, "And the tree of the field shall yield its fruit" - animals do not eat the fruit of trees, but rather the grass of the field. Once the verse speaks of the fruit of the tree, it is a sign that it has transitioned to speaking of human beings and is no longer speaking of sheep.
Initially, it depicts them as dwelling safely in the lands of the nations: even while they are still in exile, He removes the harshness of subjugation from them. This is what is meant by dwelling safely in the wilderness and sleeping safely in the forests. This seems to describe our situation today: the majority of the Jewish people are in exile, yet it is not so terrible an exile. They feel comfortable enough there that they have no desire to make aliyah to the Land. In other words, the harshness of the exile's subjugation has been lifted; the Jew in the Diaspora is not persecuted. While this is not complete security, neither is it a state of persecution. Afterward, the Holy One, blessed be He, will gather them from all those places and settle them securely in their land.
This is the meaning of "and they shall know that I am the Lord, when I break the bars of their yoke": in the first stage, I will break the bars of the yoke, so that even though they are still among the nations, the yoke does not weigh heavily upon them. The nations do not rule over them with force; there are equal rights, and they develop and engage in business and other pursuits among the nations. First the bars of the yoke are broken, and they remain among the nations, but without the yoke.
וְלֹא־יִהְיוּ עוֹד בַּז לַגּוֹיִם וְחַיַּת הָאָרֶץ לֹא תֹאכְלֵם, וְיָשְׁבוּ לָבֶטַח וְאֵין מַחֲרִיד׃ - "And they shall no longer be a prey to the nations, nor shall the beast of the earth devour them; but they shall dwell safely, with none to make them afraid."
Part of them had until now been plunder for the nations, as the nations looted their wealth; and regarding this, it says that the nations will no longer plunder their wealth. And part of them were subjected to nations that are like a wild beast that devours the flock; and regarding this, it says: "nor shall the beasts of the earth devour them" - those nations that are like wild beasts will no longer devour My flock. "And they shall dwell securely" - they will dwell among the nations in safety and tranquility.
וַהֲקִמֹתִי לָהֶם מַטָּע לְשֵׁם, וְלֹא־יִהְיוּ עוֹד אֲסֻפֵי רָעָב בָּאָרֶץ וְלֹא־יִשְׂאוּ עוֹד כְּלִמַּת הַגּוֹיִם׃ - And I will establish for them a planting of renown, and they shall no longer be consumed by hunger in the land, neither shall they bear the shame of the nations anymore.
The previous stage was peace among the nations; the next stage is settling in Eretz Yisrael. The entire Jewish people will arrive here, and Hashem will plant them in the Land in a good plantation, a planting for the Name of Hashem, and they will never be uprooted again. There will also be abundance, so they will not be "consumed by hunger" - those gathered away by starvation. "Neither shall they bear the shame of the nations anymore": when we are among the nations, there is shame upon us because we are exiled from our land, but here there will no longer be any shame; on the contrary, they will live in their land in prosperity and tranquility.
וְיָדְעוּ כִּי אֲנִי יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵיהֶם אִתָּם, וְהֵמָּה עַמִּי בֵּית יִשְׂרָאֵל נְאֻם אֲדֹנָי יֱהוִה׃ - And they shall know that I, Hashem their God, am with them, and that they, the House of Israel, are My people, says the Lord God.
And then everyone will know that I, Hashem their God, am with them: the Shechinah clings to them, they experience miracles, they have prophecy, and all those exalted levels the Jewish people had during the First Temple era will be seen returning and attaching to them. "And that they, the House of Israel, are My people" - that it will be mutual, that they too will cleave to Me and cleave to the service of Hashem. Then they will ascend to the level of "Adam" (man), after having been spoken of until now on the level of a flock.
וְאַתֵּן צֹאנִי צֹאן מַרְעִיתִי אָדָם אַתֶּם, אֲנִי אֱלֹהֵיכֶם נְאֻם אֲדֹנָי יֱהוִה׃ - And you My flock, the flock of My pasture, you are Adam, and I am your God, says the Lord God.
Rashi explains: You are not like animals in My eyes, but rather you are Adam. You will rise above your former status, where you were on the level of a flock, and attain the level of Adam. For one who serves Hashem is considered on the level of Adam relative to one who does not serve Him, who remains on the level of an animal. "And you My flock, the flock of My pasture," will ascend to the level of Adam, "for I am Hashem your God."
As a side note, having completed the chapter, it is worth mentioning that this verse served as the basis for a severe accusation against Jews in what is known as the Mendel Beilis trial - which was perhaps the last notorious blood libel trial in history. A Christian boy was found dead in a factory, and they accused Mendel Beilis and put him on trial. Among other things, the prosecution sought to prove that Jews regard Christians and gentiles as animals, and therefore have no qualms about killing them, with Judaism supposedly posing no hindrance to doing so. Thus, they turned a trial against a single individual into a trial against Judaism as a whole, putting all of Judaism on trial for its attitude toward gentiles, claiming it was no wonder that this Mendel Beilis was capable of murdering the Christian child.
Rabbi Mazeh was the one who guided the defense attorney at the time, providing instructions on how to respond to every argument from the prosecution. One of the points raised at trial was this very verse: "And you My flock, the flock of My pasture, you are Adam," about which Chazal teach, "You are called Adam, and the nations of the world are not called Adam." Look, they argued, Your Honor can see: the nations of the world are not considered human in their eyes, but animals, so what wonder is it that they are capable of slaughtering them? And this, of course, coming from those who throughout history slaughtered Jews - but the gentiles never confused themselves with facts; they had their theory.
And what did Rabbi Mazeh reply? He told the defense attorney to say the following: Your Honor, here on trial stands a man named Mendel Beilis. This trial has caused an uproar throughout the entire Jewish world. Donations were collected for him, his case was taken up in all kinds of forums, appeals were made to governments and diplomats, efforts were made to prove that this was a show trial and to plead that he be left alone, through worldwide shtadlanut (advocacy). And I wish to ask your Honor: if among your people some Gentile were being prosecuted, would anyone take an interest in him? If he were a well-known man, perhaps his neighborhood would mobilize slightly; if he were less known, perhaps his street; and if he were an anonymous person, at best his wife and children. Yet here is a Jew whom nobody knows, and Jews from across the world feel connected to him. What is this connection? Why is a Jew at the other end of the world connected to the plight of Mendel Beilis, whom he has never seen and never heard of?
And he said: I will tell you the reason. Our Sages say that the Jewish people are called a sheep: "Israel is a scattered sheep." And why? Because with a sheep, when one of its limbs is sick, all its limbs feel it. It is weak and delicate; it has a minor pain in its leg and its entire body becomes sick. So it is with the Jewish people: when one member of the Jewish people suffers, the entire community is consumed by it. A single soldier is held captive, and the matter preoccupies the entire State of Israel for five years. Where have you found such a thing among the nations? Who finds it interesting, who cares if someone is imprisoned somewhere? This is the Jewish people.
And as for the homily itself: whoever told you that the nations of the world are not called adam and therefore are like beasts does not know how to read a Gemara. The nations of the world are not called adam; they are called anashim (men), while adam refers only to the Jewish people. And what is the difference between anashim and adam? The word ish (man) admits a plural: one says ish and one says anashim. But adam does not admit a plural: one does not say adamim. The Jewish people are called adam, meaning a single entity, a single unit. The nations of the world, by contrast, are called anashim: each person lives his life for himself and has no inherent bond with his fellow. The Jewish people, on the other hand, are considered a single entity, a single reality, one adam.
Incidentally, this argument was accepted because it was a true argument. Among the prosecutors there was an apostate Jew who tried to help them find supposed Jewish sources against Christians; and as is known, these were usually the assistants and the censors - "Your destroyers and wreckers came forth from within you." The New Israel Fund did not arise yesterday; the Jewish people have suffered from these "horns" and their gorings for hundreds of years. The defense attorney wanted to expose how this apostate, who presented himself as an expert and scholar, understood nothing at all. He asked him: "Do you know the Bobe Basre?" The man started thinking in Yiddish - bobe means grandmother - and said: "No, what does this grandmother have to do with anything? I do not know this grandmother." The entire courtroom burst into laughter; the Jews there understood immediately: he meant Tractate Bava Kama and Bava Batra, which every child knows. And he, when asked about Tractate Bava Batra, thought they were speaking about a grandmother! That was the level of his knowledge, yet he came to challenge us and claim that he knew and understood what was written here. It is told that the laughter and commotion grew so loud that the judge had to restore order in the courtroom.
I will mention in brief something discussed at length elsewhere, and whoever wishes may study this in the teachings on reincarnation (gilgulim). There is a chapter there that is highly recommended to study, a wondrous teaching of the holy Ari on the secret of the Egyptian exile and the sin of Adam HaRishon: how the souls from the 130 years during which Adam separated from his wife were reincarnated in the Generation of the Flood, the Generation of the Dispersion, the people of Sodom, and the sheep of Lavan, until they descended to Egypt, and in Egypt they were refined, and they became the Jewish people. This is the rectification of those lofty and holy souls that emerged from Adam HaRishon during those 130 years.
And this is alluded to here in the verse. Yaakov Avinu tended that very flock in which those souls were reincarnated, and this is "And you, My flock, the flock of My pasture" - and who are this flock? "You are adam": you are the soul of Adam HaRishon, for this flock is Adam, it is the rectification of Adam. "I am your God, says the Lord God" - that they were destined to be redeemed; the flock of Yaakov descended to Egypt, and from there they were redeemed and went out with great wealth.
In this part of the chapter, the Holy One, blessed be He, Himself becomes the Shepherd: He watches over them during grazing and resting, seeks out the lost, returns the stray, binds up the broken, and not only heals the sick but strengthens it, while destroying the fat and the strong - the wealthy who trampled and muddied the waters so nothing would be left for the weak. From there the prophecy progresses in stages: breaking the bars of the yoke in exile, removing the plunder and prey from the hand of the nations, the ingathering of the exiles and permanent planting in the Land, a covenant of peace and rains of blessing, and finally the revelation of the kingdom of the House of David in three stages - a shepherd by coercion, a shepherd by consent, and a prince amidst a people that has accepted the yoke of Heaven upon itself. And in the end, Israel ascends from the level of flock to the level of "You are adam": a single entity, one body whose every limb feels the pain of each and every one of them. May Hashem redeem us with an everlasting redemption speedily, Amen and Amen.