Introduction: A New Section of Remembrance and Contention
From the seventh verse, an entirely new theme begins in Yeshayahu chapter 63. The Malbim explains that here the prophet recounts grand matters: how Israel, in the depths of their distress, recall the wonders that Hashem performed for them in ancient times, and their spirit searches and wonders - why did He draw back His right hand? Hashem saved us so many times, so why did He stop? Why are we abandoned to plunder today? They come, as it were, with a claim against Heaven. In the coming chapters, we will see Hashem's answer to this question, why He seemingly withdrew His mercies from them, alongside future consolation that He will ultimately redeem them. This theme, says the Malbim, continues until chapter 66.
"I will mention the mercies of Hashem" - The Past as a Guarantee for the Future
חַסְדֵי יְהֹוָה אַזְכִּיר תְּהִלֹּת יְהֹוָה כְּעַל כֹּל אֲשֶׁר גְּמָלָנוּ יְהֹוָה וְרַב־טוּב לְבֵית יִשְׂרָאֵל אֲשֶׁר גְּמָלָם כְּרַחֲמָיו וּכְרֹב חֲסָדָיו׃ (ז) - I will mention the loving-kindnesses of Hashem and the praises of Hashem, according to all that Hashem has bestowed upon us, and the great goodness toward the house of Israel, which He has bestowed on them according to His mercies, and according to the abundance of His loving-kindnesses. (7)
The prophet says: I will remind the people of Israel of Hashem's mercies, and remind them of the great goodness that the Holy One, blessed be He, bestowed upon the house of Israel according to His compassions and the abundance of His loving-kindness. The Radak explains the meaning of this: the prophet comes to deliver prophecies regarding the future, and anyone who speaks of the future must lean upon the past. When someone tells you that a certain person is capable of doing such-and-such, you ask what his history is, what his track record is, and what his abilities are - then he shows you past experience, from which you deduce regarding the future. So too here: in order for you to believe in what is destined to occur, "I trod down peoples in My anger, and made them drunk in My fury," I must show you what occurred in the past, and from that you will deduce that He is the Master of capability and the Master of all powers.
This also contains an answer to a profound question. After all, it was stated above, "And I looked, and there was none to help... and I was astonished, and there was none to uphold" - Israel possesses no merits. If there are no merits, why should we believe that the Holy One, blessed be He, will come and redeem us? To this the prophet replies: "I will mention the mercies of Hashem." Come and look at history - were we worthy when He redeemed us from Egypt? We had not yet received the Torah, and we had no merits. What did we have? Only two merits: the blood of the Pesach offering and the blood of circumcision. Even those were hardly substantial merits. The blood of the Pesach offering - they slaughtered the animals and placed the blood on the doorposts in order to be saved. And regarding the blood of circumcision - they were unwilling to circumcise themselves until He released the scent of Gan Eden in the Pesach offering, and when they all came to receive a portion, He said to them: first circumcise yourselves, as it is written, "no uncircumcised person shall eat thereof." And despite all this, we were redeemed. The prophet tells them: look back and consider the days of old, that even though you possessed no merits, when the conduct of absolute Unity governs, the Holy One, blessed be He, redeems even without merits. Just as He bestowed goodness upon us then, so will He bestow upon us in the future, even though we lack merits today as well.
"According to all that Hashem has bestowed upon us" - How We Know the Creator
What is the meaning of "according to all that Hashem has bestowed upon us"? The Malbim explains: I will praise Him according to His bounties upon us. This is a profound concept. It is explained at length in the Nefesh HaChaim and the Kuzari that it is impossible to comprehend the Holy One, blessed be He, in His true Essence, for "no thought can grasp Him at all." We cannot speak of the Creator of the universe in Himself. What can we speak about? About that which we experience through His power, about His actions. I can say: Hashem parted the sea. Who is Hashem? I do not know, I cannot comprehend.
From here it is understood why, when we approach prayer, we must specify Whom we are praying to. After all, every pagan refers to his idol as "god." Therefore, we begin: the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob - they knew Him properly, they reached the deepest apprehension of Hashem, blessed be He, and I pray to the One to Whom they prayed. Grasping the Holy One, blessed be He, in Himself is impossible; what is possible is to recount His bounties upon us, the loving-kindnesses and actions that He bestowed upon the people of Israel, and from that alone do we recognize His praise.
And do not say that these kindnesses were few - regarding this it says, "and great goodness toward the house of Israel." Nor should you say that this bounty came as a reward for our good deeds - regarding this it says, "according to His mercies, and according to the abundance of His loving-kindnesses": out of mercy, love, and immense kindness.
The Difference between One Who Shows Mercy and a Master of Kindness
The Malbim distinguishes between one who shows mercy (merachem) and one who possesses abundant loving-kindness (rav chesed). One who shows mercy does so because he cannot bear to witness the suffering of another; he extracts him from his distress - and that suffices. He does not elevate him to higher ranks and virtues, for why else would he have mercy on him? The person is now in an ordinary, standard state, and that is all. In contrast, the master of kindness is not content merely with rescuing him from distress; he gives far beyond that, adding more and more, and caring for his benefit well into the future.
Another distinction: one who shows compassion (rachamim) does not seek gratitude for the good deed he performed. Often, a person gives charity to the poor not because he truly entered into their plight, but simply to soothe his own conscience. There are many wealthy people, even among the nations, who donate to charity because they cannot bear the thought that they possess so much and discard so many good things, while people in Rwanda are starving to death for lack of a half-kilogram of rice, with entire families perishing. It bothers them - it makes it difficult for them to enjoy their world. To quiet their conscience, they give, support, and help. For such compassion, one cannot expect gratitude, because it is something that happens within the giver; he is merely soothing his own inner pain. One who performs true kindness (chesed), however, certainly deserves gratitude, for he is not acting to silence an internal ache, but purely to bestow upon another. The Holy One, blessed be He, delivers the Jewish people in both ways: through rachamim out of concern for our lowly state and suffering, and through chesed to grant us an abundance of good.
"Surely they are My people, children that will not deal falsely"
וַיֹּאמֶר אַךְ־עַמִּי הֵמָּה בָּנִים לֹא יְשַׁקֵּרוּ וַיְהִי לָהֶם לְמוֹשִׁיעַ׃ (ח) - "For He said: Surely they are My people, children that will not deal falsely; and so He became their Savior." (8)
Rashi explains: Even though it is revealed before Me that they will betray Me in the future, nevertheless they are My people, and they are like children who will not deal falsely. Radak explains that this refers back to the Exodus from Egypt: since the prophet stated, "the lovingkindnesses of the Lord that He bestowed upon us," meaning that He brought us out of Egypt, the Holy One, blessed be He, said: They are My people; I took them to Myself from the midst of another nation, I took them as children, and surely they will not deal falsely again - they will not deviate from their role, but will always conduct themselves as children. "And so He became their Savior" - as if to say: after all these salvations, there is no chance that the Jewish people will stray from the path.
Malbim aligns this verse with the preceding one. Corresponding to "according to His compassions," it says, "Surely they are My people" - since they are My nation, they are worthy of compassion. Corresponding to "and according to the abundance of His lovingkindnesses," it says, "children that will not deal falsely" - for the status of children is far greater, and as children they merit greater heights, kindnesses, and benevolence far beyond what they merit merely as a nation. Why is the status of children greater than that of a nation? Because children are bound to their father by birth, whereas "My people" is a matter of choice: one chooses to join a nation, or chooses to submit to a certain king. A child never chooses his father, and therefore the bond between child and father is far stronger than the bond between a nation and its king. A people chooses its king, and even if it did not choose, individuals can always pack up and leave; a child cannot. Therefore, because they are My people, I have compassion upon them; and because they are My children, I grant them abundant kindness; and thus "He became their Savior" at all times.
"In all their affliction He was afflicted" - The Keri and the Ketiv
בְּכׇל־צָרָתָם (לא) [לוֹ] צָר וּמַלְאַךְ פָּנָיו הוֹשִׁיעָם בְּאַהֲבָתוֹ וּבְחֶמְלָתוֹ הוּא גְאָלָם וַיְנַטְּלֵם וַיְנַשְּׂאֵם כׇּל־יְמֵי עוֹלָם׃ (ט) - "In all their affliction He was afflicted, and the angel of His presence saved them; in His love and in His pity He redeemed them, and He bore them and carried them all the days of old." (9)
In this verse there is a keri and a ketiv: the written text (ketiv) is lo with an alef (meaning "not"), while the traditional reading (keri) is lo with a vav (meaning "to Him"). Rashi explains according to the ketiv: in all the afflictions He brought upon them, He did not afflict them according to their evil deeds, as much as they rightfully deserved, because "the angel of His presence saved them." And who is the minister of the Presence? This is the angel Metat (whose full name is customarily not pronounced), while others say it is the angel Michael, who serves before Him, as it were; and when he delivers them on God's mission, it is considered as though we were saved by God's very Presence.
Radak incorporates both readings. According to the reading with an alef ("not"): in all the distress He brought upon them, He did not multiply their affliction beyond measure; He did not make their suffering unbearable, nor did He deliver them over to total destruction. And according to the reading with a vav ("to Him"): the Holy One, blessed be He, Himself felt their distress, as it is written, "and His soul could no longer endure the misery of Israel" - when the Jewish people do not fulfill God's will, the Holy One, blessed be He, experiences sorrow, as it were.
This has already been discussed in the teachings of Nefesh HaChaim: when the Jewish people disobey God, they provoke Him twice over. First, because the Holy One, blessed be He, commanded, "Do not do this," yet the person did it anyway. And second, because the Holy One, blessed be He, is compelled to bring suffering upon us, and when He chastises us, the Shechinah laments, "My head is heavy upon Me, My arm is heavy upon Me" - meaning, it pains Me and distresses Me. When we are in exile, the Shechinah is in exile with us, and through this, "He was afflicted."
Malbim connects this to the previous verse: once the Holy One, blessed be He, referred to them as "children" - when a person's child suffers, does the father not suffer? When his child is in pain, is he not pained? Therefore, it is certain that the Holy One, blessed be He, feels distress when seeing His children tormented. Thus, "the angel of His presence saved them" - He always dispatched an emissary, an unbroken, intimate providence to deliver Israel from within the distress itself.
"He redeemed them" - I and not an angel
This was during the time of trouble. But when the time for redemption arrived - "in His love and in His pity He redeemed them." Notice the precision: it was not the angel of His presence who redeemed them, but He Himself redeemed them, the Holy One, blessed be He, in His own glory - "I and not an angel." And what is the difference? The angel of His presence signifies hidden miracles, providence wrapped - in the words of the Malbim - in a natural veil, carried out through messengers. But the redemption itself was wrought through open, renowned miracles that transcended the laws of nature. A miracle operating within the laws of nature is a hidden miracle, like Megillat Esther; whereas the splitting of the Red Sea is an open miracle, as were the hailstones cast from heaven.
And what is the distinction between "His love" and "His pity"? The Malbim explains: love stems from the virtue of the beloved - one finds value in them, sees good qualities in them, and therefore loves them. Pity, or compassion, arises from mercy for the one who suffers - one sees their dire state, their weakness and distress, and therefore has compassion on them. The Holy One, blessed be He, redeemed us on both accounts: love on account of our virtue, and compassion on account of our suffering, for Hashem could not bear to look upon our distress. This is stated explicitly in the Torah: "And God heard their groaning" - this was compassion for their terrible plight; "and God remembered His covenant," "and God saw the children of Israel" - this was the virtue within them.
"And He Lifted Them and Exalted Them"
The Malbim distinguishes between these two terms as well. "He lifted them" (vayenatlem) indicates merely raising upward, lifting from the ground. From this root comes netilah, the vessel lifted for washing, or because when washing hands (netilat yadayim) one raises them upward; and from this root also comes the concept of taltul (carrying or moving), as in the Talmudic expression "taltula degavrah" - wandering is harder on a man than on a woman - which refers to picking something up from one place and moving it to another. By contrast, "He exalted them" (vayenaseim) expresses stature and importance: not merely a physical lifting, but an elevation in quality, a spiritual exaltation.
How magnificent this is: "He lifted them" - our extraction from distress - came out of compassion, seeing us suffer and lifting us up. Whereas "He exalted them" - the elevation - came out of love. To deliver us from Egypt, it would have sufficed to say "He lifted them"; but to give us the Torah, that was already "He exalted them." This corresponds directly to the two designations in the previous verse: as "My people," we merited only that He "lift" us, rescuing us from distress out of compassion; but as "children to Hashem your God," there is love, and where there is love, there is elevation - lifting our very stature. And so it was throughout history, "all the days of old."
"But They Rebelled" - Four Stages of Decline
וְהֵמָּה מָרוּ וְעִצְּבוּ אֶת־רוּחַ קׇדְשׁוֹ וַיֵּהָפֵךְ לָהֶם לְאוֹיֵב הוּא נִלְחַם־בָּם׃ (י) - But they rebelled and grieved His holy spirit, so He turned to be their enemy, and He fought against them. (10)
And what did we do? "Maru" - they rebelled; "itzvu" - they provoked and grieved Him. After the Holy One, blessed be He, redeemed them from trouble, they turned around and rebelled again. This became a recurring pattern, as we see throughout Sefer Shoftim: the Holy One, blessed be He, sends a savior, the savior delivers them, "and the land was tranquil for forty years," and then the cycle repeats - the people of Israel deteriorate, the Holy One, blessed be He, delivers them into the hand of Jabin king of Canaan, they cry out to Hashem, and He sends another savior. Likewise, King David wrote in Tehillim: "How often did they rebel against Him in the wilderness" - even though the Holy One, blessed be He, had rescued us, we repeatedly rebelled against His word.
The Malbim emphasizes that these are not synonymous verbs, but four progressive stages. First, "they rebelled" (maru) - they did not take care to thank Hashem for His kindness, but rebelled against Him. The term maru is also related to temurah (exchange), as in "lo yamirenu" ("he shall not exchange it") - they exchanged the Holy One, blessed be He, for idolatry. Second, "and grieved His holy spirit" - through their rebellion, they caused the Holy One, blessed be He, to punish them, and His holy spirit was grieved. This is like a father who is grieved when disciplining his beloved son: he has no choice, he must strike him to set him on the proper path, yet it pains him to inflict the blow and watch his child suffer. This is the meaning of: "How often did they rebel against Him in the wilderness, and grieve Him in the desert."
Third, "so He turned to be their enemy" - until they reached a state where the Holy One, blessed be He, as it were, rejoiced over their misfortune, as it is written in the Tochachah: "And it shall come to pass, that as Hashem rejoiced over you to do you good... so Hashem will rejoice over you to bring you to ruin." Chazal expound there: Does the Holy One, blessed be He, rejoice in the downfall of Israel? Rather, the word yashish is read in the causative form - He causes the other nations to rejoice over us; the nations will celebrate our collapse. Nonetheless, this represents a deeper stage of decline.
And fourth, "He fought against them": not only did He abandon them into the hands of enemies, and not only did He cause others to rejoice over their misfortune, but He Himself actively brought calamity upon them, and the retribution was no longer left to nature but was executed through direct providence - which is far more severe. Natural retribution means that the Holy One, blessed be He, says: I am withdrawing My providence from you. That is a harsh decree, but even so, good periods may still occur, because everything is subject to nature: if the land receives blessing, we partake in it, and if not, we do not. But when the Holy One, blessed be He, directs adversity against us through individual providence, then no matter what happens around us, catastrophe follows: the surrounding sea may be completely calm, yet our ship alone is battered by waves, because active Divine providence is working against the people of Israel. This is the meaning of: "Were it not that their Rock had sold them, and Hashem had delivered them up" - when Hashem delivers them up, providence itself turns toward calamity: "He fought against them," and that is far more agonizing.
"Then He Remembered the Days of Old" - Longing in Exile
וַיִּזְכֹּר יְמֵי־עוֹלָם מֹשֶׁה עַמּוֹ אַיֵּה הַמַּעֲלֵם מִיָּם אֵת רֹעֵי צֹאנוֹ אַיֵּה הַשָּׂם בְּקִרְבּוֹ אֶת־רוּחַ קׇדְשׁוֹ׃ (יא) - Then His people remembered the days of old, of Moshe: Where is He Who brought them up from the sea with the shepherds of His flock? Where is He Who put His holy spirit within him?
The Minchat Shai notes that there is a major textual debate among the scrolls and manuscripts: whether the text reads ro’ei tzono with a yud or ro’eh tzono with a hei. The difference is whether it is singular or plural. Ro’eh tzono with a hei means the shepherd of the flock, singular; ro’ei tzono with a yud means the shepherds of His flock, plural. This reflects a disagreement among the commentators: Ibn Ezra and Rashi interpret it in the singular, referring to Moshe; whereas Radak and Abarbanel interpret it in the plural - the shepherds of Israel throughout the generations, or Moshe and Aharon.
Radak explains: the Jewish people in exile, in their time of distress, remember the days of old, days long past, and recall how the Holy One, blessed be He, sent Moshe to redeem His people. And what is the meaning of "Moshe His people" (Moshe amo)? It is as though it were written "Moshe to His people" (Moshe le'amo), just as "and he came Jerusalem" means "and he came to Jerusalem" - a lamed is omitted here.
Now, in Egypt there were many among the Jewish people who worshipped idols. Not only that, but even at the very moment of redemption - "and distress passed through the sea" - the idol of Michah crossed with them. And lest you say these were only isolated individuals, when they were commanded regarding the Pesach offering, Moshe told them, "Draw out and take for yourselves a lamb," which Chazal interpret: "Draw your hands away from idolatry." That is to say, even at the hour of redemption, there were still idolaters among them. Nevertheless, because the Holy One, blessed be He, saw their affliction and their distress, He had compassion on them, and in His great love for them, "He bore them and carried them."
So this was the pattern in history: "And God heard their groaning," and the Holy One, blessed be He, redeemed them. Were they worthy? They were not worthy. Yet it is said, "Open for Me an opening like the eye of a needle" - an awakening from below (isaruta d'letata) is required. Even so, "Hashem passed over the opening": at the Exodus from Egypt, the Holy One, blessed be He, bypassed even that requirement of "open for Me an opening," and everything was an awakening from Above (isaruta d'le'eila), from the Holy One Himself. "I have surely seen the affliction of My people who are in Egypt" - it does not say "I have seen their merits and their mitzvot," but rather "I have seen their affliction." And even when the Egyptians pursued them, they did not recall the signs and wonders, crying out, "Is it because there were no graves in Egypt that you took us to die in the wilderness?" Yet despite this, He brought them through the sea on dry land, and "the waters covered their oppressors."
Hence Israel's plea: "Where is He Who brought them up from the sea?" Where is the Holy One, blessed be He, Who performed signs and wonders for us even though we were neither worthy nor deserving? Who sent Moshe and Aharon, the shepherds of His flock, and saved a sinful nation? If He saved us then without merits, let Him save us now as well, even as we sin before Him! Why does He deal with us with such severity?
Gideon's Question
Who in history asked this very question? Gideon. When he was beating out wheat in the winepress to hide it from Midian, an angel of Hashem appeared to him, and Gideon said to him: Where are all His wonders and mighty deeds of which our fathers told us? My father told me how the Holy One, blessed be He, brought Israel out of Egypt and how He redeemed them - so why does He not do for us as He did for our fathers? And if you say that we lack merits, did our fathers have merits? The angel replied to him: "Go in this strength of yours" - in the merit of the defense you have argued on behalf of My children, through the power of this advocacy you will merit to save Israel. And indeed, Gideon went and delivered Israel. We see that the Holy One, blessed be He, cherishes it when one defends His children.
The Answer: A Child's First Steps
Nevertheless, this powerful question must be answered: Has there really been a change in Hashem's providence? The answer is simple. When parents see their child taking his very first steps, there is immense excitement - videos, cameras, clapping, treats. Yet in truth, it is hardly walking at all: he barely takes a step and falls, gets up again, clutches the table, and tumbles once more. But what if he were still walking like that at thirty years old? Heaven forbid - hospitals, orthopedists. What changed? When he is a toddler just beginning to walk, even clumsy steps are a joyous milestone; but if an adult continues to walk that way, it is deeply concerning and alarming.
The same is true of the Jewish people. When they left Egypt, those were their first steps, and father and mother lend a helping hand: Moshe and Aharon, the Giving of the Torah, signs, miracles, and wonders. A young child is given everything, showered with care, for he does not yet know anything. He is also forgiven: he falls, pulls something down, causes thousands of dollars in damage - what can you do to him? You might feel angry or upset, but in the end you say, "The poor child." On the other hand, when an adult acts that way, he is held fully accountable. When we entered the Land and the wars of Yehoshua and the building of the Land began, it was time to start living with greater maturity, not depending on an open miracle from the hand of Hashem at every single moment. The Holy One, blessed be He, showed leniency toward all our childhood blunders when we were still in diapers; but when people ask why there are no miracles today like there were back then, the answer is: because you were already expected to be in a very different place.
The Two Interpretations of the Verse and the Two Virtues That Were Lost
Radak cites those who explain the entire verse as referring to the Holy One, blessed be He: it is not Israel who remember, but the Holy One, blessed be He, who remembers the days of old, remembers Moshe and His people, and asks, as it were, "Where is He who brought them up from the sea?" - and this is also in line with Targum Yonatan ben Uziel. However, the Malbim, following Radak's first interpretation, explains that this refers to the Jewish people: from amidst their troubles, they remember the days of old, recalling the miracles Hashem performed in every generation back to Moshe Rabbeinu, and then they ask, "Where?"
The Malbim explains: During that era, the Holy One, blessed be He, distinguished the Jewish people in two distinct ways. First - unfathomable and indescribable miracles and wonders: the plagues of Egypt, the Exodus, and the splitting of the Red Sea. Second - the Shechinah dwelling in their midst: prophecy and Ruach HaKodesh, as the Holy One, blessed be He, spoke with Israel. Both of these virtues are articulated in the verse: "Did ever a people hear the voice of God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as you have heard, and live?" - this is the prophecy in their midst; "Or has God ventured to go and take for Himself a nation from the midst of another nation, by trials, by signs, and by wonders..." - this is the redemption, the constant Divine Providence, the miracles and wonders.
Both of these virtues were lost to us, and Israel asks about both of them. "Where is He who brought them up out of the sea with the shepherd of His flock?" - where is He who brought Moshe, the shepherd of Hashem's flock, up from the sea; where is the Holy One, blessed be He, who delivered us then and worked miracles for us? "Where is He who put His holy spirit within him?" - where is He who placed His spirit of prophecy in Moshe, and not in him alone, but in the midst of the entire nation, for there were seventy elders upon whom the spirit rested, and at Mount Sinai we were all prophets. Since Chaggai, Zechariah, and Malachi, the last of the prophets, we no longer have prophets to inform us when the end of days will arrive, when the redemption will come, and when all troubles will cease. Over this, Israel cries out: Where? Where?
In summary:
The prophet opens a new passage of remembrance: "I will mention the kindnesses of Hashem" - I will recount the kindnesses of the past, so that from them you may learn of His power and His faithfulness for the future. The Holy One, blessed be He, dealt with us according to His mercies and His abundant kindness: with mercy because we are "My people," and with boundless kindness because we are "children." In our affliction He suffered, and the angel of His presence saved us through hidden providence; at the time of redemption, "He redeemed them" Himself through open miracles - "He lifted them up" out of compassion and "carried them" out of love. Yet we repaid evil for good in four stages: they rebelled, they grieved Him, He turned to be their enemy, and He fought against them. From amidst the trouble, Israel remembers the days of Moshe and asks, "Where?" - where are the miracles, and where is the prophecy? This is the question of Gideon, regarding which it was said to him, "Go in this strength of yours," in the merit of advocating on Israel's behalf. Its answer is that what was granted to the nation in its infancy as unearned kindness must, in its maturity, be sustained through its own efforts - yet the promise always remains that just as He redeemed without merit, so too He will redeem without merit in the future to come.