Introduction
In this part of the chapter, the prophet continues along a single line: he responds to those doubters who do not believe that the Holy One, blessed be He, has the power to fulfill His promise and redeem the Jewish people. One who doubts this envisions the Creator as possessing limited power, like one of the created beings, and from there the path to idol worship is short. Therefore, the prophet moves from establishing that the nations are as nothing and void, to sharp mockery of idolaters, and from there to the proof from creation itself that the castle has a Master.
All Nations Are as Nothing Before Him
כׇּל־הַגּוֹיִם כְּאַיִן נֶגְדּוֹ מֵאֶפֶס וָתֹהוּ נֶחְשְׁבוּ־לוֹ׃ - All nations are as nothing before Him; they are accounted by Him as less than nothing and void.
There are two stages here. If you assess the nations in relative terms compared to Hashem, blessed be He - they are considered nonexistent, "as nothing before Him." And should you say: relative to Him they are indeed as nothing, but perhaps on their own they hold some importance? To this Scripture adds, "they are accounted by Him as less than nothing and void" - even on their own terms, they are counted as nothing at all.
This corresponds to what was mentioned earlier, "and His work is before Him": Hashem, blessed be He, does not alter His actions on account of the nations, for when He decides a matter, He needs no external force to bring it to fruition. If so, why would He, as it were, change His mind because the nations found favor in His eyes? After all, they are as nothing and void before Him.
To Whom Will You Compare God - The Root of the Error
וְאֶל־מִי תְּדַמְּיוּן אֵל וּמַה־דְּמוּת תַּעַרְכוּ לוֹ׃ - To whom then will you compare God, and what likeness will you match to Him?
You, who doubt whether God has the ability to fulfill His will and His promise - you are imagining the Creator as possessing limited power. You begin to debate: this He can do, and this He cannot do; in this He is interested, and in this He is not interested; here He might want to change His will, and here He will not change it. In short, you view the Holy One, blessed be He, as one of the created beings, imagining Him in terms of matter and form, as a physical body, as something familiar from this world. Rather, you say: there is a body, and there is a superior body; there is matter, and there is superior matter; and the Holy One, blessed be He, is, as it were, the most refined matter and the most exalted body. And from this mindset, you also craft idols for Him, things that resemble Him, in order to bow before Him through that idol.
To this the prophet says to them: Fools, to whom will you compare God? He has no likeness at all, no form, and no image. Hashem is a sublime, infinite intellect, beyond any human comprehension whatsoever. And what do you think, that an image can be compared to Him? Yet out of foolishness you attribute to Him a likeness, an image, and a form, and you go and fashion idols, as it were, in His blessed likeness. In the next verse, the prophet begins to describe to them exactly what they are comparing Him to, and what utter foolishness this is.
Resemblance and Value - Two Perspectives
The Malbim notes the precise distinction in phrasing: "will you compare" versus "will you match." Resemblance refers to equality in external form - this looks like that. Value does not require external resemblance, but rather equivalence in worth. A gold dinar and a copper dinar: they resemble each other in form, but in terms of value there is no equality between them. A gold dinar and myrrh oil of the same value: in terms of worth they are equal, but in terms of appearance - one is oil and the other is a gold coin. A gold dinar and honey of equal weight: it is neither similar nor equivalent - neither in external form nor in value, as a gold dinar is worth far more than that amount of honey.
Hence the argument against them: an idol bears no resemblance to Him whatsoever. Even according to your premise - that He has a physical likeness and can be given a form - the idol cannot compare to Him in any way regarding its power of action. For Hashem, may He be blessed, fulfills the will of those who revere Him, whereas an idol possesses no power and provides no benefit whatsoever. It has neither an external likeness nor any comparable value.
"The Idol That a Craftsman Melted" - Its Inferiority from Every Angle
הַפֶּסֶל נָסַךְ חָרָשׁ וְצֹרֵף בַּזָּהָב יְרַקְּעֶנּוּ וּרְתֻקוֹת כֶּסֶף צוֹרֵף׃ - The idol that a craftsman melted, and a silversmith overlays it with gold, and casts silver chains.
"Nasakh" means poured and melted. To whom are you comparing Him? To an idol cast by a craftsman, an ordinary metalworker. How could one commit such foolishness, taking the Holy One, blessed be He, Who is infinite and boundless, and comparing Him to an idol that a human being cast with his own hands?
And even the idols of silver and gold, which in your eyes are valuable because of the precious metal in them, are considered cheap from the perspective of their maker. A "craftsman" (charash) is not an artisan; a craftsman is a simple laborer, an ordinary metalworker, lacking any special artistic skill. Any ordinary blacksmith could make your idol. Likewise, "and a silversmith overlays it with gold" - beating the metal is simple work that requires no expert.
Furthermore, in terms of its form, it is base. The world is divided into inanimate matter, vegetation, animal life, and human beings (domeim, tzome'ach, chai, medaber). Had you made a likeness of a living creature, there would be some dignity in it; of a plant, at least something. But to what have you compared Him? To inanimate matter, the lowliest tier of existence. Beyond this, consider how inferior it is: the idol itself is made of iron, tin, or lead, and only on the outside is it "overlaid with gold" - it was merely plated with gold. In other words, even the one who made it was looking for ways to cut corners: you liken something to the Creator, yet you fashion its core from the cheapest materials, adding gold only on the surface. "And casts silver chains" - all that he attached and fastened to it are mere silver and gold ornaments and platings, while in and of itself, it is worth nothing.
Craftsman and Silversmith - A Reversal of Roles
The Malbim analyzes the precise difference between a craftsman (charash) and a silversmith (tzoref). A silversmith is the one who melts metals and refines them in fire, purifying them of dross. The craftsman is the artisan skilled in engraving and shaping the metal itself. Normally, the silversmith's work comes first: he casts the general form, and then the craftsman comes and adds intricate engravings and decorations.
Yet here, everything is reversed: "The idol that a craftsman melted" - the idol is so crude that there is no need for a silversmith to cast it; an ordinary smith suffices, even though this is not his specialty. Afterwards, the plating and beautification, which is properly the craftsman's craft - "and a silversmith overlays it with gold," a mere smith suffices to do it. There is no need for a master artisan, nor is any care taken in the manufacture of this idol. How could anything be compared to Hashem, may He be blessed, all the more so when you fashion an object that is defective in its raw material, in its composition, and in the caliber of the craftsmen who produced it?
"He Who Is Skilled in Selection" - The Upgraded Idol
הַמְסֻכָּן תְּרוּמָה עֵץ לֹא־יִרְקַב יִבְחָר חָרָשׁ חָכָם יְבַקֶּשׁ־לוֹ לְהָכִין פֶּסֶל לֹא יִמּוֹט׃ - He who is skilled in choosing selects a tree that will not rot; he seeks out a skilled craftsman to prepare an idol that will not topple.
Rashi explains hamesukan as related to being skilled or accustomed, as in "Have I been accustomed (hahasken hiskanti) to do so to you?" That is, one who is skilled at distinguishing durable wood from perishable wood; "chooses" (terumah) - he sets aside and selects a tree that will not quickly rot, so that it will endure. And "he seeks out a skilled craftsman" - since wood by its nature tends to decay, he seeks out a true artisan to fashion from it an idol that will not topple.
The Malbim explains differently: Ha-mesukan is not from the word for learned or skilled, but from misken (a person of modest means). This is the poor and needy person who wishes to craft the idol from something more elevated, and what does he do? First, he chooses wood, which possesses an advantage over inanimate stone or metal, in that it at least has the power of growth. Second, "he chooses a tree that will not rot" - since he seeks wood that will not decay, he necessarily chooses the finest of woods. Third, regarding the craftsman, he does not employ unskilled laborers, but rather "he seeks out for himself a skillful craftsman", an artisan who will fashion for him "an idol that will not topple", since wood, by its vulnerable nature, is liable to crumble and decay. Thus, the misken actually produces something superior to what the wealthy man made.
The Malbim further clarifies the precise distinction between a misken and a dal (destitute). A dal is thoroughly impoverished (midedal); he has nothing. But misken is related to miskenot, meaning storehouses or treasuries, as in "store cities" (arei miskenot), and as in "a land where you will not eat bread in scarcity (miskenut)" - meaning you will possess storehouses filled with grain. Similarly, "a poor (misken) king" means a king who is not wealthy, not that he has nothing to eat. It turns out that a misken is someone who lacks surplus storehouses, yet he is not in a state of absolute poverty according to the definition of a dal.
The Four Sources of Knowledge
הֲלוֹא תֵדְעוּ הֲלוֹא תִשְׁמָעוּ הֲלוֹא הֻגַּד מֵרֹאשׁ לָכֶם הֲלוֹא הֲבִינוֹתֶם מוֹסְדוֹת הָאָרֶץ׃ - Do you not know? Have you not heard? Has it not been told to you from the beginning? Have you not understood the foundations of the earth?
The Malbim explains: The knowledge a person possesses on any subject derives from four sources. The first is from pure intellect (muskalot), knowledge born of intellect, wisdom, and deep reflection, corresponding to: "Do you not know?" The second is from common knowledge (mefursamot), a matter widely accepted by all to be so, corresponding to: "Have you not heard?" The third is from received tradition (mekubalot), what is handed down from generation to generation, corresponding to: "Has it not been told to you from the beginning?" - as has been transmitted to us by our fathers and forefathers. The fourth is from direct sensory perception (mouchash), from empirical experience that every person has personally witnessed to be true, corresponding to: "Have you not understood the foundations of the earth?" - from the foundations of the earth and its intricate design, you perceive the power and omnipotence of the Holy One, Blessed be He.
The Radak explains in a similar vein, confronting the idolaters: How could you make such an egregious error, to take an idol and worship it as though it were the Creator of the universe? "Do you not know?" - by your own intellect you understand that Hashem is the Master of the universe. And not only that, "Have you not heard?" - from what you read in books. If that is not enough, "Has it not been told to you from the beginning?" - the tradition passed down from generation to generation; have you not heard from ancient times? And if you possess none of this - "Have you not understood the foundations of the earth?" - merely observe creation, and you will inevitably arrive at the conclusion that the universe has a Creator.
The Radak: What the Idolaters Really Believed
Here the Radak elaborates and establishes a fundamental principle. Do not mistakenly think that the idolaters actually believed that this metal, this wood, or this gold created the world and fashioned man. The Radak says: It is inconceivable that there is a fool in the world who would believe that. If you were ever to find such a fool, he would not deserve punishment, but institutionalization, for someone who believes such a thing suffers from a profound mental defect and cannot be held legally accountable.
Rather, what was their line of thinking? Originally, idols were fashioned in the name of a specific star or one of the celestial forms. They believed that the physical world is influenced by the twelve constellations and the planets, and according to Judaism as well, divine sustenance cascades down through them; there is no contradiction in that principle. We also know that each planet possesses a force influencing a particular realm - for instance, Saturn (Shabbetai) channels destruction and ruin, and therefore one who works on Shabbat, the day governed by Saturn, invites ruin, decay, and troubles. They believed in the powers of these celestial bodies, and reasoned that to draw down power from a given star, one must fashion a form through which to worship that star, and through it, that celestial force would be channeled from above. Thus the Egyptians, whose deity was the ram (the constellation of the month of Nisan): they fashioned for themselves a ram, yet their intent was not directed at the gold itself, but toward the celestial ram above, the constellation in the heavens, hoping thereby to draw down abundance and blessing.
However, the Radak adds: That was only at the beginning. The earliest generations erred with conscious thought, while subsequent generations erred in utter ignorance. The early ones still possessed some reasoning; they were directing their intention toward something. But those who followed them worshipped with no understanding at all. A son saw the idol, having received it from his father and his grandfather, and began worshipping the physical statue itself instead of worshipping the Creator, Blessed be He, or even the celestial body.
It was against these people that the prophets directed their rebuke - against the later generations who treated the idol as an independent power. As the prophet declared: half of the tree he burned in the fire to bake and eat, and from the other half he fashioned an idol and bows down to it. "They do not walk; they have noses, but do not smell" - at this the prophets scoffed. The people believed that these forms could do good or harm, which is why they offered sacrifices, poured libations, and burned incense to them, never taking to heart that there is a Creator of the universe who rewards the righteous and punishes the wicked. Instead, they believed that the world existed and would continue to exist without a Creator and without a Guide, that everything was mere coincidence: how fortunate that an explosion occurred so many years ago, for otherwise we would not exist.
And they would say: Behold, when we poured libations to the queen of heaven, we experienced good fortune and everything went wonderfully; but the moment we ceased pouring libations, we met only trouble and hardship. They genuinely believed they were channeling spiritual forces through those images and deriving practical benefit. Likewise, they thought that performing certain rituals before these idols yielded results through occult virtue (segulah): perform this act before this idol, and you will receive that outcome. This is the essence of "the ways of the Amorite": do this and that will occur; see this and you will suffer that. You leave your house and a black cat crosses your path, you will have a terrible day. If you ask what the logic is, they tell you there is no explanation, that is simply how it works, take it into account. Like a machine: what you put in determines what comes out. All manner of superstitious nonsense that they grew accustomed to, generation after generation, from ancient times.
Often, a single successful story is enough to publicize the matter. It is like that "baba": regarding the seven hundred times he spoke nonsense, no one will tell you a thing; but regarding the one time he told someone's sister-in-law that she would be blessed with a child, and afterward she indeed became pregnant - there is no end to the stories, and they brought him to be the sandak and showered him with honor. But what do you expect, that the Holy One, blessed be He, should alter His world on account of fools? She was destined to conceive; would Hashem withhold a pregnancy from her merely because the baba said so? Rather, He gives it to her despite what the baba said, yet she remains convinced it was because of him. And how many times did he make declarations and nothing happened - that, no one knows and no one will recount. In this way, people come to believe in that idol, telling stories that the idol did this and that, and they become conditioned to believe that this is the active power in the world.
Contemplate the Foundations of the Earth
Therefore, the prophet says to them, countering the idolaters: "Have you not understood the foundations of the earth?" If you possess any understanding, contemplate the foundations of the earth, and then you will see who is the Master of the world - the Holy One, blessed be He, or your idol. "Who stretches out the heavens like a curtain" - does it appear to you that this, too, comes from the power of graven images?
From this entire contemplation, you will understand that there is an intentional design here. In creation there are four fundamental elements, and among them are opposing elements, like fire against water - how do they coexist together, when seemingly they ought to cancel each other out? Likewise, within man himself there are conflicting elements, yet he survives. Will you claim that this is by chance, that this entire world was created by accident? The Radak adds further examples. The matter is clear: whoever contemplates nature and creation can declare, "From my flesh I perceive God." How is it possible to believe in this folly called idol worship, when it is so obvious that Someone designed reality?
Consider: if we were to contemplate even just the human body, a person would be forced to conclude that Someone designed it in the most sophisticated manner. If our fingers were slightly stickier, everything we touched would adhere to us; and if they were less sticky, you would not be able to turn a page or even hold an object - everything would slip from your hand. The grip of the hand is calibrated to the most precise degree. Incidentally, there are unfortunate people who suffer from hyperhidrosis in their hands, and it makes their lives miserable, complicating the most basic everyday tasks.
Imagine if the Holy One, blessed be He, had created man without a thumb. Try managing your daily routine without a thumb: how would you hold anything? You have not lost your two legs, only a thumb - now tell me how you would button a button, or how you would hold a cup. You would have to grasp things like a monkey, clutching everything in that clumsy manner. The entire ability to grasp an object delicately comes solely from the thumb. And how would you eat? Our entire ability to function stems from the thumb. Imagine if we had no fingernails - after all, the fingernail is the firm backing that assists in grasping; and imagine if the fingernail were on the underside rather than on top. In this manner, one can examine every detail of the human body and perceive the immense wisdom embedded in its design.
Imagine if we had no eyebrows. Have you ever sweated profusely? The eyes begin to sting from the saltiness of the sweat. Why do athletes wear a sweatband on their forehead? Because under heavy exertion, the eyebrows alone cannot hold back the sweat. In Hashem's kindness, we have eyebrows, so that a person diverts the sweat and it does not enter his eyes. And is there any windshield wiper more marvelous than the eyelids? Without them, the eye would have been clogged long ago by dust and grime; yet we have wipers with fluid that wash down without us even noticing any obstruction. Even when you clean a car windshield, there are a second or two of spray and wiper motion during which everything is smeared and you cannot see; imagine if every few seconds we had to wipe our eyes and lose our sight. Instead, the eyes cleanse themselves without us feeling a thing.
The primary proof is order. There is nothing in the world that lacks order, and when a person sees order, Someone must have arranged it. Reb Shalom Schwadron once said this to a person who was debating him about faith. He asked him: Where were you created from? The man answered: From the Big Bang. Reb Shalom replied: Look, if your arm were stuck to your bald head, your leg jutted out of your back, and your ear grew on your knee, I would say, you are right, from the Big Bang - you genuinely look like someone who survived an explosion. But look how beautifully you are ordered: hands, legs, eyes in front, ears to hear. What kind of explosion produces such an arrangement? This is something even a child can understand, and whoever refuses to understand it merely desires to deny; there is no other explanation. This is the prophet's contention: had you contemplated, you certainly would have arrived at the conclusion that the world has a Creator.
The Parable of the Household Steward
The Radak summarizes, to put it briefly: Man in his world resembles a steward in an estate, into whose hands all household affairs were entrusted, yet he never saw the master of the house with his own eyes; he merely grew up in that home. People ask him: What are you doing here? He replies: My father was also a steward here. And what did he do? They told him to tend to the house. And who is the owner? Your father was a steward, and you are a steward, but who is the owner? He never saw him. Would he not seek to know who the master of the house is, so as to know that he is truly carrying out his will? I care for the house and keep it in order - but is this what the master of the house genuinely wants? After all, it is the master of the house who will ultimately pay my wage. Would he not seek to find favor in his eyes, and ensure that his actions are fitting, so that he may receive his reward and not be dismissed from his post?
Yet the foolish steward will not do so. Because he views himself merely as the caretaker, he acts as he pleases and follows his heart's desires, using the estate for whatever strikes his fancy, not according to the original intentions of the one who appointed him. He pays no regard to who the master of the house is, saying in his heart: Since I do not see with my own eyes that this house has an owner, what would lead me to think it has one? You see that food is supplied to the house, that the refrigerators are restocked on their own, that someone pays the water and electric bills; you have lived here so long and everything is so orderly - do you not realize there is an ultimate accounting? No, he says: I live here, I never saw the owner, let me go on enjoying myself; he takes another drink from the refrigerator and remains content - they placed me here, and I am the steward of the house. A sensible person, however, would strive to know who the master of the house is, before the matter becomes known to the owner and he casts him out forcefully in great fury.
This is the prophet's claim: Even if you say that you did not know, that you did not hear, and that it was not told to you from the beginning - "Have you not understood the foundations of the earth?" Contemplate the foundations of the earth, and through this you will recognize that the palace has a Master who created, designed, fashioned, and established everything here. True, this is what you received from your father, and this was told to you from the beginning - instead of transmitting to you the Exodus from Egypt and the splitting of the Red Sea, they handed down an idol and false deities; with that I agree. But why did you not contemplate the foundations of the earth? If so, how can you persist with that idol cast by a craftsman, and how can you still cling to idol worship?
He Who Sits Above the Circle of the Earth - Providence, As It Were, from Afar
הַיֹּשֵׁב עַל־חוּג הָאָרֶץ וְיֹשְׁבֶיהָ כַּחֲגָבִים הַנּוֹטֶה כַדֹּק שָׁמַיִם וַיִּמְתָּחֵם כָּאֹהֶל לָשָׁבֶת׃ - It is He Who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; Who stretches out the heavens like a thin curtain, and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in.
There are people, the Malbim explains, who envision the Holy One, blessed be He, as sitting in heaven with the earth as His footstool, looking down from above; and others envision Him like a king with a tent spread over Him from above. "The circle [chug] of the earth" is related to a compass [mechogah], as the Malbim and the Radak explain: a compass has the needle that is anchored into the surface, and the pencil arm that rotates around it. The earth is, as it were, at the center, in place of the needle, and the rotating part that draws the circle is where the Holy One, blessed be He, sits, as it were. In other words, Hashem is conceived as sitting high above, gazing down at what lies below.
And for someone who sees things this way, how do human beings appear? "And its inhabitants are like grasshoppers" - tiny as grasshoppers. Consequently, a person might think that we are as nothing before the Holy One, blessed be He. For when one looks at an ant, it does not interest him at all, nor does he investigate what happened to it today and how it felt - it is, after all, just an ant. In the same way, one who imagines the Creator as sitting far above, or like a king sitting in a tent of "Who stretches out the heavens like a thin curtain," concludes that He does not exercise Providence at all - for who cares about what happens to the ant beneath him? And if He sits in such an exalted, lofty place, He surely has no interest in the human beings who dwell here.
Who Brings Princes to Naught - Needing No Assistance
הַנּוֹתֵן רוֹזְנִים לְאָיִן שֹׁפְטֵי אֶרֶץ כַּתֹּהוּ עָשָׂה׃ - Who brings princes to naught, and makes the judges of the earth like nothingness.
The princes [roznim] are the king's counselors, and the judges are those who judge the king's people, and the Holy One, blessed be He, has no need for them whatsoever - and not merely "as it were," but in absolute truth He does not need them. He does not need counselors, and therefore the princes are nothing to Him. And who needs judges? A mortal king who lacks the ability to judge everyone, who has neither the time, the capacity, nor the intellect to judge everyone - he is the one who requires judges. But "He makes the judges of the earth like nothingness": to Him they are as nullity, zero; they contribute nothing, and He derives no aid or assistance from them.
אַף בַּל־נִטָּעוּ אַף בַּל־זֹרָעוּ אַף בַּל־שֹׁרֵשׁ בָּאָרֶץ גִּזְעָם וְגַם־נָשַׁף בָּהֶם וַיִּבָשׁוּ וּסְעָרָה כַּקַּשׁ תִּשָּׂאֵם׃ - Barely are they planted, barely are they sown, barely has their stem taken root in the earth, when He merely blows upon them and they wither, and a whirlwind carries them off like chaff.
They are comparable to a plant that was not even planted. How does one plant? One takes a cutting that already has roots and plants it in the ground. "Barely are they sown" - sowing is less than this, for here there is no plant yet, only a seed. "Barely has their stem taken root in the earth" - even a stem that grew on its own struck no roots in the soil. And beyond all this frailty, "He merely blows upon them and they wither" - He blows upon them with His breath and in a single moment they dry up; "and a whirlwind carries them off like chaff" - a storm sweeps them away like straw.
This is the consistent approach of the Malbim: when the verse enumerates several stages, there is a progression from the strongest to the weakest. If you regard them as strong, as though they were firmly planted - "barely are they planted." And if you say they were merely sown, which is weaker, since planting involves an established sapling while sowing requires the seed to develop - "barely are they sown," there is not even a seed here. And if you say something grew on its own and a trunk is visible - "barely has their stem taken root in the earth," for the trunk is above ground and the root is within it, and this trunk has no root at all. Consequently, "He merely blows upon them and they wither, and a whirlwind carries them off like chaff" - in a single moment, the Holy One, blessed be He, scatters them.
It emerges that the reality of the Creator, blessed be He, is such that He has, as it were, no comparison to physical, material reality, and that all of physical existence is like an existence that is not there at all: it was not planted, nor sown, nor rooted in the earth. The princes, the judges of the earth, even the most important entities - everything is nothingness alongside the Creator Himself.
"To Whom Then Will You Liken Me, That I Should Be Equal?" - Negating All Comparison
וְאֶל־מִי תְדַמְּיוּנִי וְאֶשְׁוֶה יֹאמַר קָדוֹשׁ׃ - "To whom, then, will you liken Me, that I should be equal? says the Holy One."
Until now, the claim might have seemed to be that an image could theoretically be ascribed to Him, but that the image people make does not resemble Him: you liken Him to an idol - does an idol resemble Him? Or that I depict Him as sitting in heaven. The prophet tells them: Do not think that anything I have described to you reflects how I perceive the true reality of the Creator. I described it in this manner only according to your perspective and limited human grasp. Following your own logic, I asked you: This piece of wood, which yesterday you chopped down and today carved into a figure - this is what you liken to the blessed Creator? It is unthinkable to compare a physical, material, fleeting object to the Creator. But know that from the perspective of truth itself, I say: the Holy One, blessed be He, is beyond all imagination and comparison. It is not merely that one cannot compare Him to wood carved by a craftsman, but that He is an entirely abstract reality to which nothing can be likened. For when you wish to compare one thing to another, there must be at least some shared resemblance between them; but the Holy One, blessed be He, cannot be grasped at all, so to whom, then, will you liken Me?
The Malbim notes the precise distinction between "will you liken Me" (tedamyuni) and "that I should be equal" (ve'eshveh). A likeness (dimyon) is spoken of even when there is merely a slight, partial resemblance, as in "My beloved is like a gazelle" - does He have antlers like a gazelle? Rather, He is swift like a gazelle, and any small similarity suffices to use the language of likeness. To this, the Holy One, blessed be He, asks: To whom could it be said that I bear any likeness whatsoever, anything that could be explained and compared? "That I should be equal" (ve'eshveh) - that is a different level altogether: complete equality, as in "lest you become equal to him yourself" (Mishlei 26:4), meaning completely identical. Could it ever be conceived that I am identical and equal to anything? Indeed, all the allegorical likenesses in Shir HaShirim, such as "My beloved is like a gazelle," refer to the Holy One, blessed be He - but each likeness is merely in a specific aspect, a partial analogy so that human minds can understand. You are told that the Holy One, blessed be He, sits in heaven and similar expressions, but is this complete equality? Therefore, he concludes: "Says the Holy One" - the Holy One, blessed be He, is in the realm of kadosh (holy), and kadosh means set apart and transcendent, as in "You shall be holy" - you shall be separated. He is utterly transcendent above all physical existence, so to whom could He ever be likened?
Lift Your Eyes on High - The Creator Cannot Be Likened to a Creation
שְׂאוּ־מָרוֹם עֵינֵיכֶם וּרְאוּ מִי־בָרָא אֵלֶּה הַמּוֹצִיא בְמִסְפָּר צְבָאָם לְכֻלָּם בְּשֵׁם יִקְרָא מֵרֹב אוֹנִים וְאַמִּיץ כֹּחַ אִישׁ לֹא נֶעְדָּר׃ - "Lift up your eyes on high and see: Who created these? He who brings out their host by number, calling them all by name; by the greatness of His might and because He is strong in power, not one is missing."
The Malbim continues along this line. If you wish to liken the Holy One, blessed be He, to something - to whom will you liken Him? To something physical down here, which is undeniably base and lowly? To an animal? To a human being? If idolaters were to compare Him to anything, they would certainly want to liken Him to one of the celestial bodies, which exhibit immense power. This reflects the incident recounted of Rabbi Yehoshua, when the Roman emperor said to him: "Show me your God." He replied: "Come tomorrow at noon." The next day, he directed the emperor to look at the sun. The emperor tried to look and could not bear it. He asked: "What is this, is this your God?" Rabbi Yehoshua replied: "No, this is merely one of His servants."
In other words, when a person wishes to imagine something exalted and sublime, he tries to liken it to the celestial bodies. To this, the prophet says to them: Do you wish to liken Me to one of those awesome and wondrous bodies traversing the heavens, or to the angels that move them? But if you lift your eyes on high and contemplate, you will see "Who created these" - and surely the Creator cannot be compared to a creation, for the Creator is necessarily far more transcendent and mighty than that which was created.
If I made a cup, who is wiser, I or the cup? Certainly I am, for I created it. Likewise, with one who invents a computer - do not be misled into thinking the computer is wiser than the human being; it is a lifeless instrument, though there are operations it performs with great speed. Similarly, if I build a car, the fact that it travels fast and I cannot run at its speed does not mean it is superior to me. Certainly not. Man in himself is more noble and elevated than anything he has ever built or crafted in this world, even though his creation is merely forming substance from existing substance (yesh miyesh). How much more so regarding the Creator, Who brought everything into being from absolute nothingness (yesh me'ayin) - He cannot possibly be compared to His creations.
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