Chapter 50 in Yeshayahu opens with an argument that the people of Israel leveled against the prophet: if the Holy One, blessed be He, exiled us and distanced us from Him, as though severing the bond entirely, what more can He demand of us? The prophet responds to this with two parables: the parable of the sent-away wife and the parable of the sold children, proving through them that this is not an absolute severance, but rather a temporary estrangement that will ultimately come to an end. We will proceed through the verses following the commentary of the Radak and the Malbim.
כֹּה אָמַר יְהֹוָה אֵי זֶה סֵפֶר כְּרִיתוּת אִמְּכֶם אֲשֶׁר שִׁלַּחְתִּיהָ אוֹ מִי מִנּוֹשַׁי אֲשֶׁר מָכַרְתִּי אֶתְכֶם לוֹ, הֵן בַּעֲוֺנֹתֵיכֶם נִמְכַּרְתֶּם וּבְפִשְׁעֵיכֶם שֻׁלְּחָה אִמְּכֶם׃ - Thus said Hashem: Where is your mother's bill of divorce with which I sent her away? Or to which of My creditors did I sell you? Behold, it was for your iniquities that you were sold, and for your transgressions that your mother was sent away.
The Radak explains that Yirmiyahu spoke regarding the Ten Tribes, to whom the Holy One, blessed be He, as it were, gave a bill of divorce, meaning that no king would ever arise from them again - He severed them from the monarchy. Later it is said, "And My servant David shall be prince over them," and "they shall no more be divided into two kingdoms." Notice: royalty will not return to the Ten Tribes. Who reigned among them? Yarov'am and his successors, Ach'av and the other wicked kings. But to Yehudah, the Holy One, blessed be He, did not give a bill of divorce: after He redeems them, the monarchy will return to them. To what may this be compared? To a husband who cast his wife out of his home because he was furious with her, yet did not give her a bill of divorce, because he intends to take her back.
And in contrast to what Yirmiyahu said there, Yeshayahu says here: "Where is your mother's bill of divorce with which I sent her away?" - True, I sent her away, but I did not give her a bill of divorce, for My intention and purpose are still to bring Moshiach from the family of Beis David, which is the family of Yehudah. Consequently, this was not a dismissal through a get (bill of divorce), but merely the dismissal of one who is angry with his wife and removes her from his home, intending to bring her back.
Moreover, as is well known, the Ten Tribes did not return. When the exiles returned from Babylon, the Ten Tribes remained in Chalach, Chavor, by the river of Gozan, and beyond the Mountains of Darkness, and never returned. Thus, in their case, it was as if they received a bill of divorce - a severing with no return. In contrast, the children of Yehudah returned to the Second Beis HaMikdash after seventy years of exile. In their case, it was not in the category of severance, for the word keritut means completely severed and terminated. The story of Purim took place shortly before the end of the seventy years of exile, and ultimately, with the permission of Cyrus and Darius, the people of Israel returned and the Second Beis HaMikdash was built, standing for 420 years, during which an actual kingdom existed once more. Thus, Yehudah was not subjected to a bill of divorce, whereas the Ten Tribes departed without returning. And even though Yeshayahu is prophesying prior to the return, he informs them of what will unfold: this is not a bill of divorce; I am destined to bring you back.
And so it is stated in Yechezkel: "Behold, I will take the stick of Yehudah which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel his companions, and I will put them together with the stick of Yehudah, and make them one stick" - they are destined to become one stick, meaning to be regathered. If so, you cannot say that the Holy One, blessed be He, cast us away from Himself permanently.
It is thus explained that the people of Israel came to the prophet and said to him: Why are you placing demands upon us? Why do you tell us that we must serve Hashem? When a husband gives his wife a bill of divorce, does he still have any claims against her? "Why didn't you do the laundry, why didn't you clean, why didn't you do this or that?" It is over - a bill of divorce means she is cut off. Similarly, the Holy One, blessed be He, as it were, expelled us from the Land and exiled us among the nations - what is this if not a bill of divorce? So why do you come to us with demands to keep the mitzvot?
The prophet answered them: You are mistaken. "Where is your mother's bill of divorce?" - Where did you see that Hashem wrote you a bill of divorce? Where did you see that the Holy One, blessed be He, expelled you permanently? Rather, as the Radak explained, the Holy One, blessed be He, only distanced you, like a wife who defied her husband and a conflict arose, leading to a temporary estrangement - but this stage is destined to end, and a state of closeness will return. If so, you must certainly look forward to the Holy One, blessed be He, restoring your captivity and renewing our days as of old.
And that is not all. The Holy One, blessed be He, says: "Or to which of My creditors did I sell you?" - Did I sell you into permanent servitude? To which of My creditors? If so, you were not truly sold, and you do not need money to redeem yourselves. And what caused the distance? "Behold, for your iniquities you were sold." Money was not involved at all, for had it been a matter of money, there might be reason to say: we have no funds with which to redeem ourselves. Rather, you were sold because of sin and iniquity, and therefore, through what will you be redeemed? Through repentance, returning to Hashem. "Zion shall be redeemed with justice, and those who return to her with righteousness" - the moment you repent, you will be redeemed immediately. There is no financial barrier preventing the Jewish people from being returned to their place.
And why does He compare them at times to a mother and at times to children? Radak explains that He first speaks of the collective entity, the community of Israel, and afterward He speaks of the children, who represent the individuals, each and every person on their own.
The Malbim explains: When a man banishes his wife from his home, it occurs for one of two reasons - either because he has come to despise her, or because she rebelled against him. And there is a vast difference between the two. If he sent her away because he despises her, there is no hope: he divorces her completely and expects nothing further from her, which is why he gives her a bill of divorcement (sefer keritut), for love will not suddenly blossom anew. But if he sent her away because she rebelled against him, rebellion is a temporary matter - she acted insolently toward him and behaved improperly, and in response, he punished her and expelled her from his house. In such a situation, he does not give her a bill of divorcement, for there is no absolute severance here, and it is very possible that tomorrow she will mend her ways and he will take her back.
Regarding this, the prophet comes and asks: "Your mother whom I sent away" - where is her bill of divorcement? After all, I did not send her away because I despised her; had that been the case, there should be a bill of divorcement, and where is it? It must therefore be that I sent her away because she rebelled against Me - and thus there is no bill of divorcement, only a temporary distancing that is destined to end, whereupon the bond will be renewed.
And regarding "Or to which of My creditors did I sell you?" the Malbim says: When a man sells his children, this too happens for one of two reasons. Either he despises his wife and consequently despises the children as well, in which case there is no hope - just as there is no hope regarding the wife because he despises her, so there is no hope regarding the children because he despises both their mother and them. Or, he sells his children out of sheer lack of choice: the creditor comes to seize them and the father has nothing with which to pay, and though he loves his children and loves his wife, what can he do when the creditor takes his children because of his debts? But here, too, hope is slim, for he has no money, and despite all his goodwill, love, and desire for them, with what can he redeem them?
The Malbim explains: Once Hashem made it unequivocally clear that He did not send away the mother because He despised her, the children were likewise not cast off due to any rejection of their mother. If so, one would be forced to conclude that the children were sold to creditors. To this, the Holy One, blessed be He, responds: Could such a thing even be conceived? "Which of My creditors is it to whom I sold you?" - To whom do I owe money that he should come and take My children, the people of Israel? Rather, the reason is entirely different: "Behold, for your iniquities you were sold, and for your transgressions your mother was sent away."
What is an avon (iniquity) and what is a pesha (transgression)? Here the Malbim establishes a profound principle that applies throughout the Tanach. Avon is related to ivut - a distortion of the intellect. The intellect misleads a person into denying Hashem's commandments; his mind has become crooked, and he comes with philosophical arguments and "proofs" to contend against the Torah. Pesha, by contrast, is outright rebellion. The rebellious transgressor does not argue with intellectual proofs; his mind is completely sound, and he knows very well what is good and what is bad - he simply does not want to comply. "I don't feel like it." That is rebellion against Hashem.
Now come and see. A son who sins against his father through rebellion has little hope. He is a rebellious son - defiant, saying, "I don't want to." What can the father expect from him? But a son whose intellect has been damaged, who is guilty of avon (a distorted mind), his father says: We will take him, care for him, and find someone who can straighten out his thinking. He suffers from a distorted perspective, and we must help him. Therefore, the Holy One, blessed be He, says: "Behold, for your iniquities you were sold" - I did not sell you on account of rebellion and willful transgression (pesha), for then you might say there is no hope; rather, you were sold because of iniquity (avon). And if it is because of iniquity, there is hope: the Father still yearns for the son, and He will yet succeed in straightening out his mind. That is to say, your minds became confused and your intellect skewed, and there is always hope of realigning one's thinking. But with rebellion, where the intellect is completely clear and the son simply says, "I refuse," the father is left powerless to reach him.
And here the Malbim adds: All of this applies to the relationship between a father and son, where in the case of intellectual distortion or illness, the father feels compassion and brings physicians, whereas in the case of rebellion he gives up hope. But with a wife, the opposite is true: when there is rebellion, one still hopes that she will mend her ways, abandon her insolence, and cease rebelling against her husband, whereas avon, which is an intellectual derangement or mental illness, is far more severe. Therefore the prophet says: "And for your transgressions your mother was sent away" - she was not sent away on account of avon, which would lead you to think that nothing can be done with her, but rather on account of rebellion and transgression (pesha), and a husband whose wife has rebelled against him still anticipates that she will change her ways. Why, then, do you imagine that I have already given you a bill of divorcement? Viewed as children - "for your iniquities you were sold," and there is hope; viewed as a wife - "for your transgressions your mother was sent away," and here too there is hope.
The Malbim explains: Our bond with the Holy One, blessed be He, resembles both the relationship of a father to his children and that of a husband to his wife, and both allegories appear throughout Scripture. On one hand, "You are children to the Lord your God"; on the other hand, the bond of husband and wife - Shir HaShirim is filled with this, and the prophet says, "And I will betroth you to Me forever." The reality of Am Yisrael is that of the Beloved and the Maiden; the Holy One, blessed be He, is the Groom and Am Yisrael is the Bride. "Shameful is the bride who strays beneath her chuppah" - this refers to the people of Israel who made the Golden Calf at the very moment Hashem was sanctifying them at Mount Sinai, which served as the chuppah.
And what do these two bonds express? The bond of a father to a son exists by nature of birth: there is a portion of God from Above within us, and we are an extension of Him, may He be blessed. Just as when a parent fathers a child, everything within the child is part of him and the mother, so too, "he who breathes, breathes from his own essence" - the spiritual soul Hashem placed within us is a piece of divinity from Above, and from this perspective we are His children. By contrast, the bond of husband and wife came about following the Giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai, because the relationship between a husband and wife is based on choice, as the Malbim phrases it.
There is a popular saying: you cannot choose your parents - you are simply born to them. A wife, however, a person chooses: he decides to marry her, he marries her; if he decides at some point to divorce, he divorces. Some have even taken this a step further and quarrel with their wives on account of their mothers, claiming that a mother is a blood relation whereas a wife can be parted from. But this is an absolute mistake, for the Torah states: "Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and cling to his wife, and they shall become one flesh" - one must leave father and mother and cleave as one flesh with his wife. In any case, older mothers are fond of saying that the bond with a mother is blood, whereas a wife is merely someone you married and it could be temporary - and sometimes they even see to it that it becomes temporary.
From this we understand that our bond with Hashem as husband and wife is a bond of choice: the Holy One, blessed be He, approached the nations to offer them the Torah, and He came to Am Yisrael as well and offered the Torah, and we said, "Na'aseh v'nishma" - we will do and we will hear. That was a choice. On the other hand, the fact that He placed a portion of God from Above within us, making us His children - there was no choice involved in that whatsoever. Hashem planted His soul within us without asking us, just as parents bring us into the world without the child having any choice. But whom we marry - in that we do have a choice. So too, the covenant established with us at Mount Sinai, where He took us to be His people, is a bond of choice, as we chose to become betrothed to Hashem, may He be blessed.
And this is what the prophet is conveying here: Our bond as husband and wife is the relationship through which the Holy One, blessed be He, obligates Himself to provide clothing and sustenance, and this bond was suspended by our willful rebellions. When we sinned willfully, we became like a rebellious wife who defies her husband, and when a woman rebels against her husband, he is not obligated to sustain her, as stated in the Gemara. Yet there is still hope, for she is merely rebellious; there is no fundamental corruption of intellect here, and there is hope that Hashem will yet take us back. How? By returning to Hashem and accepting the Torah anew, for the bond between us and Him is forged through the Torah. When we abandon the Torah, we rebel against the very thing that connects us. And when we return, re-accept the Torah, believe in the fundamentals of faith, and rectify our rebellion, the bond will be renewed. That same illumination and reality of the Giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai will return; the match will be restored to its place, and the union will be renewed. Rectify the rebellion on account of which "your mother was sent away," and you will return to your union with Hashem, may He be blessed.
Likewise, the relationship of children - which stems from the Holy One, blessed be He, implanting within us a divine portion from Above - is suspended by iniquities, which are errors of the intellect. As we explained, when something goes awry in a son's mind, a father does not cast him out; instead, he cares for him and invests in him. The Holy One, blessed be He, says to us: If there is an iniquity born of intellectual confusion, I still relate to you as children, and I hold out hope for you, caring for you and helping you until I succeed in straightening out your skewed thinking. We find, then, that there is a remedy; there is no bill of divorce here, nor any permanent sale, but merely a temporary dismissal that is bound to come to an end.
מַדּוּעַ בָּאתִי וְאֵין אִישׁ קָרָאתִי וְאֵין עוֹנֶה, הֲקָצוֹר קָצְרָה יָדִי מִפְּדוּת וְאִם אֵין בִּי כֹחַ לְהַצִּיל, הֵן בְּגַעֲרָתִי אַחֲרִיב יָם אָשִׂים נְהָרוֹת מִדְבָּר תִּבְאַשׁ דְּגָתָם מֵאֵין מַיִם וְתָמֹת בַּצָּמָא׃ - "Why, when I came, was there no one? When I called, was there none to answer? Is My hand too short to redeem, or do I have no power to rescue? Behold, at My rebuke I dry up the sea, I make rivers into a wilderness; their fish rot for lack of water and die of thirst."
Now we can appreciate how magnificent the next verse is. Once it has been made abundantly clear that the separation between us and Hashem is not a complete severance, but a temporary estrangement with hope for reconnection - since He did not despise your mother and you were sold for nothing - Hashem can easily bring us back to Himself, and when He calls you, you should have run at once. The Holy One, blessed be He, says: If so, "Why, when I came, was there no one?" I arrived and came forward, yet no one is there. And not only that, but "I called" - I call, I plead, and I reach out to appease you - "and there is none to answer."
"Is My hand too short to redeem?" After all, we already noted the verse: "To which of My creditors did I sell you?" Do I lack funds, or am I in debt to anyone, having creditors on whose account I had to sell you? There is no issue here of a monetary redemption, for you were never sold, and it is within My power to redeem you. And if you should say that your captors would refuse to accept money, that money means nothing to them and they will seek to hold you back by force - "Or do I have no power to rescue?" Do you really believe that I lack the power to deliver you from the exile in which you find yourselves?
And why should you think so? "Behold, at My rebuke I dry up the sea" - with a mere rebuke I dry up the sea, and I turn rivers into a desert, a place with no water at all. And what happens to the fish within it? "Their fish stinks for lack of water, and dies of thirst" - it dries up and dies. It turns out that there is no lack of power here. If so, do not say that I have divorced you permanently - here I have shown you that I have not. Not only that, but I also came to you, expecting that you would come; and if that did not avail, I also called out, yet even this had no effect. And if you say that I sold you - is My hand too short to redeem? And if you say that the enemies do not want money - it is within My power to save even by force, for at My rebuke I dry up the sea and turn rivers into a desert. If so, why do you delay?
The Malbim examines the term "tiv'ash" (it spoils/stinks): the verb ba'ash is used for anything that has spoiled in taste or smell, as in "Israel became odious [niv'ash] to the Philistines," and likewise "and instead of barley, foul weeds [bo'shah]." The Malbim raises a difficulty: if the fish has already spoiled and stunk, how can the verse subsequently state, "and dies of thirst"? Rather, there are stages here, and this is the distinction between bo'ash (spoilage) and tzochanah (stench): tzochanah means that it has become foul-smelling and emits an odor, as it says, "its stench will rise [alo va'asho] and its foul odor will ascend [veta'al tzochanato]" - first ba'ash, that it spoiled, and afterward veta'al tzochanato, that it emitted an intense stench. Therefore, it says here, "their fish spoils for lack of water" - initially it merely deteriorates, meaning the fish become emaciated and unhealthy, and afterward "and dies of thirst." For had it said "titzchan" (it emits a stench), that would not fit the chronological order, since a stench arises after death, so how could it say afterward "and dies of thirst"? From this, we must conclude that tiv'ash also denotes deterioration, just as "Israel became odious to the Philistines" means their standing deteriorated in their eyes. Thus it is understood: first the fish deteriorated due to the lack of water, and in the second stage, they died.
אַלְבִּישׁ שָׁמַיִם קַדְרוּת וְשַׂק אָשִׂים כְּסוּתָם׃ - I clothe the heavens in blackness, and I make sackcloth their covering.
The Holy One, blessed be He, says: As for My drying up the sea and parching the rivers, do not think this is due to the heat of the sun beating down upon them fiercely. It is in My power to dry up the sea and the rivers even when "I clothe the heavens in blackness," when the skies darken with thick clouds - which is contrary to nature, for when the heavens grow dark with clouds, a river does not dry up. Nonetheless, I rebuke the sea and the river and dry them up even when the skies are overcast and darkened with clouds. And "I make sackcloth their covering" - the skies will be filled with fog and rain, as though covered in sackcloth.
And what is the deeper meaning? The Malbim explains that the Holy One, blessed be He, will, as it were, lay waste to the lands of the nations: the wicked are like "a troubled sea," "they roar like the sea"; their princes and rulers are like rivers that make a great din and turmoil; and the fish are the nations themselves, subject to these rulers and kings. When the time comes, I will lay waste to them, and as a result, Israel will emerge from exile - for we are, as it were, submerged in the sea and rivers among the nations and cannot escape. And do not think this will happen naturally, since by natural means drought follows intense sunshine; rather, the heavens will be dark and I will make sackcloth their covering, yet despite this, the sea will be parched and dry up, for so His wisdom decreed and such is the will of Hashem. It follows that the redemption will not occur through natural means, but in a manner seemingly contrary to nature: when the time arrives, the heavens will yield rains of blessing and be filled with clouds, and nevertheless, the sea and the river - the nations - will be laid waste.
Here the Malbim notes a grammatical nuance: "I clothe [albish] the heavens in blackness" and "I make sackcloth their covering [kesutam]" - what is the difference between a garment (malbush) and a covering (kesut)? The Malbim has already taught us that there is no redundant repetition of ideas with different words; if the verse uses "garment" here and "covering" there, each expression must be uniquely fitting. The distinction is that a garment is tailored to the exact measurements of the wearer, whereas a covering can be something not measured to fit him. We express this in common speech as well: one never says, "I dressed in a blanket," but rather "I covered myself," because the blanket is not tailored to one's size; but with a suit, one says, "I got dressed," not "I covered myself," because a suit fits to measure. Anything that fits precisely to size is called a garment (levush) - and even outside the realm of clothing, when we want to say that something fits someone perfectly, we say it fits him like a glove, whereas when it merely wraps generally, we say it covers him.
Therefore, thick clouds and darkness are termed a garment (levush), for they clothe the heavens in exact proportion, according to the measure of the skies. But fog and mist do not conform to the dimensions of the heavens alone, as they also fill the earth and the entire atmosphere; thus, the term covering (kesut) applies to them - covering without being tailored to fit a specific size. This explains: "I clothe the heavens in blackness," referring to the clouds, "and I make sackcloth their covering," which encompasses the earth as well.
The Radak explains that here the prophet is speaking of what occurred in Egypt. The Holy One, blessed be He, says to them, as it were: Do you think I lack the power to save? "Behold, at My rebuke I dry up the sea, I make the rivers a desert" - this refers to splitting the sea, speaking of the redemption from Egypt. Not only that, but "I clothe the heavens in blackness" refers to the plague of darkness, three days during which the skies turned gloomy; "and I make sackcloth their covering" - as though a covering of sackcloth was placed over them so they could see no light. Sackcloth, the Radak notes, is black, as was customary in their times, making it a total covering. And through these plagues I brought you out of Egypt; why, then, would you say that I lack the power to save? Just as I saved you then, so do I possess the power to save you now.
The Radak adds: Why did the verse mention water and air here? Because they are fundamental elements. There are four elements: water, air, earth, and fire. If the Holy One, blessed be He, has mastery over the elements themselves - over water and air, which are the foundations of the world - it follows that He exercises complete dominion over all existence.
The prophet completely uproots any sense of despair from our hearts: We were never given a bill of divorce, nor were we sold away to creditors. The mother was sent away on account of rebellion, which will ultimately be repaired when we return and accept the Torah upon ourselves, renewing the sacred bond forged at Mount Sinai; and the children were sold because of iniquity, a distortion of the intellect - and a father never abandons his ailing child, but rather heals him and straightens his mind. Since this is so, there is no obstacle whatsoever to redemption: neither a lack of funds to redeem nor a lack of power to save, for with a single rebuke the Holy One, blessed be He, dries up seas and rivers. He even works contrary to the normal laws of nature - the heavens grow dark and are clothed in sackcloth, yet the sea dries up nonetheless. Only one question remains: "Why, when I came, was there no one? When I called, did no one answer?" Hashem calls out and seeks reconciliation; all that remains is for us to answer and return, and then immediately, "Zion shall be redeemed with justice, and those who return to her with righteousness."