Sefer Yeshaya; Perakim 1-6 and Levels of Mitzvos
CHAPTER SUMMARIES:
Chapter 1: Yeshaya the prophet tells how Bnei Yisrael have forgotten their Creator, prophesises the future destruction of the Land, and tells the people that their mitzvos have little meaning when they are sinning rampantly and have little devotion to HaShem. He calls the people to repent, otherwise HaShem will cleanse them of their sins via punishments.
Chapter 2: Yeshaya prophesises what things will be in future times of the Moshiach, but then switches to telling the people of their current spiritual depravity caused by their focus on materialism and financial comfortableness. He berates the people for their ga’avah (haughtiness).
Chapter 3: Yeshaya tells of HaShem’s plans to exile Yerushalayim and tells of the foolish leaders of the people and their wrong outlooks. Specific mention is made of the immodesty of the women and how they went about trying to attract men (enough said; it’s before the watershed!).
Chapter 4: Another prophecy concerning the days of Moshiach (at least according to Redak and Metzudos David; Rashi and the Ibn Ezra disagree) and how HaShem’s glory will once again rest in Yerushalayim.
Chapter 5: Yeshaya berates the people for the spiritual depravity of Bnei Yisrael compared to HaShem’s expectations of them, via the parable of a vineyard. Again tells of HaShem’s punishments in store for the people.
Chapter 6: Yeshayahu’s vision of HaShem on ‘His throne’ and his mission as a prophet. Again tells of the desolation awaiting the people who will not listen to calls for repentance.
SHORT DVAR TORAH:
A theme of chapters 1 and 2 is that doing the actions of mitzvos is not necessarily enough. There is another component to a mitzvah; the thought component. For example in halacha, one must have in mind that they are fulfilling HaShem’s mitzvah each time they do a mitzvah. And the devotion to a mitvzah is another factor determining the power of a mitzvah; a mitzvah done personally with your body carries much more devotion that a mitzvah done via someone else or via your money. To put it bluntly, as the Ramban says, one can perform every mitzvah in the book and still not be properly devoted to HaShem as He wants you to be. We see this from our sedra Vayishlach, as Rav Moshe Aharon Freidman points out. Yaakov tells Esav ‘I lived with Lavan,’ which Rashi understands to mean two things: ‘I kept all 613 mitzvos and did not learn from his evil ways.’ Why does Yaakov need to say both points; say that he kept the 613 mitzvos and it is obvious that he did not learn from Lavan’s evil ways? The answer is that one can keep all the mitzvos, but that does not guarantee him to be a fully righteous person – he may still be doing it all for selfish motives, etc. The message; it’s quality and not only quantity in mitzvos.
SOME SHORT HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE VILNA GA’ON I SAW:
Here are some grammatical/word points that I found interesting that the Gra points out in Sefer Yeshaya so far:
1;4 – ‘Am’ means any collection of people (regardless of their behaviour), whilst ‘Goy’ specifically means a group of people who are behaving spiritually correctly
1;24 – ‘Tzar’ means an enemy coming against one’s physical body, whilst ‘Oyev’ means an enemy of the spirit (neshama). [Note that Hamman was called an ‘ish tzar ve’oyev’]
2;9 – ‘Ish’ means someone important. ‘Adam’ means any person
3;13 – ‘Nitzav’ means in the process of standing, whilst ‘Omed’ means standing
Watch out for Gra of the month coming soon…!
SHABBAT SHALOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
