Sefer Yeshaya Perakim 13-18
Sorry but there’s no Gra of the week; it seems the Gra did not write on all of sefer yeshaya; at least in my version his commentary has stopped already.
1) Perek Summaries
Perek 13: Prophecy of the downfall of Babylonia
Perek 14: Prophecy of return of Bnei Yisrael from Babylonia and the downfall of Babylonia again. The fulfilment of HaShem’s plan to destroy Ashur, and the warning to Philistines not to rejoice over the downfall of Bnei Yisrael, because Bnei Yisrael will triumph over them.
Perek 15: Prophecy of the downfall of Moav (it’s a short perek)
Perek 16: Again, prophecy of the downfall and destruction of Moav
Perek 17: Prophecy of the break-up of the Ephraim-Aram alliance upon their destruction. The abandonment of adultery and rebuke for the nations.
Perek 18: Prophecy hinting to the war of Gog and Magog around Yerushalayim and their defeat. The nations of the world will recognise our clear, unequivocal Divine redemption.
2) Short Dvar Torah
We can see from our perakim this week that HaShem has everything mapped out; exactly which nations will be destroyed and how, in order to make way for our final redemption, which will be beyond clarity. So what about at the moment; why do we not always see and appreciate this order, especially through the modern-day tragedies that befall our people? An answer can be offered via something Rav Neventzal points out in the shir hama’alos we say as an introduction to birkat hamazon. In shir hama’alos we say ‘when we will return to Zion we WERE dreaming.’ Why is dreaming in the past tense when the rest is in the future? Answers Rav Nevetzhal that in a dream one can dream about a bad experience and think at the time that you are being hurt. But when you wake up then you realise that it was all a dream, and there was no hurt at all. This is our answer. When the redemption comes, we will look back at tragedies in history and realise that they WERE all for the good and were necessary steps in bringing the redemption. Therefore, we will look back and realise that they were not really as painful as they seemed at the time; they were steps to bringing the redemption. In the Tisha B’Av kinnos (number 45; eli tziyon) we tell the city of Zion to wail ‘like a woman suffering from birth travail,’ for we are expressing the above idea that just like the pains of labour produce the joy of a child, so too do the pains of exile ultimately produce future redemption.
