Comentario sobre Joel 1:13

13- And regarding the priests at the time of the destruction of the Temple, the prophet says "gird yourselves and lament priests, ministers of the altar." because they are prevented from entering the house of their Gd and bringing the mincha offering and libations and this didn't occur except at the time of the destruction of the Temple and the end of the avodah. 14- And therefore he commands the nation and the priests to make a fast and call an assembly. That the whole nation should fast and assemble at the house of Gd with the elders and leaders of the people and all the inhabintants of the land to gather by the Temple and clall out to Hashem. Maybe you can say that this pasuk refers to the 9th of Av which was made for generations as a memory of the destruction of the Temple and has been a fast day with lamentations and tears regarding the Temple. And on this it says... 15-16- "Alas for the day of Gd because it is close" meaning that on that day when it was decreed by the sin of the spies in the desert to be a day of mourning. And that day is set aside for all our troubles and it is close. Oh Vey for that day which is coming close. And about it is says "It will come like a havoc from Hashem. And I heard from the commentaries that the "chuf" in the word "chishod" indicates time, like in the pasuk "When I leave (k'tzeitzi) the city" (Shemot 9:29) where the "chuf" also means time. Hashem's day of vengeance and where there will be a destruction and havoc and bad from Hashem. On that day it will all come, because that day is set aside for badness and troubles beginning from the first of the month of Av and especially on the 9th of Av as it say "the month will consume your lots" (Hosea 5:7) which is a pasuk that hints to Av being a month of destruction. And the prophet begins to lament on that day of trouble and rebuke from the hunger and lack of bread that Israel will experience as it says in Eicha (4:4) "little children beg for bread and there is none" and the mourning, tears and lamentations are because they used to be a in place where they were in their own land and eating delicacies with happiness and glad hearts and they are now destroyed and everything is opposite. And this is the meaning of the pasuk "before our eyes our food is cut off from the house of Gd joy and laughter are cut off". That even our storehouses of wheat didn't help us and they are destroyed. 17- and about this it and says "the seeds have shriveled" meaning the word "avshu" you can switch the letters "peh" and "bet" so it says "apshu" or shriveled" meaning tehy are falling apart underground and seperate from man. ANd therefore it says "under their clods" meaning under the rocks and dirt. And the Rav Iben Ezra experlains that meaning as the seeds of the wheat and barley that are growing in the clods under the rocks and dirt. The grain that has been planted will rot in the earth without being sown and gatherecd because of the enemy there is no harvest and that is meaning of "the granaries are desolte" and this also the meaning of the destroyed barns. Meaning that the granaries are destroyed because the seeds aren't in the barns so there is no possibly for a new harvest. That is the Rav Iben Ezra's opinon. The Abarbanel says that it seems to be more correct to say that the first "mem" in the word "barn" or "mimaguros" should have a patach and not a chirik and therefore is a mem hashimush connecting the two passages that says taht the granaries are bare and desolate because of the "megura" the fear of the enemy that because of the fear of enemy there will be no plowing and planting and therefore the grain in the granary will dry out. And the Rav Iben Ezra says the word "meguros" refers to another type of store house related to the locusts making the seeds shrivel. And because the pasuk up until now has discussed different types of agricultural work it explains that also the sheep will be lost because the enemy will come and there will be no shepherds to watch the sheep and cattle. 18- "how the cattle groan and the herds are bewildered" because htey are lost in the land wihtout their shepherds fearing the enemy