Comentario citado sobre Jeremías 2:13

FOR THY PEOPLE HAVE DEALT CORRUPTLY. G-d said to Moses that they have committed two evils.³⁰⁵Jeremiah 2:13. One is that thy people have dealt corruptly. The meaning of the term hashchathah (corruption) is destruction of a structure, similar to that which is said, every man with his weapon of ‘mashchetho’ (destruction) in his hand;³⁰⁶Ezekiel 9:1. behold, I am against thee, ‘hamashchith’ (O destroying) mountain³⁰⁷Jeremiah 51:25. — Babylon — which destroyed every wall and tower [of the fortified cities]. And the meaning of “the destruction” here is that which our Rabbis have called³⁰⁸Chagigah 14b. See Vol. I, p. 155. — The “mutilating of the shoots” consists of separating any of the Ten Emanations and worshipping it independently (see Ha’emunah Vehabitachon, Chapter 3, in my Kithvei Haramban, Vol. II, p. 362). “mutilating the shoots,” [of faith, by seeking to undermine the principle of the Unity]. Secondly, they have made them a molten calf, and have worshipped it, and have sacrificed unto it.³⁰¹Verse 8. Now as regards the first transgression it was known only to G-d, for it is He Who knoweth the secrets of the heart,³⁰⁹Psalms 44:22. but the second one, [the open disregard of the Law] was by the sinners amongst them, as I have explained, [in bringing sacrifices to the golden calf; and that was a matter known to all]. Now most of the people shared in the sin of the incident of the calf, for so it is written, And all the people pulled off the golden pendants.²⁹¹Verse 3. And were it not for this [participation of theirs in the incident], the anger [of G-d] would not have been directed against them to destroy them all. For even though the numbers of those who were killed for this sin³¹⁰Verse 28: there fell of the people that day about three thousand. and those smitten by G-d³¹¹Verse 35. were few [in comparison to the total number of the people, this was because] most of them shared in the sin only in their evil thought [and not in action], as I have explained.

THAT IT GIVE FORTH ITS WATER. The meaning thereof is that a large amount of water should immediately spring forth, just as it is said, and water came forth abundantly,¹⁴⁷Further, Verse 11. for the term “giving” denotes abundance, as in [the verses]: and the Land shall ‘give’ her produce, and the trees of the field shall ‘give’ their fruit;¹⁴⁸Leviticus 26:4. For as the seed of peace, the vine shall ‘give’ her fruit, and the Land shall ‘give’ her increase, and the heavens shall ‘give’ their dew.¹⁴⁹Zechariah 8:12. In all these [verses] He was promising them abundance. And so, it is written, [Behold, He smote the rock, that waters gushed out], and streams overflowed.¹⁵⁰Psalms 78:20. Now the meaning of ‘its’ water [that it give forth ‘its’ water] is not like [the Land] shall give ‘her’ produce, and [the trees] shall give ‘their’ fruit, since it is not in the nature of a rock to have water in it. But its meaning is [that it will give forth] the water which will come out of it, for when G-d turns the flint into a fountain of waters,¹⁵¹Ibid., 114:8. so that they are [contained] in it and come forth out of it, the waters may [indeed] be called ‘its’ water. Similarly, and He will bless ‘thy’ bread, and ‘thy’ water;¹⁵²Exodus 23:25. ‘his’ bread shall be given, ‘his’ waters shall be sure.¹⁵³Isaiah 33:16. He stated it in this way [that it give forth ‘its’ water] in order to inform us that the waters will come forth from the very rock itself, not from the ground beneath it, as occurs naturally in the case of many fountains; but [these waters] will come forth from the middle of the rock. And so it is written, Who turneth the rock into a pool of water, the flint into a fountain of waters.¹⁵¹Ibid., 114:8. He repeated a second time [in this verse], and thou shalt bring forth to them water, meaning that “while you [Moses] are still there, you should bring them forth water from the rock, so that they should all see it gushing forth.” SO THOU SHALT GIVE THE CONGREGATION AND THEIR CATTLE DRINK. [This means] that “you should command them to drink from it in your presence.” All this was for the purpose of publicizing the miracle. In the actual event, [however], it is not mentioned that “he gave the congregation and their cattle to drink;” instead, it says, and the congregation drank, and their cattle,¹⁴⁷Further, Verse 11. because owing to their great thirst, as soon as they saw water gushing out in abundance, they fell upon the river and drank.
Now according to the opinion of our Rabbis about Miriam’s Well,¹⁵⁴This was a moving well in Miriam’s merit which accompanied the Israelites throughout their forty year’s journeys in the desert. “When Miriam died [as mentioned here in Verse 1] the well was taken away.” (Taanith 9a). Hence the crisis of the lack of water. See also Vol. II, pp. 240-241, and Note 436 ibid. this rock [in Kadesh] is the same flint which was in Horeb;¹²⁴Exodus 17:6. therefore they explain [that the expression] ‘its’ water [in that it give forth ‘its’ water] refers to the water which it used to give, for now as a result of Miriam’s death the fountain ceased [and was only restored in the merit of Moses and Aaron].¹⁵⁵Taanith 9a. When Aaron died it continued in the merit of Moses. For when our Rabbis speak of Miriam’s Well, they mean that there was always a miraculous well,¹⁵⁶Ramban here appears to be referring to the tradition mentioned in the Mishnah in Aboth 5:9 that ten things were created in the twilight of the eve of the first Sabbath, amongst them “the mouth of the well.” It was this well which appeared wherever G-d wanted it to, as explained further on. a fountain of living waters,¹⁵⁷Jeremiah 2:13. flowing wherever it was His Will. Thus He caused it to come up for Ishmael in the wilderness of Beer-sheba.¹⁵⁸Genesis 21:14; 19. In Pirkei d’Rabbi Eliezer, Chapter 30 the tradition is recorded that this was the same well mentioned in connection with Miriam. See my Hebrew commentary, p. 277. It was this rock which became cleft in Horeb,¹²⁴Exodus 17:6. and throughout their travels [water] flowed from the rock wherever they encamped. But when the righteous one [Miriam] died, the fountain stopped, and now it continued through [the merit of] Moses to be a fountain opened¹⁵⁹Zechariah 13:1. for him from that very same rock [which had been in Horeb], this being the meaning of the phrase, and speak ye unto ‘haselah’ (‘the’ rock) — the known rock. According to the plain meaning of Scripture, [however], there was a rock near the camp, and He commanded “and speak ye unto the rock which is before you” [hence the phrase ‘the’ rock]. One can also explain it as “and speak ye unto the rock which is before their eyes,” meaning to say “the first rock that they will see.”

Solomon urges us here to tune in to words of Torah and to tune out to extraneous matters. This is the deeper meaning of the words הט אזנך, “incline your ear.” He uses a similar phrase in Proverbs 2,2 where the words תטה לבך also mean to turn one’s attention away from other matters in order to acquire the requisite תבונה, discernment, insight. Solomon called the commandments דברים ואמרים, warning that neither must the text be forgotten nor the essence, the actual commandment. They must not be forgotten. The words אל יליזו מעיניך refer to forgetting the text of the Torah; even if you have urgent matters to attend to we must always remember these commandments described as הדברים בין עיניך in Exodus 13,9. The reason the Torah commanded us to wear the phylacteries on our forehead is to make it harder to forget these commandments.
When saying שמרם בתוך לבבך, “guard them inside your heart,” this refers not so much to the text of the commandments as to their essence. Something buried inside a person’s heart and constantly guarded is not subject to being forgotten. This is why we must guard Torah text as well as essence in our hearts so that we are not in danger of forgetting them. Solomon provides a reason why he considers this so essential, namely that Torah essence is equivalent to life itself for all those who have once found them. Torah (text) and the commandments between them are healing for both body and soul. Solomon has touched on that subject already earlier in Proverbs 3, 22 when he said: ”they will give life to your spirit and grace to your throat.” When Solomon used the word לגרגותיך in that verse, meaning “for your throat,” he meant that when you (also) observe the words of Torah which you express with your mouth, they will then be an adornment for you. In the words of our sages: Torah words are effective when the one who speaks about them also is known as keeping them, i.e. נאה דורש נאה מקיים (compare Chagigah 14). Solomon also says (Proverbs 4,13) נצריה כי היא חייך, “guard her well” for she is your life.
Seeing that our Torah is the fruit, i.e. the product of the attribute of חכמה, wisdom of the celestial world, of which it is written in Kohelet 7,12: החכמה תחיה בעליה, “the wisdom revives those who possess it,” this is why Solomon says in our opening verse that “it is life-giving for those who find it.” The plural of חיים הם, is an allusion to Jeremiah 2,13 who quotes G’d as saying that the Jewish people have forsaken Him Who is מקור מים חיים the source of “living” waters. Moses himself refers to this phenomenon in Deut. 4,4 where he attributed the people’s being alive to ואתם הדבקים בה’ חיים כולכם השיום, “you are all fully alive this day because you have cleaved to the Lord your G’d, i.e. His Torah, the wisdom He revealed to you.”
Solomon is very specific in describing for whom the words of Torah constitute life, saying “for the ones who have found them.” By adding this rider he makes it plain that not every person is likely to find words of Torah. The reason that not everyone finds words of Torah is because not everyone searches for them. Those who have not found words of Torah would have found them if only they had wanted to find them, if only they had looked for them. This is what Solomon said in Proverbs 2,4-5: “If you seek it as silver, and search for it as for treasure, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and will find knowledge of G’d.”
Our sages in Eiruvin 54 comment on the word למוצאיהם, “for those who find them,” by slightly changing the spelling to למוציאיהם בפה “for those who express these words of Torah as wisdom with their mouth.” The moral reason is that it is not enough to possess knowledge of G’d and to keep it to oneself; one has to spread this knowledge, talk about it. In fact, these words of Torah have to be שגורים בפה, fluent in one’s mouth, one must have quotations from the Torah constantly at one’s command. Concerning these two additional facets of Torah Solomon said in Proverbs 22,18: “it is pleasant if you store them within you, so that they will be ever ready on our lips.”
As to the meaning of the words ולכל בשרו מרפא, “that the words of Torah will be a therapy for one’s whole flesh,” it is customary for a physician to give a patient a certain drug and to feed it to him in his food or drink so that it will heal the sickness of a particular organ of the body. Very often such treatment has a negative side effect for parts of the body which were not afflicted by the disease. The great advantage of Torah as therapy is that it applies to all parts of the body and that Torah’s therapy does not produce negative side effects in any part of the patient.
Solomon also teaches in this verse that not only the body but also the soul benefits therapeutically from Torah. Moses underlines that by saying in 6,24 לטוב לנו כל הימים, “to be good for us for all time.” The word כל in that verse clearly is a reference to the hereafter. The words לחיותנו כיום הזה on the other hand, refer to life in this world. This also explains the division of the commandments into what we called מצות מושכלות and מצות מקובלות. The former are designed to help our bodies while we are on terrestrial earth, whereas the other are primarily of benefit to the soul, all their demonstrable benefit being reserved for the hereafter. David referred to this division, i.e. that the מצות מושכלות are of immediate benefit to our bodies in this world, when he said גם עבדך נזהר בהם בשמרם עקב רב, “Your servant pays them heed; in obeying them there is much reward.” The word עקב meaning reward occurs both in connection with מצות מושכלות and with מצות מקובלות. It occurs in connection with חקים, the commandments which defy our reason. Nonetheless, David says in Psalms 119,33: ”Teach me O Lord the way of Your statutes, I will observe them עקב.” We have a similar verse in Psalms 119,112. In both instances David means that one of the reasons that prompts him to carefully observe the laws known as חקים is the reward which will accrue for their observance, ultimately, עקב. This “reward” is concealed at this time but David describes it as מה רב טובך “how great is Your goodness,” (Psalms 31,20) a reference to the greatness of the reward. Hence the term עקב רב for describing great reward for the observance of the social laws, מצות מושכלות the social laws, משפטים as we know from the following verse: