Commento su Levitico 26:36

והבאתי מרך AND I WILL SEND A FAINTNESS [INTO THEIR HEART] — מרך‎ means timidity and faint-heartedness. The מ is an essential letter of the noun, which, however, is omitted in the root; as is the case with the מ in the nouns מועד and ומוקש.

והנשארים בכם, "As to those of you who are still left, etc." Here the Torah refers to Israelites who continue in their wicked ways in spite of having experienced all the curses listed come true. At this stage G'd announces that such people would be afflicted with faint-heartedness while they are in exile and they would experience fear without cause and fall even without being pursued. In spite of all the terrible experiences the Jewish people undergo while in exile they will not be wiped out as a nation.

מרך בלבבם, this does not mean that the heart has become soft, as in Deuteronomy 20,8 or as in Job 23,16, but the letter מ in the word מרך is an integral part of the word, not a preposition. In fact, even the emphasis is on that letter, as in the word אהל, tent. The word and its intonation is similar to Isaiah 58,13 וקראת לשבת עונג, and the word אוכל, ochel, which is intoned on the first syllable. The word מרך does not appear again in Scriptures.

As though the pursuers... [We read the verse] as if it said, “And they will flee as though fleeing from a sword,” and not “(And they will flee), fleeing from the sword,” because afterwards it is written, “With no one chasing them.”

The sound of a blown leaf will put them to flight. This is what it says (v. 37): “They will stumble over one other.” This is speaking about discord, which is more common among the people of Israel than any other nation in the world. It says (v. 33): “I will scatter you among the nations.” Israel is scattered as by a winnowing fan, as when a person winnows barley with a fan, and not one of them (the barley grains) clings to the next; so too, the people of Israel are detached from one another even while in the land of their enemies. Although exiles usually console one another, the people of Israel are not that way, for they are scattered and separated even when they are in exile. Each one pushes his fellow man with a strong arm and seeks to depose him from his situation, to incriminate him and fall upon him. Achiyah the Shilonite cursed them in this fashion (Melachim I 14:15): “And Adonoy shall smite Israel as a reed sways in the water.” Each reed is pushed and sways from the wind blowing on it, and in addition to being blown by the wind, each reed pushes the other one. So too, each Jew is pushed by the wind, which refers to the kingdoms … and in addition to gentile nations’ pressure on the Jews, each Jew pushes his fellow into his pit. Therefore, they were compared here to a blown leaf, for the leaf is very fragile and blown around by the wind. Yet despite this, each leaf pushes the other one and hits against it. So too, the Jews strike one another with the whip of their tongue, either by informing against one another to the gentile nations, or with malicious slander in the Jewish neighborhood. The verse refers to this when it says, “the sound (voice) of a blown leaf.” Therefore, it says immediately after, “They will stumble over one other.”

והנשארים בכם והבאתי מורך בלבבם, “and I will bring faintness into the hearts of those that are left of them;” I shall continue to heap more curses upon them until they have endured 49 curses corresponding to the yovel cycle of 49 years that they have ignored.

ונסו מנוסת חרב AND THEY SHALL RUN AWAY AS RUNNING AWAY FROM THE SWORD — as though pursuers were about to kill them.

In tapping it. Because נדף means נדחף (pushed). However, a pushed leaf only produces a noise when it is pushed against another leaf; also, a leaf is not pushed of itself but only by the wind. Therefore Rashi explains this at length, citing proofs. When Rashi cites the Targum who translates שקיף, i.e., beating, Rashi is not saying that נדף means beating, since נדף is an expression of pushing. Rather, he means that the pushing causes beating, and the Targum is explaining the verse’s intent and not the actual word; such is the way of the Targum when explaining the meaning in many places. [In some texts], Rashi first explains that “They will flee, fleeing from a sword” does not mean actual fleeing from a sword, so that the explanation of “The sound of a driven leaf” applies to it. That the reason they are fleeing is not because of an enemy killing them, but because of the great fear in their hearts. (Re’m)

This is a further allusion to the large amount of profane, false conversation spoken in all the neighborhood streets … for each one rejoices at his fellow man’s misfortune. If he finds the opportunity to speak maliciously about him it is as sweet as honey in his mouth … and in our generation this attribute alone is a sufficient reason for the length of our exile.

מורך בלבבם, this is the first plague; ורדף אותם קול עלה, “and even the sound of a leaf fluttering in the wind will frighten them.” This is the second plague.

עלה נדף A RUSTLING LEAF — i. e. a leaf which the wind pushes along and beats it against another leaf, so that, in tapping it, it produces a sound. This, too, is its translation in the Targum: the sound of a leaf דשקיף — a term that signifies beating. The words (Genesis 41:6): שדופות קדים are rendered in the Targum by שקיפן קידום, beaten by the east wind, the first word being of the same meaning as משקוף, a lintel, that being the place against which the door beats. Similarly the Targum translation of חבורה, a wound, (Exodus 21:25), is משקופי (a spot that has been beaten).

ונסו מנוסת חרב, “they will flee from it as if fleeing from a sword.” This is the third plague.

ונפלו ואין רודף, “they will fall even though there was no pursuer.” This is the fourth plague.