스가랴 3:4의 인용 해설

The Torah goes on to speak about the צפור החיה, the surviving bird, i.e. the Mashiach ben David whom G'd will take and to whom He will attach the merits of the Patriarchs plus the right to avenge the murder of the Mashiach ben Yoseph; this is why the Torah writes: "He will take it together with the cedar-wood, etc., and dip it in the blood of the bird which has been slaughtered." This means that the combined power of the attribute of Mercy will outweigh the power of the attribute of Justice so that all the impurities of the Jewish people will be atoned for. When the Torah speaks here about the seven sprinklings to be performed on the מטהר, this is an allusion to the seven levels of impurity. Israel will be cleansed of one level of impurity by each of the seven sprinklings. Once this has been accomplished the "bird" will emerge from the cave mentioned in the Zohar, etc. The words על פני השדה, refer to this present world, and the message is that the Messiah will then rule over the whole world. After that, וכבס את המטהר, He will bathe Israel and its clothes, i.e. the sins which have formed its dirty garments and have stained its soul. The removal of the "dirty clothing" may be compared to the vision of the prophet Zecharyah 3 where the angel is described as removing the sin-stained clothing from the High Priest Yoshua in a similar simile describing the redemption from the exile in Babylon. וגלח את כל שערו, "and he will shave the hairs off his entire body;" these words are hyperbole for the removal of unworthy mental outgrowths. The words ורחץ במים are hyperbole for Israel immersing itself in Torah. This latter procedure will purify Israel's thought processes also. ואחר יבא אל המחנה, "After that he can enter the camp;" this is a reference to the camp of the שכינה, i.e. Jersualem on earth which will descend to earth having been built in Heaven.

Let them take a lump of figs, etc. This is a miracle, because the figs are injurious to him who suffers from the scab;³⁹Comp. Rashi ad locum. and the reason that the future forms וימרחו ,ישאו are used,⁴⁰The words יש אומרים of the Hebrew text give no sense; after וזה שאמר and that he says, the words, which he said, are expected. They are very probably a corruption of במצות ;ישאו ,וימרחו is either identical with, or wrongly copied for בצווי in the imperative. is, that here only the command is reported.⁴¹It is frequently the case that a command is mentioned, and it must be inferred from the context that it was carried out; comp. Zech. 3:4.

לפלא נדר, “in fulfillment of a vow;” there are two diametrically opposite ways of explaining the word לפלא. One is the one we just used, the other we find in a verse in Deuteronomy 17,8: כי יפלא ממך דבר, where it means “if something is concealed from you;” another example where the same expression is used in a similarly contradictory manner is the word דשן, and לדשנו, in Exodus 27,3 which can mean to remove ashes and dross, and which can mean: to saturate, to have a surfeit of, (in the positive sense, such as when applied to a harvest.) Also, in Zachariah 3,4 מחלצות, where it means fancy priestly robes, whereas in Psalms 7,5, ואחלצה צוררי, it means: “I stripped my oppressors, (removed their protective clothing)” The author quotes another example or two of the same phenomenon.