이사야 26:5의 인용 해설

והיה זרעך כעפר הארץ “and your descendants will be as the dust of the earth, etc.” From a purely textural point of view, G’d assures Yaakov in this verse that his descendants will be very numerous, comparable to the dust of the earth. He could have used another simile, namely that the descendants of Yaakov would be like the stars in the heavens, a simile which had been used in 26,4. The reason G’d did not choose that particular simile was that he wanted to allude to a second element here, something not connected to a numerical increase. The reference to dust always evokes feelings of something low, something that one steps on, in other words a reference to periods when the Jewish people would be in exile, treated by their host countries as if they were merely dust to be walked on. There is another aspect to dust, i.e. a positive, encouraging side. As a result of stepping on dust, the dust frequently rises and covers the person who has stepped on it, or at least his feet. Thus, in due course, after completion of their various exiles the Jewish people will experience that they rise above those who had previously trodden upon them. Isaiah 14,2 expressed it thus: והיו שובים לשוביהם ורדו בנוגשיהם, “they shall be captors of their captors and masters of their taskmasters.” This then explains why G’d compared the descendants of Yaakov to dust. We have another statement by Isaiah 26,5 in which the prophet makes a similar point: that initially “He leveled Israel to dust in order to eventually orchestrate its redemption.” (compare Rabbi Yochanan in Rosh Hashanah 31 where he explains Isaiah 52,2). We sing the words of that verse weekly in the Lecha Dodi hymn when we usher in the Sabbath [at the time of the author that song had not yet been composed, Ed.] by singing התנערי, מעפר קומי, “rouse yourself and rise from the dust.”