Йехезкэля 37:13 Комментарий: Tze'enah Ure'enah

“You shall know that I am the Lord” [37:13]. Say to Israel that they should know that I am God. I will open your graves and I will bring you up to the land of Israel and I will give you a spirit and intelligence. You will live long and will not be driven out again. I, God, have said this and done it.

We will write midrashim and Talmudic passages relating to the haftorah. The Pirke de Rabbi Eliezer writes. The dead were those that were killed by Nebuchadnezzar. Nebuchadnezzar displayed an image and announced that whoever will not bow down to the image will be burned in a fire. The Israelites bowed down to the image, but Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah did not want to bow down to the image and they were thrown into the fire. Michael came and protected them from the fire. He said to Israel: you knew that you have a God who can protect you from the fire. Yet, you left Him and bowed down to the foreign god, that is nothing. That is, he falsely accused them in order to kill them. Therefore, he spoke to Israel in this way and Nebuchadnezzar immediately let them be killed. Twenty years later, Ezekiel brought them back to life. Since Ezekiel did not believe that those who were killed would live again, the Holy One asked him if those who were killed would live again. Ezekiel said: you, God, know this very well. That is to say, he did not believe that they could live. Therefore, God punished him and he was not buried in the land of Israel. Those who were killed were six hundred thousand, as many as those who left Egypt. They all stood up on their feet, but one man remained lying and did not live. Ezekiel asked why did he not rise? The Holy One said: all his life he took usury from Israel. Therefore, he must not rise and live, like the rest of Israel. With this, the Holy One showed that one who is usurious would not rise in the days of the Messiah. This was a hint as to how it will be for people when the Messiah will come.⁵Pirke de Rabbi Eliezer, chap. 33; Yalkut Shimoni, Ezekiel, Remez, 375.

It is a great sin to take usury, as is written in Sefer Hasidim. The Torah wrote that one should not engage in usury.⁶Deuteronomy, 23:20. It is written near this Torah portion that one should not bring the wages of a prostitute to the Temple.⁷Deuteronomy, 23:19. That is, whoever takes usurious interest; it is like he would bring the wages of a prostitute into the house of God. The person should not say, I will take usury and bring a sacrifice in the Temple from the profits, or I will buy matzoth with it. This is like bringing the wages of a prostitute.⁸Sefer Hasidim, para. 532 (Margulies ed.); para. 1958 (Wistinetski ed.).