Комментарий о цитате к Йешайау 55:10

King Solomon explained by means of this verse the benefit that man derives when a king is well disposed towards him and shows him favor. He compares this goodwill to a cloud which promises to discharge its moisture in the spring, something that everyone looks forward to with anticipation. In another verse Solomon compared such goodwill of the king as dew. In Proverbs 19,12 he writes נהם ככפיר זעף המלך וכטל על עשב רצונו, ”The rage of a king is like the roaring of a lion; but his favor is like dew on grass.” The reason Solomon chose two hyperboles to describe the king’s favor is because the benefit of rain is something which is only noticeable in the future. When there will be a bountiful harvest the benefit of the rain is noticeable retroactively. The benefit derived by dew is noticeable immediately, however. Similarly, there is a difference between the manifestation of G-d’s goodwill. Sometimes its effect becomes visible at once; at other times its beneficial effect is not felt until after a considerable period of time has elapsed.
On other occasions Solomon teaches us in Proverbs about harm which results to man as a result of G-d’s anger even though man does not actually experiences (becomes aware) that he has been hurt, and even though G-d’s anger may never be translated into action. There is no need to mention that if G-d wants to vent His anger on those who anger Him that He is able to do so.
Solomon explains that when G-d is angry at someone but does not take action against that person, the person in question will experience fear and general unease as does someone who hears the roar of a lion or some other ferocious beast. Such a person becomes frightened at the mere sound of potential danger. This is an experience which the object of G-d’s anger feels although in the end G-d does not cause him actual harm. Concerning such an experience Solomon said that “the rage of a king is like the roaring of a lion whereas His favor is like dew on the grass.” If, however, G-d is angry and wants to enact retribution from the object of His anger, this means death. Concerning such a situation Solomon wrote (Proverbs 16,14) חמת מלך מלאכי-מות, “The king’s wrath is a messenger of death.” Just as G-d’s wrath spells death for its victim so His goodwill or favor spells life; this is why Solomon says there (verse 15) באור פני מלך חיים, “in the light of the king’s face there is life.” Solomon applies the a fortiori kind of reasoning. He extrapolates from a human king’s power to G-d’s power suggesting that if even a human king’s pleasure or displeasure results in the life or death of his victim, how much more so must this be the case when one attracts the wrath or approval of the King of Kings, G-d Almighty. G-d, after all, controls not only the life of the body in our terrestrial universe but the eternal life or death of the soul in the celestial spheres as well. Isaiah 55,10 underlines that G-d does not “waste” any activity or even utterance. “For as the rain or snow drops from heaven and returns not there but soaks the earth and makes it bring forth vegetation,...so is the word that issues forth from My mouth; it does not come back to Me unfulfilled.” In Psalms 30,6 we are told כי רגע באפו חיים ברצונו, “for He is angry but a moment, and when He is pleased there is life.” Concerning this Psalm Solomon said in the verse we quoted above that Life is attached to the benevolent manifestation of G-d’s presence.
We find such manifestations of G-d’s presence on three levels. 1) G-d instructs the prophet concerning one or several commandments in the Torah such as when He commanded Avraham to circumcise himself and his household. 2) G-d manifests His presence in order to protect and defend the righteous such as happened when the people were ready to stone Joshua and Calev for disagreeing with the spies’ majority report. G-d intervened to save them by displaying His glory at the Tent of Meeting (Numbers 14,10). A third level of G-d’s presence manifesting itself is recorded in Leviticus 9,23 ויצאו ויברכו את העם וירא כבוד ה' אל כל העם, “when Moses and Aaron came out of the Tabernacle and blessed the people, the Presence of the Lord appeared to all the people.” Avraham experienced a special manifestation of G-d’s benevolent Presence as a reward for fulfilling the commandment of circumcision. This was a practical demonstration of the meaning of Proverbs 16,15 באור פני מלך חיים “in the light of the king’s face is life.” The word חיים, “life,” includes “healing.” As a result of G-d manifesting Himself to Avraham as recorded at the beginning of our portion, Avraham was healed from the effects of the circumcision on his body. We find a close association of the words חולי, “sickness,” and the word חיים, “life,” in Isaiah 38,9 when King Chiskiyah was cured from his sickness and the prophet describes this in the words ויחי מחליו. Another verse in which sickness and life appear side by side is Isaiah 38,16 ותחלימני והחייני, “You have restored me to health and You have revived me.”

And close to this interpretation, Abarbanel wrote in Merkevet HaMishnah, that the heavens is a reference to males and the earth is a reference to females, as it is written For as the rain and snow come down from heaven, etc. and it makes it give birth and sprout (Isaiah 55:10). And it is written regarding the giving of the Torah (Exodus 19:3), Thus shall you say to the house of Jacob — these are the women, to whom you should speak gently; and tell the children of Israel — these are the males, to whom you should speak harsh words, hard as sinews. Therefore it says, Listen, O heavens, and I will speak — harsh speech for the males, and Let the earth hear the words of my mouth — gentle speech for the females.

the word downpours [Hebrew: revivim] (both words are adjectives) comes from the Hebrew word for “abundant” [Hebrew: rav], since the word vegetation generally denotes a stronger kind of plant than the word grass. Some say that the word showers comes from the word “hair”. Others have related it to “the storm wind of God ” [Jeremiah 23: 19], albeit the former is spelled with a s̀in whereas the latter is spelled with a samekh (similarly, “shall come against him like a storm” [Daniel 11: 40], is spelled with a s̀in, although its meaning is identical to the same word spelled with a samakh). It is also possible that the word simply has no cognate in Scripture. Employing the customary prophetic style, Scripture expresses the same idea twice, for emphasis, the idea being that Moshe prays for his words to fall like dew and rain. Dew and rain do not descend without effect; they never fall without, as it is written, “watering the earth” [Isaiah 55: 10]. The idea is that Moshe’s words should enter the hearts of his audience in the same way that rain and dew enter the earth, causing it to bear life, and to flourish.