Komentaryo sa Ezekiel 36:20: Tze'enah Ure'enah & Rashi

“But when they came to those nations” [36:20]. They will come to the nations and My name will be profaned, when the nations will say, your God, heaven forbid, has no power to protect His people Israel. This is a great profanation of God’s name.

“When they came to those nations” [36:20].³Though the translations translate this verse in the plural, the original Hebrew has it in the singular and that is the basis of the discussion. Rashi, Ezekiel, 36:20. One asks a question. It is written here, he came under the nations. It should properly say, and they came, and Israel came under the nations, that there were many Israelites. The answer is that it means that the Holy One is one individual. Therefore, it is written, “and he came,” as if one person came. When Israel was exiled among the nations, it is as if the Holy One was also exiled among the nations. When Israel is in exile and trouble, then the Holy One is also, as it were, as the verse says, “in all their troubles He was troubled” [Isaiah, 63:9].

The Talmud says in [tractate] Sukkah. The Evil Inclination has seven names. He is called bad and that is what the Holy One called him. Moses Our Teacher gave him the second name. He called him uncircumcised. David called him the third name, unclean. Solomon gave him the fourth name and called him enemy. He is a proper enemy and is the enemy of Israel and all people. Isaiah called him by his fifth name, stumbling block. He makes the person stumble. Ezekiel called him the sixth name in this haftorah, stone. This is because the Evil Inclination lies in the road, waiting and wanting to cause the person to fall into sin. Joel gave him the seventh name and called him, hidden one. The Evil Inclination is hidden and shows himself to the person in the hope that he will not protect himself.⁴B. Sukkah 52a; Yalkut Shimoni, Ezekiel, Remez, 375.

And they entered [Heb. וַיָבוֹא, lit. and he entered.] Since he says, “the house of Israel” at the beginning of the segment, He refers to them in the singular throughout the segment. According to Midrash Aggadah: the Holy One, blessed be He, came with them in exile and bent His ear [to hear] what the captors were saying. “Behold these are God’s people, and He had no power to save them.” In Midrash Lamentations Rabbah (Proem 15).

and they profaned My Holy Name They lowered My honor. And what is the profanation? In that their enemies said of them, “These are the people of the Lord, and they have come out of His land, and He had no power to save His people and His land.”