[Isaiah, 43:21–44:23]
“The people I formed for Myself” [43:21]. The Holy One said: I have created a people to be My people, for Me alone. They should recount My miracles and wonders that I have shown them in taking them out of exile. Now the Holy One will punish them and says to them: I know very well that you do evil things. Your children who will come after you will not be worthy to be shown these miracles, but I must show miracles to redeem them from exile, for My sake.1Radak, Isaiah, 43:21.
“You did not call upon Me, O Jacob” [43:22]. The Holy One said: Israel, you worship foreign gods and you do not call on Me. Jacob, you soon tire of serving Me. The Talmud writes in [tractate] Yoma concerning this verse. Rabbi Eliezer the son of Hisma said: whoever recites God, King and similar important prayers and winks with his eyes or twists his mouth or indicates with his finger to do something, because he does not want to speak, and he indicates with his eyes or his hand to do it, the Holy One says: you do not call Me. That is to say, your prayer is for nothing because you wink or indicate with your hands during the prayer.2B. Yoma, 19b; Yalkut Shimoni, Isaiah, Remez, 456. From here we should learn and be warned that one should, at the very least, not speak during prayer, not even in Hebrew.
Lamentations Rabbah writes. The Holy One said: the Israelites who worship foreign gods should at least also worship Me along with the foreign gods, but they have forgotten Me and do not call on Me. The Holy One said: should they consider me a secondary food that one serves only at the end of the meal? It is a parable. A minister of the king makes a big meal and invites all the ministers to the meal and he leaves out the king and does not invite him to the meal. The king says: he should at least consider me as important as the other ministers and invited me to the meal. The Holy One said the same.3Lamentations Rabbah, Petikhtah 10; Yalkut Shimoni, Isaiah, Remez, 457.
“You have not brought Me” [43:23]. The Holy One said to Israel: you have not brought me sheep for burnt offerings and have not honored Me with meal offerings, or with your weariness of the incense.
“You have not bought Me” [43:24]. You have not bought Me ingredients for the incense had to be purchased from distant lands with silver. The Holy One said: I did not desire too much from Israel, to exhaust them; only a little flour for a meal offering, whatever offering his heart desired to give. Some sages say that there were plenty of spices in the land of Israel, yet the Israelites did not bring offerings of incense.4Yalkut Shimoni, Isaiah, Remez, 457. The Holy One said: you have made me tired with your sins.
“I am He” [43:25]. The Holy One said: I forgave your ancestors their transgressions that they committed in the wilderness, for My sake. I will also forgive your transgressions and not remember them, for if I were to destroy you from the world because of your sins, so that My holy name should not be desecrated.5Radak, Isaiah, 43:25.
“Help me remember” [43:26]. The Holy One said: let us discuss our accounts, the good that I have done for you and the transgressions that you have committed. Let us have a judgment. It is customary that whoever comes to the judge or to the court first is always right. Therefore, the Holy One also said to Israel: you tell your complaints first to the judge, before I will speak. Yet, you will not be right, against Me. The same judge will agree with Me about the good that I have done for you.6Radak, Isaiah, 43:26.
“Your first ancestor sinned” [43:27]. Your first ancestor, that is Adam, committed sins. Every person who is descended from Adam was created with the evil inclination, which causes each person to sin. How can you say that you have not sinned? The leaders and the rabbis, who should have punished you, themselves committed sins.7Radak, Isaiah, 43:27.
“And I profaned the princes” [43:28]. I have profaned the princes who should have punished Israel, and Israel committed many sins. When some were pious, they were also lost among the nations because of their great sins, which were numerous.8Radak, Isaiah, 43:28.
“Now hear, O Jacob” [44:1]. The Holy One said: you should not be despondent Israel, whom I have chosen to serve Me. Though I have profaned the princes, I love them. God said: I am your creator. I want to help you since I have made you holy when you emerged from the womb. As soon as a son is born, he will be circumcised when he is eight days old. From here we should learn that the commandment of circumcision is comparable to the sacrifices, since He punished them so that they brought no sacrifices. He says, because you have a commandment that is better than sacrifices, which is circumcision.9Yalkut Shimoni, Isaiah, Remez, 459.
“For I will pour water” [44:3]. The Holy One said: jut like I pour water, through rain, on a field and make it grow, so will I pour My spirit on your children. They will quickly grow like the grass and like a willow by the flowing waters.10Radak, Isaiah, 44:3.
“This one will say, I am the Lord” [44:5]. The remnant of Israel will all be holy. Each one will say, I want to accept God, and they will all call on the name of God.11Radak, Isaiah, 44:5.
“Thus says the Lord” [44:6]. Thus says God, the king of Israel and his redeemer. The Lord of hosts, said: I am the first and the last, I alone am God and there is no other God.
“Who is like me?” [44:7]. The Holy One said: where is there a God like me, who knows what happened and what will happen? I remember everything from the creation of the world. I created the whole world; I can say more than all the gods of the world.
“Do not fear” [44:8]. You Israel should not be afraid of the idols. They cannot do you any good or any evil. I told you long ago on Mount Sinai that you should not turn to the idols. I opened my seven heavens for you on Mount Sinai and showed you that I alone am God and there is no other creator.12Rashi, Isaiah, 44:8.
“Creators of idols” [44:9]. Come here Israel and see that the artisans who make the idols are all desolate and lost, and their treasured idols cannot help them. If you would say, who tells us that the idols are nothing? They themselves will testify that they are nothing since they cannot see or hear, much less speak. How then can they help? They do not hear and do not see the one who call on them. Therefore, shame them and leave them. Who is so foolish and crazy to spend silver to make an idol? The foolishness includes all those who bow to it. Many artisans make themselves foolish and embarrass themselves by making an idol.
First a smith must make a knife or an ax or a saw to make a wooden idol and the like. One must have coal for the smith to make a fire to work the iron and they must work with great force and injures himself because of it. He goes hungry because he does not eat because he desires to finish his idols. When he gets thirsty and wants to drink, yet he restrains himself and continues working. This is a great foolishness that he should exert himself so much for nothing, since they cannot help. The carpenter takes a long cord to measure how long he will make the idol, and takes a compass to make it even and takes a plane to make it smooth, so that the person should not hurt or injure his hand, if it would not be smooth. He paints the form of a handsome man or a beautiful woman, which is found in the world. He goes into the woods and selects a strong tree that should not split and should not be worm eaten. Some people plant a tree themselves and make an idol out of it. He selects wood from strong trees that grow from rainwater. When the rain comes from the Holy One and causes them to grow, what should the Holy One do? It would be correct that the Holy One should cause that tree not to grow because it becomes an idol. However, the Holy One allows the rain to fall that everything should grow. Sometimes, the person takes some of the same tree out of which he made an idol and heats the oven to warm himself and bakes bread to eat. From the rest of it he makes himself a god to bow down to.
“Half of it he burns in a fire” [44:16]. The person derives two benefits from the same tree. With half of it he roasts his meat and bakes his bread. With the other half of the wood he heats his oven to warm his body thereby and he rejoices in it. With what remains from the tree he makes a god to which he bows down and prays to it and says to it, protect me. That is why the Torah forbade the stones of the altar to be broken. This was so that pieces of the stone should not fall off and it might be put in the dirt on the street and the other half would be on the altar. That is why they had to take whole stones for the altar.
“They did not know and did not comprehend” [44:18]. They do not know enough to understand the idol. The eyes of the people are blind and their hearts stopped up to understanding. They should correctly say that with half of the wood I heated my oven, with half I roasted my meat and baked my bread, so how could I worship and pray to this.
“Remember these things, O Jacob” [44:21]. The Holy One says. When the nations do not understand what they are doing, but you, Jacob, be clever and understand the matter very well, that they are fools. You will be My servant, to serve Me. I have created you as a servant to Me and therefore do not forget Me.
“I wipe away your sins” [44:22]. The Holy One says. I erase your sins, like a cloud that passes with the rain, only return to Me and repent.
“Sing, O heavens” [44:23]. The heavens will sing when God will redeem Israel from the exile in the days of the Messiah. The earth will sing and praise God that the Holy One was very helpful in redeeming them and also the mountains will rejoice and the forest with its trees will sing that God has redeemed Jacob. The Holy One will receive honor from Israel and from the nations who will say that the Holy One performed miracles for Israel. Amen.