The stubble, the straw, and the chaff were quarreling with one another. This one said: ‘The field was sown for my sake,’ and that one said: ‘The field was sown for my sake.’ The wheat said: ‘Wait until you come to the threshing floor, and we will know for what the field was sown.’ They came to the threshing floor and the landowner went out to winnow it.
The chaff was carried away with the wind, he took the stubble and cast it to the ground, he took the straw and burned it, he took the wheat and made it into a grain pile. Anyone who saw it kissed it, just as it says: “Kiss the grain lest He be angry” (Psalms 2:12).14The word var in this verse is often translated “son” or “purity,” but the word can also mean “grain.” So it is with the nations of the world; these say: ‘We are primary and the world was created for our sake’ and those say: ‘The world was created for our sake.’
Israel says to them: ‘Wait until the day arrives when we will know for whose sake the world was created.’ That is what is written: “For, behold, the day is coming, burning like a furnace, [and all the wicked and all the evildoers will be straw]” (Malachi 3:19). And in their regard it is written: “You will winnow them and the wind will carry them and the storm will scatter them” (Isaiah 41:16). But Israel: “But you will rejoice in the Lord, you will be glorified in the Holy One of Israel” (Isaiah 41:16).