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God Burned Jerusalem and Refused to Send Anyone Else to Comfort Her

No fallen city could equal Jerusalem, so God sent no deputy into exile with Israel. Only the one who lit the fire could pay what was owed.

Curated by Arthur · Told by Maggid ·
Table of Contents
  1. The Method That Broke Against Jerusalem
  2. The Honor Guard Israel Refused
  3. The Storm-Tossed City and the Promise of Sapphire
  4. What the Builder Owes the Ruin
God Burned Jerusalem and Refused to Send Anyone Else to Comfort Her Click for full size

The Method That Broke Against Jerusalem

When a man loses his wife, the sages knew how to begin the consolation. You find another man who has buried a wife just as beloved and you set them side by side, because grief is bearable only when you can point to someone whose loss equals yours. When a great city fell, the same principle held. God would set one ruin beside another, Nineveh paired with Alexandria, and each desolation would find its mirror and be eased. Misery needed a match.

Then they came to Jerusalem, and the method had nothing to stand on. Search the whole earth for a second Jerusalem and you will search without finding one. No city had ever been chosen as she was chosen, dwelt in as she was dwelt in, burned as she was burned. The ordinary comfort required a comparable loss, and there was none.

The Honor Guard Israel Refused

So God refused to send a deputy into the exile. When the people were led into Babylon, He offered them the mightiest of the dead, raised from their graves to walk the road alongside them. Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. Moses and Aaron. David and Solomon. Every great name in the covenant, the whole procession of the patriarchs and kings who had built and guarded and sung for this people, offered up as an escort through the worst march of their history.

Israel looked at the procession and turned it away. "We want none of them," they said. "We want You." The God who destroyed the house is the only one who can comfort the people who lived in it. A king who sets a palace on fire cannot send a servant to apologize for the smoke. He must come himself, and he must come bearing the means to rebuild.

The Storm-Tossed City and the Promise of Sapphire

Pesikta Rabbati, the homiletical midrash assembled in the Land of Israel and reaching its final form perhaps in the ninth century, speaks the consolation in the language of the materials that will replace what burned. The new Jerusalem will not be raised in limestone and cedar. It will be built in sapphire and light, the gates hewn from a single stone the color of fire at its heart, the walls set in precious things that have no earthly weight. The storm-tossed city, the one that was driven in clouds and wind and humiliation, will come home to a foundation that does not burn.

The mourners who wept for her, the ones who sat with Jerusalem in her ruin and would not be consoled by substitutes, they are the ones who will see this. Rejoice greatly, daughter of Zion, the consolation reads, because the reward of mourning is not merely comfort. It is construction. The city rebuilt in sapphire is not a different city. It is the same city finally finished, the one that was always intended, the one that the fire interrupted before it could arrive.

What the Builder Owes the Ruin

The rabbis who shaped this tradition were thinking about a precise theological problem: who has standing to offer repair? Their answer was not abstract. You cannot send someone else to fix what you broke. The consolation of Jerusalem is not a task God can delegate to the patriarchs or the angels or the dead kings, however great they were. The obligation of the one who burned is to return and rebuild, and the quality of the rebuilding must exceed the quality of what was lost, or it is not consolation but insult.

This is the logic of the sapphire walls. The first Temple was gold and cedar, beautiful in the beauty of earthly things. The rebuilt city will be beautiful in the beauty of what does not perish. The fire has to be answered with something fire cannot reach. Only then has the king who set Zion alight paid what he owes her.

Pesikta RabbatiMessiahRedemptionZionConsolationJerusalemMourning
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The texts behind this telling. Some cards carry a translation of the source; others are our own retelling of it, and each card says which. Every card links out to the original.

Pesikta Rabbati 30:1Pesikta Rabbati

Translation of the source text.Pesikta Rabbati, ed. Meir Friedmann (Ish-Shalom), Vienna 1880 · Public Domain

"Comfort, comfort My people, says your God" (Isaiah 40:1): this is what was said through the Holy Spirit, "What can I testify for you, to what can I liken you?" (Lamentations 2:13). Against whom did Jeremiah say this verse? He said it only against Jerusalem, for all the prophets were seeking a match for Jerusalem and did not find one. A parable: to a man whose wife died, and his companions came in to comfort him; if they comfort him over his wife and he is not comforted, they say to him, "Was your wife more beautiful than the wife of so-and-so, who died, and he accepted comfort over her?" If over his son, so do they say to him, "Was your son more handsome than the son of so-and-so?" So do you [find] that when the Holy One, blessed be He, brings calamity upon a province, He pairs another province with it to be comforted by it. When He brought the calamity upon Nineveh, He paired Alexandria of Egypt with it, as it is said, "And it shall come to pass that all who look upon you [shall flee from you... Nineveh is laid waste... whence shall I seek comforters for you? Are you better than No-amon, that was situated among the rivers... yet she too went into captivity"] (Nahum 3:7-9). With Alexandria He paired Nineveh to comfort, as it is said, "Say to Pharaoh [... behold, Assyria was a cedar in Lebanon"] (Ezekiel 31:2-3), and at the end it is written, "And strangers, the terrible of the nations, cut him off" (Ezekiel 31:12). But for the Assembly of Israel He found no one to pair [with her] until Israel said, "Behold, as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their masters, and as the eyes of a maidservant to the hand of her mistress, so our eyes look to the LORD our God, until He be gracious to us" (Psalms 123:2). Joel came and paired with her: "And you children of Zion, be glad and rejoice in the LORD your God" (Joel 2:23), and it is written, "And I will rejoice in Jerusalem and be glad in My people, and the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her, nor the voice of crying" (Isaiah 65:19). When Israel was exiled from their land, the Holy One, blessed be He, said to them: With whom do you wish? With your early ancestors, that I should raise him up from his grave and he will walk at your head? If with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; if with Moses and Aaron, I will raise him up from his grave and he will walk at your head; if you wish for David and Solomon, I will raise him up from his grave and he will walk at your head. Israel said to Him: Master of the universe, we do not wish for these, but for You, as it is said, "For You are our father, though Abraham does not know us and Israel does not acknowledge us; You, O LORD, are our father, our redeemer from of old is Your name" (Isaiah 63:16). The Holy One, blessed be He, said to them: Since you have spoken thus, I Myself will go up with you to Babylon, as it is said, "For your sake I have sent to Babylon" (Isaiah 43:14), "and I will set My throne in Elam" (Jeremiah 49:38). A parable to a king who married a woman, and she was with him for many years and he had no children from her. He said to her: My daughter, go, marry another man; perhaps you will have children from him. But take every precious vessel that I have in your house and go out. She said to him: If it is so, I will make a feast for you, and we will eat and drink, and I will part from you, so that they will not say, "See the wife of the king, because he hates her, he has put her out of his house." He said to her: Yes. Immediately she made a feast. The king ate and drank and became drunk, and she commanded her servants, and at midnight they rose and carried him out on the bed to her father's house. When the king awoke from his sleep, he said, "In what place am I reclining?" She said to him, "In my father's house." He said to her, "And what is my concern in your father's house?" She said to him, "Thus did you say to me: take every precious vessel that I have and go out; I have nothing more precious to my eyes and that gladdens my soul than you." So too the Assembly of Israel, at the time the Holy One, blessed be He, said to them, "With whom do you wish, [that I should raise] him up from his grave and he walk at your head to Babylon?" they said to Him, "We do not wish for anything but You," as it is said, "For You are our father." Immediately the Holy One, blessed be He, said to them: I Myself will be your match, and I Myself will bring you up, as it is said, "For your sake I have sent to Babylon" (Isaiah, as above). Another interpretation: "Comfort, comfort", why twice? Only because of "she weeps sore" (Lamentations 1:2). The Holy One, blessed be He, said: Now [I] comfort you twice: "Comfort, comfort My people." Another interpretation: The Holy One, blessed be He, said to Abraham: Go and comfort Jerusalem; perhaps she will accept comfort from you. Abraham went and said: Accept comfort from me. She said to him: How can I accept comfort from you, who made me [like a mountain, as it is said,] "In the mount of the LORD it shall be seen" (Genesis 22:14)? He said to Isaac: Go and comfort Jerusalem, perhaps she will accept comfort. Isaac went and said [etc. She] said to him: How can I accept comfort from you, from whom went forth the wicked Esau, and you made me like a field, as it is said, "And Esau went out to the field" (Genesis 27:5), and his sons burned me with fire? He said to Jacob: Go and comfort Jerusalem [etc.]. She said to him: How can I accept comfort from you, who made me as though I were nothing, as it is said, "This is none other than the house of God" (Genesis 28:17)? He said to Moses: Go and comfort, etc. She said to him: How can I accept comfort from you, who wrote against me curses and harsh decrees, "the wasting of hunger and the devouring of the fiery bolt," etc. (Deuteronomy 32:24)? Immediately they all returned and said to the Holy One, blessed be He: She has not accepted comfort from him, as it is said, "O afflicted one, storm-tossed, not comforted" (Isaiah 54:11). Immediately the Holy One, blessed be He, said: It is upon Me to comfort Jerusalem, for thus I wrote, "He that kindles the fire shall surely make restitution" (Exodus 22:5). I kindled her with fire, as it is said, "From on high He sent fire" (Lamentations 1:13); I comfort her, as it is said, "And I will be to her, says the LORD, a wall of fire round about," etc. (Zechariah 2:9). The Holy One, blessed be He, said: I wrote in the Torah, "You shall not deliver a slave to his master" (Deuteronomy 23:16), yet I delivered them into the hand of the nations of the world, as it is said, "unless their Rock had sold them and the LORD had delivered them up" (Deuteronomy 32:30). I wrote, "You shall not wholly reap the corner of your field" (Leviticus 19:9), yet I spent My wrath fully, as it is said, "The LORD spent His wrath" (Lamentations 4:11). And were it not for the iniquities for which they are delivered up, no creature could prevail against Israel. There was an incident with a certain gentile who pursued a Jew to kill him, and he did not reach him until a serpent came and encircled him and threw him down. He said to him: Wait [until I tell you a thing]: had the Holy One, blessed be He, not delivered us into your hand, you could not prevail against us, as it is said, "unless their Rock had sold them" (Deuteronomy 32:30). And when they killed Ben Koziba, [they brought his head to Hadrian]. He said to them: Bring me his body. And they found a serpent coiled around his heart. He said [to them]: It was not we who killed him, but the Holy One, blessed be He, delivered him into our hands, for so it is written in your Torah, "unless their Rock had sold them." And in the time to come the Holy One, blessed be He, will say to Jerusalem: Accept comfort from Me, as it is said, "Open to me, my sister," etc. (Song of Songs 5:2). She will say to Him: She does not accept comfort from You until I and You are speaking reproofs, as it is said, "Come, my beloved, let us go forth into the field" (Song of Songs 7:12), to a place where there is no commerce, "let us lodge in the villages" (ibid.): I will show the nations of the world that You bestow good things upon them and they deny You. She said before Him: Master of the universe, why did You not do for me as for Joseph, as it is said, "O that You were as a brother to me" (Song of Songs 8:1)? Joseph's brothers dealt evilly with him and sought to kill him, and when they came into his hand he dealt with them in goodness, and he himself comforted them, as it is said, "And he comforted them and spoke to their heart" (Genesis 50:21). And Shimei son of Gera too said to David, "Behold, I have come this day the first of all the house of Joseph" (II Samuel 19:21). He said to him: Did they distress you as Joseph's brothers distressed him, and they accepted from him? David turned back and said before Him: Master of the universe, when You gave the Torah to Israel, You took it around to all the seventy nations and they did not accept it, until Israel accepted it; and now that they have accepted it, will You do thus? Immediately the Holy One, blessed be He, instructed her and said: I have regarded you, as it is said, "for I am married to you" (Jeremiah 3:14). She said before Him: Master of the universe, it is right that You say so between Me and Yourself; who will make known about me to the nations of the world that I have done Your will? They will revile and reproach and shame me and say to me, "You rebelled against your God and you trespassed against Him." Immediately the Holy One, blessed be He, said to her: I will make known about you to the nations of the world your deeds of righteousness, as it is said, "For I will declare your righteousness and your deeds" (Isaiah 57:12). And the Holy One, blessed be He, makes known the righteousness of Israel to the nations of the world. In that hour Michael and Jerusalem [said]: "The LORD has brought forth [our righteous deeds; come and let us declare in Zion the work of the LORD our God"] (Jeremiah 51:10).

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Pesikta Rabbati 32:1Pesikta Rabbati

Translation of the source text.Pesikta Rabbati, ed. Meir Friedmann (Ish-Shalom), Vienna 1880 · Public Domain

"O afflicted one, storm-tossed, not comforted, behold, I will set your stones in antimony and lay your foundations with sapphires," and so on (Isaiah 54:11): Scripture says, "O sons of man, how long will My glory be for shame; will you love emptiness and seek a lie, selah? Know that the Lord has set apart His pious one for Himself; the Lord will hear when I call to Him" (Psalms 4:3 and 4). "O sons of man" - these are Doeg and Ahitophel. "O sons of man, how long will My glory be for shame" - how long will you be exacting about My glory and not call Me by My name, but say, "Why has the son of Jesse not come?" (1 Samuel 20:27), "I saw the son of Jesse" (ibid. 22:9), "Will the son of Jesse give to all of you?" (ibid. 22:7) - have I no name? "Will you love emptiness" - why do you pursue empty matters and say, "The Holy One, blessed be He, has forsaken him, has forgotten him; the kingship will not return to him from now on"? "Will you seek a lie, selah? Know that the Lord has set apart His pious one for Himself; the Lord will hear when I call to Him" - He has already given me good tidings through Nathan the prophet, "Also the Lord has put away your sin; you shall not die" (2 Samuel 12:13). Another interpretation: "O sons of man, how long will My glory be for shame" - these are the nations of the world, who are called "sons of man" because they come from the descendants of Noah, who was "a righteous, blameless man" (Genesis 6:9). The Holy One, blessed be He, said to the nations of the world: Wicked ones, how long will My glory be for shame - this is the Temple, which is called "glory," as it is said, "A throne of glory, exalted from the first, the place of our sanctuary" (Jeremiah 17:12). The Holy One, blessed be He, said: How long will you tear it down and set up in it images and idolatry? "Will you love emptiness" - why do you pursue empty matters and say, "The Holy One, blessed be He, has forsaken them, has forgotten them; the Shekhinah will not return there"? "Will you seek a lie, selah? Know that the Lord has set apart His pious one for Himself; the Lord will hear when I call to Him" - I have already given tidings through Isaiah the prophet and said to him, "O afflicted one, storm-tossed, not comforted, behold, I will set your stones in antimony and lay your foundations with sapphires." Another interpretation: "O afflicted one, storm-tossed" - afflicted of words of Torah, afflicted of the commandments and good deeds, afflicted of the righteous; "storm-tossed" - tossed by the storm with which the nations of the world stormed her, as it is said, "Remember, O Lord, against the children of Edom the day of Jerusalem, who said, Raze it, raze it, to its very foundation," and so on (Psalms 137:7). Rabbi Abba bar Kahana and Rabbi Levi son of Rabbi: one said, "Break it, break it"; and one said, "Empty it, empty it." According to the one who says, "Break it, break it," as it is written, "The broad wall of Babylon shall be utterly razed" (Jeremiah 51:58). And according to the one who says, "Empty it, empty it," as it is written, "And she emptied her jar into the trough" (Genesis 24:20). And according to the one who said "Break it," they reached to its foundations; and according to the one who said "Empty it," they went around to its foundations. Another interpretation: "O afflicted one, storm-tossed, not comforted" - Rabbi Levi said: Wherever it says "she has none," she does have. It is written, "It is Zion; none seeks after her" (Jeremiah 30:17) - lo, she has, as it is written, "And a redeemer shall come to Zion" (Isaiah 59:20). "And Sarai was barren, she had no child" (Genesis 11:30) - lo, she has, "And Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son" (Genesis 21:2). And likewise, "Peninnah had children, but Hannah had no children" (1 Samuel 1:2) - lo, she has, "And she conceived and bore three sons" (ibid. 2:21). And likewise, "Sing, O barren one who did not bear; break forth into song and cry aloud, you who were not in labor" (Isaiah 54:1) - lo, she has, as it is said, "And you shall say in your heart, Who has borne me these?" and so on (Isaiah 49:21). "Behold, I will set your stones in antimony" - Rabbi Abba bar Kahana said: Like this kohl, as it is said, "And she set her eyes in antimony and adorned her head" (2 Kings 9:30). "And I will lay your foundations with sapphires" - the stone sapphirinon. There was an incident of one who went up to Rome to sell sapphirinon, and the buyer made a condition with him, on terms that he might test it. He took it and placed it on the anvil and struck it with the hammer; the anvil was split and the hammer shattered, and it was not diminished. "And I will make your battlements of kadkod, and your gates of carbuncle stones" (ibid. 12) - Rabbi Abba bar Kahana said: Of "like this and like that." Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi said: Stones of kadkedana. Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi was standing with Elijah on Mount Carmel. He said to him: Will you not show me what these stones of kadkedana are like? He said to him: Yes, and he showed him by way of a miracle. There was an incident of a certain ship that set out on the Great Sea; a great wave seized it, and it was being battered on the sea, and there was on it a certain Hebrew lad. Abba Elijah revealed himself to him and said to the lad: If you perform My errand, I will save this ship by your merit. He said to him: Yes. He said to him: Go and show Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi these stones of kadkod. He sits in the great city of Lod; and do not show them to him there, but lead him to the cave of Lod, and there show them to him. The lad went and said to Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi: Come after me. When he led him to the cave and showed them to him, immediately all of Lod gleamed from their light. Rabbi Yitzhak said: When he saw them he was terrified before them and was struck dumb. "[And I will make] your suns of (battlements)" - your walls. "And your gates of carbuncle stones, and all your borders of precious stones" (ibid.) - all this, why? Because the Holy One, blessed be He, will in time to come make a great gate for the Temple, and two wickets of a single precious stone, of pearl. And Rabbi Yohanan was sitting and expounding: The Holy One, blessed be He, will in time to come make a great gate of the Temple, and two wickets of a single precious stone. A certain man was sitting and expounding: The Holy One, blessed be He, will in time to come make a great gate of the Temple, and two wickets of a single precious stone, of pearl - but even one the size of an egg you cannot find now! He went and put out to sea on the Great Sea, and his ship sank, and the Holy One, blessed be He, opened his eyes, and he saw there the ministering angels who were sitting and hewing and engraving it. He said to them: What is this for? They said to him: For the great gate of the Temple. The next year he came and found Rabbi Yohanan sitting and expounding that the Holy One, blessed be He, will in time to come make a great gate of the Temple, and two wickets of a single precious stone, of pearl. He said to him: Expound, and it is fitting for you to expound! He said to him: What did you see that you said this to me? He said to him: Had I not seen it with my own eyes I would not have believed you. What did Rabbi Yohanan do? He raised his eyes and gazed at him; immediately he became a heap of bones. "And all your borders of precious stones" - because in this world they mark borders with stones and hewn rocks, but in time to come they will mark them with precious stones and pearls; therefore it is said, "And all your borders of precious stones." In this world, when a man owes his fellow, they go to a judge; sometimes he makes peace between them, and sometimes he does not make peace between them. But in the days of the Messiah, when a man owes his fellow and he says to him, "Come, let us go and be judged before the King Messiah," as soon as they reach the border of Jerusalem they find it full of precious stones and pearls. He takes a precious stone and gives it to him and says to him, "Do I owe you more than the value of this?" And he says to him, "May the King forgive you." This is what is written, "He makes peace in your borders" (Psalms 147:14). There are four "peaces": "Great peace have those who love Your Torah" (Psalms 119:165); "In his days shall the righteous flourish, and abundance of peace till the moon be no more" (Psalms 72:7); "And all your children shall be taught of the Lord, and great shall be the peace of your children" (Isaiah 54:13); "And the humble shall inherit the earth and delight themselves in abundance of peace" (Psalms 37:11). And this is "He makes peace in your borders."

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Pesikta Rabbati 34:1Pesikta Rabbati

Translation of the source text.Pesikta Rabbati, ed. Meir Friedmann (Ish-Shalom), Vienna 1880 · Public Domain

"Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem; behold, your king comes to you, [righteous and victorious is he, lowly and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a she-donkey]" (Zechariah 9:9): This is what was said by the Holy Spirit through Isaiah, "And their seed shall be known among the nations, and their offspring among the peoples" (Isaiah 61:9). Concerning whom did Isaiah say this verse? He said it only concerning the mourners of Zion, to whom the Holy One, blessed be He, will in time to come give their victory over their enemies, as it is said, "And their seed shall be known among the nations" - do not read "their seed" (zar'am) but "their arm" (zero'am). And who stands by them with an arm? The Holy One, blessed be He, stands by them with an arm, as it is said, "O Lord, be gracious to us; we have waited for You; be their arm every morning, our salvation also in time of trouble" (Isaiah 33:2) - "every morning," these are they who rise early every single morning to seek mercy, "our salvation also in time of trouble." These are the mourners who longed for the salvation evening, morning, and noon. And there was great trouble for Israel, for they were despised and mocked. When they see the decrees of the final year in which the Messiah is revealed, and they come one after another and do not cease, immediately they understand and say, "In our days there has not been the like; perhaps the Messiah is arriving." And these are the decrees from which they understand: in Nisan, on the eve of the Sabbath of the seventh year, a west wind goes out and snow comes down from heaven and smites the seed; and afterward evils begin in every single month and are doubled; and afterward they understand and say, "Surely this is the King Messiah." Even so their minds are not settled until they are judged in the seventh year, until their faces are like the bottom of a pot. And by what are they judged? By famine, for the heart of Israel is not broken except through famine. And afterward the righteous of the generation arise and take up their prayer and lay them before Him on the ground and say before Him, "Master of the world, we have not acted well all the years; like sheep we have gone astray." The Holy One, blessed be He, says to them: It is forgiven you, and He kisses them and sets a crown upon them. He who has the merit of Torah, it stands by him; and he who has no merit of Torah, [grace] shall be upon him. From this you learn that everyone who believes in the first teaching, his reward is doubled fold upon fold. "All who see them shall recognize them" (Isaiah 61:9, ibid.) - these are the mourners of Zion, for the Holy One, blessed be He, has made over His world angels of destruction, and destroyers go about all the days of the redemption, and the mourners of Zion go in with them and come out with them, like a man who comes in to his fellow and goes out, and they do not harm him. And whoever sees them sits and says, "In vain did we laugh, in vain did we mock at their words." Rabbi bar Hanina said: The merit of these cuts them off, yet we suspected them. Concerning that hour Isaiah said, "And the nations shall see your righteousness" (Isaiah 62:2) - these are the nations of the world, who see the righteousness of the mourners of Zion; "and all kings your glory" (ibid.) - these are the kings of sovereignty, who see your glory; therefore it is said, "And their seed shall be known among the nations." Another interpretation: "Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; [behold, your king," and so on] - this is the one called king, who will in time to come reign over the earliest generations and over the latest generations. And the Holy One, blessed be He, proclaims to them, to all the righteous of every generation; He says to them: Righteous of the world, although words of Torah are needful before Me, in that you have hoped for My Torah but not hoped for My kingship - it is an oath before Me that everyone who hopes for My kingship, I Myself testify concerning him for good, as it is said, "Therefore wait for Me, says the Lord, for the day I rise up as a witness" (Zephaniah 3:8) - concerning the mourners who grieved with Me over My ruined house and over My desolate sanctuary; now I testify concerning them, as it is said, "the crushed and lowly of spirit" (Isaiah 57:15) - do not read "the crushed" (et dakka) but "with Me is the crushed" (itti dakka) - these are the mourners of Zion who lowered their spirit and heard their reproach and were silent and did not hold the merit to their own credit. Another interpretation: "the day I rise up as a witness" - on the day I rise up to testify concerning the Messiah, whose merit is weighed against My retinue. "And so all these qualities are before Me, and you did not hope for Me?" They say before Him: Master of the world, You gave us a heart of stone, and it led us astray. And if Uzza and Azael, whose bodies are fire, sinned when they descended to earth, we all the more so! He said to them: The mourners gained merit, for they acknowledged Him and did not desire them. At that hour all the righteous of the world are destined to weep. They say before Him: Master of the world, they arose in thought, but we did not arise. At that hour the Holy One, blessed be He, said to them: Do not weep, My holy ones and My mighty ones; I have already heard your prayer. Did you perhaps forfeit the reward of your Torah? All the more is your reward doubled, as it is said, "And therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you, and therefore He is exalted to have mercy on you, for the Lord is a God of justice; happy are all who wait for Him. For a people shall dwell in Zion, in Jerusalem; you shall weep no more; He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry; when He hears, He will answer you" (Isaiah 30:18 and 19). "He will be gracious" - that He gave them the reward of Torah; "He will be gracious to you" - that they shall eat in the days of the Messiah; "when He hears, He will answer you" - in the World to Come, and all those good things that I do for you by the merit of the Messiah who was delayed all those years. Rabbi Yannai said in the name of Rav: Everyone who awaits the salvation, the Holy One, blessed be He, leads him to rest in the Garden of Eden, as it is said, "I will feed My flock, and I will cause them to lie down" (Ezekiel 34:15). "Righteous and victorious is he" - this is the Messiah, who justifies His judgment upon Israel when they laughed at him while he sat in the prison house; and he is called "righteous." Why is he called "victorious" (nosha, saved)? Only that he justifies the judgment upon them and says to them, "You are all My sons, are you not?" Rather, "that you shall all be saved" through the mercy of the Holy One, blessed be He. "Lowly and riding on a donkey" - this is the Messiah; and why is he called "lowly"? Because he was afflicted all those years in the prison house, and the transgressors of Israel laughed at him. "Riding on a donkey" - on account of the wicked who have no merit. He who goes along and remembers the fathers, by the merit of the Messiah the Holy One, blessed be He, shields them and leads them by a straight way and redeems them, as it is said, "With weeping they shall come, and with supplications I will lead them; I will guide them to streams of water by a straight way in which they shall not stumble; for I have been a father to Israel, and Ephraim is My firstborn" (Jeremiah 31:9). What does "he is" teach? "He" is for the days of the Messiah; "he" is for the World to Come, and there is no other with him. "And his enemies I will clothe with shame" (Psalms 132:18) - these are those who dispute him. "But upon him his crown shall shine" (ibid.) - upon him and upon those who are like him.

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