וְעַתָּה, אֲדֹנָי יְהוִה שְׁלָחַנִי--וְרוּחוֹ. כֹּה-אָמַר יְהוָה גֹּאַלְךָ, קְדוֹשׁ יִשְׂרָאֵל: אֲנִי יְהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ מְלַמֶּדְךָ לְהוֹעִיל, מַדְרִיכְךָ בְּדֶרֶךְ תֵּלֵךְ. לוּא הִקְשַׁבְתָּ, לְמִצְוֹתָי; וַיְהִי כַנָּהָר שְׁלוֹמֶךָ, וְצִדְקָתְךָ כְּגַלֵּי הַיָּם. וַיְהִי כַחוֹל זַרְעֶךָ, וְצֶאֱצָאֵי מֵעֶיךָ כִּמְעֹתָיו; לֹא-יִכָּרֵת וְלֹא-יִשָּׁמֵד שְׁמוֹ, מִלְּפָנָי. צְאוּ מִבָּבֶל, בִּרְחוּ מִכַּשְׂדִּים, בְּקוֹל רִנָּה הַגִּידוּ הַשְׁמִיעוּ זֹאת, הוֹצִיאוּהָ עַד-קְצֵה הָאָרֶץ; אִמְרוּ, גָּאַל יְהוָה עַבְדּוֹ יַעֲקֹב. וְלֹא צָמְאוּ, בָּחֳרָבוֹת הוֹלִיכָם--מַיִם מִצּוּר, הִזִּיל לָמוֹ; וַיִּבְקַע-צוּר--וַיָּזֻבוּ, מָיִם
The bold-faced verse appears in our list. The English Standard Version is as follows:And now the Lord God has sent me, and his Spirit. Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: “I am the Lord your God, who teaches you to profit, who leads you in the way you should go. Oh that you had paid attention to my commandments! Then your peace would have been like a river, and your righteousness like the waves of the sea; your offspring would have been like the sand, and your descendants like its grains; their name would never be cut off or destroyed from before me.” Go out from Babylon, flee from Chaldea, declare this with a shout of joy, proclaim it, send it out to the end of the earth; say, “The Lord has redeemed his servant Jacob!” They did not thirst when he led them through the deserts; he made water flow for them from the rock; he split the rock and the water gushed out.
This has a genuine instance of "My Mitzvot," perhaps, time-wise, the first such instance. But the "commandments" seem to be to flee from Babylon, to shout it out to the end of the world. They are not "the commandments" of the Torah!The miracle of the water, is as before, first of all a Mashal for a deeper reality. The Jews of Bavel did not understand this message of Zerubavel, of Moshiach ben David. "Oh that you had paid attention to my commandments!" And what happened to Zerubavel? He became the suffering Moshiach, Moshiach ben Yosef.
And because they did not understand, they received the Mitzvot, in what came to be the Torah. "Oh that you had paid attention to my commandments!" Oh that you understood My Mitzvot! Would that you knew Me and therefore My Mishpatim. As Nietzsche wrote and Zarathustra spoke, it is because of "I will" that we will do, nut because of "Thou shalt."
Pesach Sameach!
