Rashi on Malachi

‫רש"י על מלאכי‬
The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg
https://www.nli.org.il/en/items/NNL_ALEPH990019164710205171/NLI

Rashi on Malachi

Chapter 1

Verse 1

The burden of the word of the Lord Porport in Old French, burden. A word delivered
to Malachi to bear to the children of Israel.
in the hand of Malachi It was already delivered into his hand for many days. From
here, our Sages expounded in a baraitha of Mechilta that all the prophets stood on
Mount Sinai and there the prophecies were delivered to them, and so [Isaiah
(48:16)] says: “From the time it was, there was I, and now, the Lord God has sent
me, [and His spirit].”

Verse 2

And I loved Jacob And I gave him (Jer. 3:19) “a desirable land, an inheritance of
the desire of hosts of nations”; a land that all the hosts of nations desire.

Verse 3

And I hated Esau to push him off to a land because of Jacob, his brother. Now it is
customary in the world that, if one has two sons, he selects a beautiful portion
for the firstborn.
and I made his mountains desolate They do not compare to the mountains of Israel.
for the jackals of the desert A den of jackals.

Verse 4

Should Edom say, “We were poor” And if Edom says, “At first we were poor, but from
now on we will be rich from the spoils of Jerusalem.” but we will return and build
the ruins Our ruins, so said the Lord, etc.

Verse 5

“The Lord is great beyond the border of Israel.” He will show His greatness over
our border, to make known that we are His people. And Jonathan rendered: May the
glory of the Lord be magnified, and He has widened the border of Israel.

Verse 6

A son is required to honor his father, and so a slave his master and you are called
sons and slaves. Now, if I am your father, where is My honor?
says the Lord of Hosts to you You, the priests who despise My Name.
But you said, “How have we despised” I knew that you would say, “How have we
despised?” This is the contempt [as follows:]

Verse 7

You offer on My altar, etc., yet you say And if you say. “How have we defiled You?”
How have we defiled for You the bread of Your altar? I reply to you that, in this
manner you have defiled Me. By your saying, “God’s table is contemptible.” They
would look with contempt on sharing equally the meal offerings and the hallowed
foods, and they would say, “Since we may not share a meal offering for a meal
offering, or a sacrifice for a sacrifice, it is too much bother and toil to divide
each meal offering for the olive-sized piece or the bean-sized piece that is
apportioned to each one.”

Verse 8

is there nothing wrong? Is this thing not bad?

Verse 9

And now, will you pray before the Lord? And now, you priests, who commit this evil,
how does it enter your mind that you can be the messengers of Israel, to supplicate
God to have compassion on them? Lo, this evil has come from your hand.
Will He favor any of you to hearken to a prayer from your mouth, and to favor those
who sent you?

Verse 10

O that there were even one among you that would close the doors If only a good man
would arise among you who would close the doors of My sanctuary so as not to allow
this abominable sacrifice there.
and that you would not kindle fire on My altar in vain with fire offerings with
which I am not placated, for I have no desire in you. And our Sages expounded in
Torath Kohanim (7: 154): If a person says to his friend, “Close this door for me,”
he does not demand compensation for it; [or if he says,] “Light this candle for
me,” he does not request compensation for it. But you - who is there among you who
closed My doors, gratis? Neither did you kindle fire on My altar gratis. Surely,
things that are customarily done for compensation you did not do gratis. Therefore,
I have no desire in you.

Verse 11

My Name is great among the nations Our Sages stated (Men. 110a): For they call Him
the God of the gods. Even one who has an idol knows that He is the God Who is over
all of them - and everywhere they donate in My Name. Our Sages, however, explained:
These are the Torah scholars who are engaged in the laws of the Temple service
everywhere, and likewise, every prayer of Israel that they pray anywhere is to Me
as a pure oblation. And so did Jonathan paraphrase: And every time that you do My
will, I accept your prayer, and My great Name is sanctified through you, and your
prayer is like a pure offering before Me. This is the explanation of the verse: Now
why do you profane My Name? Is it not great among the nations? As for Me, My love
and My affection are upon you wherever you pray before Me, and even in exile,
[offerings are] burnt and offered up to My Name.
yea, a pure oblation it is to Me, for through you My Name is feared among the
nations. Yet you profane Me and My Name.

Verse 12

and its expression is “Its food is contemptible.” The expression of the altar that
is fluent on your lips is always, “Its food is contemptible”; that [is all] you say
about it. You have already spread this slander, and you have strongly attached this
expression to My altar.
its food its food.

Verse 13
And you say, “Here is a weary one” An emaciated animal, and we are poor and cannot
afford the choicest for [our] vows. So did Jonathan render: This is what we have
brought from our toil.
and you cause it pain This is one of the eighteen words [in all of Scripture known
as] the emendations of the scribes. ‫ ְוִהַּפְחֶּתם אֹותֹו‬should have been written: ‫אֹוִתי‬, and
you cause Me pain. Scripture, however, euphemized, writing ‫ אֹותֹו‬it. and you cause
pain and you cause pain, an expression of despair (Job 11: 20).
it My table.

Verse 14

he who deals craftily Plots deceitfully, with guile, before Me, saying, “I have
none better than this.”
a ram a ram fit for a burnt offering;
and he vows and sacrifices a blemished one as in (Lev. 22:25), “their corruption is
in them; a blemish is in them.”

Chapter 2

Verse 1

to you, etc., O priests I charge you with this commandment, that you shall not
sacrifice these on My altar.

Verse 2

and I will curse And I will curse your blessings; how I should bless the grain, the
wine, and the oil for you.
Indeed I have [already] cursed it Indeed, it is unnecessary to have the matter
depend on the condition upon which I made it depend: if they do not obey. For I
know that you will not obey. Therefore, I have already cursed it - from now.

Verse 3

and I will scatter dung of the animals of your festive sacrifices; that is to say,
you will not receive reward from Me, but [you will receive a curse] for harm and
shame. And I will rebuke the seed of the field because of you.
and it shall take you to itself The dung of your sacrificial animals will take you
to itself to [make you] cheap and despised, as it is.

Verse 4

that My covenant be with Levi for I wish that you will exist with Me with the
covenant that I formed for the tribe of Levi.

Verse 5

life and peace As it was said to Phinehas (Num. 25:12): “My covenant of peace”; and
it was promised to him and to his seed after him, thus indicating that his seed
will be alive.
and I gave them to him that he accept them with fear, and so he did, and he feared
Me.
he was over-awed an expression of ‫ִחַּתת‬, fear; he was afraid.

Verse 6
In peace and equity he went with Me Aaron, Eleazar, and Phinehas and so in the
episode of the calf, they brought back all their tribe from iniquity, as it is said
(Ex. 32:26), “all the children of Levi gathered to him.”

Verse 7

For a priest’s lips It is incumbent upon them to guard knowledge. Why? Because...
teaching should be sought from his mouth This matter has already (Deut. 33:10) been
delivered to them. “They shall teach Your judgments to Jacob.”
for he is a messenger the agent of the Holy One, blessed be He; like the
ministering angels, to serve Him and to enter into His compartment. [I.e., into the
place where God’s presence is manifest.]

Verse 8

Verse 9

Verse 10

to profane the covenant of our forefathers The covenant that the Holy One, blessed
be He, formed with our forefathers at Sinai.

Verse 11

for Judah has profaned himself, who was the holy one of the Lord, the first of His
grain.
and married the daughter of a foreign god that they married gentile women in
Babylon, and even the priests, as is delineated in the Book of Ezra (chap. 9 and
10). Our Sages said that Malachi is Ezra.

Verse 12

one of acuity or erudition An ingenious one among the students, and one who can
answer among the sages. ‫ ֵער‬An expression of an ingenious person.
and one who offers up an offering And if he is a priest, he will not have a son who
offers up an offering.

Verse 13

And this second thing you do The first matter concerning which I reproved you is,
indeed, very grave, for one to have married a gentile woman even if he was
unmarried; but this second matter is graver, for those [who were] married to
Israelite women and married gentile women in addition to them. [The men did this]
because the Israelite women became black from hunger and from exile, and became
repugnant to them. [Such a man] would, therefore, sit her [his Israelite wife] in
his house, bound in living widowhood, and the gentile wife would be the chief wife.
to cover the altar of the Lord with tears For the [Israelite wives] would come
before the altar of the Lord and weep before it, saying, “What have we sinned? And
what wrong have our husbands found in us? Behold! We are before the altar to be
tested as suspected adulteresses.”
such that he will no longer turn, etc. So that you are not fit for Me to turn to
your offering or take any thing willingly from your hand.
and sighing an expression of sighing, that a person feels pain in his heart;
demonisement in Old French, groaning. The source of all of them is (Ezek. 24:17),
“Be silent in groaning” But if ‫ ֳאָנָק ה‬is an expression of a cry, where is the
silence? The Targum of this word is ‫ִד ְמַד ְנִק ין‬, and so did Jonathan translate (ibid.
30: 43) “And you shall sigh before yourselves ‫וְתַד ְנקּון‬.” [This is] an expression of
a person who roars and feels pain within himself.

Verse 14

Verse 15

Now did He not make one The Holy One, blessed be He, made Adam and Eve first.
the rest of the spirits The spirits and the souls. had Lit., to him were. They all
came our from the first man.
Now what does the one seek Now what does the one member of the couple seek to find
accusations against his wife, who is his mate, who is the seed of God? What does he
claim of her that he disgraces her? This is the wording of Jonathan’s translation,
except that Jonathan renders: Now what does the one seek except seed of God? The
explanation is correct except for the fact that the word ‫ ָהֶאָחד‬is pointed with
“zakef” mark, and the mark of the “zakef” separates the word ‫ ְמַבֵּק ש‬from joining ‫ּוָמה‬
‫ָהֶאָחד‬. It connects it to ‫ֹֹלִהים‬-‫ֶזַר ע ֱא‬. He had a different spirit His intention was not
like your intention. He did not cast his eye upon her. He had a different
intention. They said to him, “Now what did the one seek?” What was his intention?
He said to them: To have seed of the Lord. Jonathan’s translation appeals to me,
because neither in Scripture nor in the Mishnah do we find ‫ ְׁשָאר‬being used as an
expression of “other” - except where a person can explain it as an expression of
residue, as in (Dan. 7: 19), “which devoured, broke in pieces, and stamped the
residue with his feet.” In the language of the Mishnah (Sanh. 8b), “And others
liable to death” - outside of those delineated. But in the expression for which ‫ַאֵחר‬
is used, ‫ ְׁשָאר‬is not used.
and you shall beware of your spirit, that it shall not deal treacherously with the
wife of your youth Your spirit shall not deal treacherously.

Verse 16

If you hate [her], send [her] away Our Sages differ concerning it in tractate
Gittin (90b). Some of them say: If you hate her, send her away with a bill of
divorcement, so that she can marry someone else.
For injustice shall cover his garment But this - is it proper to do, that you
spread your cloak over her to keep her for you as your wife, and you provoke her
and torment her constantly?

Verse 17

By your saying, “Every evildoer, etc., or Where is the God of judgment?” Since you
see that the way of the wicked prospers, and the righteous are afflicted and
stumble, you say to yourselves, “One of these two ways is true: Either every
evildoer is good in His sight, or [else] there is no judgment or judge to requite
him. And so is the interpretation of the language of the verse: Every evildoer is
good in His sight; therefore, He causes them to prosper. Or, if this is not so,
where is the God of judgment, for He does not requite them.

Chapter 3

Verse 1

Behold I send My angel to put the wicked away.

and the angel of the covenant who avenges the revenge of the covenant.
and he will clear a way of the wicked.
the Lord Whom you seek The God of justice.

Verse 2

Now who can abide This is synonymous with; ‫ּוִמי ָיִכיל‬

and who will stand Will be able to stand.
and like fullers’ soap Like soap used by the fullers, which removes the entire
stain. So will he remove all the wickedness. and like soap It is an herb which
removes stains, erbe savonijere in Old French, probably soapwort. The word ‫ֹּבִר ית‬
signifies a thing that cleans and purifies, as in (Ps. 73:1), “to the pure of
heart.”

Verse 3

And he shall sit refining He will free himself from all his affairs to be like a
refiner, who refines and purifies silver.

Verse 4

Verse 5

Verse 6

For I, the Lord, have not changed Although I keep back My anger for a long time, My
mind has not changed from the way it was originally, to love evil and to hate good.
and you, the sons of Jacob Although you die in your evil, and I have not requited
the wicked in their lifetime
you have not reached the end You are not finished from before Me, for I have left
over the souls to be requited in Gehinnom. And so did Jonathan render. And you of
the House of Jacob, who think that whoever dies in this world, his verdict has
already ended, that is to say, you think that My verdict has been nullified, that
he will no longer be punished. Our Sages (Sotah 9a), however, explained it: ‫ֹלא‬
‫ ָׁשִניִתי‬- I did not strike a nation and repeat a blow to it; but as for you, I have
kept you up after much punishment, and My arrows are ended, but you are not ended.

Verse 7

Verse 8

Will a man rob Our Sages explained this as an expression of robbery, and it is an
Aramaism.
With tithes and with the terumah levy The tithes and the terumah - levy that you
steal from the priests and the Levites is tantamount to robbing Me.

Verse 9

You are cursed with a curse because of this iniquity, for which I send a curse into
the work of your hands; but nevertheless, you rob Me.

Verse 10

so that there may be nourishment in My House There shall be food accessible for My
servants.

Verse 11

And I will rebuke the devourer for your sake The finishing locusts and the shearing
locusts, which devour the grain of your field and your vines.

Verse 12

a desirable land A land that I desire.

Verse 13

Verse 14

“It is futile to serve God” We worship Him for nothing, for we will receive no
reward.
in anxious worry with low spirits.

Verse 15

And now we praise the bold transgressors, etc. We worshipped Him and kept His
charge, but now we see that the wicked are prospering - to the extent that we
praise them for the wicked deeds.
Yea, they tempt God, saying, “Let us see what He will be able to do to us.” and
they have, nevertheless, escaped harm, and they have not stumbled.

Verse 16

Then the God-fearing men spoke, etc. I retort upon your words then, when the wicked
commit evil and the good go about in anxious worry because of Me. The God-fearing
men spoke to one another not to adopt their evil deeds; and, as for Me, their words
are not forgotten to Me. And although I do not hasten to visit retribution, I have
hearkened and heard, and I have commanded that a book of remembrance be written for
them. Their words shall be preserved for Me.

Verse 17

for that day when I make a treasure that I have stored and put away, with which to
pay My reward. There I will show you what the difference is between a righteous man
and a wicked man.
a treasure a treasure; estouj, estui in Old French.

Verse 18

Verse 19

For lo, the sun comes This instance of ‫ יֹום‬is an expression of sun, for so did the
Sages state that there will be no Gehinnom in the future, but the Holy One, blessed
be He, will take the sun out of its case; the wicked will be punished thereby and
the righteous will be healed thereby. That is the meaning of what is stated (verse
20): “And the sun of mercy shall rise for you who fear My Name, etc.”
neither root nor branch Neither son nor grandson

Verse 20
and be fat an expression of fat, as in (Jer. 50: 11), “as you become fat, like a
threshing heifer.”
as fatted calves [the calves] that enter the team to be fattened; kopla, cople in
Old French: animals tied together.

Verse 21

And you shall crush and you shall press. This is an expression of pressing, similar
to (Ezek. 23: 8) “they pressed their virgin breasts.”

Verse 22

Verse 23

Verse 24

that he may turn the heart of the fathers back to the Holy One, blessed be He.
through the children lit., on. He will say to the children affectionately and
appeasingly, “Go and speak to your fathers to adopt the ways of the Omnipresent.”
So we explain, “and the heart of the children through their fathers.” This I heard
in the name of Rabbi Menahem, but our Sages expounded upon it in tractate Eduyoth
(8:7), that he will come to make peace in the world.