The Key to Redemption

For thus says God: “You were sold for nothing (ḥinam) and you will be redeemed without money.”                                                                  Isaiah 52:3

            Ibn Ezra explains the verse in its simple meaning: God said “Just as I ‘sold’ (exiled) you without money so too I shall redeem you without money.” Thus, our verse is part of God’s comfort to His nation.

            Rashi comments “’You will be redeemed without money’ – only through repentance,” thus the verse teaches that Israel’s redemption is dependent upon its repentance.

            Ḥida (Rabbi Ḥayyim Yosef David Azulai [1724 – 1806]) in his work Ḥomat Anach [Parashat Ki Tavo] elucidates the verse in a manner which supports and specifies Rashi’s comment.

“You were sold for nothing (ḥinam)“ – refers to the sin of sin’at ḥinam (baseless hatred), which was the source of the destruction of the Second Temple, as our Sages [Babylonian Talmud, Yoma 9b] taught.  “And you will be redeemed without money” – even if you fulfill many mitzvot (our Sages [vaYikra Rabba 22:2] understood the verse “He who loves money…” [Ecclesiastes 5:9] as a reference to he who loves mitzvot), it will not help to bring the redemption, as long as you fail to rectify the sin of baseless hatred which was the cause of your exile. You cannot be redeemed through fulfillment of mitzvot as long as there remains baseless hatred among you. The redemption depends upon there being peace and complete unity.

           Ḥida concludes by writing: “Thus the essential point is to uproot baseless hatred from its roots, and then the redemption will come, speedily in our days.”