Isaac Abarbanel
Portuguese statesman and philosopherWikipedia
155
MENTIONS
63
EPISODES
31
PODCASTS
Search complete. 155 mentions across 63 episodes found for "Isaac Abarbanel".
Sep 13, 2026
Leah FeinbergHOST
"Hey tav tal ir'ot," you have seen well for identifying the, the almond branch.
Leah FeinbergHOST
Alternatively, Abarbanel explains that when Hashem says to Yirmiyahu, "Hey tav tal ir'ot," you have seen well, he's not really praising him for identifying an almond branch, which most Israeli schoolchildren are capable of doing that.
Leah FeinbergHOST
So it doesn't seem like that's such a tremendous feat.
Leah FeinbergHOST
But when Hashem relays a prophecy to a navi, says Abarbanel, for him to communicate to the people, sometimes he accompanies the information with a specific image, and sometimes he simply relays the information, and the navi himself devises an image to help concretize the abstract information in the minds of his hearers.
Leah FeinbergHOST
And that, says Abarbanel, is what's happening here.
Leah FeinbergHOST
Hashem relayed the intellectual information about the impending punishment, and Yirmiyahu himself devised the image of the almond branch.
Leah FeinbergHOST
Hashem praised him for the appropriateness of the image to the information.
Shelby FriedmanHOST
It opens up with rebuke, Tochachah, for the people.
Shelby FriedmanHOST
But as the Abarbanel argues, and we'll see it's true, we need to ask ourselves, is this rebuke, or is this actually just clothing, which deep down inside is an invitation? An invitation to Am Yisrael, indeed an invitation to us to engage with our Judaism and with Hashem in an authentic, rigorous, and invigorated manner.
Shelby FriedmanHOST
Pasuk Aleph opens up.
Shelby FriedmanHOST
"Ko omar Hashem," thus says Hashem.
Shavi FriedmanHOST
"Ve'emek achor," um, "l'revet bakar," and the valley of achor will be a place where cattle lie down.
Shavi FriedmanHOST
And the Abarbanel points out the word achor comes from the word ugly.
Shavi FriedmanHOST
An ugly place will become a beautiful green vista.
Shavi FriedmanHOST
Um, "La'ami asher dar- darashoni," for my people who seek me.
Shavi FriedmanHOST
That the people who are going to receive this punishment, in addition to worshiping idols, are people who are shechechim es har kodeshi.
Shavi FriedmanHOST
They forget Yerushalayim.
Shavi FriedmanHOST
The Abarbanel extends this further, and he says there are people who don't daven for the Churban.
Shavi FriedmanHOST
Who is not gonna inherit and merit to see Yerushalayim in the future? Those who aren't broken up and devastated by its destruction.
speaker_5UNKNOWN
Uh.
Yitzchak BreitowitzHOST
So, so really what you get into is you really get into a problem that's really the Abarbanel's problem.
Yitzchak BreitowitzHOST
The Abarbanel has a whole problem.
Yitzchak BreitowitzHOST
Well, what's going on with 13 Ikrim? I mean, one of the 13 Ikrim is that Hashem gave the whole Torah to Moshe.
Yitzchak BreitowitzHOST
So, so everything in the Torah is one of the Yad Ha-Chasdim, because that's one of the Ikrim.
Shelby FriedmanHOST
So there again, the fire for eating up the water.
Shelby FriedmanHOST
The Abarbanel has a very different reading.
Shelby FriedmanHOST
He says this is talking about Har Sinai, the Mount Sinai experience, and thus this Pasuk is not a tefillah like Rashi.
Shelby FriedmanHOST
For the Abarbanel, this Pasuk is a rhetorical question.
Shelby FriedmanHOST
In other words, what we're saying is, "Hashem, when you made fire come down, when you made crazy miracles happen on Mount Sinai, did you do it lehodia shemcha letzarecha, to make your enemies know your names? Did you do it for nations to tremble before you? No, of course not.
Shelby FriedmanHOST
You did it for us, your people.
6 MINS LATER
Shelby FriedmanHOST
"Ve'al ad tizkor avon," and don't remember our sins forever.
Shelby FriedmanHOST
"Hein habeitna amcha kulanu." Look at us.
Shelby FriedmanHOST
He's girded and mighty as a warrior.
Shelby FriedmanHOST
Whereas the Abarbanel reads it as tzo'ek.
Shelby FriedmanHOST
He's crying out with all of his might.
Shelby FriedmanHOST
And either way, what he says is, Ani, Hashem says, Ani medaber b'tsdakah rav l'hoshiya.
Shelby FriedmanHOST
I am the one who speaks in righteousness, who is many or mighty to sal-- to save you.
Shelby FriedmanHOST
This is an Hashem who is rav l'hoshiya, who is the God who saves us from our enemies.
Shelby FriedmanHOST
And it's important to note, and Abarbanel speaks about this, that we don't really know who this version of Hashem is.
Shelby FriedmanHOST
We know Hashem of Galus, Hashem of Cheseir Panim, of hiddenness.
Shaya KatzHOST
Why does it say she got up from eating and drinking? So I'll just tell you, uh, it's on the source sheets if you wanna look at it.
Shaya KatzHOST
Uh, Abarbanel in source number four says, [in Hebrew] What it means there is after the eating and the drinking, not her eating and her drinking.
Shaya KatzHOST
Which is why, by the way, if you look at the, if the-- if you look at the syntax, or I don't know if that's the right word.
Shaya KatzHOST
If you look at the construct of the word, it doesn't say, uh, it doesn't say [in Hebrew] with a mapik he.
speaker_1UNKNOWN
Right.
Shaya KatzHOST
Uh, it doesn't say [in Hebrew] or, uh, her eating.
Shaya KatzHOST
It says [in Hebrew] which is why it's open into interpretation, that maybe it's the eating and the drinking that was happening there, but she wasn't, according to the Abarbanel.
Shaya KatzHOST
Um, Abarbanel himself, along with the Mesoret David and the Radak in sources number five and six, say a different thing.
Shavi FriedmanHOST
And the idea of Hashem naming us is so beautiful and so powerful.
Shavi FriedmanHOST
It shows the intimacy and the closeness we have with Hashem, says the Abarbanel.
Shavi FriedmanHOST
And we are familiar with the idea of people changing their name.
Shavi FriedmanHOST
Avraham changes his name, Yaakov changes his name.
Shavi FriedmanHOST
And Pasuk Zayin tells us, ""Al Titnu Damilo,"" don't be silent, not for one moment, ""Ad Yichonen,"" until it is reestablished, ""Ve'ad Yasemit Yerushalayim Tehilah Ba'aretz,"" until Yerushalayim is once again rejoiced in the land.
Shavi FriedmanHOST
And thus, as we refuse to be silent, and we constantly speak of Jerusalem, Hashem responds to us.
Shavi FriedmanHOST
And Pasuk Ches is a promise, ""Nishba Hashem,"" and the commentators Ibn Ezra and the Radak and the Abarbanel point out that the word Shavu is something which is unconditional.
Shavi FriedmanHOST
So much of Yeshayahu is Hashem saying, "Do Teshuvah, and you will return.
Rachel TimonerHOST
I find this to be particularly problematic given the passage you quoted, Emery, that the Israelites at Sinai and here in our Parsha are making a promise to live by the covenant, not just for their generation, but for all subsequent generations of Jews as well.
Rachel TimonerHOST
A rabbi who lived in Spain in the 14th century named Isaac Abravanel describes in his Torah commentary a debate that he had with other leading rabbis of his time.
Rachel TimonerHOST
They asked, who gave the generation of the wilderness which stood at Mount Sinai the power of obligating all those who would arise after them? In other words, who gave them the right to promise not just for themselves, but for us? Abravanel answered that it was like a person who takes out a loan and cannot repay it in their lifetime.
Rachel TimonerHOST
Their children are going to be responsible for that loan, even if the children weren't alive when the loan was made.
Michael RosensweigHOST
For example, the...
Michael RosensweigHOST
You know, the Abarbanel, you know, an earlier Yosef Albo criticized the Rambam for not counting belief in Yesh Me'ayin as one of the Yud Gimel Ikare Emunah.
Michael RosensweigHOST
But I think the answer is simple.
Michael RosensweigHOST
For the Rambam, something can be true.
53 more episodes mention Isaac Abarbanel.
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