תרי עשר- מלאכי ג

מלאכי is the last נביא of תרי עשר.

מלאכי was עזרא. חגי, זכרי' and מלאכי were the last three נביאים that כ''י had. They were מתנבא during חרבן בית שני. מלאכי is the last of the three, so he is called חתום הנביאים.

This is the הפתרה of שבת הגדול. It talks a lot about אליהו and the גאולה.

It is written in a question- answer style.

ב:יז הוגעתם- you tired.

כל עשר רע טוב- ענין of צדיק ורע לו רשע וטוב לו.

Either ה' likes bad people because he does good with them, or there is no דין.

מלבי''ם א In this world, it’s not שייך to have instant punishment or reward because it’s the עולם הבחירה. ה' wants us to have a choice for what we do. But judgment will come, לעתיד לבא. This is on a global level, on a personal level we get judged after 120.

א I’m going to send a מלאך from שמים and he is going to clear the רשעים out.

האדון- משיח

רד''ק פתאום- since the end of time isn’t revealed, it uses the ל' of פתאום. No one will know that he is coming until he actually comes.

People give a day for משיח, but it’s wrong. This is also dangerous because it causes people to lose their אמונה.

מלאך הברית- אליהו

מ''ד הנה בא- it uses a ל' of עתיד because אליהו will be here before משיח comes.

רד''ק אליהו is called מלאך הברית because he tried to encourage בריתים in מלכות אפרים. ה' said, because you defended ברית מילה, you will attend every ברית in כ''י.

ב מכלכל- יכול לסבל

מ''ד בורית- type of grass that cleans.

מלבי''ם The difference between אש מצרף and בורית מכבסים: fire gets rid of everything that isn’t gold. By clothing, you want to get out the stain, but you don’t want to cut away everything else with it. אש מצרף- רשעים. בורית מכבסים takes the stain out of the צדיק, but it leaves him intact. יסורים are cleansers.

מלבי''ם ג After the מלאך cleans out the רשעים and deals with the צדיקים, then "וישב"- they have to be even more refined because they are going to be involved in the בהמ''ק- ככסף. The בני אהרן have to be the most refined, כזהב, because they are going into the בהמ''ק. They the קרבנות are going to be בצדקה.

ד וערבה- sweet and רצוי

כימי עולם- the days of משה’s משכן.

וכשנים קדמניות- days of שלמה’s בהמ''ק.

משל- a silversmith puts the silver into the heat of the fire. He sits there holding it and looking at it because if it is in the fire one minute too long, the silver will get ruined. How can he tell when the silver is pure? When it is so silver that he can see his own reflection in it. נמשל- יסורים are the heat of the fire and what purify us. But ה' holds us the whole time, and he is looking at us. When He sees Himself reflected in us, He takes us out.

ה ה' seems to like those who do bad. מלאכי is telling us, don’t worry. They will have to give a דין וחשבון.

Even though this world isn’t the world of payment, we do see that there is some משפט going on for the Jews so that we won’t have to come to complete destruction.

There are very big עבירות that when people do them, ה' brings judgment into this world:
1. Magic
2. נואפים
3. זנות
4. Swear falsely
5. Stealing from a גר, יתום, אלמנה
6. Stealing from a worker
All these עבירות seem so much worse than stealing from a hired worker. How does it connect to the other ones? The only thing that will stop you from doing of these עבירות is יראת שמים.

ה' gives us משפט so that we should keep being good.

ו I am ה' and כ''י won’t be extinguished.

מלבי''ם Why does ה' judge them early? ה' promised that He will never extinguish כ''י, and ה' never changes His words. ה' wipes the גויים off all at once, but ה' destroys כ''י little by little so that they won’t be extinguished.

ח מלאכי says that it is possible to steal from ה'. How were they stealing from ה'? Through תרומות and מעשרות.

You are being cursed and you are stealing from ה'. All of you are stealing from ה'.

How do you get כפרה? Bring all of your מעשר to the treasure house in the בהמ''ק and there will be enough food for everyone. So ה' said, test Me and see if I give you the ברכות. The amount of ברכות you will get is עד בלי די.
There is a ל' נסיון here. If you want to see if something could be done, you test it. A ל' מבחן is if you know something could be done, you want to see if the person is going to do it.

צדקה is one ענין where you can test ה'.

"זרעו לכם לצדקה קצרו לפי חסד"- you work so hard to make money and now you are giving it away? This seems ridiculous, but really you are only gaining.

יא וגערתי- I will reprimand.

באכל- rodents which consume the crops.

תשכל- missing

If a person gives צדקה, all the natural things which will cause you to lose your פרנסה, ה' will take care of it.

יד קדרנית- very dark

מלבי''ם Two reasons a person could do something:
1. מצד הנעבד
2. מצד העובד
ה' doesn’t need us to serve Him, and you say we are going to gain, but all we get are צרות.

טז מלבי''ם יראי ה' also look around and see צדיק ורע לו..., but they come up with a different conclusion: he has no question that the צדיק is going to get שכר. Since he isn’t going to get it in this world, obviously this world isn’t the תכלית. The תכלית is עוה''ב. They are happy that they don’t get paid in this world because they know that they are doing it לש''ש and not for the שכר. ה' hears this conversation and it’s so precious to Him that He writes it down.

יז There is going to be a day when ה' will gather all the treasures and he will have רחמנות, like a son who works for his father.

מלבי''ם The less important a worker is, the sooner he gets paid. A son who works for his father wants the business to build up and isn’t so worried about the money. The father pays his son back by making him a shareholder. So צדיקים will get a רוחניותדיק reward- he gets נצחיות.