Rabbi Roodyn

Returning to our study of Kabbalas Shabbos we now conclude Chapter 98

ז) יִרְעַם הַיָּם וּמְלֹאוֹ תֵּבֵל וְיֹשְׁבֵי בָּהּ: (ח) נְהָרוֹת יִמְחֲאוּ כָף יַחַד הָרִים יְרַנֵּנוּ: (ט) לִפְנֵי ה’ כִּי בָא לִשְׁפֹּט הָאָרֶץ יִשְׁפֹּט תֵּבֵל בְּצֶדֶק וְעַמִּים בְּמֵישָׁרִים:

The sea and the fullness thereof will roar, the inhabited world and the inhabitants thereof. Rivers will clap hands; together mountains will sing praises. Before Hashem, for He has come to judge the earth; He will judge the inhabited world justly and the peoples with equity.

Rav Hirsch explains these three verses as a single unit. He explains that King will enter the world in order to establish mankind upon His lawful order and to found society upon such principles as it ought to be. At this point mankind will become aware of it past mistakes and the sea will surge towards humanity as if to execute G-d’s sentence upon it.

The rivers and mountains (which determine the sites of man’s habitation) however will rejoice. This is because they realise that the messianic era is not going to destroy mankind, rather that the world will be rebuilt upon the sole basis that can guarantee the kind of growth that leads to lasting salvation.

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