We're now up to the song of the Hasil. That's a type of grasshopper. And this Hasil says,
. יי אֱלֹהַי אַתָּה אֲרוֹמִמְךָ אוֹדֶה שִׁמְךָ כִּי עָשִׂיתָ פֶּלֶא עֵצוֹת מֵרָחוֹק אֱמוּנָה אֹמֶן: (ישעיה כה א)
Hashem, my God, I will lift You up, I praise You, Your name because You've done wonders, ideas from afar. The loyalty of an Omen (which is like a craftsman).
We always like to understand why a particular creature sings its song and also what it means. The grasshopper, obviously, as the commentaries say, was the one that brought the plague of Arbeh in Mitzrayim, so he saw firsthand how God makes things happen. Picture him sitting there calmly, somewhere in the Amazon, and suddenly Boom! He gets the message, 'Let's go. We're on our way to Mitzrayim, on a clandestine mission!' And then when he finally gets killed and pickled, he gets a little message, "Wake up! Techiyat HaMetim! You're coming out of that pickle jar and you're leaving." So he's seen miracles firsthand. Therefore, he is the one to announce this. So what does he say? We go to the Mabit, who says that he's saying, You Hashem and Your kindness have done a lot for me, and therefore I have to uplift You and I have to make it clear. Uplift means that You are the God of all gods and You are high up there but with all the greatness, as high as You are, You come down.You're my God and You take care of me. Therefore I praise You, that You are supervising little me down here. You are high up, but coming down to look at little me, supervising from afar. And I have full faith and I have traditions that You do that. That's Emuna Omen.
Now what does it mean that God has Etzot Merachok/ ideas from afar?
Rashi says this refers to the story of Galut Mitzrayim, which goes all the way back to the Brit Ben HaBetarim, with Abraham, where God came up with the idea of Galut Mitzrayim. Rashi says that was the Etzah This is God's idea.
To fully understand this Rashi on Yeshaya, we go to Bereshit 37,14 where Yaakov Avinu tells Yosef, "Go look for your brothers and tell me what's going on." And it says he sent them out from Emek Hebron/ the depths of Hevron.
Rashi asks what depths means, as Hevron is on a mountain, as it says, They went up from the south and they came to Hevron. The answer, Rashi explains, is that the depths refers to the deep advice, that goes all the way back to the Brit with Avraham, says the Malbim on 37,14 in Bereshit
You may think, says the Maharal in perek 9, that because the brothers sold Yosef, they went down to Mitzrayim. But no. It was because they had to go down to Mitzrayim, that the brothers sold Yosef.
So why was it a sin? The Or Yehezkiel (in Darkei Haavodah on the topic of sins that are forced to be) explains that ultimately, God makes what He wants to happen happen, but at the same time, we have freedom of choice.
The bottom line is, it was all God's Etzah. This is the way God works throughout history. He has has Etzot/ideas that make things happen.
The Ibn Ezra, in Shemot 1,22, where it says they throw in all the children into the Nile, and then Moshe Rabbenu is born and they have to put him into the Nile, asks what's going on here? And he says, The thoughts of God are deep. Who can figure out His secrets? Only He is the One that sets up all the causes.
Why did God cause this all to happen? So that Moshe Rabbenu should be raised in the palace of the king, and develop the personality of a leader, not low like a slave. Look at Moshe Rabbenu's courage. He killed a Mitzri, he took care of the Bnot Midyan that were being picked on. Where did he get this strength from? The answer is, he was raised in the palace of the king. And Who made him be raised in the palace of the king? It was all Hashem's Etzot Merachok/ideas that come from afar.
That's the song of the grasshopper. The grasshopper says, "Look at me. God sent me on this clandestine mission. Look what happened."
I gave a modern day example of this Etzot Merachok on the high holidays season, when we say El Nora Alila/God is awesome in His causes, God causes things to happen in wild ways. I gave the following graphic description: Imagine a year ago, on Rosh Hashana/Yom Kippur, God was planning things out, telling the angels, "Listen, we're going to have to kill some terrorists in Lebanon."
The angels say, "Great. How? Are we going to bomb them?"
And Hashem says, "No, we're going to use beepers."
Beepers? How can we kill people with beepers? And Hashem said, "Leave it to Me. I'll do it with beepers," and the rest is history.
Hashem can do anything, in the most convoluted ways. So here we are in Mitzrayim, how are we going to wipe out the crops? What are we going to do? I'll import the locust, and therefore the Song of the Hasil/Locust is the song that God is able to do things from afar.
יי אֱלֹהַי אַתָּה אֲרוֹמִמְךָ אוֹדֶה שִׁמְךָ כִּי עָשִׂיתָ פֶּלֶא עֵצוֹת מֵרָחוֹק אֱמוּנָה אֹמֶן: (ישעיה כה א)
You are my God, You're high up, but you're down here. I'm going to lift you up. I know how high You are. I'm going to praise Your name because I see the wonders that You do. And these wonders are Etzot Merachok/ideas from afar.
That's the Song of the Grasshopper.