הקב"ה שולח את יחזקאל אל עם ישראל ומתאר אותם בתיאור קשה כעזי פנים. נעיין בעניינה של מידת העזות כפי שהיא מתוארת בספר 'אורחות צדיקים'.

כשיחזקאל מזכיר את המשוואה "פגריכם" = "פגרי גילוליכם" - הכול יודעים למה הוא מתכוון. את נבואתו בפרקנו מבסס יחזקאל על התוכחה הקשה מספר ויקרא וכשזו משתלבת עם מאורעות היסטוריים המוכרים לו ולשומעיו - הכל מבינים מה עתיד לקרות.

Why didn't  God reveal to Avraham the identity of the mountain upon which he was instructed to bind his son?  How did Avraham know the location?

God commands Avraham to travel to the land of Moriah, and to bring his beloved son Yitzchak as a burnt-offering "on one of the mountains, of which I will tell you."   However, the explicit identity of the mountain is not even mentioned once in the entire episode!

Our Sages and commentators noted the parallels that exist between the states of purity and impurity and the cycle of sin, punishment and repentance.   This can already be seen in the words of the Prophets who use terms of impurity to express sin, and terms of purity to express repentance and correction.  The Sages went further and made the connection between the physical and material impurities mentioned in the laws of purity in Lev. 14-15 to specific sins and transgressions.

The children of Israel committed two serious sins in the wilderness – the Sin of the Golden Calf and the Sin of the Spies.  In both cases, God was about to wipe them all out and, in the merit of Moshe's prayers and entreaties, He decided to forgive them.  God would send a plague to wipe out just part of them but not destroy the entire nation completely.

Yosef is the eleventh son of Yaakov fand first son of Rachel. Upon his birth, Rachel wishes that God add (“yosef”) yet another son.

הכרובים הם השומרים על התורה, ולכן כאשר העם חוטא, דווקא האש מבין הכרובים היא שהורסת את העיר.

המאכלים שאוכל יחזקאל בציווי ה' אולי אינם אסורים הלכתית, אך יחזקאל מרגיש שהם מטמאים אותו, ולכן הוא מרגיש כאילו אכל איסור של ממש

Yaakov, also called Yisrael, is the second-born son of Yitzhak and Rivka, the third of Israel's patriarchs: Avraham, Yitzhak and Yaakov. When Esav is born, Yaakov, still in the womb, holds fast to Esav's heel (akev) which is the source of Yaakov's name. Unlike his active brother, Yaakov is a homebody preferring "dwelling in tents" to running in the fields. One day, Yaakov is in the process of cooking a stew when Esav returns from the hunt. Yaakov agrees to feed his brother in return for the rights that Esav holds as oldest son.

The differences between the two parts of the psalm seem so fundamental that the question arises: can this psalm indeed be viewed as a single unit?