And He Sent Out the Raven

134. What is the difference between the kings of Judah and the kings of Israel? The Creator sent David and drove him out of his kingdom, and he immediately repented before the Creator. This should not be surprising, and even Menashe king of Judah, who was wicked, immediately repented before the Creator and took the craft of his fathers and returned to his kingship.

135. This is what the text comes to indicate. “And he sent out the raven” is David, who was always calling like a crow, and the Creator sent him from his kingdom and drove him out of his home. It is written about him, “It went to and fro,” and it is written, “And David went up by the ascent of the Mount of Olives, and wept as he went up, and he had his head covered.” He went out and repented and confessed his sins and asked for mercy on them, and knew that his sins made it that he was sent from his kingdom and was expelled.

136. In every thing that the sin caused in his kingdom or in Israel, he would hang the matter on this, and he knew that this was the cause. It is written, “Until the waters were dried up,” meaning they replied to him that this matter is not on you, but rather, as it is written, “To Saul and to the house of bloods.”

137. It is written, “And there was a famine three years in the days of David,” year after year, and David sought the face of the Creator, thinking that he himself was the cause. The Creator told him, “It is not over you, but over Saul. “Until the waters were dried up,” he would everything on himself, and he would immediately repent, and then he did not have to repent, since the matter did not come because of him, as it is written, “It went to and fro until the waters were dried up,” meaning that the matter was not dependent on him.

138. The Creator wanted to test Israel and sent them to Babylon, as it is written, “And he sent from himself a dove,” which is the assembly of Israel. It is written about it, “But the dove found no resting place,” that the king of Babylon hardened his burden with hunger, thirst, and the killing of many righteous men. Because of the burden of her load, “she returned to him to the ark,” and she repented and he accepted her.

139. The assembly of Israel sinned as before, and He continued to exile them, as it is written, “And again he sent out the dove from the ark,” in another exile, of Greece. In the exile in Greece, the faces of Israel became as dark as the rims of a pot.

140. Due to all their sorrow and duress, it is written about him, “And the dove came to him in the evening.” “In the evening,” when the time of relief did not shine for them, as was done to them in the beginning, and righteous ones were killed, and the day was darkened, and the sun became evening, and they could not withstand because of the great duress that was on them, as it is written, “Woe to us, for the daylight is fading; for the evening shadows grow long.”

“The daylight is fading” are those righteous who shine like the sun. “For the evening shadows grow long,” which remained as remainders of the harvest, which no one values. This is at evening time, and not when the righteous shine for them like the sun.

141. “And behold, a freshly plucked olive leaf in her mouth.” Had the Creator not awakened the spirit of the priests, who were lighting candles with olive oil, the remainder of Judah would have been lost from the world. Each time, she repented and was accepted, except in the fourth exile, since she has still not repented, as it is written, “So he waited yet another seven days.”