Shalom and thank you for your question! You question what it means retaining loyalty to the wife of one’s youth? It’s a beautiful concept, but let’s step back a moment.
The Jewish Tanach is comprised of the Five Books of Moses, the books of Judges and prophets, and the writings of King Solomon. These are together considered to be holy. There is also a body of Oral law which G-d taught Moses, who gave it over to the Jewish people along with the second set of Tablets. The Oral law contains laws and interpretations which further our understanding and application of what is written in the Tanach.
For example, when the text states ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth,’ this does NOT mean that we extricate someone’s eye because he did it to someone else. G-d forbid. The Oral law explains that it means liability for medical expenses (perhaps in some cases other expenses incurred due to the injury. )
Beyond understanding the practical applications of the text, there are deeper and deeper levels of understanding the text. They break down to four main levels. Pshat – the plain meaning, as in the above example of ‘eye for an eye,’ where the plain meaning itself requires clarification.
Remez – the hinted at meaning.
Drush – a deeper level,
And Sod – the mystical or esoteric level.
The prophets in general were there for the purpose of reproaching the people when they went astray from the path G-d laid out for them. Much of the language is metaphorical rather than literal.
In the case of Malachi chapter 2, Verse 14, yes, there are commentaries that address a fairly literal level of meaning.
The classic commentary of Metzudat Tzion addresses a husband who betrayed the wife of his youth, and reminds him that G-d is always involved in the covenant, while the wife herself had been loyal. The Ibn Ezra interestingly points out that not only is G-d involved in the covenant between man and wife, but in any covenant you have made between yourself and ANY person.
This teaches us that this verse is a call for personal integrity, including and beyond marital harmony.
On verse 16 where it refers to keeping the spirit, the Metzudat Tzion speaks about erasing hatred from one’s heart (that has developed) for the wife of one’s youth, and not looking to the non-Jewish women.
In today’s world so many traditional values have been questioned and thrown out the window, that people perhaps have a hard time relating to the idea of commitment…but truthfully, if we will not have moral standards, commitments, and moral integrity, where will we be?
Beyond this literal approach, the metaphor of marriage in the Tanach, as in the book ‘Song of Songs’ by King Solomon for example, is often used as an analogy to the relationship between G-d and the Jewish people. Just as a husband and wife should indeed preserve the purity and integrity of their relationship, G-d requests our loyalty to his covenant as laid out in the instructions of the Written and Oral Torah. This is in order to prepare the world for the spiritual consummation of our relationship, the Messianic times when the world will have been totally purified and mankind will be occupied only in knowing G-d, ascending higher and higher levels of spirituality.
If we see history as merely something that repeats itself, as the saying goes, then there doesn’t seem to be much point in trying to improve the world, but if we buy into this vision of a perfected world, and work on it, each one of us, by trying to have integrity and carry out G-d’s will, we just may see it happen sooner rather than later!
מקורות:
“Only in knowing G-d…” Maimonides in Laws of Kings, from his work Yad haChazaka.
