Malbim

1809-1879

Rav Meir Leibush Weiser (1809-1879) was born in Ukraine, before moving to study in Warsaw. He served as the rabbi of a number of communities, was known as a great speaker, and was appointed Chief Rabbi of Bucharest in 1860. There he played a major role fighting the Reform movement, who in turn got him in trouble with government authorities, only escaping his death sentence due to the intervention of Moses Montefiore. He was expelled from Romania and served a few more communities as rabbi. Throughout all his rabbinic positions he wrote his extensive peirush on Tanach. His fundamental assumption is that there is no repetition in pesukim and that there are no synonyms, with each seemingly similar word having a slight nuance. His peirush also aims to demonstrate that the Torah Sheba’al Peh is inseparable from the Written Torah.

https://www.sefaria.org.il/texts/Tanakh/Acharonim%20on%20Tanakh/Malbim

Divrei Torah by Malbim

Bereishit

Bereishit 2:1

Bereishit 2:1 — Malbim

by Malbim

There is nature and hashgacha, which provides food to all using nature, or stopping nature from providing if we sin

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Bereishit

Bereishit 2:5

Bereishit 2:5 — Malbim

by Malbim

After man was made, now plantlife can grow, because he will work the land, and he will daven and in his merit there will be rain

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Tefilla

Bereishit

Bereishit 2:7

Bereishit 2:7 — Malbim

by Malbim

Animals can have good midot (gibor ka-ari, az ka-namer), but humans have those, multiple, and opposite midot, and no limits to those midot. Animals of each type are similar, but 2 humans might seem like 2 different species.

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Midot

Bereishit

Bereishit 2:8

Bereishit 2:8 — Malbim

by Malbim

Every animal has the knowledge and ability to care for its basic needs, except humans, but humans have the better ability to learn and acquire these skills

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Bereishit

Bereishit 2:9

Bereishit 2:9 — Malbim

by Malbim

Adam knew absolute good and bad already, but after etz hada'at he now knew subjective good and bad

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Bereishit

Bereishit 3:3

Bereishit 3:3 — Malbim

by Malbim

Because it was a warning of the danger as to what will happen, rather than a prohibition, Chava added on; she should have just said Hashem said so

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Bereishit

Bereishit 4:2

Bereishit 4:2 — Malbim

by Malbim

People used to dedicate their first child to avodat Hashem, and farming was a good way to be an oved Hashem; also, people mocked shepherds, so compared to Kayin, Hevel was nothing/extra, hence his name.

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Emunah

Bereishit

Bereishit 4:22

Bereishit 4:22 — Malbim

by Malbim

The Torah tells us the people who invented/mastered/learned each craft to remove the thoughts of mythology assigning godly status to each of those skills

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Noach

Noach 6:9

Noach 6:9 — Malbim

by Malbim

If dorotav is good, then it's because he can be a tzaddik without a role model; if bad, it's because tamim means he does mitzvot leshem shamayim, which must happen because everyone else is a rasha and is mevazeh him, but where people are good he might do it for kavod or other motives

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Chinuch

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