ישעיהו, פרק כ״ח, פסוק ט׳

When a society sinks into physical desires, drunkenness, and moral corruption, spiritual channels lose their natural audience. A sharp question arises regarding the ability to transmit God's word and offer moral instruction. The primary approach among commentators is that the adult generation is addicted to wine, consumed by eating and drinking, and entirely devoid of any desire to hear correction. Their condition is described as a total lack of knowledge. They are likened to infants who possess no intellect beyond their most basic physical needs, differing from animals only in their ability to speak [רד״ק, אבן עזרא, אברבנאל]. In such a degraded environment, a profound dilemma emerges: to whom can the priest pass his instruction, and to whom can the prophet explain his prophecy? [מלבי״ם].

With the adults unreachable, attention turns to infants who have just been weaned from their mothers' milk [מצודות, רש״י, אבן עזרא]. Commentators offer different perspectives on how to understand this shift. One approach views this as a rhetorical expression of pure despair. Since the mature adults have chosen a destructive path, is the prophet now expected to teach newly weaned toddlers? Such young children lack basic understanding, meaning every lesson would have to be repeated thousands of times to have any effect [רש״י, מצודת דוד, מלבי״ם]. Conversely, another perspective takes the idea literally, seeing it as the only remaining hope. Because the older generation is so deeply entrenched in corruption that attempting to correct them is useless, the only viable option is to turn to the young children. Having not yet learned the evil ways of their parents, they might still listen and return to God [שד״ל, צאינה וראינה, ביאור שטיינזלץ].

On a deeper spiritual level, the sins of the adults actively prevent them from receiving divine prophecy. Just as rain falling on barren earth is completely wasted, the flow of the Holy Spirit skips over the adults whose actions are crooked, finding its way specifically to the infants [אהבת יהונתן]. Alternatively, an allegorical interpretation suggests that the infants are actually a symbol for the adults themselves. In this view, the adults have deliberately separated themselves from the Torah, which is compared to milk, and have distanced themselves from accepting moral instruction from Torah scholars [רש״י].

A distinctly different approach redirects the criticism away from the general public and points it directly at the spiritual leaders. In this reading, the mockery is aimed at the priests and false prophets who have themselves become drunk and lost their senses. Because of their intoxication and intellectual decline, they are entirely unfit to instruct mature adults. Instead, they are only suited to teach toddlers, as their own spiritual and intellectual capacity has plummeted to that of a small child [אברבנאל].