Tehillim 125
תהלים קכ"ה:א'
(א) שִׁ֗יר הַֽמַּ֫עֲל֥וֹת הַבֹּטְחִ֥ים בַּיהֹוָ֑ה כְּֽהַר־צִיּ֥וֹן
לֹא־יִ֝מּ֗וֹט לְעוֹלָ֥ם יֵשֵֽׁב׃
A poem-song for elevation, those who trust in HaSchem, like
the mountain Zion they are, it does not waver – eternally it sits.
(ב) יְֽרוּשָׁלַ֗͏ִם הָרִים֮ סָבִ֢יב לָ֥֫הּ וַ֭יי סָבִ֣יב לְעַמּ֑וֹ
מֵ֝עַתָּ֗ה וְעַד־עוֹלָֽם׃
Yerusalem, surrounded by mountains, and HaSchem surrounds
His people, from now until eternity.
(ג) כִּ֤י לֹ֪א יָנ֡וּחַ שֵׁ֤בֶט הָרֶ֗שַׁע עַל֮ גּוֹרַ֢ל
הַֽצַּדִּ֫יקִ֥ים לְמַ֡עַן לֹא־יִשְׁלְח֖וּ הַצַּדִּיקִ֨ים בְּעַוְלָ֬תָה
יְדֵיהֶֽם׃
For the scepter of the wicked will not rest upon the lot of
the righteous, so that the righteous do not stretch out their hands to their
abominations.
Rav S.R. Hirsch translates quite differently:
For never will the scepter of wickedness find rest upon the
lot of the righteous, therefore the righteous need not themselves lay hands on
violence.
(ד) הֵיטִ֣יבָה יְ֭הֹוָה לַטּוֹבִ֑ים וְ֝לִישָׁרִ֗ים בְּלִבּוֹתָֽם׃
Do good, HaSchem, to the good and to those upright in their
hearts.
(ה) וְהַמַּטִּ֤ים עֲֽקַלְקַלּוֹתָ֗ם יוֹלִיכֵ֣ם יְ֭י אֶת־פֹּעֲלֵ֣י
הָאָ֑וֶן שָׁ֝ל֗וֹם עַל־יִשְׂרָאֵֽל׃
And those who stray on their crooked, corrupt paths, HaSchem
will lead them to the doers of iniquity, peace be upon Yisroel.
This Psalm describes simultaneously many levels of reality.
There is the level of prophecy about the end times (in which
we, according to almost all our sages, are already deeply immersed today).
And then there is also the level of very personal growth and
life instruction, how one brings their life closer to HaSchem’s fire of love.
And what this fire even is.
Let us first consider the private perspective.
1 A person who has true trust in God is like a mountain:
calmly they sit in their place, immovable except by God’s own forces. They know
where they belong:
2 To Yerusalem. Where is Yerusalem? There is Yerushalayim
shel mata, the physical, the city with its walls and the Temple Mount and the
Kotel (which is actually a standing miracle: no one knows why and how this wall
still stands. By all accounts, it should have fallen long ago). But there is
also Yerushalayim shel Ma’ala: The eternal, heavenly counterpart to the
physical city, which sits invisibly above the city in the heavens. And this
metaphor tells us that this immovable mountain of a person is so steadfast because
HaSchem responds to their unshakable trust with eternal protection and care,
guarding them from all evil. And eternal – yes, that is exactly what is meant.
In this world and in the World to Come. See also Psalm 145, verse 20.
3 This verse is very, very complicated to interpret because
the two words “ki” and “lema’an” are ambiguous. “Ki” can mean because, but also
in order to, and also for. And “lema’an” can mean in order to (causality
directed forward in time), but also so that, and also therefore (causality
directed backward in time).
And here we see two schools of thought:
One holds that wicked people exist and are permitted to
carry out their evil deeds so that the righteous can prove themselves by seeing
through the wickedness, recognizing its temporary nature, and not succumbing to
it. Through this, the righteous earn infinite merits in the higher spheres and
in the World to Come, as well as protection and help in this world. And HaSchem
lets the wicked come to ruin in the merit of the righteousness of the
righteous.
The other school says the righteous are righteous, the wicked
are wicked, and the righteous do not need to do anything or prove themselves or
defend against the wicked. For the nature of evil is to be evil. And it is
precisely this wickedness, which never finds rest, that will ultimately bring
it down. The righteous need only wait patiently and persist in their
righteousness, like the mountain. No evil wolf, no bear, no dinosaur, and not
even an army of bulldozers can move the mountain. They all come and go. They
might scratch at the mountain a bit. But otherwise… nothing.
How can we now understand which version of the
interpretation is correct? Both come from very great scholars, righteous ones
of their time!
We can let them stand and say: These and those are the words
of the living God. HaSchem dictated many enigmatic texts to His prophets, which
can be understood in many ways. Each way in its time and context, for the
student in their current situation.
What is important is that we stay with the words of our
sages and do not claim anything that contradicts them. For who are we compared
to these giants of all times?
The next two verses are essentially an elaboration of these
principles described above, in the form of a prayer.
4 David, our king, calls out: It is absolutely certain that
You, HaSchem, will surely pay the righteous their reward, come to the aid of
the righteous, and protect and reward them in this world and the World to Come!
And who is righteous? The one who is upright in heart, meaning the one who
guides their heart on the straight path of the holy Torah and listens to the
subtle inner voice in their heart, which at all times urges them to do what is
right in the eyes of their Creator. And this applies again to both versions of
verse 3!
5 And who is the wicked? The one who walks on crooked paths,
says one thing and does another, denies HaSchem, says there is only the here
and now, and only what we see, and only power and money and status and
gratification of desires are important and right. Also, the one who says: Yes,
yes, there are these invisible forces, and one can very well trade with them,
give them something to get what the body so desperately wants. And it is never
enough. And their end is exactly as they predict: they perish, decay, dissolve,
and are no more. And these in Yisroel, HaSchem shall bring to the “doers of
iniquity” – the nations of the earth who live this way, away from the land of
Israel. And Yisroel, because HaSchem has chosen it as His holy people and
purifies it from these evil influences, is eternal and imperishable and will
exist until the end of all times and witness the eradication of evil from this
world.
Seforno also hints here that those non-Jews who accept
HaSchem as King (they only need to observe the 7 Noahide Laws, see: Noahides)
are also considered righteous. He does this by exclusion: he says that those
among the nations of the earth who reject HaSchem will share the fate of the
wicked. From this, it follows by implication that those who do not reject Him
will not share this fate. If he did not mean to say this, he could simply
remain silent on the matter.
And now the prophetic perspective
Ibn Ezra explains:
א) שיר המעלות הבוטחים – לעתיד.
A poem-song for elevation, those who trust in HaSchem – in
the future
לעולם ישב – בימי המשיח
eternally it sits – in the days of the Messiah (Redeemer).
(ב) ירושלם – ההרים – שהם עומדים סבבוה והשם סביב עמו בתוכה, על כן לא
יוכל האויב לבוא לצור על ירושלם.
Jerusalem – the mountains – which stand surrounding it, and
HaSchem surrounds His people with certainty, and therefore the enemy cannot come
to besiege it (even if it lies open and without protective walls). See also the
prophecies of Malachi and Ezekiel.
ג) כי – טעם גורל הצדיקים – הם ישראל שנחלו את הארץ, כמו: ובהפילכם את
הארץ (יחזקאל מ"ה:א') בגורל.
For – the meaning of the words is: The lot of the righteous
– these are the Yisroel who inherit the land, as in: “and when you divide the
land by lot” (Ezekiel 45:1).
שבט הרשע – הם גויי הארצות.
The wicked scepter – these are the nations of the earth
וטעם למען כטעם אשר לא ילמדו אתכם (דברים כ':י"ח).
And the interpretation of the word “lema’an” – so that they
will not teach you (Deuteronomy 20:18).
We see here that Ibn Ezra distills yet another significantly
different nuance from the text: So that the children of Yisroel, in the days of
redemption, do not repeat the error they made in the days of Joshua and both
Temples, the wicked inhabitants of the land will be expelled so that the
righteous will not be exposed to their corrosive influence.
(ד) הטיבה – יתפלל המשורר.
Do good – the prayer of the poet
או על דרך נבואה.
Or, as prophecy:
וטעם בלבותם – כי היושר בלב הוא והוא היסוד והדבור והמעשה כמו בניין
And the interpretation “in their hearts”: For uprightness
resides in the heart, and this uprightness is the foundation, and the speech,
and the deed, like a building.
(Explanation: This means: In those days, the intention, the
speech, and the deed of the inhabitants of Yisroel will be congruent and in
accordance with the instructions of the holy Torah.
It further means: The entire people of Yisroel will love and
cleave to HaSchem and joyfully walk on the sweet paths of the holy Torah. It
means: People will treat each other with kindness, love, and support, with
honest words and deeds. All things that the holy Torah forbids will no longer
occur.)
ה) והמטים– כמו ומטה גר והבי״ת חסרה, כמו: הנמצא בית י״י (מלכים ב
ט״ז:ח׳), וככה הוא: והמטים בעקלקלותם יתפלל שירחיקם השם ויהיו עם פועלי און עם
הגוים אז יהיה שלום על ישראל
And those who stray – as in the verse in Kings II 16:8,
where it says, “and the one who leads the stranger astray, and the Bet is
missing, as in: the one who dwells in the house (Bet) of HaSchem. (And so it
must be read: and those who stray on their corrupt paths – He (David the King,
the author) will pray that HaSchem will distance these who stray on corrupt
paths, and they will join with the wicked, the nations of the earth (and live
there among those nations), and then peace will reign for Yisroel.
Who, then, are these wicked? They are those children of
Yisroel who deny HaSchem and do not wish to accept Him. And the author prays
that in the days of the Great Redemption, these wicked ones will join those
among the nations of the earth who are like them. Then they will leave the land
of Israel, and only those who accept HaSchem will be able to live there. And
then the redemption will come, or with this, the redemption will come.
It is obvious that prophetic words are very difficult to
read. In short, Ibn Ezra tells us, surely in the name of older sources like
Sifra, Baraitot of the Gemara:
In the days of the Great Redemption, HaSchem will give the
land of Israel as an eternal inheritance to those of the people of Yisroel who
follow or have followed the Torah with upright hearts or return to it. He will
remove those who deny Him from the people and join them with the nations of the
earth. And then the Great Judgment will come, and a completely new era will dawn,
without war, exactly as described in the prophecies.
Interestingly, unlike Seforno, Ibn Ezra makes no hints about
the righteous among the nations.
But Seforno does. So we can assume that HaSchem will
separate the righteous among the nations of the earth to give them a share in
the World to Come as well.
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