Chasidut zu Könige I 22:19
וַיֹּ֕אמֶר לָכֵ֖ן שְׁמַ֣ע דְּבַר־יְהוָ֑ה רָאִ֤יתִי אֶת־יְהוָה֙ יֹשֵׁ֣ב עַל־כִּסְא֔וֹ וְכָל־צְבָ֤א הַשָּׁמַ֙יִם֙ עֹמֵ֣ד עָלָ֔יו מִימִינ֖וֹ וּמִשְּׂמֹאלֽוֹ׃
Und er sagte: 'Darum höre das Wort des HERRN. Ich sah den Herrn auf seinem Thron sitzen und das ganze Heer des Himmels zu seiner Rechten und zu seiner Linken bei ihm stehen.
Kedushat Levi
30,9. “and then the Lord your G’d will make you over-abundant in all the work of your hands, the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your domesticated animals for good; for the Lord will again rejoice over your success as He has done for your forefathers.”
In order to truly understand the unusual expression והותירך, “He will make you overabundant,” it will help to look at Avot 3,15: הכל צפוי והרשות נתנה ובטוב העולם נידון, “everything is foreseen yet freedom [of choice] is given and the world is judged according to the good;” one of the difficulties in that Mishnah is that the word נידון “is judged,” which refers to the word עולם, is in the masculine mode, although the word עולם which it defines is a feminine noun, so that we would have expected the author of the Mishnah to have said נידונה, in the feminine mode.
However, we can explain this masculine mode of the word נידון seeing that in our prayers on New Year’s day and Yom Kippur, the days on which G’d sits in judgment when He hopefully decides to provide us with an abundance of blessings and good things in the year just beginning. Our author quotes Tikkuney Hazohar 68 according to which on New Year’s Day all of mankind implores G’d for His largesse to be generous in the year just commencing. There are, however, two classes of human beings who ask for this, i.e. those who truly deserve it on the basis of past performance, and those who in the past did not deserve it, but on the basis of their promise to improve their ways in the year commencing, expect to receive this largesse of G’d “on credit,” as it were.
When the souls of the Jewish people “line up” to be judged on New Year’s Day, G’d derives a great deal of satisfaction from the ones immediately inscribed for a good year. G’d’s pleasure is described in a proverb cited in Pessachim 112 which says that the mother cow is more anxious to provide its new born calf with milk than the calf is to suckle it. The Zohar II 32 describes the following scenario, (Kings I 22,19) where Michayoh, the only true prophet in the Northern Kingdom advises King Achav against trying to recapture Ramat Gilad, as it would cost the king’s life. We read there: ראיתי את ה' יושב על כסאו וכל צבא השמים עומד מימינו ומשמאלו, “I have seen a vision of G’d sitting on His throne whereas all the heavenly hosts stood above Him.” [not around him. Ed.] The unusual phrase of the angels being above G’d, prompt the Zohar to understand this verse as the angels being about to “judge” G’d. This also makes more plausible something that we have read in a book reportedly given to Adam by the angel רזיא'ל in which G’d is referred to as מלך עלוב, “a king in a miserable, wretched frame of mind.” [more about this angel in מלאכי עליון by Rabbi Reuven Margolies. Ed.]
In order to truly understand the unusual expression והותירך, “He will make you overabundant,” it will help to look at Avot 3,15: הכל צפוי והרשות נתנה ובטוב העולם נידון, “everything is foreseen yet freedom [of choice] is given and the world is judged according to the good;” one of the difficulties in that Mishnah is that the word נידון “is judged,” which refers to the word עולם, is in the masculine mode, although the word עולם which it defines is a feminine noun, so that we would have expected the author of the Mishnah to have said נידונה, in the feminine mode.
However, we can explain this masculine mode of the word נידון seeing that in our prayers on New Year’s day and Yom Kippur, the days on which G’d sits in judgment when He hopefully decides to provide us with an abundance of blessings and good things in the year just beginning. Our author quotes Tikkuney Hazohar 68 according to which on New Year’s Day all of mankind implores G’d for His largesse to be generous in the year just commencing. There are, however, two classes of human beings who ask for this, i.e. those who truly deserve it on the basis of past performance, and those who in the past did not deserve it, but on the basis of their promise to improve their ways in the year commencing, expect to receive this largesse of G’d “on credit,” as it were.
When the souls of the Jewish people “line up” to be judged on New Year’s Day, G’d derives a great deal of satisfaction from the ones immediately inscribed for a good year. G’d’s pleasure is described in a proverb cited in Pessachim 112 which says that the mother cow is more anxious to provide its new born calf with milk than the calf is to suckle it. The Zohar II 32 describes the following scenario, (Kings I 22,19) where Michayoh, the only true prophet in the Northern Kingdom advises King Achav against trying to recapture Ramat Gilad, as it would cost the king’s life. We read there: ראיתי את ה' יושב על כסאו וכל צבא השמים עומד מימינו ומשמאלו, “I have seen a vision of G’d sitting on His throne whereas all the heavenly hosts stood above Him.” [not around him. Ed.] The unusual phrase of the angels being above G’d, prompt the Zohar to understand this verse as the angels being about to “judge” G’d. This also makes more plausible something that we have read in a book reportedly given to Adam by the angel רזיא'ל in which G’d is referred to as מלך עלוב, “a king in a miserable, wretched frame of mind.” [more about this angel in מלאכי עליון by Rabbi Reuven Margolies. Ed.]
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Kedushat Levi
In that book this matter is illustrated by means of a parable. When a very wise man asks someone a question about something that is beyond his field of expertise, and he ignores the advice given by proceeding to follow his own intuition, and it turns out that he was wrong, this “wise man,” will no doubt feel deeply ashamed for not having followed the sage counsel he had received.
At the time when G’d was occupied with creating the universe and all that it contains, He had consulted with the angels about the advisability of creating the human species, i.e. a species who was granted free will in determining if to obey the Creator’s directives. (Compare Bereshit Rabbah 8,5). At that time, G’d following His preponderant attribute of mercy, had decided to ignore the advice given to Him by the angels who had foreseen all of the imperfections of the human species and the “heartache” this would cause the Creator so that they had advised against this species being created. Now that unfortunately the advice of the angels had proven far sighted, the Creator felt עלוב. [King Achav, though a nationalist, and repeatedly willing to give up his own life in order to protect his people, had nonetheless committed a foul judicial murder by framing the owner of an ancestral vineyard as being guilty of a crime that Navot, the owner of that vineyard had not committed. His only “crime” had been his refusal to sell to the King. The verse cited from Kings I 22,19 is the prelude to G’d sitting in judgment of Achav for his crime. Ed.]
Incidentally, the parable from the sefer Rezie’l also accounts for an anomaly in psalms 81,5 כי חק לישראל הוא ומשפט לאלוקי יעקב, “for it is a statute (immutable) for Israel and a ruling (depending on circumstances) by the G’d of Yaakov” (compare Rosh Hashanah 8) in that verse. The psalmist could have been expected to write: כי משפט לאלוקי יעקב הוא וחק לישראל. The Talmud there explains the wording in that verse as meaning that the first day of Tishrey serves as a date on which all mankind is judged in heaven provided that Israel will be the first nation to be so judged. For the Israelites who are basically observing G’d’s laws and are therefore a holy nation, the meaning of the word חוק is that their livelihood for the following year is determined on that day as the sages taught in Beytzah 16 (Compare Proverbs 30, 8 הטריפני לחם חוקי, “feed me with the bread allotted to me.” Or: Leviticus 10,13 חוקך וחוק בניך היא מאשי ה', “it is your portion from the Lord’s fire-offerings and that of your children.”) [The verse just quoted, addressing the priests, begins with the words: ואכלתם אותה במקום קדוש, “you are to consume it in a sacred location.”] This leaves open the possibility that in our verse in psalms the word might mean “statute,” or something similar. How do we know that in psalms too it means the same as in the verses we quote from Leviticus and Proverbs, i.e. that it refers to parnassah, livelihood? The unusual sequence of חוק לישראל משפט לאלוקי יעקב provides us with the answer to this question.
The subject concerning which Israel is to be judged on New Year’s day is their livelihood. The psalmist rejoices in the fact that these decisions are not made by Israel’s detractors but are the exclusive domain of אלוקי יעקב. According to the Zohar, as soon as our enemies understand this, they cease to demonize us.
The appropriate translation of the verse in psalms 81,5 therefore is: “if our enemies, (be they celestial beings who opposed the creation of mankind altogether, or just our perennial opponents the forces of Amalek (in whatever guise they appear) want to sit in judgment of Israel, משפט לישראל, they are advised by the psalmist Assaph that our חוק, livelihood, is decided by the G’d of Yaakov, לאלוקי יעקב, no one else. As a result of this, our detractors are seized with חיל ורעדה יאחזון they (our adversaries) are seized with fright and trembling for (Deut. 29,19) G’d’s anger would be aroused against them etc.; this is also what Job spoke about in Job 15,15 when he stated that even His heavenly entourage did not find favour in His eyes.
At the time when G’d was occupied with creating the universe and all that it contains, He had consulted with the angels about the advisability of creating the human species, i.e. a species who was granted free will in determining if to obey the Creator’s directives. (Compare Bereshit Rabbah 8,5). At that time, G’d following His preponderant attribute of mercy, had decided to ignore the advice given to Him by the angels who had foreseen all of the imperfections of the human species and the “heartache” this would cause the Creator so that they had advised against this species being created. Now that unfortunately the advice of the angels had proven far sighted, the Creator felt עלוב. [King Achav, though a nationalist, and repeatedly willing to give up his own life in order to protect his people, had nonetheless committed a foul judicial murder by framing the owner of an ancestral vineyard as being guilty of a crime that Navot, the owner of that vineyard had not committed. His only “crime” had been his refusal to sell to the King. The verse cited from Kings I 22,19 is the prelude to G’d sitting in judgment of Achav for his crime. Ed.]
Incidentally, the parable from the sefer Rezie’l also accounts for an anomaly in psalms 81,5 כי חק לישראל הוא ומשפט לאלוקי יעקב, “for it is a statute (immutable) for Israel and a ruling (depending on circumstances) by the G’d of Yaakov” (compare Rosh Hashanah 8) in that verse. The psalmist could have been expected to write: כי משפט לאלוקי יעקב הוא וחק לישראל. The Talmud there explains the wording in that verse as meaning that the first day of Tishrey serves as a date on which all mankind is judged in heaven provided that Israel will be the first nation to be so judged. For the Israelites who are basically observing G’d’s laws and are therefore a holy nation, the meaning of the word חוק is that their livelihood for the following year is determined on that day as the sages taught in Beytzah 16 (Compare Proverbs 30, 8 הטריפני לחם חוקי, “feed me with the bread allotted to me.” Or: Leviticus 10,13 חוקך וחוק בניך היא מאשי ה', “it is your portion from the Lord’s fire-offerings and that of your children.”) [The verse just quoted, addressing the priests, begins with the words: ואכלתם אותה במקום קדוש, “you are to consume it in a sacred location.”] This leaves open the possibility that in our verse in psalms the word might mean “statute,” or something similar. How do we know that in psalms too it means the same as in the verses we quote from Leviticus and Proverbs, i.e. that it refers to parnassah, livelihood? The unusual sequence of חוק לישראל משפט לאלוקי יעקב provides us with the answer to this question.
The subject concerning which Israel is to be judged on New Year’s day is their livelihood. The psalmist rejoices in the fact that these decisions are not made by Israel’s detractors but are the exclusive domain of אלוקי יעקב. According to the Zohar, as soon as our enemies understand this, they cease to demonize us.
The appropriate translation of the verse in psalms 81,5 therefore is: “if our enemies, (be they celestial beings who opposed the creation of mankind altogether, or just our perennial opponents the forces of Amalek (in whatever guise they appear) want to sit in judgment of Israel, משפט לישראל, they are advised by the psalmist Assaph that our חוק, livelihood, is decided by the G’d of Yaakov, לאלוקי יעקב, no one else. As a result of this, our detractors are seized with חיל ורעדה יאחזון they (our adversaries) are seized with fright and trembling for (Deut. 29,19) G’d’s anger would be aroused against them etc.; this is also what Job spoke about in Job 15,15 when he stated that even His heavenly entourage did not find favour in His eyes.
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