Kommentar zu Könige I 8:16

Since the day, etc. This is what He spoke to my father Dovid.

but I chose David – Because at his hands came the preparation for the choice of Jerusalem as the place for the building of My house.

I chose no city – In Divre HaYamim II 6:5-6 it is written “Since the day that I brought My people forth from the land of Egypt, I chose no city out of all the tribes of Israel to build a House that My name might be therein, neither did I choose a man to be prince over My people Israel. And I chose Jerusalem that My name might be there, and I chose David to be over My people Israel.” The explanation is that the unification of Israel was dependent on two things 1] the unification of the people to become one body. This happened through Jerusalem, as it says “The built-up Jerusalem is like a city that was joined together within itself. There ascended the tribes, the tribes of God, testimony to Israel, to give thanks to the name of the Lord.” (Tehillim 122:3-4) Through all of the tribes going up there on the festival holidays, and everyone facing one place, all the limbs were unified to become one encompassing body. Jerusalem became like a heart to this encompassing body, pumping the spirit of life through it like the heart sends out blood to all the limbs and receives it back as well. 2] Through the kingship of the House of David, which established one eternal leadership that encompassed everyone, as it is written “For there were set thrones for judgment, thrones for the house of David.” (Tehillim 122:5) The kingship of the House of David was to this encompassing body like the brain is to an individual body, which gives sensation, comprehension and guidance to all the limbs. And after this came the Holy Temple, through which the Divine Presence dwelled among Israel in a permanent fashion, which is like the supernal Godly soul known as chaya and yechida which is the connection between God and humanity. The command that the people appoint a king came before the one to build the Chosen House because it is not possible for the Divine soul to dwell in man if it is not preceded by the spirit of life, the intellectual soul, which depends on the body and its unification. The verse is saying that until now the body of Israel was scattered and separated without any unifying force, not the through the life-force which comes from the unification of the people in one city, ‘I chose no city’; and not through the intellectual soul which is general leadership and one kingship, about which it is written “…neither did I choose a man to be prince over My people Israel.” (Divre HaYamim II 6:6) Now they have become one body, whether through the life-force of which it says “And I chose Jerusalem that” whether through the intellectual soul of which it says “and I chose David.” In Divre HaYamim this is spoken out at length, while here in Melachim the verses are more terse, saying ‘I chose no city.’ It was left to be understood perforce that He had not chosen anyone to be a prince, because the choice of the city naturally precedes the choice of the man, just as the life-force precedes the intellectual soul. Here it says ‘but I chose David to be over My people Israel’ because the kingship, which is like the intellectual soul, has been planted within them then all the more so the unity which comes through the city that is like the life force.