Commentaire de citation sur Les Psaumes 118:27

The expression ויחגו which occurs here for the first time is familiar to us from the line: אסרו חג בעבותים, (Psalms 118,27) “bind the festival offering!”

THE ETERNAL IS MY STRENGTH AND SONG. Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra explained that the word ozi (my strength) is connected with the following word [v’zimrath — and song], thus rendering its sense: “my strength and the song of my strength is the Eternal.”¹¹³“That is to say, with this Name will I vanquish my enemies, and when I will sing of the victory, my song will be the song of the Eternal, for it is He who is my salvation” (Mishneh l’Ezra in his commentary on Ibn Ezra). This is my G-d ‘v’anveihu': I will make Him a habitation, [from the root naveh (habitation)]. This is my father’s G-d, and I will exalt Him, i.e., by recounting His greatness.
Now this is surely the plain meaning of the verse. But [it should be noted that] Moses does not mention here the full Divine Name, [i.e., the Tetragrammaton, which consists of four letters], but instead mentions only the first two letters. In the entire Torah, it is the manner of Moses our teacher to mention the entire Great Name which He communicated to him, as it is said, This is My Name for ever, and this is My memorial unto all generations.¹¹⁴Above, 3:15. And the Rabbis have already explained the verse, The hand is upon the throne of Y-ah,¹¹⁵Further, 17:16. Because only the first two letters of the Tetragrammaton are mentioned there, the Rabbis explained: “The Holy One, blessed be He, swore, etc.” The explanation is found in Tanchuma, end of Seder Ki Theitzei, and is quoted by Rashi at the end of this Seder. to mean that “the Holy One, blessed be He, swore that His throne will not be perfect nor will His Name be complete until the seed of Amalek will be entirely blotted out.” [The question then arises: why is the full Divine Name not written here?]
By way of the Truth, [that is, the mystic lore of the Cabala], the whole deliverance at the sea came through the angel of G-d — the one of whom it is written, for My Name is in him¹¹⁶Further, 23:21. — just as it is said, and Israel saw the great hand.¹¹⁷Above, 14:31. The “hand” alludes to the attribute of justice, which is the great hand that executes the vengeance. It is by this attribute that the sea was divided, as the prophet explained, Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the Eternal… Art thou not it that dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep?¹¹⁸Isaiah 51:9-10. and as I have written above.¹¹⁹Above, 14:31: “The great hand which is the attribute of justice… became revealed to them.” It is for this reason that Moses said that his strength and his song are this Name, [i.e., the first two letters of the Tetragrammaton, which allude to the attribute of justice], For in Y-ah the Eternal is an everlasting Rock.¹²⁰Isaiah 26:4. As translated in Singer’s Daily Prayer Book. And so did [the psalmist] explain: What aileth thee, O thou sea, that thou fleest?… At the presence of the G-d of Jacob.¹²¹Psalms 114:5-7. The G-d of Jacob alludes here to the attribute of justice. And so the Rabbis have said in the Mechilta:¹²²Mechilta here on the verse before us. “When Israel went into the sea, the Shechinah (Divine presence)¹²³See Vol. I, p. 551. was with them, as it is said, And the angel of G-d journeyed.”¹²⁴Above, 14:19. And in Eileh Shemoth Rabbah, it is said:¹²⁵Shemoth Rabbah 30:1. “The word oz (strength) [or ozi, “my strength,” as is mentioned in this verse], alludes only to judgment, as it is said, ‘v’oz’ (And the strength) of a king is he who loveth justice.”¹²⁶Psalms 99:4.
This is My G-d ‘v’anveihu.’ “I will elevate [the Great Name, i.e., the Tetragrammaton],¹²⁷So clearly interpreted in Abusaula’s commentary on Ramban. See Vol. I, p. XII, Note 21. to the G-d of the most high naveh (abode), this being the G-d of my fathers, to whom He had appeared as E-il Sha-dai.¹²⁸See Ramban above, 6:2, and also Vol. I, pp. 214-216. And now I shall exalt Him by the complete Name, for henceforth the Name will be ish milchamah, [literally, “man of war,” but here alluding to the attribute of justice]. And His Name will be the Eternal, [meaning that the Name comprises justice with mercy],¹²⁹Ramban is thus interpreting Verse 3, The Eternal is a man of war, the Eternal is His Name, to mean that Israel will henceforth exalt Him both in His aspect of justice and of mercy. I have followed Abusaula’s interpretation of Ramban’s text. similar in meaning to the verse, Now will I be exalted; now will I lift Myself up.¹³⁰Isaiah 33:10. It is possible that the word ‘zeh’ (this) alludes to the seven emanations in wisdom, this being associated with the verse, ‘zeh’ (this) is My Name for ever, ‘v’zeh’ (and this) is My memorial.¹³¹Above, 3:15. And in the Mechilta we read:¹³²Mechilta here on Verse 2. “My G-d. He dealt with me according to the attribute of mercy, while with my fathers he dealt according to the attribute of justice. And whence do we know that my G-d signifies the attribute of mercy? Because it is said, My G-d, my G-d, why hast Thou forsaken me?¹³³Psalms 22:2. “And surely one would not say to the attribute of justice, ‘Why hast thou forsaken me?’” (Rashi further, 34:6). Heal her now, O G-d, I beseech thee?¹³⁴Numbers 12:13. A supplication of this kind is naturally addressed to G-d in His aspect of mercy. The Eternal is ‘E-il’ (G-d), and He hath given us light.”¹³⁵Psalms 118:27. If so, Scripture here says ‘zeh E-ili’ (this is my G-d), meaning that “with me He is E-il [G-d in His aspect of mercy] in this matter, since He was exalted with mercy to be compassionate in His justice.”

דגל מחנה דן צפונה, “the flag of the camp of Dan, to the North.” It is a well known fact that two golden calves were erected by Jerobam in the territory of Dan [an historical inaccuracy as it hosted only one of these golden calves based on Shir Hashirim 2,4]. Jerobam erected one of these golden calves in Bet El (Kings I 12,29), whereas he placed the second one in the territory of Dan. It was quite appropriate to be in the North as material wealth is perceived as originating from the North and Dan caused the whole world to become darkened by the sin of idolatry. We have a Scriptural verse alluding to this in Isaiah 29,15 “Who do their work in the dark and say: ‘who sees us,’ etc.” Although the sun rises in the East, it is at its brightest when it is in the South at midday. The sun, by traveling westwards before it sets, also illuminates the West with its light. The only direction which the sun does not illuminate directly is the North. This is why the North is associated with the concept of darkness. The expression צפון השמש, “hidden from the sun,” is a double entendre as the word צפון also means “North.” In light of historical developments it was therefore quite appropriate that the camp of Dan should be situated to the North of the Tabernacle. In view of the problems the tribe of Dan would create for the Jewish people as a whole, this camp was in need of atonement, i.e. that G’d’s light should shine upon it notwithstanding the shortcomings mentioned which darkened the halo of that camp. This is why we find that Micah 7, 8 exclaims: “though I have fallen, I rise again; though I sit in darkness, the Lord is my light.” The tribe of Dan was joined by the tribes of Asher and Naftali who helped to brighten the darkness as we know from Deut. 33,24 and 23 describing Asher having plentiful oil, oil being the raw material from which man-made light is derived. The Torah also describes Naftali as blessed by the Lord and well satisfied (same passage), indicating that it did not suffer from spiritual darkness. This camp journeyed last. The Torah here used the expression לאחרונה where we would have expected it to write simply ואחרונה יסעו, without the introductory preposition ל. The letter ל points at the letter ה at the end of that word which itself is a reminder of the last letter ה in the tetragram, the symbol of the aspect of the attribute of Justice even in the name Hashem. The three tribes Dan, Asher, Naftali, are all understood as part of the term “the camp of Dan.” It parallels the camp of Uriel in the celestial spheres, the latter being flanked by the angels Daniel and Tamael on the left side of the Shechinah. In the celestial spheres that camp is known as the camp of Uriel, a camp which David hinted at in connection with the atonement achieved by the sacrificial offerings. When he said in Psalm 118,27: ‘The Lord is G’d, He has given us light, bind the festival offerings to the horns of the altar, etc.,” he addressed that attribute represented by Uriel.