Commentaire de citation sur Les Psaumes 74:4

Folly is set upon great heights. This is the evil that is like an error which goes forth from before the ruler, that foolishness and wickedness are placed on the loftiest heights, for the Holy One, Blessed Is He, elevated the fools and the wicked, for I see with the Holy Spirit, that they are destined to extend their hand upon His Temple and to make “their signs for signs.”⁶Tehillim 74:4. See also Maseches Gittin 56b.

He is challenged in combat by three champions, archers (1 Chronicles 12:2), on the side of Faith, resolved to demonstrate and prove that there is a God who judges the earth (Psalms 58:12); whose eyes watch over the ways of men, rewarding each according to his path, as his deeds warrant (Jeremiah 32:19); that man is master of his own deeds and has freedom of choice; and that God, through His personal Providence, is the sole Ruler of all the world's affairs, there being no other. And so they too, with wisdom and knowledge, pinned their colors to the mast (Psalms 74:4) in a spirit of investigative and philosophical contemplation. However, the heretic's arguments and proofs triumphed over their answers and so these skilled bowmen turned and fled in the hour of battle (Psalms 78:9), for the enemy prevailed.⁶Lamentations 1:16. There is here is a play on the name Job in Hebrew – איוב, and the Hebrew word for enemy – אויב: the 'enemy' is Job! In seeking a possible explanation for why God had allowed such terrible afflictions to befall Job, some of the Talmudic Sages (TB Baba Batra 16a) speculated on the possibility that He had confused איוב (Job) with אויב (enemy). However, these musings are all refuted by their colleagues.

A gnat came, entered his nostril, and picked at his brain, etc. This punishment came to him because he blasphemed and cursed [God] with his words, which comes from the faculty of breath which came through the nose to the brain. As it is written (Genesis 2:7), "And He blew into his nostrils the breath of life and the man became a living being"; and Onkelos translates [this as,] "a speaking being." And the matter of its picking at his brain, etc. and it heard the sound of a hammer and was silent, can be explained [as] a hint from the verse that it brought above (Psalms 74:4), which stated, "Your enemies roar, etc. He was known like one bringing up for stature." Meaning, he was known by the curtain that he brought to his city, that should be for his stature, to be praised for it in his city. Or it means, "like one who brings the Elevated" - as it said, "he thought that he had killed "himself." So it said that his punishment is that "the axes are caught in the tree" (the end of Psalms 74:5): Just like the axe picks at the tree, so too did the gnat pick at his brain. And also according to Abbaye - as its mouth was copper and its claws were iron - it was like this axe. And it stated (Psalms 74:6), "its entrances" - since there was a little consolation and opening, since the idolater and the Jew together, "broke away with the hatchet and with the hammer," to silence it with the sound of the hammer. And it said, "they split open his head, etc." - according to one, like a pigeon - that is a hint to the Congregation of Israel. As it is written about the visions between the pieces, "Bring Me a heifer, etc., a turtledove, and a young pigeon, etc. and he split them in the middle [...] but he did not split the bird" (Genesis 15:9-10): That is a hint that the idolaters will end, but Israel will survive. And that is what it stated in this Psalm (Psalms 74:19), "Do not deliver Your dove to the wild animal, etc." - it is the "turtledove, and [the] young pigeon."