Pemikiran Yahudi Mazmur 19:4: Guide for the Perplexed, Derush Chiddushei HaLevanah & Words

SCRIPTURE supports the theory that the spheres are animate and intellectual, i.e., capable of comprehending things: that they are not, as ignorant persons believe, inanimate masses like fire and earth, but are, as the philosophers assert, endowed with life, and serve their Lord, whom they mightily praise and glorify; comp. “The heavens declare the glory of God,” etc. (Ps. 19:2). It is a great error to think that this is a mere figure of speech: for the verbs “to declare” and “to relate,” when joined together, are, in Hebrew, only used of intellectual beings. That the Psalmist really means to describe the heavens’ own doing, in other words, what the spheres actually do, and not what man thinks of them, may be best inferred from the words, “There is no speech, nor language, their voice is not heard” (ver. 4). Here he clearly shows that he describes the heavens themselves as in reality praising God, and declaring His wonders without words of lip and tongue. When man praises God in words actually uttered, he only relates the ideas which he has conceived, but these ideas form the real praise. The reason why he gives expression to these ideas is to be found in his desire to communicate them to others, or to make himself sure that he has truly conceived them. Therefore it is said, “Commune with your own heart upon your bed, and be still” (Ps. 4:5). Only ignorant or obstinate persons would refuse to admit this proof taken from Scripture.

These two positions revolve around a difference of opinion among our Rabbis regarding whether the heavenly bodies are living and conscious beings or not.⁸⁶I.e., if the heavenly bodies are living, conscious beings, it is appropriate to speak of a dialogue between God and the moon. Otherwise, the passage must be understood as an analogy. The negation of the contention that the heavenly bodies are living, conscious beings is reflected in the simple meaning of the verses in the psalm beginning,⁸⁷Tehillim 19:2. “The heavens relate the glory of the Almighty.” For that psalm states explicitly,⁸⁸Ibid. 4. The verse implies that the celestial bodies communicate God’s glory by passing through the heavens and not by speaking. “Without speech or words, without their voice being heard,” merely because “their course spans the entire earth,”⁸⁹Ibid:5. man is able to realize God’s glory.

Due to the lack of fluency in other languages, people are separated from each other. “There is no speech nor are there any words; their voice is not heard.” (Psalms 19:4). However, righteous and wise leaders of the Jewish people composed many books on wisdom and morality in Arabic, such as Bahya Ibn Pekuda’s Duties of the Heart and Maimonides’ Commentary on the Mishnah and Guide for the Perplexed. Several highly regarded books were written in Spanish by our Jewish brethren. There is no difference between these languages and German; they are all equal in stature.