Chasidut su Salmi 113:78
Kedushat Levi
Yet another interpretation of the opening line of our portion, זאת חקת התורה. The words of David in psalm 113,9 מושיבי עקרת הבית, “He sets (establishes) the childless woman.”
While we live on this earth as mortal creatures, we believe that the reason we have been created is in order to perform the various tasks that make this earth a better place to live on. We are, of course, wrong in that assumption. What we had considered as the principal task of a Jew on earth, is no more than a subordinate task. Man’s principal task is to understand the unity of the Creator, and this is what David meant when he said מושיבי עקרת הבית, when the redeemer will come, soon in our days, he will reveal to all of us the importance of understanding the unity of the Creator, something alluded to in the words: זאת חקת התורה , “this statute called Torah,” (singular) represents the uniqueness and Oneness of Hashem. The Torah contains commandments which our common sense tells us as necessary for civilized society to be able to function. When performing these commandments we are in danger of forgetting that we are not to perform them because we consider them as useful for society. G’d added other commandments which defy our attempts at unraveling their usefulness in order to teach us that everything in the Torah has the identical purpose, namely that by performing them we testify to our belief in the One and Only Creator, our “father” in heaven.
While we live on this earth as mortal creatures, we believe that the reason we have been created is in order to perform the various tasks that make this earth a better place to live on. We are, of course, wrong in that assumption. What we had considered as the principal task of a Jew on earth, is no more than a subordinate task. Man’s principal task is to understand the unity of the Creator, and this is what David meant when he said מושיבי עקרת הבית, when the redeemer will come, soon in our days, he will reveal to all of us the importance of understanding the unity of the Creator, something alluded to in the words: זאת חקת התורה , “this statute called Torah,” (singular) represents the uniqueness and Oneness of Hashem. The Torah contains commandments which our common sense tells us as necessary for civilized society to be able to function. When performing these commandments we are in danger of forgetting that we are not to perform them because we consider them as useful for society. G’d added other commandments which defy our attempts at unraveling their usefulness in order to teach us that everything in the Torah has the identical purpose, namely that by performing them we testify to our belief in the One and Only Creator, our “father” in heaven.
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Me'or Einayim
So a person must, even in falling from his level, make an effort to rise up to God in the level at which he now stands; for one must believe that all the earth is full of God’s glory (Isaiah 6:3) and no place is void of Him, and even on the level at which he now stands, Blessed God is also there because no place is void of Him, only He is very contracted. And this is [the meaning of the verse] From the rising of the sun until it goes down [the LORD’s name is to be praised] (Psalm 113:3), for the tzaddik is called “the sun” as in the teaching, “Before Eli’s sun set, the sun of Samuel the Ramatite had risen etc.” (Yoma 38b), thus a tzaddik is called the sun. And this is [the meaning of] From the rising of the sun, which is when one’s mind is clear and pure and attached to Blessed God, until it goes down, which is when the clarity departs and he falls from his level. But one must always live by the LORD’s name is to be praised, and make an effort to rise up to Blessed God in the level at which he now stands.
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