Commento su Salmi 122:13

I rejoiced when they said to me I heard people saying, “When will that old man die, and his son Solomon reign and build the Temple, and we shall go up on the festival pilgrimages?” And I am happy.

I rejoiced when they said to me – R’ Moshe said that David composed this song that it be said with the songs in the House of God when it will be built. R’ Yeshua said that this song was for the House which David built in Zion. There are those that say it refers to the Third House when every member of Israel will say ‘I rejoiced when they said to me’ as they go up for the pilgrimage festivals:

A song of ascents of David – This psalm is speaking the praise of Jerusalem. It describes the nation in its totality as one body made up of different individual limbs and Jerusalem as “a city that was joined together within itself…” (Psalms 122:3) The individual limbs join together to become a whole body which can contain the spirit of life, an intellect and a Godly soul. The House of God is located within her and it is the vessel which prepares the whole body to receive the Divine Presence and the Godly soul. The city itself is like the heart and brain within the body, which prepare it to receive the vital force and the intellect. In light of this it says “I rejoiced when they said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord,’” because there God dwells and He makes the Divine Presence and Godliness to come to rest in holiness.

Our feet were standing in battle everywhere because of the gates of Jerusalem, where they were engaged in Torah.

The built-up Jerusalem When my son Solomon builds the Temple within it [Jerusalem], it will be built with the Shechinah, the Temple, the Ark, and the altar.

Jerusalem – On the three festivals it was like a city into which all her children gathered from the surrounding area in a time of fear:

is like a city that was joined together within itself Like Shiloh, for Scripture compared them to one another, as it is said (Deut. 12:9): “to the rest and to the inheritance.” The rest is Shiloh. The inheritance is Jerusalem (see Sifrei Re’eh 66). And our Rabbis said (Ta’an. 5a): There is a Jerusalem in heaven, and the Jerusalem on earth is destined to be like it.

There ascended the tribes For there in Shiloh the tribes ascended when they went up from Egypt, and the Tabernacle was established in its midst.

the tribes of God Heb. יָ-הּ, which is testimony to Israel, for the heathens were talking about them when they left Egypt, and they would say about them that they were the offspring of adulterous unions. If the Egyptians ruled over their own bodies, surely [they ruled] over their wives. Said the Holy One, blessed be He, “I attest that they are the sons of their fathers.” He bestowed His name upon them: the Reubenites (הראובני), the Simeonites (השמעוני) (Num. 26). He added the letters of the name, one on this side and one on that side. The result is that this name יָ-הּ is testimony to Israel.

For there were set thrones, etc. For also in Jerusalem the Shechinah will rest, and thrones will sit there upon which to judge the nations, and the royal thrones of the house of David.

Request the welfare of Jerusalem and say to her, “May those who love you enjoy tranquility, and let there be peace in your wall.”

Request – The children of exile are saying: request from God the peace of Jerusalem, and the peace of Jerusalem is the ingathering of the exiles. Until that time she will not have peace, because the uncircumcised and the Ishmaelites are fighting over her. And it says afterwards in relation to Jerusalem ‘may those who love you enjoy tranquility,’ which refers to Israel in exile who mourn over her destruction:

Request – It has been explained that Jerusalem is that which upholds the connectivity of the wholeness of the body and its unity. Now it goes on to say that just as if asked about the welfare of the personal body one would reply that its peace depends on whether its limbs and powers are connected and in peace with each other, because at the moment one divides between them then death comes, so too if one asks after the peace of Jerusalem the answer is that her peace depends on the tranquility of those who love her. The peace of Jerusalem depends on whether there is inner tranquility between those who love her. This is because the primary essence of Jerusalem is the unity of the nation, and if this is so then if strife and struggle arise between her people and an estrangement of hearts occurs, there will be no peace found for the city. Her primary peace is herself with herself “…like a city that was joined together within itself,” (Psalms 122:3) and not if they are divided. There is a difference between peace and tranquility, because 'peace' indicates an external peace and 'tranquility' an inner tranquility. Thus the psalm says that through Israel having inner tranquility, which is why it calls them her lovers, because there is love between them even if they have no peace from their external enemies, this will bring about the external peace of Jerusalem.

For the sake of Israel, my brethren and my companions

I shall now speak I, King David, [shall now speak] of peace in you.