Citazione Commento su I Samuele 2:3

And Channah prayed and said: She prayed before the Lord and gave Him praise and thanksgiving for the son that He gave her. And she prayed to the Lord that he would live and that he would be for the Lord. And Yonatan translated it [in the Targum] as, "And Channah prayed with a spirit of prophecy and said, 'Shmuel, my son, will be a prophet over Israel in the future, etc.'" And Yonatan also translated this song [to be] about the kings of the nations of the world and about the congregation of Israel. And about the verse, "There is no holy one like the Lord" (I Samuel 2:2), he said, "About Sancheriv, the king of Assyria, she prophesied and said." And about the verse, "Do not abound with speech" (I Samuel 2:3), he said, "About Nevuchadnetzar, the king of Babylonia, she prophesied and said." And about the verse, "The bows of the mighty are broken" (I Samuel 2:4), he said, "About the kingdom of Antiochus, she prophesied and said." And about the verse, "The sated, for bread" (I Samuel 2:5), he said, "About the sons of Haman, she prophesied and said." And about the verse, "The Lord kills, and gives life" (I Samuel 2:6) until, "O Lord, may His adversaries be shattered" (I Samuel 2:10), he spoke about the reward of the righteous in the Garden of Eden and the punishment of the wicked in Geihinnom. And in the verse, "O Lord, may His adversaries be shattered," she spoke [about] the judgement of Gog and Magog and the kingdom of our Messiah. But according to the simple meaning, Channah opened this song, with regards to those tranquil in the world and the proud ones; and about the humble ones of the earth and the lowly ones - that the Holy One, blessed be He, sees everything. So 'He brings down the proud and raises the lowly' - like the thing that was upon her and upon Peninah, her rival.

What seems most reasonable to me in this matter is that it is the way of the world that when someone has some superior quality over his fellow, he does not remember his fellow who is lesser in stature and will not even mention his name due to his haughtiness. This is the argument of the philosophers regarding the Holy One, blessed be He, saying that due to His great exaltedness, He does not supervise the lowly beings beneath the sphere of the moon. To refute this corrupt opinion, it is said Do not speak with excessive pride, let not arrogance come from your mouth, for God is a God of knowledge, and by Him actions are weighed (1 Samuel 2:3). This means: do not say that because the Holy One, blessed be He, is higher than all heights, He has no knowledge of the details of our actions, for God is a God of knowledge who has awareness of everything, and to Him all the deeds of man are measured. And in order to verify this matter that the Holy One, blessed be He, dwells with the crushed and lowly of spirit, He incorporated in His great name four letters that have the lowest numerical value of all the letters in the alphabet. When you write yud-heh-vav-heh in their full form, examine all the letters — you will not find any letter that adds up to such a small number as these. And so our Sages said (Megillah 11a), “Rabbi Yochanan said: Wherever you find mention of God’s greatness, there you find mention of His humility… This is proven from the Writings, as it is said Extol Him who rides upon the clouds, His name is Yah (Psalms 68:5).” This means praise Him that even though He rides upon the clouds, higher than all, nevertheless His name is “Yah” — these being the letters with the smallest numerical value, and the word consisting of only two letters, meaning the minimum combination of letters. All this is proof of His blessed humility.

לא יוסיף יבוא Shall no more come. As to יבוא and יוסיף following each other without conjunction, comp: אל תרבו תדברו talk no more. The conjunction שֶׁ ²That is אֲשֶׁר; I. E. says שֶׁ, because he is more used to it than to the full form אשר, although in the Bible the syncopated form is very rare. is omitted by poetical license.³The omission of the conjunction between words and sentences is often met with in poetry or in poetical prose (oratory), but is very rare in the usual prose.

מתכנת — This word, and ותכן (v. 18), and the words of the same root in (I Samuel 2:3) “And by Him actions are counted (נתכנו)” and in (2 Kings 12:12) “the money that was counted (המתכן)”, all have the meaning of counting.