시편 23:1의 인용 해설

You shall shepherd My people Concerning this, David said, (Ps. 23:1): “The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want.” “You say to me: You shall shepherd. How can I shepherd? The matter does not depend on me, but the Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want, and I, too, shall not be wanting to you.” A similar instance is found in Samuel (II 21:17): “Then the men of David swore to him, saying, ‘You shall no longer go out with us in battle, so that you extinguish not the lamp of Israel.’” David replied (ibid. 22:29): “For You are my lamp, O Lord; and the Lord does light my darkness.”

לחפשי, some commentators claim that the letter ל at the beginning of this word, meaning “to” is superfluous, just as that letter is superfluous in Chronicles I 3,2: והשלישי לאבשלום, which means nothing other than והשלישי אבשלום, “the third: Absalom.” Here too the Torah had to write only: יצא חפשי, “will go free.” The letter י in the word חפשי, is a preposition just as in the word: הקדמוני in Ezekiel 10,19, which converts that word to mean: “which is at the eastern gate.” It is similar to the words: שלישי, רביעי, “third, fourth, etc. Other commentators understand the prefix letter ל in לחפשי as converting its meaning to a noun: “לחופש, to freedom.” They compare it to expressions such as “to דרור.” If so, then the letter י at the end of the word: לחפשי would be superfluous, just as the letter י in the words: ,היושבי, המגביהי המשפילי in Psalms 23,1, 113,5 and 113,6 are superfluous. [seeing that there we deal with poetic form of expressions, it is not fair to declare these words as superfluous. Ed.] The word: חנם, “without compensation to the master,” is the Torah‘s way of informing us of this condition. חנם, without bureaucratic delays such as a document proving that the “slave” had been released by his master. Neither did he have to compensate the master for any hours of work not actually served during any part of those six years (such as the time when he was sick).

If you will look closely at our verse (18,19) you will note that the Torah applies the feminine pronoun היא to the tasks performed by the priests, i.e. the ברית מלח, whereas in connection with the Levites (verse 23) the Torah employs the pronoun הוא, i.e. the masculine pronoun. What this proves is that the attributes are not totally separate from one another and that each attribute contains elements from the other. When something is defined as “feminine,” this does not mean that it is exclusively feminine, but that the feminine ingredients in that attribute dominate; the same applies to instances when we encounter the masculine attribute, i.e. the masculine aspect is the dominant one. We already explained repeatedly that the same concept applies to attributes such as “Justice” and “Mercy” respectively. In the instance quoted the word היא means that although we said previously that the dominating attribute associated with the priests is the attribute of Mercy, the Torah wants us to realize that this attribute is not exclusive; neither is the attribute of Justice which we described as predominant in connection with the Levites exclusive; hence the masculine pronoun הוא is here (23) associated with the Levites. [A construction such as found in verses 23, i.e. ועבד הלוי הוא את עבודת אהל מועד, is most unusual as the word הוא appears totally superfluous in the sentence. Ed.] We find similar examples of apparently inverted associations with the “wrong” attribute in connection with both Yaakov and David. The most famous example is Micah 7,20 תתן אמת ליעקב, as we would never have expected the harsh attribute אמת to be applied to Yaakov. Similarly, when David (Psalms 23,1) describes the attribute “Elohim” i.e. the attribute of Justice as being the one which looks after him as a protective shepherd, this seems at first glance similarly innocuous. The lesson from that wording is that the attribute of Justice contains elements of the attribute of Mercy. David uses the subject of פרנסה, livelihood, to demonstrate that both of these attributes are involved on their respective levels in ensuring man’s livelihood.