Chasydyzm do Psalmów 48:2

It states,²⁴²Psalms 48:2 “Great is HaShem and much praised, in the city of our God, the mountain of His Holiness.” This verse may be understood based on the verse,²⁴³Isaiah 49:3 “You are My servant; Israel, in whom I take glory.” That is, the Holy One, blessed is He, derives abundant glory, pleasure and delight, from the deeds of a Tzaddik and from his Torah study and prayers. Our sages, of blessed memory, stated,²⁴⁴Talmud Bavli, Kiddushin 30b “The Holy One, blessed is He, said to the Jewish people: ‘My children, I have created an evil inclination and I have created the Torah as its antidote.’” In other words, “Your love and affection for us is very great! You created the evil inclination and You created the Torah. Through the Torah You gave us the power to conquer the evil inclination and to sweeten him, like a chef who adds spices to the pot. Everything is from You and is Yours, and it is only by Your power that we have the ability to accomplished all this. Even so, You have great delight and pride in our doing so, as if we accomplished it on our own. Through this great kindness we recognize Your great love and affection for us, for You have called us, ‘The children of the Ever Present One.’”²⁴⁵Mishnah Avot 3:18

Thus, the above-mentioned verse,²⁵⁴Psalms 48:2 “Great is HaShem and much praised, in the city of our God, the mountain of His Holiness,” may be understood as follows: We must praise and magnify HaShem, blessed is He, for all of the goodness He has bestowed upon us. All the great pride He derives from our service is in the city-Eer-עיר, which is a term of awakening-Hitorerut-התעוררות to “our God.” In other words, it is He, HaShem, our God, who awakens us, and gives us the strength to serve Him and overpower the evil inclination. This is as stated,²⁵⁵Talmud Bavli, Sukkah 52b “If the Holy One, blessed is He, would not assist, a person would be incapable of overpowering the evil inclination.” Nevertheless, even though the power to conquer the evil inclination comes from the assistance of HaShem, blessed is He, He nonetheless, derives great pride and pleasure from this and gives us abundant reward, as if we did it all on our own. However, in reality, true service of HaShem must be through our own self-awakening, in that we are a “part of Godliness from Above.”²⁵⁶Job 31:2 This is the meaning of, “The city of our God-Eer Elohei”nu-עיר אלהינ״ו.” That is, “an awakening-Hitorerut-התעוררות of our good inclination, which is the part of Godliness within us.”