Komentarz do Psalmów 8:3

Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings You have established strength You caused Your Shechinah to rest in the Temple, and You decreed that we thank You. This is strength [that emerges] from the mouth of the Levites and the priests, who are people raised in filth like babes and sucklings. [The word] עוללים is an expression of (Job 16:15) “and sullied my radiance in the dust,” and because of the filth, all infants are called עוללים.

Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings Thou hast laid the foundation of Strength: – The first of the distinguishing marks in man after his coming into the (light and) air of the world is the power to suck. It is needful that man should confess the Creator and recognise His might and power on account of His works that are visible in heaven and in earth; and also from the constitution of his body, which is created from a drop of seed which turns to blood, and from that grows little by little until the limbs are perfectly formed and it comes forth into the (light and) air of the world. He has already made mention of this in the Psalm "O Lord, Thou hast searched vie and known" (cxxxix. infra). In the present Psalm he says that the wonders of the Creator and His loving-kindness toman are to be recognised from the moment of his first coming into the (light and) air of the world, and from his early infancy. It is for this reason that he uses the word יסדת (Thou hast laid the foundation); for, just as יסוד (foundation) is the beginning of the building, so the suckling period is the beginning of the (power to) recognise the loving-kindness of the Creator towards man after his coming into the (light and) air of the world, because the Holy One - Blessed be He ! - has made for him in the breasts an incision like the eye-hole of a fine needle. It is no wider, for if it were wider, the milk would flow forth in a stream without sucking, and too much would come into his mouth, so that he would be choked by it; and if it were smaller than it is, sucking would be difficult to the child and his lips would become painful. Everything, however, is in due proportion and measure. Further, He has distinguished man from the rest of the creatures in that He has put his mother's teats in the place of understanding, as our Rabbis of blessed memory have remarked (Babli, Berakhoth 10 a). It is for this reason that he says: Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings Thou hast laid the foundation of strength, that man may be able to see that all is within the design of a Designer, and not, as the enemies of the Lord say, that everything happens by nature and chance without the direction of a Director and the design of a Designer. And this is the meaning of what he says next:

because of Your adversaries To inform them that we are Your people.

Because of Thine adversaries, That Thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger: – Although this loving-kindness is to be seen also in like manner in the case of the beasts and living creatures, to man God has given understanding and discernment to recognise God's work and to confess Him and praise Him for all; and all of them have been created for his (man's) use. Such being the case, it is incumbent upon him to reflect, and to recognise the work of God, and to confess Him in everything. And the learned Rabbi Abraham ben Ezra has expounded {ad loc.) that he speaks so "on account of man's being honoured above all the lower creatures, for from the time that the child begins to speak (and this is the meaning of out of the mouth of babes), then the spirit, by reason of his constitution, begins to receive strength until it discerns the power of its Creator by a deliberate act of judgement, for the soul is strengthened day after day; and this is the meaning of Thou hast laid the foundation of strength. And the meaning of because of Thine adversaries (is) to bring to naught the words of the deniers, who say there is no God." And our teacher Moses ha-Cohen ben Giktilla has expounded thus: out of the mouth of babes, though they cannot speak with their mouths, (yet) in themselves they teach of the multitude of Thy loving-kindnesses, for Thou dost sustain them and makest them to grow in their bodily development.

to put an end to the disgrace of the enemy and avenger, who says, “You are no better than the other nations.” But I, when I see Your heavens, etc.,... I wonder in my heart, what is man that You should remember him?