כִּ֥י גָ֘בַ֤ר עָלֵ֨ינוּ ׀ חַסְדּ֗וֹ וֶֽאֱמֶת־יְהוָ֥ה לְעוֹלָ֗ם הַֽלְלוּ־יָֽהּ׃
Bo przemożna nad nami łaska Jego, a prawda Boża na wieki. Halleluja.
Naftali Seva Ratzon
Pour out Your Wrath: The commentators wonder why these verses appear here in the middle of the Hallel service; each offers a different explanation for this passage. I will offer my own explanation here.
The Midrash speaks of four kings who each offer a different plea for God’s assistance in the face of their enemies.133Lamentations Rabbah Proem 30:
There were four kings, David, Asa, Jehoshaphat, and Hezekiah--not one asked of God what each of the others was to ask. David asked, "Let me pursue mine enemies and overtake them, and not turn back till they are consumed" (Ps. 18:38; 2 Sam. 22:38). The Holy One replied, "I will help you do so."
…..Then Asa rose up and asked, "I--in me there is no strength to slay them. All that I can do is pursue them. You slay them." The Holy One replied, "I will do so." Hence it is said, "Asa and the people that were with him pursued them. . . . None remained alive: for they were shattered before the Lord" (2 Chron. 14:12)--not "before Asa," but "before the Lord."
Then Jehoshaphat rose up and asked, "I--I have not the strength either to slay or to pursue, but I will utter a song, and You do [the pursuing and the slaying]." The Holy One replied, "I will do so." Then, "when they be gan to sing and to praise, the Lord set an ambush against the Ammonites . . . and they were smitten" (2 Chron. 20:22).
Finally, Hezekiah rose up and asked, "I--I have not the strength to slay, to pursue, or to utter song, but I will sleep in my bed, and You do what is required." The Holy One replied, "I will do so." Then "it came to pass that night that the angel of the Lord went forth and smote in the camp of the Assyrians" (2 Kings 19:35). The verses which begin shefoch chamatcha are meant to echo the sentiments of these kings. These verses express the idea that through song, we pray that God will mete out justice to the nations who oppress Israel. Since we cannot pursue or kill our enemies, we ask God to “Pour out Your wrath,” and we offer our songs of praise as an offering just as Jehoshaphat did. To the plea that we cannot pursue the enemies of Israel we ask God to: “Pursue them with wrath…” And to the cry that we cannot kill our enemies we say, “Annihilate them from beneath the heavens of the Lord.”
It is surprising that in the opening verse, shefoch chamatcha, the nations are mention before the kings: we say “Pour out your wrath against the nations….” and then, “And against the kingdoms…134The word mamlachot, kingdoms, is taken by Ginzburg as a reference to the monarchy and the royalty and not to the nation as a whole.” Normally shouldn’t the king be mentioned before the people?
First we learn from these verses that God is angry at both the nations and their leaders for worshipping false gods. The verses offer two reasons why the nations and their leaders do this. First, they do so, “Because they do not know you,” (that is they do not recognize the existence of God) and second, because while they do acknowledge the existence of God they choose to not believe that God cares about what happens in this world. According to these nations and leaders, God is indifferent to the events of this world and turns over the overseeing of the world to the sun, moon and stars. This is expressed in the second half of the verse which says that the nations, “do not call upon Your name.” They refuse to call upon God’s name because they are convinced that God doesn’t really care what happens in this world because they have, “devoured Jacob and laid waste his dwelling place.” These nations refer to our God as the God of gods – he rules over the divine powers of the universe but doesn’t care about the fate of human beings. They are convinced that all destruction and oppression that Israel has faced is proof that God doesn’t really care what they do – so they worship the stars and the heavenly bodies instead of the Holy One.
But didn’t Jews also question God’s divine concern when they witnessed the suffering of the Jewish people? The Midrash tells us that Jeremiah ceased calling God HaGibor, “The Mighty One,” when he saw how the Babylonians battered the temple even as God remained silent; and that Daniel would not call God HaNora, The Awesome One, when he saw how the nations enslaved the Jewish people even as God remained silent.135These words are taken from the opening passage of the Amida; the idea here is that the great leaders of Israel refused to praise God fully having witnessed his failure to protect Israel and the Temple. See Babylonian Talmud Yoma 69b. Rabbi Ginzburg switched the two examples around – he has Jeremiah witnessing the enslavement of the people and Daniel witnessing the destruction of the Temple. I have chosen to follow the order of the temple since he is clearly referring to this passage in the Talmud. No doubt Rabbi Ginzburg is quoting the passage from memory – it would be easy to confuse the two passages. Just as the other nations concluded that God didn’t care about the fate of Israel, it would appear that these great sages also doubted the power of God. Maybe they too believed that God’s providence does not oversee the welfare of Israel.
Jeremiah and Daniel, however, were motivated by different concerns. The reason they refused to call God Mighty One and Awesome One is that they knew of God’s deep concern for the truth. They realized that others would look upon Israel’s suffering and assume it must be because God didn’t care about Israel or worst was unable to help them. Therefore they limited the praise with which they spoke about God. One of God’s attributes is truth and to describe God in a way that sounded disingenuous would have been wrong.
We know that truth is one of God’s qualities from the verse: “Praise the Lord, all the nations; extol him all the peoples. For great is His kindness toward us and HIS TRUTH IS EVERLASTING.”136Psalm 117 Daniel and Jeremiah did not doubt God’s power or His providence but they chose to limit their praise of it in a time of oppression and suffering for the Jewish people. We can surmise the power and providence of God from the fact that despite everything, Israel survived great travails and oppressions. This in itself was a sign that God is the ‘Mighty One’ and the ‘Awesome One.’
Returning to the question above, why do we mention the nations before the kings in the verse shefoch chamatcha? Usually when a nation presents itself, doesn’t the king present himself before the people since he is more important? And in the case of many nations presenting themselves before a king wouldn’t the more important nations present themselves first.137The verse, after all, says “Pour your wrath on the NATIONS,” what nations are we referring to here? Usually the king would want to go first to avoid the wrath of the more powerful king (such as God) that might follow from the presentation. In this case four kings are presenting themselves before the Holy One of Blessing. First Rome enters, because it is the mightiest of the nations. Persia would enter next. But when Persia witnessed the wrath of God upon Rome? Persia would think, “God poured His wrath upon Rome because they destroyed the Temple – since our nation was responsible for helping in the rebuilding of the Temple, He would not do the same to us!” Next Babylonia and Greece would enter before the Holy One. But having witnessed God’s wrath against Rome and Persia, why would they be willing to enter? They would think, “even though we subjugated the Israelites we did not oppress them like the Romans and the Persians!” This suggests that the one who enters first might think that his punishment was not going to be as severe. That is why Rome and Persia entered before the others in the first place.
Asaf, the author of Psalm 79138See the beginning of this psalm. from which these verses are taken must have realized this and for this very reason he switched around the order and placed the royalty second and the nation first – so that the punishment of the kings would be more severe than the punishment of the people. He felt it would better for Greece and Babylonia to enter into the presence of the Holy One first so the punishment of Rome (Edom)139Whenever the Sages find mention of Edom they usually interpret it as a reference to Rome in Midrashic literature. and Persia would be more severe! Why were these two nations more deserving of punishment? Because Persia “devoured Jacob,” and Rome “laid waste His dwelling place,” that is they destroyed the Holy Temple. Similarly, the leaders of a nation deserve a more severe punishment when they cause their people to go astray and sin…they should also go second rather than lead the nation to judgment. The verses in Psalm 79 make it clear that whether the leaders and the nation go first or last does not matter – God will pour out his wrath upon them and punish them for their oppression of Israel.
The Midrash speaks of four kings who each offer a different plea for God’s assistance in the face of their enemies.133Lamentations Rabbah Proem 30:
There were four kings, David, Asa, Jehoshaphat, and Hezekiah--not one asked of God what each of the others was to ask. David asked, "Let me pursue mine enemies and overtake them, and not turn back till they are consumed" (Ps. 18:38; 2 Sam. 22:38). The Holy One replied, "I will help you do so."
…..Then Asa rose up and asked, "I--in me there is no strength to slay them. All that I can do is pursue them. You slay them." The Holy One replied, "I will do so." Hence it is said, "Asa and the people that were with him pursued them. . . . None remained alive: for they were shattered before the Lord" (2 Chron. 14:12)--not "before Asa," but "before the Lord."
Then Jehoshaphat rose up and asked, "I--I have not the strength either to slay or to pursue, but I will utter a song, and You do [the pursuing and the slaying]." The Holy One replied, "I will do so." Then, "when they be gan to sing and to praise, the Lord set an ambush against the Ammonites . . . and they were smitten" (2 Chron. 20:22).
Finally, Hezekiah rose up and asked, "I--I have not the strength to slay, to pursue, or to utter song, but I will sleep in my bed, and You do what is required." The Holy One replied, "I will do so." Then "it came to pass that night that the angel of the Lord went forth and smote in the camp of the Assyrians" (2 Kings 19:35). The verses which begin shefoch chamatcha are meant to echo the sentiments of these kings. These verses express the idea that through song, we pray that God will mete out justice to the nations who oppress Israel. Since we cannot pursue or kill our enemies, we ask God to “Pour out Your wrath,” and we offer our songs of praise as an offering just as Jehoshaphat did. To the plea that we cannot pursue the enemies of Israel we ask God to: “Pursue them with wrath…” And to the cry that we cannot kill our enemies we say, “Annihilate them from beneath the heavens of the Lord.”
It is surprising that in the opening verse, shefoch chamatcha, the nations are mention before the kings: we say “Pour out your wrath against the nations….” and then, “And against the kingdoms…134The word mamlachot, kingdoms, is taken by Ginzburg as a reference to the monarchy and the royalty and not to the nation as a whole.” Normally shouldn’t the king be mentioned before the people?
First we learn from these verses that God is angry at both the nations and their leaders for worshipping false gods. The verses offer two reasons why the nations and their leaders do this. First, they do so, “Because they do not know you,” (that is they do not recognize the existence of God) and second, because while they do acknowledge the existence of God they choose to not believe that God cares about what happens in this world. According to these nations and leaders, God is indifferent to the events of this world and turns over the overseeing of the world to the sun, moon and stars. This is expressed in the second half of the verse which says that the nations, “do not call upon Your name.” They refuse to call upon God’s name because they are convinced that God doesn’t really care what happens in this world because they have, “devoured Jacob and laid waste his dwelling place.” These nations refer to our God as the God of gods – he rules over the divine powers of the universe but doesn’t care about the fate of human beings. They are convinced that all destruction and oppression that Israel has faced is proof that God doesn’t really care what they do – so they worship the stars and the heavenly bodies instead of the Holy One.
But didn’t Jews also question God’s divine concern when they witnessed the suffering of the Jewish people? The Midrash tells us that Jeremiah ceased calling God HaGibor, “The Mighty One,” when he saw how the Babylonians battered the temple even as God remained silent; and that Daniel would not call God HaNora, The Awesome One, when he saw how the nations enslaved the Jewish people even as God remained silent.135These words are taken from the opening passage of the Amida; the idea here is that the great leaders of Israel refused to praise God fully having witnessed his failure to protect Israel and the Temple. See Babylonian Talmud Yoma 69b. Rabbi Ginzburg switched the two examples around – he has Jeremiah witnessing the enslavement of the people and Daniel witnessing the destruction of the Temple. I have chosen to follow the order of the temple since he is clearly referring to this passage in the Talmud. No doubt Rabbi Ginzburg is quoting the passage from memory – it would be easy to confuse the two passages. Just as the other nations concluded that God didn’t care about the fate of Israel, it would appear that these great sages also doubted the power of God. Maybe they too believed that God’s providence does not oversee the welfare of Israel.
Jeremiah and Daniel, however, were motivated by different concerns. The reason they refused to call God Mighty One and Awesome One is that they knew of God’s deep concern for the truth. They realized that others would look upon Israel’s suffering and assume it must be because God didn’t care about Israel or worst was unable to help them. Therefore they limited the praise with which they spoke about God. One of God’s attributes is truth and to describe God in a way that sounded disingenuous would have been wrong.
We know that truth is one of God’s qualities from the verse: “Praise the Lord, all the nations; extol him all the peoples. For great is His kindness toward us and HIS TRUTH IS EVERLASTING.”136Psalm 117 Daniel and Jeremiah did not doubt God’s power or His providence but they chose to limit their praise of it in a time of oppression and suffering for the Jewish people. We can surmise the power and providence of God from the fact that despite everything, Israel survived great travails and oppressions. This in itself was a sign that God is the ‘Mighty One’ and the ‘Awesome One.’
Returning to the question above, why do we mention the nations before the kings in the verse shefoch chamatcha? Usually when a nation presents itself, doesn’t the king present himself before the people since he is more important? And in the case of many nations presenting themselves before a king wouldn’t the more important nations present themselves first.137The verse, after all, says “Pour your wrath on the NATIONS,” what nations are we referring to here? Usually the king would want to go first to avoid the wrath of the more powerful king (such as God) that might follow from the presentation. In this case four kings are presenting themselves before the Holy One of Blessing. First Rome enters, because it is the mightiest of the nations. Persia would enter next. But when Persia witnessed the wrath of God upon Rome? Persia would think, “God poured His wrath upon Rome because they destroyed the Temple – since our nation was responsible for helping in the rebuilding of the Temple, He would not do the same to us!” Next Babylonia and Greece would enter before the Holy One. But having witnessed God’s wrath against Rome and Persia, why would they be willing to enter? They would think, “even though we subjugated the Israelites we did not oppress them like the Romans and the Persians!” This suggests that the one who enters first might think that his punishment was not going to be as severe. That is why Rome and Persia entered before the others in the first place.
Asaf, the author of Psalm 79138See the beginning of this psalm. from which these verses are taken must have realized this and for this very reason he switched around the order and placed the royalty second and the nation first – so that the punishment of the kings would be more severe than the punishment of the people. He felt it would better for Greece and Babylonia to enter into the presence of the Holy One first so the punishment of Rome (Edom)139Whenever the Sages find mention of Edom they usually interpret it as a reference to Rome in Midrashic literature. and Persia would be more severe! Why were these two nations more deserving of punishment? Because Persia “devoured Jacob,” and Rome “laid waste His dwelling place,” that is they destroyed the Holy Temple. Similarly, the leaders of a nation deserve a more severe punishment when they cause their people to go astray and sin…they should also go second rather than lead the nation to judgment. The verses in Psalm 79 make it clear that whether the leaders and the nation go first or last does not matter – God will pour out his wrath upon them and punish them for their oppression of Israel.
Sefer Daniel; Opportunity in Exile
Rabbi Shimon HaShiloni taught: When the evil Nebuchadnezzar threw Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah into the fiery furnace, Yurkamo, the ministering angel of hail, stood before the Holy One, Blessed be He, and said before Him: Master of the Universe, I will go down and cool the fiery furnace, and I will save these righteous ones from the fiery furnace. Gabriel said to him: The strength of the Holy One, Blessed be He, will not be evident in this manner, as you are the minister of hail, and everyone knows that water extinguishes fire. Your action would not be regarded as a great miracle. Rather, I, the ministering angel of fire, will descend, and I will cool the furnace from within, and I will burn it from the outside, to consume those who threw the three righteous men into the furnace; and I will thereby perform a miracle within a miracle. The Holy One, Blessed be He, said to him: Descend. At that time Gabriel began praising God and recited: “And the truth of the Lord endures forever” (Psalms 117:2), as God fulfilled His promise to him from more than a thousand years earlier. (translation from the William Davidson translation of the Talmud).
Ephod Bad
And the truth of the Lord is forever! Hallelujah! Who originally spoke these words? It was none other than Gabriel, the angel. When our father Abraham was cast into the fiery furnace, Gabriel spoke up to the Holy One, "Master of the universe, may I go down and cool the fire, to save the righteous man from burning in it?" The Holy One replied, "I am the Unique One in My world, even as he is the unique one in his. It is fitting that the Unique One delivers the unique one." But since the Holy One does not hold back the reward of any creature, he said to Gabriel, "Yours will be the privilege of saving three of his descendants." Rabbi Simeon the Shilonite expounded on this: When the wicked Nebuchadnezzar cast Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah into the fiery furnace, Yurkami, the [heavenly] prince of hail, appeared before the Holy One and said, "Master of the universe, let me go down, cool the furnace, and thus save those righteous men from the fiery furnace."
Gabriel spoke up, "The might of the Holy One will not be made evident this way, for you are the prince of hail, and everyone knows that water quenches fire. But I am the prince of fire. Let me go down, and I shall cool it within and heat it without, and thus perform a miracle within a miracle." At that, the Holy One said to Gabriel, "Go down." It was then that Gabriel burst forth: Truth is the Lord forever. (Ps. 117:2).
There are two questions regarding these Midrashim. First why was Yurkami not allowed to save Abraham, and second what is the meaning of Gabriel‟s words: “I shall cool it within and heat it without” while Yurkami only said I will “cool the furnace?” This can be explained through the following Midrash: “He has brought low in dishonor the kingdom and its leaders.” At the time of the destruction of the temple God switched the roles of the angels on high. At the time of Abraham, Yurkami was the prince of fire so he could not save Abraham. Also, because the world did not know of God in the time of Abraham, Nimrod could not be punished with death for throwing him in the fiery furnace. By the time of Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, the world knew of God and yet they still tried to throw them in the furnace because of their faith in God. It was not enough to have Yurkami simply cool off the furnace. Instead God sent Gabriel to cool off the furnace while causing a fire outside to punish those who committed this crime. Even though their roles had changed, God kept His promise of allowing the angel Gabriel to save Abraham‟s descendents. He was now the prince of fire but he still was allowed to cool off the furnace while causing heat around it!
Why did Nebuchadnezzar choose this particular punishment for Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah? The king of Babylonia mistakenly thought that God could not simultaneously use opposite elements to save His people. The king threw them into the fiery furnace thinking that God would have to save the three men by cooling the furnace down and couldn't burn those outside the furnace. He was wrong. He also did not believe that God would care about lowly creatures like these three men. But God‟s providence extends even to the lowly!
Gabriel spoke up, "The might of the Holy One will not be made evident this way, for you are the prince of hail, and everyone knows that water quenches fire. But I am the prince of fire. Let me go down, and I shall cool it within and heat it without, and thus perform a miracle within a miracle." At that, the Holy One said to Gabriel, "Go down." It was then that Gabriel burst forth: Truth is the Lord forever. (Ps. 117:2).
There are two questions regarding these Midrashim. First why was Yurkami not allowed to save Abraham, and second what is the meaning of Gabriel‟s words: “I shall cool it within and heat it without” while Yurkami only said I will “cool the furnace?” This can be explained through the following Midrash: “He has brought low in dishonor the kingdom and its leaders.” At the time of the destruction of the temple God switched the roles of the angels on high. At the time of Abraham, Yurkami was the prince of fire so he could not save Abraham. Also, because the world did not know of God in the time of Abraham, Nimrod could not be punished with death for throwing him in the fiery furnace. By the time of Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, the world knew of God and yet they still tried to throw them in the furnace because of their faith in God. It was not enough to have Yurkami simply cool off the furnace. Instead God sent Gabriel to cool off the furnace while causing a fire outside to punish those who committed this crime. Even though their roles had changed, God kept His promise of allowing the angel Gabriel to save Abraham‟s descendents. He was now the prince of fire but he still was allowed to cool off the furnace while causing heat around it!
Why did Nebuchadnezzar choose this particular punishment for Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah? The king of Babylonia mistakenly thought that God could not simultaneously use opposite elements to save His people. The king threw them into the fiery furnace thinking that God would have to save the three men by cooling the furnace down and couldn't burn those outside the furnace. He was wrong. He also did not believe that God would care about lowly creatures like these three men. But God‟s providence extends even to the lowly!