Komentaryong Sumisipi para sa Mga Awit 104:26

[Ps. 104:26]: “There go the ships”: those channels created on the third day. Of this it says: “She is like a merchant ship, she brings her food from afar” [Prov. 31:14]. She brings them through those channels, well-springs, and streams, and they flow into this sea and appear there.

“God created the great sea-monsters” [Gen. 1:21]: These are the four camps outside the shekhinah of the blessed Holy One, glorifying and exalting Him with words of song and praise. Of this it says “You created him to delight in him” [Ps. 104:26].
“And all the living creatures who creep” [Gen. 1:21]: This is the being with four faces, those of man, lion, ox, and cherub. Each of those faces itself has four faces and four wings, the wings spread out above the faces. Their appearance and their deeds have the appearance of fire. Within the red fire there is a black fire. This is the one spoken of in the [prophetic] tradition, where it says: “That is the being I saw beneath the God of Israel on the River Chebar, and I knew that they were cherubs” [Ezek. 10:22]. That is why the verse says: “which the waters caused to swarm forth after their kind” [Gen. 1:21]: They are [collectively] called “beast” [or “being”], for their bodies are joined but the faces are separate.¹⁸⁵The author plays on the inconsistency of number in these texts. Therefore it says: “which the waters caused to swarm forth after their kind.”
“And each winged bird after its kind”:This refers to those angels created on the fifth day, for there are various rungs, some lower than others and some higher than others. There is a fire that pushes out fire and a fire that consumes fire. Some of them are from water, still others from air. The mission of each is in accord with its essence: the one sent on an errand of mercy is from water; the one who goes as an emissary of justice is derived from fire. Therefore no one angel is sent for both justice and mercy.
“God blessed them, saying: ‘Be fruitful and multiply, filling the land and the waters of the seas’” [Gen. 1:22]. As Scripture says, “Like entities in the full belly” [Eccles. 11:5], since water did not flow forth from wisdom until the sixth day, of which Scripture says “Let earth bring forth a living being after its kind” [Gen. 1:24]. The angels that were created on the fifth day are negated, just as the spark is reabsorbed into the coal, once they have sung their song. The reason [for their existence] is external to them and they are not sufficiently strong to stand before their Creator. They are incarnated a second time, sing their song, and then they disappear. Of this matter it has been said: “New each morning, great is Your faith!” [Lam. 3:23]. Here our Psalm continues: “All of them look to You to give them their food in its due time” [Ps. 104:27]. This refers to their flowing forth.

According to an homiletical approach the meaning of the words התנינים הגדולים refers to Leviathan, both the male and the female of the species (compare Baba Batra 74). The reason the Torah mentions the word גדולים, ”large ones,” is that Leviathan was extraordinarily large. His carcass was found in the great ocean which spans the globe. The word הגדולים is similar in meaning to the same word applied to the “big luminaries,” which distinguished them from the smaller stars. These luminaries are several times the size of earth. It is quite possible that the absence of the usual ויהי כן after the report of the creation of Leviathan was meant to alert us to the fact that this pair did not endure and that is what the sages meant who told us on the same folio of the Talmud that if the two had been allowed to mate they would have caused the destruction of the globe. What did G’d do? “He castrated the male of the species and killed the female, salting away its flesh for consumption by the righteous at a future time.” This is the meaning of Isaiah 27,1 הרג את התנין אשר בים. “He killed the monster which was in the sea.” This verse also testifies to the fact that there was both a male and a female Leviathan as the verse first referred to לויתן נחש ברח, and continues to speak about ועל לויתן נחש עקלתון, והרג את התנין אשר בים. When Isaiah spoke of “He killed the monster,” this indicates that the male was left bereft of his mate. This may have prompted King David to describe the function of the surviving male Leviathan being for G’d “to have fun with.” (Psalms 104,26). As to the exact wording of the text in Psalms, לויתן זה יצרת לשחק בו, I believe what David meant was for Leviathan to have fun in the ocean. After all, verse 25 spoke of the הים הגדול, “the great ocean.” G’d said to Job (Job 40,25) “can you draw out Leviathan by a fishhook?” All these verses prove that only one of the species remained alive. The reason our verse spoke about את התנינם, may have been to allude to the fish in the ocean which are to serve as food for the Leviathan.