Explanations of the Prayer - Mizmor Shir Chanukas - Part 1

00:00 Speaker 1 The last verse speaks about bitachon: a Jew trusts in Hashem that Hakadosh Boruch Hu will fulfill the request he has made. As explained in Chassidus, the trust itself is the vessel. Trust is not something incidental; the trust itself is what brings the salvation. The very fact that a Jew trusts in Hashem means that he puts himself aside and relies on Hakadosh Boruch Hu. The trust itself brings the salvation. This is what the Tzemach Tzedek meant when he said, “Think good and it will be good.” The thought itself—the complete trust that a person places in Hakadosh Boruch Hu that things will be good—brings about the good. This is also hinted at in the verse: “But I have trusted in Your kindness; my heart will rejoice in Your salvation.” Because I have trusted in Your kindness, because I trust in Hashem’s kindness, therefore “my heart will rejoice in Your salvation”: I will merit to rejoice in the salvation. In other words, because I trusted, because of that trust, I will merit to see it and rejoice in the salvation. That is the same point. And the precise wording is “Your salvation.” Seemingly, it should have said, “My heart will rejoice in our salvation.” It is our salvation. Yes, our salvation. We are the ones in trouble. “Your salvation” is like what we discussed earlier about the verse, “Salvation belongs to Hashem; Your blessing is upon Your people forever.” In truth, the One who needs the salvation is Hakadosh Boruch Hu. That is to say, the salvation of the Jewish people is not only for the Jewish people. Their salvation is a salvation for Hakadosh Boruch Hu, because the whole idea of exile is that the Shechinah is with them. The Shechinah is in exile: “In all their affliction, He is afflicted.” Hakadosh Boruch Hu Himself is in the distress of exile. So the salvation of the Jewish people, our Geulah, is also a salvation for Hakadosh Boruch Hu. “I will sing to Hashem, for

02:04 Speaker 1 He has dealt kindly with me.” And when the salvation is complete, there will be the complete Geulah. We will merit to see the salvation of Hakadosh Boruch Hu, the Geulah of the Shechinah from exile. Then it will be, “I will sing to Hashem, for He has dealt kindly with me”: we will sing to Hakadosh Boruch Hu for all the kindness He shows us. “For He has dealt kindly with me”—the kindness that Hakadosh Boruch Hu bestows. A Jew feels that everything Hakadosh Boruch Hu gives him is an act of kindness. Hakadosh Boruch Hu does not actually owe him anything—He does not owe him, does not owe me, anything. So whatever He gives me is an act of kindness. “He has dealt kindly with me”: Hakadosh Boruch Hu gives to us in His kindness. In any case, that is the idea. Let’s continue. We’ll now begin the next kapitel. It says here: “A psalm, a song for the dedication of the House, by David.” On the plain level—on the plain level of the interpretation, that is, the plain meaning of the prayer—what is the connection between this kapitel and the previous one? Everything we are discussing here relates to this. We said that the first part of Hodu speaks mainly about the Beis Hamikdash and the Holy Ark, because Shacharis is connected with the principle that the prayers were instituted in place of the offerings. Prayer in general is connected with the offerings. Shacharis in particular is connected with the daily offering, the morning tamid, and therefore at the beginning of davening we say prayers connected with the Beis Hamikdash. The prayer of Hodu is connected with the Ark. As we said then, this prayer was said with the Ark, and they would also say it in the Beis Hamikdash with the daily offering, because it speaks of the song of the Ark. Along those lines, this kapitel is also connected with the Beis Hamikdash. “For the dedication of the House, by David”: this is the kapitel that King David prepared for the building of the Beis Hamikdash. The dedication

04:05 Speaker 1 of the Beis Hamikdash. They said this kapitel. On the plain level, the entire kapitel is connected with the dedication of the House, and that explains its content: it speaks about all the enemies King David had, and everything that happened. As is known, King David had all kinds of opponents. He had enemies and opponents who interfered with him and mocked him. Particularly after his sin involving Bathsheba, the scoffers of the generation would say that he was a sinner, that he was wicked, that he was not—he was not fit for anything. They spoke disparagingly about King David. And in truth, there was some basis for the slander they spoke about him. It retained its force until the dedication of the House. By the time of the dedication of the Beis Hamikdash, King David had already passed away. King Solomon was the one who built the Beis Hamikdash. It says that they wanted to bring the Holy Ark into the Holy of Holies, but the Ark would not go in; the doors would not open. They could not bring the Holy Ark in

05:10 Speaker 2 Amen.

05:10 Speaker 1 And King Solomon began to pray, invoking this merit and that merit, but nothing helped. They could not bring the Ark into the Holy of Holies until King David said—

05:22 Speaker 2 Solomon.

05:23 Speaker 1 Ah, King Solomon said, “Remember, Hashem, David and all his afflictions.” That is kapitel 132. Then the Ark went in: the doors opened, the entrance to the Holy of Holies opened, and the Holy Ark entered. Then everyone saw that Hakadosh Boruch Hu loved King David. Those who had spoken badly of King David stopped doing so.

05:49 Speaker 2 In the merit of King David, Moshiach.

05:50 Speaker 1 Yes. And so he said—that is why King David says here, “A song for the dedication of the House, by David.” It is King David’s song for the dedication of the House. “I will exalt You, Hashem, for You have lifted me up and have not let my enemies rejoice over me.” He rejoices that, through the dedication of the Beis Hamikdash, Hakadosh Boruch Hu made the truth known. That was the end—the end of all of David’s enemies and opponents. So that is the content of the kapitel on the plain level. On the inner level, of course, all this alludes to something deeper. We discussed here that prayer, in its spiritual meaning, is connected with King David. What is King David spiritually? King David represents the sefirah of Malchus. He is connected with “David, King of Israel, lives and endures”—Malchus, Malchus of Atzilus, which is the source of all creation and also the source of the souls of the Jewish people. And prayer: the meaning of prayer is the ascent of Malchus. The whole idea of prayer is that Malchus, which is the life of all created beings in general and particularly of all Jewish souls, asks that G-dliness be drawn into it. Malchus in itself is Malchus; it is an aspect of concealment and obscurity in general. Therefore, created beings as they are in themselves experience concealment and lack a revelation of G-dliness. The whole idea of prayer—elevation and connection—is that created beings and souls rise to connect with G-dliness and ask for G-dliness to be revealed, particularly through the building of Malchus. In the inner meaning of it all, they ask for the building of Malchus, as we learned. That will bring the ultimate fulfillment and the complete building of Malchus: a dwelling place for G-d in the lower realms, with the Infinite revealed specifically here below. Therefore, according to Chassidus, when the prayers speak of King David and mention David’s name, they mean David as a symbol of Malchus, of the Shechinah.

07:54 Speaker 1 This is Malchus of Atzilus, which is the spiritual meaning of King David. All these prayers ask on behalf of Malchus, because once G-dliness is revealed in Malchus, it will consequently be revealed in all created beings, in all the worlds. That is essentially the point being discussed here. It is also the idea of the dedication of the House. The Beis Hamikdash is the place where the Shechinah rests. Through the Beis Hamikdash, G-dliness was revealed throughout the world, because the Beis Hamikdash is where the building of Malchus reaches completion. The Beis Hamikdash is Malchus; that is its significance. It is the house where Hakadosh Boruch Hu is revealed in the world. So we say, “A song for the dedication of the House, by David”: the dedication of the Beis Hamikdash is connected with King David because, on the inner level too, King David, representing the sefirah of Malchus, is connected with the building of the Beis Hamikdash. Chassidus explains the idea of a house—a house in the lower realms—and applies it to serving Hashem. A house alludes to this physical world, the dwelling place in the lower realms. Physicality in itself conceals and obscures; in itself, it conceals G-dliness. It is on a very low level, and so G-dliness is not apparent in physicality itself. Drawing G-dliness into physicality therefore requires very great effort. The world conceals G-dliness, and that is why it is written, “The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.” The stone refers to working with physicality: the performance of mitzvos, action, the work of the sefirah of Malchus—everything connected with physical action. “The builders rejected”: people do not favor it. Tzaddikim prefer revelations. At higher levels there is more revelation of G-dliness, unlike physical action, the performance of mitzvos. Malchus is “the stone the builders rejected”; it is

09:55 Speaker 1 Work that isn’t, isn’t, isn’t loved. It isn’t work you love for its own sake. And precisely that becomes the cornerstone. Precisely this work deserves it. Precisely there, the greatest revelation of making a dwelling place in the lower realms takes place—in the very lowest work. Why? It is written that Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov, the patriarchs—Avraham was chessed, Yitzchak was gevurah, and Yaakov was tiferes—were the three legs of Malchus, but the fourth leg was missing. Who was the fourth leg? David, who embodied Malchus. No one wanted to be the fourth leg of Malchus, because Malchus involves heavy work: entering into physicality, into the lower realms, dealing with the world and making it into a dwelling place. It was work no one wanted. All the tzaddikim preferred more spiritual forms of service, involving holiness and revelations, but not Malchus. Dovid Hamelech had that bittul expressed in “Surely I have stilled and quieted myself.” Dovid Hamelech became like a stone. He became Malchus. He occupied himself with making a dwelling place in the lower realms, with building Malchus. We saw, too, that the Rebbe spoke about our generation, the seventh generation, whose task is to make a dwelling place in the lower realms. That is why he says in the maamar that this is “not of our choosing or our desire.” The work of the seventh generation—to draw the Shechinah down into the lower realms—is extremely difficult, because we have to deal with lowly things, physical things, and make them into a dwelling place for the blessed Ein Sof. But precisely there lies the honor. Precisely there lies the honor itself. So this means that the work of making the lower realms into vessels for G-dliness is the performance of mitzvos, physical action. It is heavy work, with no inherent pleasure in it. That is why it requires mesirus nefesh. And that is why the verse says, “A psalm, a song for the dedication of the House, by David”: we have to bring joy to it, even though the house itself has no

11:44 Speaker 1 joy in it. It belongs to action, to the inanimate, to the lower realm. Nevertheless, it becomes “a psalm, a song,” because Dovid Hamelech brought about the greatest revelation precisely there, in the service of performing mitzvos. That is why it becomes a psalm and a song, an expression of joy. This is explained at length in the maamarim on “the House, by David”; the whole subject is explained there at length. There are several maamarim. One of them is a maamar of the Alter Rebbe in Likkutei Torah, which he delivered at the house dedication of Reb Pinchas Reizes. There is a whole story about that house dedication in Shklov. The Alter Rebbe was there and delivered a maamar. In it, the Alter Rebbe explains that there are food, clothing, and a house. Here we have this sequence: food, clothing, house. We see that food is the most important and essential—we live from it. Clothing is more distant. A house is still more distant. A house is inanimate; we need stones to build it. Yet, on the other hand, in terms of the revelation and drawing down of G-dliness, food corresponds to the light that fills all worlds, clothing to the light that encompasses all worlds, and a house to the very essence of the blessed Ein Sof. In other words, precisely in the inanimate, precisely in action—which is the aspect of the inanimate—the very essence is drawn down. All of this, and how it relates here, is explained there at length.