Explanations of the Prayers - Halleluyah, Ki Tov - Part 1

00:00 Speaker 1 In this chapter of Tehillim, several verses deal with hashgachah pratis, Divine providence over every detail. The chapter as a whole is about praise [unclear]. The entire chapter speaks about how Hakadosh Boruch Hu concerns Himself with every detail of Jewish life, with matters of growth and life itself, and gives each person what he needs. So this chapter is generally associated with the subject and the explanation of hashgachah pratis. There is a story about one of the mashpi’im, whom they called “the Lame One” [unclear]. Rabbi Lipsky [unclear]—they called him “the Great Lame One.” A new book about him recently came out. They say about “the Lame One” [unclear] that, among the great chassidim, each had a subject he lived with more intensely. He would contemplate this subject [unclear]. That was his subject, the topic he devoted himself to. Later he also had a connection with the Rebbe. The well-known book about Rabbi Shimon Hatzaddik, I think, is connected with “the Lame One” [unclear]. For him, the subject was Divine providence over every detail. He occupied himself with it a great deal. He was a Jew who served Hashem and immersed himself in this too. He was a Jew who spent a great deal of time on his own. So what is told about him? I know that this subject in particular, and this chapter, were things he contemplated a great deal. A recording has recently surfaced too. I heard that there is a recording of “the Lame One” [unclear] davening. Have you heard the recording of “the Lame One” [unclear]? It’s going around among the bochurim—a recording where you can hear how “the Lame One” [unclear] davens. You can hear, in this chapter, how a person needs to daven in order to engage with it. In any case, the subject of this chapter is hashgachah pratis. But there are several aspects to it. We will discuss several

02:17 Speaker 1 aspects, and come to Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s conduct, and His greatness and power in guiding the Jewish people individually and the Jewish people as a whole. If we then go through the chapter in detail, we’ll see what we’re discussing. On the one hand, it speaks about His attention to every detail of creation; but afterward it speaks about hashgachah pratis, which brings us to the next point. And within that, it speaks about hashgachah pratis in relation to Knesses Yisroel, to the Jewish people, for whom it operates in a special way. That is how the chapter concludes: “He declares His word to Yaakov, His statutes and His judgments to Yisroel.” But let’s begin at the beginning of the chapter. It opens with a general statement, as chapters of Tehillim generally do: “Praise Hashem, for it is good to sing to our G-d; for it is pleasant, and praise is fitting.” That is the emphasis. It begins by saying that praising Hakadosh Boruch Hu is a good thing: “For it is good to sing to our G-d; for it is pleasant, and praise is fitting.” Praise of Hakadosh Boruch Hu is a good thing. Now look: there is a repetition of language here. On the plain level, that is not a question; repetition is common. But there is teaching within it. As we would expect, the repetition also conveys a difference in content. There is a distinction between the first half, “For it is good to sing to our G-d,” and the second, “For it is pleasant, and praise is fitting.” In fact, there are two distinctions: the first half says “good,” while the second says “pleasant.” The first half says “to sing to our G-d,” while the second speaks of “praise.” We have already discussed in previous chapters and verses that there are several different expressions. In any case, the difference

04:18 Speaker 1 between song and praise is connected with the fact that song is more physical. Song makes use of an instrument; it is associated with singing accompanied by an instrument. Praise is also connected with song, but the word means lauding, which is more a matter of the soul. In any event, song is associated with a lower level. Singing with an instrument means contemplating matters of the world more, which brings it closer to the name Elokim. That is why the previous chapter also says, “I will sing to my G-d as long as I exist.” In other words, song is more connected with the soul as it is clothed in the body, more with its involvement in the world. Praise, by contrast, is more connected with the soul, because praise belongs to the soul. The soul and its experience are certainly much deeper than the body itself. We saw this in the previous chapter too: “I will praise Hashem with my life.” Praise is directed to the name Havayah; it is the soul, “with my life.” Song, by contrast, is “I will sing to my G-d as long as I exist,” directed to the name Elokim. We can see the distinction here too: in connection with song, the verse says “our G-d.” It says “for it is good,” and then “for it is pleasant, and praise is fitting.” Here too, it speaks of two levels. When we come to song, which is more connected with the body and the world, the word is “good”; when we come to praise, it is “pleasant.” The distinction between “good” and “pleasant” is that “good” relates to the middos, the specific emotional attributes. Good is associated with chesed—or, in terms of the sefiros, good is understood to refer to yesod. Generally, “good” here is not chesed; it is the sefirah of yesod. But...

06:20 Speaker 1 When we discuss which sefirah each word corresponds to, the explanation generally given by the Arizal is that “good” refers to the sefirah of yesod. Why? Because yesod is the level of the tzaddik. Yesod connects the sefiros with malchus, and it is the foundation of the world. That is the role of the sefirah of yesod: connecting them with malchus. So the appropriate word is “good.” Why? Because it is yesod. Good is the giving of influence, the kindness of the tzaddik, who encompasses yesod and connects it with the world. “Pleasant,” by contrast, expresses pleasantness. It has to do with taste [unclear]. It follows that “good” and “pleasant” are at opposite ends of the spectrum. “Good” is the level of yesod: it is already within the middos, indeed at the culmination of the middos, where goodness is bestowed. “Pleasant” is at the root of the roots. Pleasantness is connected with delight within the soul. So, between “good” and “pleasant,” good is a specific attribute expressed in the body, the attribute of yesod, whereas pleasantness is [unclear]. Pleasantness is yechidah, the deepest part of the soul, the soul’s delight. From this we can understand that they are connected. On the one hand, there is a connection between good and pleasant, because delight and goodness are connected. The soul’s capacity for goodness and the bestowal of goodness are also connected with the soul’s delight. They are connected to each other. Nevertheless, delight is at the root, at the highest level of the soul, whereas good is already at the point where that influence reaches downward,

08:14 Speaker 1 the second line. So when we speak about the level of song, we mean seeing the revelation of Hakadosh Boruch Hu as it is more fully clothed in the world and in the body. There the verse says, “For it is good to sing.” It is the soul’s feeling of goodness: it senses the goodness of Hakadosh Boruch Hu and the flow of G-dliness into the world, and that itself gives rise to song. But when we go deeper, to the root of things, the verse speaks of “for it is pleasant, and praise is fitting.” This is not merely a matter of goodness; it is a matter of delight—the delight Hakadosh Boruch Hu has in the whole idea of a dwelling in the lower realms. It is not merely a particular good, a particular influence or revelation. Rather, every revelation in the world, every flow of influence into the world, is rooted in delight. This is expressed in the teaching that “Hakadosh Boruch Hu desired to have a dwelling in the lower realms”—His delight in a dwelling in the lower realms. This is naturally felt more deeply when the soul senses Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s delight in creation. When will this become revealed? In the time to come. This delight within the world will be revealed in the time to come. Now there is exile and darkness; things are concealed from us, so we do not see delight openly in the world. On the contrary, sometimes we see things that bring no delight. We see darkness in the world, matters involving the nations. There is no delight, no joy—there are concerns about bringing in money, and so on. But in the time to come, when the refinement of the world is complete, it will become clear that the whole world has fulfilled the Divine intention of a dwelling in the lower realms. Then “for it is good to sing” and “for it is pleasant, and praise is fitting” will be revealed.

10:05 Speaker 1 Then the truth of the matter will be revealed: all of creation is an expression of the goodness, uprightness, and kindness of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. And not only that. Something deeper will be revealed: “For praise is pleasant and fitting.” Everything that flows down into this world comes from that pleasantness—from the pleasantness that will come to us, the delight of Hakadosh Boruch Hu that will be revealed in the future. This also helps us understand the verses that follow. Since we are speaking here about the source of all revelations, the delight of Hakadosh Boruch Hu in His world, it makes sense that the passage immediately continues with the coming of Moshiach and the complete Geulah. There are three verses here—sorry, two verses—that speak about the revelations of the future. It begins, “Hashem builds Jerusalem; He gathers the dispersed of Israel,” and “He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their sorrows.” Yes, these two verses speak about the revelations of the future. “Hashem builds Jerusalem” expresses our confidence that Hakadosh Boruch Hu will soon build Jerusalem—that is, the Third Beis Hamikdash. Then it says, “He gathers the dispersed of Israel,” referring to the ingathering of the exiles. These are the two general events of the future: building the Beis Hamikdash and gathering the dispersed of Israel. The Rebbe cites this verse as the Rambam’s source. There is a dispute among the Midrashim: which will come first? Will the Beis Hamikdash be built before the exiles are gathered, or will the exiles be gathered before the Beis Hamikdash is built? The order here follows the Rambam. The Rambam rules—his wording is—that Moshiach “will build the Beis Hamikdash in its place and gather the dispersed of Israel.” That is the plain order in the Gemara: first the Beis Hamikdash will be built in its place, and afterward will come

12:03 Speaker 1 the ingathering of the exiles—“He gathers the dispersed of Israel.” After that it says—and I’ll return to that verse shortly; I’m just moving to the next verse, about the brokenhearted. The third verse, too, says, “He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their sorrows.” This, too, is connected with the exiles and [unclear]. The Baal Shem Tov explains that Hakadosh Boruch Hu heals the brokenhearted: He heals everyone whose heart is broken. “He binds up their sorrows” speaks of sadness. Whatever a person has that causes him sadness, Hakadosh Boruch Hu binds it up—“binds up” is a term for healing. Hakadosh Boruch Hu repairs and heals that person’s sadness. But according to the inner dimension of Torah, the Zohar says that these verses refer to three things: building the Beis Hamikdash, gathering the exiles, and the resurrection of the dead. The Zohar says that “He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their sorrows” refers to the resurrection of the dead. According to this, the order is that first the Beis Hamikdash will be built, as the Ramban writes. After that the exiles will be gathered, with the Jewish people assembling from all over the world, and then comes the third event, the resurrection of the dead. That is the order according to the Zohar. The Rebbe also discusses this in a maamar... In the maamar Gadol Yihyeh, I don’t remember the order there, but it also discusses these three things. I think the Rebbe also follows this order from the Zohar: first the building of the Beis Hamikdash, then the ingathering of the exiles, and then the resurrection of the dead. That is also the order of the three things in this passage. But the Gemara gives a different order. The Gemara says that the exiles will be gathered first, and afterward Jerusalem—the Beis Hamikdash—will be built. Uh,

14:06 Speaker 1 how does that fit with the verse? The Gemara reads the verse as, “Hashem builds Jerusalem because He gathers the dispersed of Israel.” That is how the Gemara introduces it. It changes the wording of the verse. The Gemara says, “Hashem builds Jerusalem because He gathers the dispersed of Israel”—as though there were an implied “because.” Why does Hashem build Jerusalem? Because He gathers the dispersed of Israel. In other words, the ingathering of the exiles comes first, and only afterward is Jerusalem built. The Rebbe discusses this at great length.

14:37 Speaker 2 The Ramban.

14:39 Speaker 1 Huh?

14:39 Speaker 2 The Ramban. Which view does the Ramban rule like?

14:41 Speaker 1 The Ramban does not. The Ramban rules like the Zohar on this point. The Ramban discusses it at length. Uh, we haven’t touched on that, and I don’t know whether now is the time to discuss those details. Maybe we’ll leave them for another time. But the Rebbe soon gets to the plain meaning here—that is, to the continuation of the verse. If we take the rest of the verse into account, we see—and now I’m also speaking about its place in the siddur—that the plain meaning is that he has begun speaking about [unclear]. Now, we have said many times that throughout Pesukei Dezimra, the verses speak about the world, about creation, and about Hashem’s G-dliness as it is revealed in creation. In the inner dimension, they are really speaking about Sefiras HaMalchus, because it is from Malchus that all the worlds and everything else come. There is Malchus as it is now, in a state of exile, and Malchus as it will be in the time of Moshiach. When it is revealed in the time of Moshiach, Malchus will be built, and then [unclear] of Malchus will be revealed in the future. The Rebbe directs us to the maamar Tefillah LeMoshe. For example, [unclear]. This is a general theme of this whole verse. [unclear]. In the maamar Tefillah LeMoshe, yes? The Rebbe discusses the entire matter of building it there. In Tefillah LeMoshe, there is the parable of a person who came to the king and told him, “One of your provinces is in ruins.” [unclear]. The province in the parable refers to Malchus, to Knesses Yisroel and the Jewish people. [unclear]. And therefore [unclear], through the work of refinement and everything

16:40 Speaker 1 that we do, it is built. We need to build [unclear], so that Malchus will be built in the future. This brings us to the words, “Establish the work of our hands.” If [unclear], we will merit the coming of Moshiach Tzidkeinu. So we can see that this verse speaks about what will happen to Malchus when “the pleasantness of Hashem our G-d” is revealed in the world. We will merit it, and that will be the Geulah of Moshiach. This leads directly into “Hashem builds Jerusalem.” Jerusalem, too, represents Malchus. Jerusalem is a spiritual concept; it represents Malchus in general. It is known that, in the inner dimension, Jerusalem represents Malchus. [unclear] the Beis Hamikdash, and particularly Malchus and Jerusalem. If so, “Hashem builds Jerusalem” means that “the pleasantness of Hashem our G-d” will be revealed, and consequently Jerusalem will be built. Then Jerusalem will be built—Jerusalem as Malchus, which is now [unclear]. Jerusalem also means yirah shalem, complete awe. Jerusalem encompasses awe, meaning yiras Shamayim. So Malchus, and the home of Malchus, are connected with yiras Shamayim. “Hashem builds Jerusalem” means the building of yiras Shamayim. What is exile? It is a state in which yiras Shamayim is constricted. Geulah means that yiras Shamayim will be built and awe of Heaven will be revealed. Or, to put it another way, at present we need to make ourselves vessels for yiras Shamayim, and through that the Geulah of Moshiach will come. How should we put it? Next time, though, we’ll explain more deeply the various interpretations of these

18:36 Speaker 1 verses.