The theme of Psalm 123 is Israel’s prayer to return to the
house of the Holy One, blessed be He, and devotedly keep His mandates because
they are disillusioned by the humiliations of the exile. This is its text.
1. A song of ascents.
שִׁיר
הַמַּעֲלוֹת
To You I lifted up my eyes,
אֵלֶיךָ
נָשָׂאתִי אֶת עֵינַי
You Who dwell in heaven.
הַיֹּשְׁבִי
בַּשָּׁמָיִם
2. Behold,
הִנֵּה
as the eyes of servants are to the hand of their masters,
כְעֵינֵי
עֲבָדִים אֶל יַד אֲדוֹנֵיהֶם
as the eyes of a handmaid are to the hand of her
mistress,
כְּעֵינֵי
שִׁפְחָה אֶל יַד גְּבִרְתָּהּ
so too are our eyes to the Lord our God, until He favors
us.
כֵּן
עֵינֵינוּ אֶל ה' אֱלֹקֵינוּ עַד שֶׁיְּחָנֵּנוּ.
3. Favor us, O Lord, favor us,
חָנֵּנוּ
ה' חָנֵּנוּ
for we are fed up with contempt.
כִּי
רַב שָׂבַעְנוּ בוּז
4. Our soul is fed up
רַבַּת
שָׂבְעָה לָּהּ נַפְשֵׁנוּ
with the mockery of the complacent,
הַלַּעַג
הַשַּׁאֲנַנִּים
the contempt of the arrogant tormentors.
הַבּוּז
לִגְאֵיוֹנִים.
This psalm begins with Israel lifting its eyes up in prayer to the One
who dwells in heaven, meaning to the Holy One blessed be He. The Metsudas David
explains that this means that we are looking expectantly for His help. More
generally Rabbi Yosef Tzvi Dushinsky explains that the singer is
lamenting the very long time that has already passed on Israel’s exile among
the nations. The prayer is addressed to the One who sits in heaven. The Radak
comments that this means that the supplicant is saying, I have no help on earth
and there is no hope except from You”.
The psalm compares Israel to
servants that have their eye on the hands of the master and the mistress. The
Malbim explains that this is the hand that sometimes beats them and other times
gives them bread and sustenance. The Radak develops this idea saying that
Israel in fact has no sustenance or income except from them therefore is always
looking towards them. The hope is that G-d will strengthen them, have mercy
upon them, and take them out of the exile. The siddur “Chelkat Yehoshua” of the
Biala Hasidim notes the psalm adds an extra letter in the word dwells (יושבי). It comments that one who utters a prayer
before the Holy King needs to express it from the depths in order that all the
ground below should be blessed and this additional letter hints at this
emphasis. Similarly the Radak comments that the phrase, “Be graceful to us”, is
doubled to strengthen the request because of the great length of time that we
have been fed up with the degradation of the exile.
The idea of an apprentice
whose eye is on the hand of the master craftsman hints at the idea of Israel
being a servant of Hashem. So to speak Israel’s intended profession is to be a
sage and a tsadik. The way this is achieved is by looking for the hand of G-d
in the religious literature and the physical world. By fixing ourselves on this
hand and emulating its actions, we hope to gain the qualities of the Almighty.
Israel is also compared to a son of G-d and this is hinted at by the verse
“like the eyes of a maidservant on the hand of the mistress”. A maidservant
works in the house of the master and to a certain extent is a part of his
household. One obtains the quality of being a son of G-d by turning to Him for
help with prayers of mercy especially in times of trouble.
The idea of being fed up with
the exile is an aspect of recognition and repentance. The reason Israel is in
exile is because they have turned away from serving in the house of Hashem to
stray after other pursuits. This is a confession that the adventure in the
exile has not gone well. Specifically our lives have been filled with the
mockery of those that are smug and vain as well as the degradation and torment
by the arrogant. We have had enough aggravation and wish to return to the table
of Hashem.
The Talmud (Berachos 3a) tells
a story about exile and prayer:
Rabbi Isaac
ben Shmuel says in the name of Rav: The night has three watches, and at each
watch the Holy One, blessed be He, sits, roars like a lion, and says, “Woe to
the children, on account of whose sins I destroyed My house, burnt My temple,
and exiled them among the nations of the world”.
It was
taught that Rabbi Yossi said, “I was once travelling on the road, and entered
into one of the ruins of Jerusalem in order to pray”. Elijah the prophet of
blessed memory appeared and waited for me at the door until I finished my
prayer. After I finished my prayer, he said to me, “Peace be with you, my
master!” and I replied, “Peace be with you, my master and teacher!” He said to
me, “My son, why did you go into this ruin?” I replied, “to pray”. He said to
me, “You should have prayed on the road”. I replied, “I was concerned that
passers-by might interrupt me”. He said to me, “You could have said an
abbreviated prayer”. At that moment I learned three things: One must not go
into a ruin; one may doven on the road; and if one does doven on the road, he
recites an abbreviated prayer.
He
continued, “My son, what sound did you hear in this ruin?” I replied, “I heard
a divine voice, cooing like a dove, and saying, “Woe to the children, that
because of their sins I destroyed My house and burnt My temple and exiled them
among the nations of the world!” He said to me, “By your life and by your head!
Not only in this moment does it so exclaim, but three times each day does it exclaim
thus! And more than that, whenever Israel goes into synagogues and schools and
responds ‘May His great name be blessed!’, the Holy One, blessed be He, shakes
His head and says, “Happy is the king who is thus praised in this house! And
woe to the father who had to exile his children, and woe to the children who
had to be banished from the table of their father!”
לע"נ
הסבא אהרן בן יוסף ז"ל נלב"ע כז בטבת תשכ"ו
העלון ניתן לקבל גם בדואר אלקטרוני וגם באתר http://dyschreiber.blogspot.co.il
Blogger English http://dyschreiber.blogspot.com/2015/11/vayaytsay-psalm-123-table-of-our-father.html
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