Ki Thisa \ Psalm 125

Trust in G-d

1. A song of ascents. Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion, which will not falter but will abide forever.

א. שיר המעלות הבטחים בה' כהר ציון לא ימוט לעולם ישב

2. Jerusalem has mountains around it, and the Lord is around His people from now and to eternity.

ב. ירושלם הרים סביב לה וה' סביב לעמו מעתה ועד עולם

3. For the rod of wickedness will not rest on the lot of the righteous, in order that the righteous do not stretch out their hands into wrongdoing.

ג. כי לא ינוח שבט הרשע על גורל הצדיקים למען לא ישלחו הצדיקים בעולתה ידיהם

4. Be good, O Lord, to the good and to the upright in their hearts.

ד. היטיבה יהוה לטובים ולישרים בלבותם

5. And those who turn their crooked ways-may the Lord lead them away with the workers of iniquity, [and may there be] peace on Israel.

ה. והמטים עקלקלותם יוליכם ה' את פעלי האון שלום על ישראל

The subject of Psalm 125 is trust in G-d (ביטחון בה'). This is different than faith in G-d. With trust in G-d the concept of reward and punishment for keeping the Torah has been seen enough through the eye of flesh and blood. Extrapolation, which is the medium for faith, therefore is not used.

This idea is expressed in the third verse namely that the dominion of evil will not rule over the righteous so that the righteous will not start doing bad things. One can ask how could a person do bad things and still be considered a tsadik. The answer is that if the environment is sufficiently corrupt than corrupt things become acceptable. This is illustrated by the following story.

England ruled the Holy Land at the time that large numbers of Jews were moving there. They were basically benevolent and in an attempt to keep peace with the Arabs they forbid Jews to immigrate to the land of Israel. One day the British caught two Jewish families from Syria trying to enter Israel illegally. If they were sent back the Syrians would certainly execute them as traitors. This bothered the British High Commissioner very much, therefore he requested an audience with a great sage from among the Jews, the saintly rabbi of Jerusalem Yosef Tsvi Dushinsky. He explained, “As you know there is a law forbidding Jewish immigration into the land. Should I permit someone to transgress this law? How would you deal with transgressor of Jewish law?”

The rabbi started by quoting our psalm, “The rod of wickedness will not rest on the lot of the righteous, in order that the righteous do not stretch out their hands into wrongdoing.” He continued, “What causes the righteous to stretch out their hands into iniquity, which obviously implies transgressing the law? Isn’t it the rod of wickedness, in other words, the laws fabricated by the wicked which are untenable to the righteous. He concluded, “We pray that the law against Jewish immigration will be repealed so that more Jews will not be arrested for breaking the law”. The commissioner was moved and accepted the two families into the country.

Hundreds of years earlier the Talmud (Buba Kama 113a) dealt with the same issue. “Is it not a definite transgression to evade the customs tax? Didn’t Shmuel state that the law of the kingdom is law? Rabbi Hanina ben Kahana said that Samuel stated that a customs-collector who is bound by no limit [is surely not acting lawfully]. At the School of Rabbi Jannai it was stated that we were dealing here with a customs collector who acted on his own authority.” In other words no obligation exists to respect a law giving a thief a license to steal. Similarly Rabbi Nachman of Breslav states, “It is acceptable for a tsadik to be very deceitful with a crook”.

This is the problem. If it is common for a very long time and the crooks by any reckoning do well, then it really seems as if it’s proper to lie, cheat, and steal when it suits you and the people who don’t do it are fools. As for the Torah prohibitions against such behavior, it’s a cute heartwarming idea, but in the real world you do what you have to do.

The psalm comes to tell us that such a thing will not happen. Rather people who have trust in G-d will be like Mount Zion. Just like the Temple Mount and the Torah it represents do not change the righteous will not change. Just like mountains surround Mount Zion to defend it, the Holy One Blessed be He will surround the straight of heart to defend them. For a while the malevolent will do well. After that their brains and lives will become as twisted as their actions. As for those who trusted in the Torah, who are called by the psalm Israel, and they will see peace.

לע"נ הסבתא טויבע בת יואל לייב ז"ל נלב"ע כה בשבט תשכ"ג

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