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
העלון ניתן לקבל בדואר אלקטרוני וגם באתר
http://dyschreiber.blogspot.co.il
Blogger English http://dyschreiber.blogspot.com/2016/02/ki-thisa-psalm-125.html
Blogger Hebrew http://dyschreiber.blogspot.com/2016/02/163.html
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