After the chapter described the uprising of the kings of the earth against Hashem and His anointed, and the Holy One, Blessed be He's response to them, King David turns to those very kings with words of rebuke and good counsel. Rashi makes a fundamental observation here on the words "Now therefore, O kings, be wise" - observe how the prophets of Israel are men of compassion, rebuking the nations of the world so that they turn away from their evil. We have already noted this in the past when examining "The burden of Edom," "The burden upon Arabia," and other prophecies delivered concerning the nations: their entire purpose is to warn the nations against the calamities so that they do not befall them, and the prophet delivers this out of compassion. So it is here as well.
וְעַתָּה מְלָכִים הַשְׂכִּילוּ הִוָּסְרוּ שֹׁפְטֵי אָרֶץ׃ - Now therefore, O kings, be wise; be admonished, you judges of the earth.
What is there to understand? The Malbim explains: Now that you see that the Holy One, Blessed be He, has granted me authority and given me sanction for this, having already established it as a decree in my hand that I may rule over the nations - not merely an inherited dominion, but an enduring possession, an absolute rule - and if I merely ask of Hashem, He will cut them down and destroy them; if so, why do you rebel? Why wait for the time when you will ultimately perish? You would do better to become wise right now.
Two expressions are used here: "Be wise" (haskilu) - through the light of intellect, meaning that rational contemplation itself will lead you to the conclusion that there is no benefit in rebelling against David, and you will then accept it willingly. "Be admonished" (hivaseru) - through chastisement, through fear of punishment. Some are unwilling to accept things through reason, and then one must "explain" it to them differently.
An illustration of this is the story of the worker: A foreman asked a laborer to bring cinderblocks up to the third floor. He told him once, twice, three times - and nothing moved. The contractor arrived and asked why the blocks were not upstairs. The foreman said: I told the laborer, but he did not listen. The contractor walked over to the laborer, gave him two slaps, and said: Ahmad, carry the blocks up now. Within five minutes, everything was upstairs. The foreman asked him: I spoke to you gently earlier, why didn't you do it? He replied: You didn't tell me. He spoke, but the contractor "explained." Some people need an explanation. And this is the intent of the verse: Isn't it better for you to be wise from the outset? Why reach the stage of being "admonished" through affliction? If you do not understand on your own, you will require chastisement.
עִבְדוּ אֶת יְהֹוָה בְּיִרְאָה וְגִילוּ בִּרְעָדָה׃ - Serve Hashem with fear, and rejoice with trembling.
If you serve Hashem with fear, you will gain that ultimately you will "rejoice with trembling": with that very same trembling with which you trembled from punishment, you will eventually experience joy, as you see that calamity does not befall you.
נַשְּׁקוּ בַר פֶּן יֶאֱנַף וְתֹאבְדוּ דֶרֶךְ כִּי יִבְעַר כִּמְעַט אַפּוֹ אַשְׁרֵי כָּל חוֹסֵי בוֹ׃ - Pay homage in purity, lest He become angry and you perish along the way, for His wrath may flare up in a moment; fortunate are all who take refuge in Him.
Rashi explains nashku var - hasten yourselves with purity of heart, meaning with clarity and cleanliness of heart. He also brings another explanation in the name of Menachem, that nashku is an expression of desire, as in "and your longing shall be for your husband" (ve'el ishech teshukatech).
The Malbim explains: "Kiss the pure one" (nashku var) - attach yourselves to the one selected and clarified by Hashem. The word derives from hashakah, touching or joining, like the wings that were "touching one to another" (mashikot ishah el achotah); every expression of hashakah denotes joining one thing to another. That is: attach yourselves to David, the King Messiah, who is the clarified and chosen one of Hashem, and by doing so, you are considered attached to the Holy One, Blessed be He, Himself. Be like the chaff that surrounds the grain and the wheat. For the worthless chaff is the chaff that is separated from the grain, which is "like chaff that the wind drives away." But even if you are chaff, it is within your power to be chaff that clings to the grain, and then at least the wind will not drive you away - you will be connected to holiness and to the servants of Hashem.
The Malbim adds that the word bar was specifically chosen here because it carries a dual meaning: first, clarified and chosen (mevorar), and second, grain and produce (bar), as in "and let them gather grain under Pharaoh's hand," "we will sell grain," "the threshing floors shall be full of grain," and "the valleys are clothed with grain." Thus, bar is both grain and that which is clarified and pure.
Corresponding to what was stated, "Serve Hashem with awe," the verse explains what there is to fear: "lest He become angry" (pen ye'enaf) - lest the Holy One, Blessed be He, become angry with you, "and you perish on the way" (vetovdu derech). "Losing the way" is always an expression for a nation that has broken down and reached crisis, as in "then they lose their way," "counsel has perished from the children," "for they are a nation void of counsel." And why? "For His anger will flare up in a moment" - if Hashem kindles even a little of His anger, you will already lose the way, already "the way of the wicked will perish." All the more so must you fear "lest He become angry," for anaf is an intense fury that consumes everything, an anger containing burning wrath (charon af), which brings total destruction. This is the progression: first "His anger will flare up in a moment," then "He will become angry" - the fury itself, and from it arises burning wrath. Therefore, it is fitting for you to fear Hashem.
And corresponding to what was said, "and rejoice with trembling" - this is "fortunate are all who take refuge in Him": rejoice in having taken refuge in Hashem. Here we have the method of the carrot and the stick: if you cling to Hashem, it will be well with you and you will rejoice; but if not, Hashem's wrath will flare, there will be anger, stern judgment, and burning wrath toward you, and of this you ought to be afraid.
אֲסַפְּרָה אֶל חֹק יְהֹוָה אָמַר אֵלַי בְּנִי אַתָּה אֲנִי הַיּוֹם יְלִדְתִּיךָ׃ - I will tell of the decree: Hashem said to me, "You are My son; today I have begotten you."
Radak notes that the Christians made much of this verse, interpreting it as referring to that man - whose name is associated with the acronym "may his name and memory be blotted out" - and making it a foundation for their error, which became a stumbling block for them. For they claim that that man is the son of the Holy One, Blessed be He, and behold, it is written: "Hashem said to me, 'You are My son.'"
The first refutation: Father and son cannot exist within the Godhead, because the Holy One, Blessed be He, is absolute unity, as the author of Chovot HaLevavot explains at length in Sha'ar HaYichud; and that which is an absolute unity cannot multiply, diminish, or divide. This does not mean "one" like a decimal one, which can be divided into two halves or into infinite fractions, but one that is an absolute, indivisible oneness. And in One Who is absolute unity, multiplicity is inapplicable, diminution is inapplicable, and division or having something else emanate from Him - another son, or the like - is utterly inapplicable.
Furthermore, Radak states: A father precedes a son in time, and the son comes into being through the power of the father. And although in terms of titles one is not called "father" until he has a son, and one is not called "son" unless he has a father, nevertheless, the one called father preceded in time the existence of the son. If so, according to what you say - father, son, and holy spirit - the part you call "father" precedes the part you call "son"; for if both existed at the exact same time, we would not call them father and son, but twins! The very fact that you call one "father" and the other "son" indicates that one preceded and the other followed. It follows that the entity you speak of as a divine power is a later divine power, a power that came into being only afterward. What kind of power is that? When speaking of Divinity, one speaks of He Who was, is, and will be, not of something brought into existence only later.
And if they ask: If so, according to your approach, what is the meaning of "You are My son" written here? The answer is: when we speak of the Divine, we speak only in allegories and metaphors, for we have no grasp of Him whatsoever. Leis machashava tefisa beh kelal - no thought can grasp Him at all. And when speaking of Divinity, our definitions are first and foremost what He is not: He is not physical, He has no form of a body, and physical concepts cannot perceive Him. We speak of Him in negative terms, because we cannot speak of Him positively and state what He is. And even when we speak in positive terms, it is only a metaphor: when we say "merciful and gracious," "the hand of Hashem," "the eyes of Hashem" - it is clear to all of us that these are allegories, for the Holy One, blessed be He, has neither hand nor eyes. And when Scripture wishes to say that the Holy One, blessed be He, acted with power, it says, "Hashem is a man of war" - and again, this is a metaphor, and one must never envision the Holy One, blessed be He, in armor with a sword in His hand.
We have already discussed how everything we describe in Divinity refers only to the Holy One, blessed be He, as manifested through the Sefirot, meaning after the mystery of the Tzimtzum (contraction), where Hashem contracted His light and brought down a thin ray of light, as Etz Chaim discusses at length, and as we have learned in Nefesh HaChaim and on other occasions. Within that thin ray of light, all the Sefirot were enclothed, and it is of them that we speak: of mercy, of kindness, of divine bounty. The four-letter Name of Hashem is their inner essence, the light that illuminates within them. But Hashem in His Essence is beyond the Tzimtzum, and for Him we have neither title nor name, and we do not designate Him by any name, for every name is limiting - when you assign a name, you place it into a mold.
Even "Ein Sof" (the Infinite) is not a definition of His Essence, may He be blessed. For the very concept of Ein Sof (without end) is puzzling: anything that has no beginning has no end either, so why jump straight to the end? Call Him "without beginning"! We have dealt with this at length in Sefer HaKuzari, and in brief: when we say Ein Sof, we are not speaking of Him, but of ourselves - infinite in our grasp of Him, meaning that we can never reach the end of comprehending Hashem. Yet we do have a beginning, for the Holy One, blessed be He, gave us a basic comprehension to understand something of Divinity, so that we know Whom to serve. To understand that there is a God, that He is a complete unity, that He created the world, that He has modes of governance and Sefirot, that He is zealous and avenging yet a merciful and gracious God - in all of this we have a beginning of comprehension. But "Can you find the mystery of God? Can you find the ultimate limit of the Almighty?" - that we do not possess. And when speaking of the Holy One, blessed be He, as He transcends the Tzimtzum, the Kabbalists say that we do not even have a beginning, and therefore it is not even fitting to call Him Ein Sof there, for we have no grasp of Him whatsoever, and we do not speak of Him at all. Everything we speak of is only from what the Holy One, blessed be He, channeled into the Sefirot and revealed of His light - Chesed channeling kindness, Gevurah channeling strict judgment, and so forth - and through this we have the ability to perceive Divinity. But to think that this is God in His Essence - certainly not.
Similarly, when Scripture says, "Ascribe strength to God" - this does not refer to Hashem in His Essence, for He has no need for strength: "If you act righteously, what do you give Him? Or what does He take from your hand?" Rather, when a person acts contrary to the will of Hashem, he dims the light of the Sefirot and the supernal flow of bounty, and this occurs only within the Sefirot, which are an emanation of light from Him, blessed be He, not in His Essence. In His Essence it is impossible to cause darkness and impossible to add good: if you acted righteously, you gave Him nothing, and if you caused harm, you affected Him not at all. What, then, did you affect? You affected the Sefirot, whose light was dimmed, and the loser is you. Once the light of the Sefirot is darkened, the bounty naturally does not descend properly, "and a maidservant inherits her mistress," the forces of impurity draw sustenance, and we are left receiving only crumbs.
According to this, when it says, "You are My son, today I have begotten you" - understand this as a metaphor. Just as we find the stars called, "When all the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy," which does not mean they are literal sons of the Holy One, blessed be He, but rather that since they emanate from Him, blessed be He, they are termed a "son." Likewise: "Israel is My son, My firstborn," "You are children to Hashem your God," "Is He not your Father Who created you?" and "I will be a father to him, and he shall be a son to Me" - all these expressions are in the nature of "son" in a metaphorical, spiritual sense, and not in the crude, physical sense of impregnating a woman and fathering a child. And just as our Sages say that whoever teaches his fellow's son Torah is considered as if he had fathered him and he is regarded as his son - this is by way of allegory and metaphor, not a literal biological father.
שְׁאַל מִמֶּנִּי וְאֶתְּנָה גוֹיִם נַחֲלָתֶךָ וַאֲחֻזָּתְךָ אַפְסֵי אָרֶץ׃ - Ask of Me, and I will give nations as your inheritance, and the ends of the earth as your possession.
Furthermore, the Radak says: Say to them, according to your doctrine, the father tells the son, "Ask of Me, and I will give nations as your inheritance." But how can the son ask of the father, when you maintain that he is a god just like Him and possesses equal power? Why would he need to ask anything of the father? Furthermore, before he asked, the nations were not his inheritance, for it says, "Ask of Me, and I will give" - and if he is God, why were the nations not his inheritance from the start? Was he a god of limited power who only later became a powerful god? In Divinity there is no deficiency, yet according to your doctrine, this god had to make requests and only afterward received appointments and powers - how could such a thing be?
And if they argue that the verse refers to the period when he was in the flesh, in a physical body, and after divinity took on flesh He told the flesh to ask of Him so that He would give him nations as an inheritance - the Radak responds that this too is impossible, for he had none of these things: he had neither nations as an inheritance nor as a possession; on the contrary, he was pursued and killed. What kind of god is unable to defend himself, such that people took him, hanged him, and crucified him? If Hashem told him, "Ask of Me, and I will give nations as your inheritance," why did he not ask, and why was it not given to him? The exact opposite occurred! Therefore, applying the verse to the time when he was in the body is utterly baseless.
And if you should suggest that the verse does not speak of physical conquest but of faith - that the nations would accept his faith as their heritage - the Radak responds that this too is impossible. For see that the majority of nations, whether Jews or Muslims, did not accept his faith. In fact, during his lifetime, practically no one accepted his faith; those who accepted it, mainly long after his death, were compelled by the power of the sword - the Crusades, which went about slaughtering anyone unwilling to accept the "religion of love," and in this way imposed his faith. The same occurred with Mohammed: "The law of Mohammed is by the sword"; they carried out campaigns of slaughter, murdering anyone who refused to accept the Ishmaelite religion - which prompted the Rambam in his day to dispatch the Epistle to Yemen, and more. This was not people recognizing an absolute truth and cleaving to it, but the force of the sword alone, and not even in his lifetime. It emerges, therefore, that one cannot say Hashem promised him that his faith would be an inheritance for all the nations, for during his life this was not granted to him at all, and even after his death there remain Muslims and Jews - and not all the nations are his inheritance.
And the Radak concludes: If they ask you for the true explanation of this psalm, choose one of two ways - either regarding David or regarding King Messiah, as Rashi explained, and the Radak follows that same path.
The conclusion of the psalm is a compassionate appeal to the kings of the earth: gain wisdom of your own accord, so that you will not require afflictions; serve Hashem with awe, and that very trembling will turn into rejoicing for you; and cleave to the one chosen by Hashem - becoming like chaff clinging to grain, which the wind cannot carry away. Set against this is the warning: if His wrath flares up even a little, you will already lose your way, all the more so in full fury - and opposing this stands: "Praiseworthy are all who take refuge in Him." As for the verses "You are My son" and "Ask of Me," upon which the Christians based their error, they are explained as referring to David or to the King Messiah. Within the absolute Unity of the Divine, the concepts of "father" and "son" do not apply, and all biblical expressions of sonship and birth are strictly allegorical and metaphorical - for regarding His Essence, blessed be He, "no thought can grasp Him at all," and all our descriptions pertain solely to His light as revealed through the Sefirot.