Introduction
Before us is the final portion of Psalm 49, a psalm entirely devoted to the question of what remains for man and what accompanies him. The verses before us open with a verse that on the surface appears to be a collection of obscure words, and we will try to see how the commentators decipher it - Rashi in the manner of Peshat and Derash, and the Malbim through the powers of the soul. From there, we will proceed to the central message of the end of the psalm: do not be envious of the wealthy person, for upon his death he will take nothing with him.
"Like Sheep to Sheol They Are Set" - Clarifying the Words
כַּצֹּאן לִשְׁאוֹל שַׁתּוּ מָוֶת יִרְעֵם וַיִּרְדּוּ־בָם יְשָׁרִים לַבֹּקֶר וְצוּרָם לְבַלּוֹת שְׁאוֹל מִזְּבֻל לוֹ׃ - Like sheep they are set for Sheol; death shall shepherd them; and the upright shall rule over them in the morning, and their form shall wear away Sheol, from its dwelling place.
Rashi explains: "Like sheep to Sheol" - just as sheep are gathered into a pen, so the wicked are gathered into Sheol. And what is the meaning of "shattu" (שַׁתּוּ)? First, it does not come from the language of drinking (shetiah), for the letter Tav here has a dagesh. As is known, a dagesh often replaces a doubled letter: for example, the root Ch-N-N - we ought to say "chonneneni" with three Nuns, yet we say "choneni", where a single Nun stands in place of two. So too here, Rashi says, the dageshed Tav stands in place of two Tavs: "shotetu", from the root of shetut, tashtit (foundation), as in "when the foundations (hashatot) are destroyed." That is to say, these people go to the bottom of Sheol, to its very foundation, to its lowest level - and it is wealth that draws them there like sheep; it brings them to Sheol and to its lowest depths.
"Death shall shepherd them" (mavet yir'em) - the Angel of Death will consume them. And do not wonder that the language of consuming is expressed in terms of grazing or pasturing (re'iyah), says Rashi, for we find the language of eating regarding the Angel of Death: "The firstborn of death devours his limbs" (Iyov 18:13) - "the firstborn of death" is the Angel of Death, and "devours his limbs" means eats his branches (limbs). Thus, death is called eating. Another interpretation in Rashi: "yir'em" stems from crushing, as if it were said "yero'a'em", he will break them, as in the phrase "You shall break them (tero'em) with an iron rod." And likewise we find in the language of Chazal: "ra mazleh" - his fortune is crushed, as opposed to "bari mazleh" - his fortune is robust.
"And the Upright Shall Rule over Them in the Morning" - The Morning of the Redemption
Rashi states: "In the morning" - refers to the day of the Redemption. When the morning of Klal Yisrael dawns, the upright will dominate the wicked. This is what is meant by the verse, "And you shall tread down the wicked" (Malachi 3:21), and Chazal taught that the wicked will be like ashes beneath the soles of the feet of the righteous. Who will rule over the wicked? The righteous will rule over them - in exchange for the fact that today the wicked dominate the upright. Today they stand at the head of the government and the systems, lording over us, but in the future it will be the reverse. How much more so regarding those who are not of the covenant, who dominate us, afflict us, and persecute us - that the upright will rule over them, meaning the upright among Am Yisrael will dominate those wicked ones.
"And Their Form Shall Wear Away Sheol" - Sheol Is Consumed but They Are Not Consumed
"Tzuram" - from the word tzuratam (their form), as Rashi explains: the form of the wicked will wear away Sheol. And what is the meaning of "wear away" (levallot)? Just as a person wears out a garment, meaning he continues to exist after the garment is worn out and gone. And as people say to someone wearing a new garment: "May you wear it out and renew it" - that you should outlast the garment, and the garment should not outlast you, Heaven forbid. So too here: the form of the wicked wears out Sheol, in the sense that Sheol is consumed, yet they are not consumed - their suffering will continue even after Sheol itself is gone. "Mizvul lo" - Rashi explains: from being a dwelling place for them. Sheol will no longer be their dwelling, and they will remain, continuing in their suffering. And through what? The Holy One, blessed be He, will draw the sun out of its sheath to scorch them, as it says, "And the coming day shall burn them up" (Malachi 3:19). Once there is no longer a Sheol, Hashem will bring out the sun to burn them. And Chazal expounded "mizvul lo" as indicating the reason: for what reason will all this come upon them? Because they stretched out their hands against the Zevul - Zevul being the Beit HaMikdash - meaning, because they destroyed the House of Hashem. Therefore, Gehinnom is consumed and Sheol is consumed, but they are not consumed; rather, He will continue to scorch them.
The Malbim: The Life Forces Like Sheep Led to Slaughter
The Malbim explains the verse as an allegory for man's faculties. The life forces in this world are comparable to sheep: an animal's ultimate end is slaughter; that is its destined purpose. "Set for Sheol" - and who shepherds them? Death. Just as sheep are fattened in order to be slaughtered, and the feeding and pasturing are not done out of concern for the animal's well-being, but with the aim that in the end, at slaughter, there will be abundant meat - the purpose is our own benefit.
And so, says the Malbim, it is with man as well. Through death and the decay inherent in physical nature, his vital fluids are constantly melting away, and he requires food to replenish what has dissolved. That is to say: what is the purpose of a person's livelihood and sustenance? To replenish what has dissolved. For even if a person does nothing at all - no exercise, nothing - the body consumes itself. The proof: a week ago he weighed eighty kilos, and today seventy-six - he did nothing, he just did not eat. Where did it disappear? The body consumes itself; fats enter the bloodstream and continue to sustain the person. This is what the Malbim defines as "his vital fluids are constantly melting away": the moisture in man melts and evaporates, and therefore he needs food to replace what dissolved, otherwise he would be reduced to skin and bones.
However, the Malbim adds: the replenishment is weaker than the radical moisture (the primordial vitality), and therefore the radical moisture is depleted and diminishes continuously until he dies. Does the replenishment we provide through food completely replace the radical moisture? No. And how do we see this? Look at a person aged fifty, sixty, seventy - dryness sets in: hair turns white and then falls out, skin shrivels upon the bone, the face dries out, the body weakens, bone density is lost. Thus, the replenishment provided by food is not total; if it truly replenished the vitality that leaves us, we would remain young forever. Replenishment exists, but only partially, and even if one eats more, it will not be any more complete. And so, the radical moisture steadily dwindles until man departs from the world.
"The Upright in the Morning" - The Soul Powers that Inspect Man
Yet counterbalancing these forces - the physical life-forces that lead man and draw him closer to death from the moment of birth - there are also upright forces within man: the spiritual forces. These are the powers of the soul: the intellect, understanding, knowledge, and good character traits. These are called upright and pure forces. Just as that flock - representing the physical life-forces that rule over man - leads him toward death, so too the spiritual forces rule over him and lead him to life, perfecting him and bringing him to eternal life. They govern through the soul's power of dominion, "and they will inspect them as a shepherd inspects his flock" - and this is "and the upright shall rule over them in the morning": the upright forces master man, leading him to inspect himself, examine himself, and perfect himself.
"And their form [vetzuram]" - what is the strong rock (tzur) within man? His soul, which is called a rock, as in "Shall the rock be removed out of its place?" And it rules over them "to waste away Sheol from being a dwelling for it": that it should wear down Sheol, so that Sheol will not be a dwelling place - a home and habitation - for that rock. And who brings us to a state where Sheol will not be our dwelling? Those very powers of the soul. The forces in which one invests - Torah study, performing mitzvot, perfecting the soul - are what inspect and perfect man. Through them, "their rock", which is the soul itself, will be strong and potent, possessing the power of dominion so that they will not descend to Sheol, nor arrive at Gehennom where the wicked go. Thus, the spiritual soul overcomes those natural forces and brings man to eternity. The physical forces consistently lead man toward death, while the spiritual forces consistently lead him toward eternity - when he utilizes them properly.
"Yet God Will Redeem My Soul"
אַךְ־אֱלֹהִים יִפְדֶּה נַפְשִׁי מִיַּד־שְׁאוֹל כִּי יִקָּחֵנִי סֶלָה׃ - Yet God will redeem my soul from the power of Sheol, for He will take me, Selah.
Homiletically, one might say that King David, who was constantly pursued, prays: "will redeem my soul from the hand of Sheol" - from the hand of King Saul. But as for the core explanation: Rashi explains - I, who inclined my ear to the parable and internalized the lesson that "he is likened to the beasts that perish," drawing moral instruction from this to stay far from such a path, God will redeem my soul so that I will not have to descend to Sheol, and He will guide me to walk in an upright path. "For He will take me, Selah" - when my time arrives, Hashem will take me, not the Angel of Death, nor Dumah, nor other harmful spirits, because I inclined my ear to the parable; that is, I listened to the parable and its moral.
And the Malbim explains: I was not drawn after materiality, and therefore God will redeem my soul - the spiritual soul - from the hand of Sheol. As we explained, with the wicked, the body leads them toward Sheol; but as for me, God will redeem my soul from the grasp of Sheol, "for He will take me, Selah" - Hashem will take me to Himself, so that my soul will be bound up in the bundle of life with Hashem, the God of spirits. And "Selah" - here he concludes the matter.
"Do Not Fear When a Man Grows Rich" - In What Way Is He Superior to You?
אַל־תִּירָא כִּי־יַעֲשִׁר אִישׁ כִּי־יִרְבֶּה כְּבוֹד בֵּיתוֹ׃ כִּי לֹא בְמוֹתוֹ יִקַּח הַכֹּל לֹא־יֵרֵד אַחֲרָיו כְּבוֹדוֹ׃ - Do not fear when a man grows rich, when the glory of his house increases. For when he dies he will take nothing; his glory will not descend after him.
The Ibn Ezra explains that here the psalmist returns to admonish the wise man: do not fear if you lack wealth and envy the rich man. You see the rich man prospering and say, "Where am I compared to him?" Do not fear when a man grows rich; do not be distressed that he has become wealthy while you have not. And if you ask why - after all, you live just as he lives. In this respect, he does not live any more than you do. This does not refer to length of days, which is certainly not guaranteed, but to the very nature of life itself: does the rich man have a different body? A different kind of life? You live just as he does. And if you should say, "But at death he will take his wealth with him" - "for when he dies he will take nothing"; at his death he takes nothing, and nothing remains of it for him. If so, he possesses no advantage over you whatsoever.
As we mentioned earlier, when Yosef dreamed the dream of the sheaves, "and my sheaf arose and stood upright, and behold, your sheaves gathered around and bowed down to my sheaf," Scripture notes that the brothers hated him - but they were not jealous of him. Why? Because that dream expressed economic prosperity: that he would have grain, food, and wealth. People are not envious over money, because money is fleeting and does not remain with a person, and one does not envy something that does not last. But when he dreamed the second dream, "and behold, the sun and the moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me" - "his brothers envied him," for the sun, moon, and stars are eternal, spiritual matters. Over spirituality one is envious; over material wealth one is not envious.
The Asset Declaration of Rabbi Yitzchak Abarbanel
This is like the story told of Rabbi Yitzchak Abarbanel, who served as the finance minister in Spain. There were many ministers there who were bothered that Ferdinand, the ruler of Spain, had chosen to appoint him of all people as treasurer, and they began fabricating stories that he was embezzling funds and betraying the king's trust. The king did not suspect him at all, but because they harassed him incessantly, he said, "Fine, I will ask him for an accounting, a declaration of assets." The minister Abarbanel sat up all night writing, and submitted a whole notebook. The king began reading and was astonished: of all the vast wealth he knew Abarbanel possessed, nothing appeared in the declaration. He immediately concluded that the accusers must have spoken the truth, cast him into prison, and took the opportunity to nationalize all his property.
Afterward, the king thought to himself: Abarbanel is a very wise man, and it is impossible that he would make such a foolish move and conceal things from me that he knows I already know. He decided to summon him for a hearing. He asked him, "How could you do such a thing?" Abarbanel replied, "You asked me what assets I possess. I went home, sat up all night, and recorded all the money I have given to charity throughout my lifetime until now - that is the declaration I submitted to you. True, it is far less than the assets you know of, but this is what I truly own. And the proof is that in a single moment you nationalized all my property, yet there is one thing you could not touch: the money I gave to charity, as it says, 'and your righteousness shall go before you.' No one can take that away from me; it remains mine forever. You asked what my assets are - these are my assets."
Regarding this it is said, "For when he dies he shall take nothing." Physical acquisitions, the Malbim explains, he cannot take; what, then, can he take? Only what he gave to tzedakah. These are the acquisitions that will accompany him even after death, in the sense of "and your righteousness shall go before you" - the good deeds you performed. Consequently, "nor shall his glory descend after him": the honor he acquired in this world will not follow him there. For through what did he acquire honor? Through material things - being wealthy, an aristocrat, a man of means. Such honor does not descend after him. What will he truly take? Only spiritual accomplishments.
"He Shall Not Take All" - Does He Take Part?
The commentators ask: "For when he dies he shall not take all" - does this imply that he does take part of it? First, the simple meaning: Ibn Ezra explains that "shall not take all" means not even part of it, in the manner of "and our soul is dried away, there is nothing at all [ein kol]," meaning we have nothing. The Radak follows the same line of thought: "when he dies he shall not take all" means he takes nothing of it, like "and the poor man had nothing [ein kol]," meaning he had nothing at all.
However, based on the principle we learned from the story of Rabbi Yitzchak Abarbanel, there is an additional explanation: Does a person who amassed wealth here truly take nothing of it above? He does take something - whatever he gave to tzedakah! One cannot say that he takes nothing of his wealth; he certainly takes a portion of it. And this is the meaning of "For when he dies he shall not take all" - he does not take everything, but he does take a part: that portion which he gave to charity, the wealth that served him in the service of Hashem - that he will take, while whatever did not serve him in the service of Hashem, he will not take.
There is yet another explanation, which Rav Yaakov Galinsky used to share in a humorous vein. There are people about whom legendary stories are told: this one is worth a hundred million, and that one twenty billion. But after the person passes away, it suddenly turns out that he was not a billionaire at all, but barely a millionaire - these assets were under lien, those were leveraged with loans, a third was conditional from the outset, and so forth. In short, all the wealth we assumed was so grand turns out to be far less. By the way, there was only one person about whom no rumors of wealth were ever debunked, which is why when people want to describe someone as wealthy, they say "as rich as Korach." Korach is the only one about whom people did not say after his death, "He was not really that rich," because all his money went down into the earth with him, and no one was there to count and verify whether he was truly as wealthy as reported! With all other rich people, it turns out after their death that they were not as wealthy as we thought. And that is the meaning of "For when he dies he shall not take all" - not all, but he did take part: people thought he had a hundred million and it turned out he only had twenty. And what about the eighty? That he took with him to the grave; all those rumors went with him. Thus he did not take everything; he took part, and part remained behind.
"Though While He Lived He Blessed His Soul"
כִּי־נַפְשׁוֹ בְּחַיָּיו יְבָרֵךְ וְיוֹדֻךָ כִּי־תֵיטִיב לָךְ׃ - Though while he lived he blessed his soul, and men praise you when you do well for yourself.
Rashi explains: The wealthy man blesses himself in his heart, saying, "Peace be upon you, my soul; no harm will befall you." He is self-assured, riding high, successful, thinking he will never lose or suffer harm. But Rashi emphasizes: others do not say this about him. "And men praise you when you do well for yourself" - you, if you listen to my words, everyone will praise you. Straighten your ways and make them good; if you want others to speak well of you too, acquire a good name through mitzvot, good deeds, and the service of Hashem. Then "men will praise you when you do well for yourself" - when you do good for your own true self. But when you merely amass wealth, you have benefited others, namely your heirs - to them you have done good, but where did you do good for yourself? Benefiting yourself exists only in acquiring spiritual gains.
And the Malbim explains: Whoever desires his acquisitions to truly be his - as we said, "And your righteousness shall go before you," for nothing remains with a person except his spiritual acquisitions - should expend his acquisitions on the matters of his soul. "Though in his life he blesses his soul" - "blesses" (yevarech) in the sense of increasing and magnifying: during his lifetime, he should invest in the needs of his soul rather than in coarse, material matters. Then he will merit, "and men will praise you when you do well to yourself" - only then will they praise you, when you do good "to yourself," to your soul, rather than doing good to others who will inherit your material possessions while you have left nothing for yourself.
"It shall go to the generation of his fathers"
תָּבוֹא עַד־דּוֹר אֲבוֹתָיו עַד־נֵצַח לֹא יִרְאוּ־אוֹר׃ - It shall go to the generation of his fathers; they shall never see light.
Rashi explains: When you complete your days and pass away, you will arrive and see the generation of the wicked, the ancestors of that wicked person, judged in Gehinnom; "they shall never see light" - meaning they remain there forever. In other words, when you want to see the ruin of the wicked person, you will see it there in the World of Truth - you will see where his fathers are, and then you will no longer envy him or aspire to be like him. This is the meaning of "Do not be afraid when a man grows rich, when the glory of his house increases."
Radak explains in another way: Since we mentioned the soul of the wicked person, which ought to have done good for itself but did not, because he was drawn after material acquisitions that leave no lasting benefit for the soul - this soul "shall go to the generation of his fathers," meaning that when he departs from the world, he will join his ancestors who were wicked like him. For children follow in their fathers' footsteps: the children heard that at home people only talked about money, and they too continued in this manner. Then his soul will perish along with the souls of his ancestors: "they shall never see light." Regarding the righteous, by contrast, it is written that they will see light, as Ibn Ezra cites from Sefer Ben Gurion, which refers to the light of the World to Come as "the great light." Light is always an expression of something positive and spiritual, whereas darkness is an expression of Gehinnom and negativity, as in "The people walking in darkness have seen a great light." Light signifies superiority and an abundance of goodness. Therefore, "they shall never see light" - he will see that the souls of his ancestors are lost forever and have no light like the righteous, for the righteous have light in their dwellings, the light of life - whereas they will not merit the light of life.
And the Malbim explains: If you trace back to the generation of the ancestors of that man whose glory did not descend after him, you will see that they shall never see light.
"Man in his splendor, yet does not understand"
אָדָם בִּיקָר וְלֹא יָבִין נִמְשַׁל כַּבְּהֵמוֹת נִדְמוּ׃ - Man in his splendor, yet does not understand, is likened to the beasts that perish.
What is the splendor (yekar) that man possesses? His soul, the eternal soul - this is true splendor, true glory, eternal honor. "Yet does not understand" - he does not contemplate this. And what does he trade his soul for? For physical, earthly matters. Therefore, "he is likened to the beasts that perish": an animal has no comprehension of spiritual attainments whatsoever, but only of the physical; that is all it knows. And this person, who takes this splendor, this spirituality, and squanders it on coarse matters - resembles an animal, which likewise lacks an eternally enduring soul; he conducts himself in its manner and is likened to it.
In summary:
The end of the psalm contrasts the two forces within man: the physical life forces, which are like sheep shepherded by death and constantly lead man toward his end, versus the upright faculties - intellect, understanding, and character traits - which refine man, bring him to completion, and lead him to eternity, until "their form" (tzuram), his soul, outlasts Sheol and Sheol cannot serve as its dwelling place. Hence the message: do not fear and do not envy the wealthy man, for "not in his death will he take anything, nor will his glory descend after him" - all coarse possessions remain here, and only that which was used for the service of Hashem and for charity goes before him. "Though in his life he blesses his soul" - a person should invest during his life in the matters of his soul, and then "men will praise you when you do well to yourself," for true benefit is to the soul. And whoever fails to understand this splendor - "Man in his splendor, yet does not understand, is likened to the beasts that perish."