Psalm 62 is a psalm of trust: Dovid HaMelech contrasts trusting in Hashem alone with relying on flesh and blood. In this section, we examine three verses: the address to the pursuers - "How long will you plot against a man?", the description of their hypocrisy - "with his mouth they bless, but inwardly they curse", and finally the great declaration - "Men of low degree are only vanity, men of high degree are a lie." As is our custom, we will follow the commentators, foremost among them the Malbim, and see how each one opens a distinct window into the verse.
עַד־אָנָה תְּהוֹתְתוּ עַל־אִישׁ תְּרָצְּחוּ כֻלְּכֶם כְּקִיר נָטוּי גָּדֵר הַדְּחוּיָה׃ - How long will you plot mischief against a man? May all of you be slain, like a leaning wall, a tottering fence.
We have mentioned several times that wherever a verse is difficult in its simple meaning, the interpretations multiply. Here there are three questions: What is the meaning of "tehotetu"? What is "like a leaning wall, a tottering fence"? And what is the meaning of "teratzechu"?
Rashi cites the interpretation of Menachem, that the word "tehotetu" is related to "hit'ayu" - "hit'avitem lachem le'ochlah" (you gathered to eat), "vayeta rashei am" (he gathered the heads of the people) - which denotes gathering together. According to this: How long will you gather and assemble to pursue Dovid? Rashi himself states that in his opinion, it is closer to the word "havot" (calamities / ruin). Notice: the word "tehotetu" appears nowhere else in Tanach. The standard way to understand a rare word is to find it in another context and learn from that setting; when no other occurrence exists, the method is to compare it to similar roots. Therefore, some compared it to "hit'ayu", while Rashi compared it to "havot". "Havot" refers to deceitful and malicious thoughts, as in the verse "their tongue devises ruin" (havot bilshonam). According to this: How long will you devise evil thoughts of falsehood, ruin, and deceit against the man? Others explain that "tehotetu" means stretching out your tongue against people to speak evil of them, which derives from an Arabic root. In passing, Rav Yaavetz offers an interpretation that "tehotetu" is akin to "te'otetu", from the word for signs (otot); however, we shall follow the classic commentators.
Radak follows Rashi's direction: Dovid addresses the enemies - How long will you devise evil schemes against any individual in Israel, plotting to destroy and pursue Israel? And "teratzechu chulchem" (may all of you be slain) is phrased as a prayer and a wish: May it be His will that you all be struck down. Yet this presents a difficulty: if you have already consigned them to the grave, how can you immediately say "like a leaning wall, a tottering fence", implying that they still exist and are merely teetering on the verge of falling? Because of this difficulty, Radak explains that there are two stages here: in the first stage, fear will accompany you all your days, like a leaning wall and a tottering fence about to collapse; and ultimately - "you will all be slain", and your end will come through slaughter. Thus does he proclaim to the nations that pursue Israel.
The holy Alshich understands this as addressing a person who places his trust in flesh and blood, thinking his salvation will come from this prominent individual or that official. Here, "tehotetu" is from the language of submission: How long will you humble and prostrate yourselves before a man? "Ish" (man) always denotes an important person. You see that he has wealth, power, authority, influence, and connections, so you come before him, weeping over your distress, crying out, "Save us, for the waters have reached our soul!" - debasing yourselves before him, seeing him as the source of salvation.
And regarding this, the verse says: "May all of you be slain" (teratzechu chulchem) - you are bringing about your own murder. For you fall under the curse: "Cursed is the man who trusts in man, and makes flesh his arm, and whose heart departs from Hashem." First of all, in all likelihood you will receive no salvation, and this disappointment may lead to actual death. And even if it does not lead to physical death, there is a death of the soul here. For the death of the soul means that you fail to give your soul its true vitality, not clinging to the Source of Life; when you place your trust in flesh and blood, you disconnect from the Source of Life and bind yourself to mere mortal flesh, and you are considered to have murdered your own soul.
And what do you have to rely on with him? "Like a leaning wall" - you are like one who sits beneath a leaning wall, in grave danger. Even if a miracle is performed and you are saved, a miracle calls attention to sin and deducts from your merits. Do not think that this influential man will tell you plainly, "I cannot help"; on the contrary, he makes you promises, and this is "a tottering fence" (geder hadechuyah) - he defers (docheh) you from day to day. He says: "Not right now, it did not work out today, I will speak with him tomorrow, I will see about it the day after tomorrow, perhaps I can arrange it like this." Seeing how much you rely on him, he finds it hard to disappoint you and admit he is powerless. According to the Alshich, the exact significance of the word "geder" (fence) is not entirely clear; perhaps it means he places you within the category (geder) of endless postponement. In any case, the idea is clear: it would have been far better had he told you immediately that he cannot help, for then you would have known to turn directly to Hashem and trust in Him. But now, because you exalted him until he imagines himself the savior, and he continually puts you off from time to time while sustaining your illusion that salvation will spring from him - you have made flesh your arm, fallen under the category of "cursed", "you will all be slain", and you sit beneath a leaning wall that will ultimately collapse upon you and bury you.
The Malbim offers an original explanation. First, like Rashi, he interprets tehotetu as an expression of ruin and destruction (shever): How long will you bring ruin and destruction for the sake of a man - that is, on account of a man? This refers to a situation David has already addressed in previous psalms: the pressure from Shaul to bring David to him, with everyone wanting to fulfill Shaul's will and therefore pursuing David. Because of Shaul, you seek to bring ruin upon David.
Regarding this, he tells them, "You shall be deemed murderers, all of you" (teratzechu chulchem) - which does not mean that they will be murdered, but that they are the murderers: you are deemed murderers. Even if you say, "We are only following orders; Shaul commanded us to pursue you" - nevertheless, you are considered murderers. Why? "Like a leaning wall, a tottering fence." The parable is this: there is a leaning wall, about to collapse, and there is a tottering fence that was pushed by something else. The scenario here is that the leaning wall collapsed and struck the fence, and the fence then collapsed onto a person and killed him. Now, you might say: it was not the fence that killed him; it was the wall that pushed it! Yet the truth is that the fence also shares the blame, for had the fence been sturdy, the wall would have collapsed while the fence remained standing, never falling onto the person behind it. It was only because the fence was inherently frail that the wall fell on it, pushed it down, and killed him. It turns out that the killing is attributed to both the wall and the fence.
So too in the nimshal: Shaul is pushing you to make you fall upon David, and you are like the fence. You say, "It was not me; the wall pushed me; I am just following orders" - do not imagine that this will exempt you from punishment. The murder is attributed to you as well, because you are like the tottering fence: had you been strong enough, Shaul would have exerted pressure on you and you would not have listened to him, nor would you have carried out his will.
This principle is clear according to Halachah as well, and not just in contemporary law that everyone knows today: if you receive an order from a commander, and that order is manifestly and egregiously unlawful, you will be punished if you carry it out. If a military commander tells his soldiers to enter a village armed and spray gunfire indiscriminately, one cannot say, "I was following orders" - you were forbidden to do so. There are orders that are flagrantly unlawful, and orders that contradict the overarching law itself, and in such cases, one is obligated to refuse.
The Yaavetz introduces two teachings of Chazal to explain the verse. The first: that they were constantly suspecting David of sins, which gave them a clean conscience to pursue him. They said: David is wicked, David is a sinner, David stumbled with a married woman, David is a thief - they pinned everything on him. Thus they felt that it was permissible to pursue him, and even a mitzvah to pursue him, for it is a mitzvah to pursue transgressors. And there is no doubt, the Yaavetz notes, that had Shaul, the chosen of Hashem, believed that David was righteous, he would not have pursued him so relentlessly; while Doeg and Achitophel explicitly declared his blood forfeit, considering him an outright wicked person.
Through this, we can also understand what we learned in Sefer Shmuel, when David did not appear at the meal on Rosh Chodesh, and Shaul remarked: "It is an accidental occurrence, he is not ritually pure, for he has not been purified" (mikreh hu bilti tahor hu ki lo tahor). The explanation is: "an accidental occurrence, he is not pure" - he experienced a nocturnal emission; "for he is not pure" - and that is natural for him, for David is impure in his ways, ruddy with fine eyes, so it is only natural that he would stumble into such impurity. In other words: do not think this is merely an accident that could happen to anyone; with him it is to be expected, because he is not pure, because David commits sins. They viewed him as a sinner, and thereby declared his blood forfeit and did whatever they pleased.
The second premise: Chazal say that one who speaks lashon hara is considered like a shedder of blood, and the one who listens to it is no better and is also considered a shedder of blood, all the more so when the slander is entirely false. Therefore David says: "How long will you scheme ruin against a man?" - how long will you persist in this distortion and corruption, speaking evil against a man who is truly a man, a God-fearing man? And therefore, "you will be deemed murderers, all of you" - all of you, both the speaker and the listener, are considered murderers, for one who speaks lashon hara is judged like a shedder of blood. "And you are like a leaning wall" - which evokes a person's sins. How long will you continue along this crooked path? You are no better than murderers in your pursuit of me.
אַךְ מִשְּׂאֵתוֹ יָעֲצוּ לְהַדִּיחַ יִרְצוּ כָזָב בְּפִיו יְבָרֵכוּ וּבְקִרְבָּם יְקַלְלוּ־סֶלָה׃ - Only to topple him from his heights have they schemed, they delight in falsehood; with his mouth they bless, but inwardly they curse, Selah.
Rashi explains that misa'ato relates to elevation (hitnase'ut): you are afraid lest David rise to power and reign, and then settle scores with anyone who stood against him until now, paying you your due retribution - and therefore you want to get rid of him right now. And "with his mouth they bless" - out of fear of David, they dare not do anything to his face; therefore, with their mouths they bless him, but in their thoughts they curse him. As for the difficulty that the text should have said "with their mouths" (befihem) in the plural, Rashi resolves this: with the mouth of each and every one of them they bless - each individual blesses with his mouth, but inwardly, in their thoughts, they curse.
Radak understands "misa'ato" (from his elevation) not in reference to David, but in reference to the Holy One, blessed is He: "misa'ato" - from the greatness and exaltedness of God, "they have counseled to cast down" - each one advises his fellow to turn him away from the exaltedness of God and to distance himself from the Creator, blessed is He, in the manner of an instigator and seducer. And they do not believe that Hashem knows their deeds and thoughts, and therefore "they take pleasure in deceit" - they speak falsely, with one thing in their mouth and another in their heart: with their mouth they bless Hashem, but inwardly they curse.
The Malbim continues along his own line, offering a third interpretation of "misa'ato": neither David's elevated stature nor God's exaltedness, but the elevation of Shaul, who is the prince, the king, and the ruler. That is to say: as for your conspiring to topple the fence onto David - your claim is that it stems from fear of Shaul, that we are merely following orders, and Shaul is the leaning wall that forces us to topple the fence onto David.
But David does not accept this argument: "They take pleasure in deceit" - it is a false claim, and through it you will not appease the sin, nor can you purify the creeping creature. On the contrary, know that they do not do this out of fear of Shaul and apprehension of disobeying his command. For Shaul had instructed them how to behave toward David: approach him, pretend to be his friends and confidants, and then investigate and see where he is located. David will not suspect you or fear you; he will think he can trust you, and then you will come and reveal his hiding place to me in secret so that I can pursue him. This is what is written: "Go, please, prepare further, and know and see his place... for he said to me, he acts very cunningly."
According to this, the Malbim explains why it says "with his mouth" in the singular: "with his mouth" - from the mouth of Shaul. The fact that they bless me to my face and appear as my friends does not stem from their own mouth, but from the mouth of Shaul, who commanded them to act like his allies in order to discover my whereabouts. But if you want to know what lies deep inside them - "and inwardly they curse": they hate me, and they themselves seek my ruin.
And this is precisely the notion of "we were just following orders." Lehavdil, in the Second World War: Germany followed orders, Poland followed orders, Ukraine followed orders - and we all know with what joy and relish they informed on the Jews, handed them over to the Nazis, and in some cases murdered them themselves. All of it ostensibly under the heading of "we were just following orders," but in truth it was not merely orders; there was a personal desire to do these things stemming from personal hatred. To this day, people from World War II who claimed they were merely following orders are brought to trial. So too here: they hate me and seek my harm, not out of fear of Shaul's elevation and his monarchy, but rather "and inwardly they curse, Selah" - and "Selah" marks the conclusion of the matter. And the Malbim notes: this concludes the first part of the psalm.
אַךְ הֶבֶל בְּנֵי־אָדָם כָּזָב בְּנֵי־אִישׁ בְּמֹאזְנַיִם לַעֲלוֹת הֵמָּה מֵהֶבֶל יָחַד׃ - Mere vanity are common men, deceit are men of stature; placed on the scales, together they are lighter than breath.
"Kazav" (deceit) is vanity, something that has no permanence, as in the phrase: "Will you be to me like a deceptive spring, like waters that are not trustworthy?" And Radak adds to the words of Rashi on "to ascend upon the scales": that if they were placed on the scales together with vanity, they would be lesser and lighter than vanity itself. And he seems to anticipate what we will soon see in the Malbim: the scale pan that rises is the lighter one, and when you place them against vanity, they will still rise, meaning that vanity is heavier than they are.
The Malbim explains: "Bnei adam" (ordinary people) are vanity with no substance to them; and lest you say, "bnei ish" - prominent, distinguished men - perhaps they possess substance? To this he says: "bnei ish" are also deceit. And what is deceit? From the root "to disappoint": when there is an expectation for something and it fails to materialize. This is the difference between deceit (*kazav*) and falsehood (*sheker*): falsehood is something that never existed from the start, a fiction; whereas deceit is something that had potential but disappointed - like a stream that flowed and then dried up. The Malbim explains this in several places: something that seemingly had a beginning, but did not reach a successful conclusion. Therefore, even though they are *bnei ish*, prominent men, do not rely on them - the hope pinned on them vanishes and fails to endure.
And "to ascend upon the scales": if you see people rising to the heights of success, do not be impressed by it; take into account that their ascent is like rising on a balance scale. And who rises on a scale? The light, the deficient, and the inferior. The heavy side tips downward, while the light side rises upward. And this is "together they are lighter than breath": you see that they are like vanity, lacking weight and substance, for on the scales it is they who rise - a sign that they and vanity are one and the same.
The *Toldos Aharon* offers a wonderful explanation here: the verse is directed against those who think that ancestral merit alone is sufficient. When someone asks him who he is, he answers: "I am the grandson of such-and-such Rebbe, the son of such-and-such Rav." He assumes that merely being the son of an important and righteous person will serve him as a shield and buckler. It is told that someone once came to a Rebbe, who asked him, "Who are you?" He replied, "I am the brother of Rebbe so-and-so." The Rebbe said to him, alluding to the stones of the breastplate: "*Leshem, Shevo, Ve'achlama* - I am asking what your name is, who you are, and why (*ach lama*) must you tell me about your brother?"
This is what the verse means by how much "Men of low degree are vanity, and men of high degree are a delusion" - how much falsehood there is when a person says, "I am of high degree (*bnei ish*)," I am the son of so-and-so, a great-grandson and grandson of such-and-such tzaddik and renowned scholar. For when they arrive before the One Enthroned on High, for judgment in Heaven - "Small and great are there alike" (Iyov 3:19); there it becomes clear who is truly small and who is great. "I saw an upside-down world": those who appear great here are small there, and those who appear small and lowly here - who constantly face the catapult stones of the media against them - there you will see their true greatness. And that claim, that I am the son of so-and-so, will be considered utter vanity there, advancing you not at all.
For ancestral merit protects children only when they continue and hold fast to the deeds of their forebears. If your father is a tzaddik and you continue in his ways, how wonderful - your father's merit joins with yours. But if your father is a tzaddik and you are not, not only is this not a merit, but it is an added liability. The reason is simple: about another person they might say, he grew up in the slums, and that is why he turned out the way he did; but you, the son of such-and-such Rav, the grandson of such-and-such tzaddik - how did you turn out this way? Thus, ancestral merit turns into liability, creating an additional claim against him.
This is what the holy Shelah explains, and through this a difficulty in the verse is resolved: "Then I will remember My covenant with Yaakov..." (Vayikra 26:42) appearing right in the middle of the *Tochachah* (the Rebuke). As has been discussed elsewhere at length regarding these words of the Shelah, the question is famous: how is it possible that in the middle of the Rebuke it says, "And I will remember My covenant with Avraham, and I will remember the land," yet immediately afterward the Holy One, blessed be He, continues to exact punishment from them and bring troubles upon them? What kind of remembrance is this? Rather, the Shelah explains: the placement of the verse within the Rebuke teaches that this is not a remembrance for merit, but for liability. "I will remember" - these are the children of Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov, so how could they have deteriorated so terribly? Had they been gentiles, the descendants of Esav, what claim could be made against them? But you are the children of Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov - how did you not learn from the good deeds of your fathers? Because of this, the punishment is far greater. Now one can understand "men of high degree are a delusion" (*kezav bnei ish*): it is a delusion to say, "I am the son of such-and-such an important man." It grants you nothing and will not vindicate you at all in the World of Truth; in fact, it may even count as an added liability against you.
In this section of the psalm, David rebukes his pursuers: "How long will you plot ruin against a man?" - how long will you devise destructive thoughts and speak evil, being considered as murderers; and the claim "we are just following orders" does not exempt them, for even a tottering fence is an accomplice to the murder, and had it been sturdy, it would not have collapsed. Furthermore, he exposes the hypocrisy: "They bless with his mouth, but inwardly they curse" - the blessing is from the mouth of Shaul, while the hatred is their own. Finally, he summarizes the entire picture: "Men of low degree are vanity, and men of high degree are a delusion" - there is no substance to mortal men, not even the most prominent among them, and even those who rise to the pinnacle of success are merely like the lighter side that rises on the scales. From here lies the lesson: one must not rely on the authority of flesh and blood, nor on ancestral lineage without personal deeds - but solely upon Hashem, from Whom alone salvation comes.