Psalm 74 is Asaph's lamentation over the destruction of the Beit HaMikdash and the length of the exile. Asaph describes the deeds of the enemies in the sanctuary, the concealment of the Divine face in which there is neither sign, nor prophet, nor Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit), and cries out: Until when? In this section, we will study the verses from "They have set Your sanctuary on fire" to "You dried up mighty rivers", tracing the transition from the lament over the present to the recollection of past wonders - an argument that seeks to petition Hashem to act likewise now.
שִׁלְחוּ בָאֵשׁ מִקְדָּשֶׁךָ לָאָרֶץ חִלְּלוּ מִשְׁכַּן שְׁמֶךָ׃ - They have set Your sanctuary on fire; they have defiled the dwelling place of Your Name to the ground.
Radak explains that the phrasing here is inverted: "they sent fire into Your sanctuary", meaning they set fire to the sanctuary, similar to the biblical expression "and the city they set on fire" (va'et ha'ir shilchu va'esh). Rabbi Mazuz addresses the question of why the word is written shilchu without a dagesh in the letter lamed, rather than shillechu in the intensive conjugation (binyan kaved), as standard grammatical rules might suggest. As noted on several occasions, the difference between the light conjugation (kal) and the intensive conjugation lies in their meaning: a verb in the intensive conjugation indicates an action performed with heavy effort and force, whereas a verb in the light conjugation indicates that it was done easily. A person can say rotzei'ach or meratzei'ach; meratzei'ach is the intensive form, demanding more effort from the organs of speech. Similarly, holech versus mehalech: holech means walking naturally and smoothly, whereas mehalech means one must exert force to walk. So it is with all verbs - an action can be expressed in either the light or the intensive conjugation.
Based on this, the Rav notes: it is written shilchu in the light conjugation to teach you that this was accomplished with ease. The enemy merely ignited a spark, and immediately the Beit HaMikdash went up in flames. As explained earlier, there were signs and portents that the Holy One, blessed be He, now willed the destruction of His House - as the Gemara relates that for many years beforehand, the doors of the temple courtyard would swing open on their own, as if signaling to the enemies: "Come and enter." "They have defiled the dwelling place of Your Name to the ground" - the Malbim explains that this refers to the Ark and the sacred vessels, that which dwelt within the Beit HaMikdash; they desecrated them as well down to the earth, nullifying, destroying, and ruining them.
אָמְרוּ בְלִבָּם נִינָם יָחַד שָׂרְפוּ כׇל מוֹעֲדֵי אֵל בָּאָרֶץ׃ - They said in their heart: "Let us crush them together"; they burned all the meeting places of God in the land.
What is the meaning of ninam? As usual, whenever a word is obscure, interpretations multiply. Rashi explains that ninam is an expression of rulers, related to "his name shall endure [yinon]" and "and in the end he will become a ruler [manon]", which connote dominion. That is, all the rulers share a single design, early and late alike: to confront the Patron of Israel. The rulers seek to wage war directly against the Holy One, blessed be He, in the manner of the Generation of the Dispersion (Dor HaFlagah), who said: "Let us go and wage war against Him; it is not for Him alone to choose the upper realms." First they confront the Patron of Israel, and only then do they turn to the people itself.
Proof of this lies in the phrase: "They burned all the meeting places of God in the land" - all His houses of assembly. Seemingly, this is difficult to understand: if the people rebelled against you, deal with the people; what do you have against the Beit HaMikdash? Rather, they see the holy place itself as their primary target. Rashi notes: the Philistines destroyed Shiloh where the Mishkan stood, Nebuchadnezzar destroyed the First Temple, Titus and his cohorts destroyed the Second Temple - all of them targeted the sanctuary first. This is because they sought first and foremost to confront the Patron of Israel, and only then the people of Israel. This is the meaning of "They said in their heart, ninam yachad": all the rulers together say in their hearts, let us first burn all the meeting places of God in the land, and afterward deal with His people.
Radak explains ninam as derived from ne'eneh otam, "let us oppress them", from the root of ona'ah (oppression or affliction). There is monetary oppression - "You shall not wrong [lo tonu] one another", and there is bodily oppression - "and My princes shall no more wrong [lo yonu] My people", "and I will feed those who oppress you [monayich]". Likewise, Chazal say that the nations taunt and afflict Israel (monin et Yisrael), meaning they torment and grieve them. According to this, "They said in their heart: ninam yachad" means that all those who rose against Israel said: let us torment them and destroy them together. This is similar to the phrase "the sword of the oppressor [cherev hayonah]", where hayonah is not derived from a dove, but from affliction, grief, and oppression.
The holy Alshich explains: the strength of Israel is in their mouth; everything depends on "the voice is the voice of Jacob", especially when they unite in the houses of prayer. The voice of Jacob prevails only when they are united; when there is discord among them - "Their heart is divided, now they shall bear guilt", but when unity reigns among them, they triumph over their enemies. Therefore, the enemy is deeply afraid lest Israel overpower him with their prayers, and so "they said in their heart, ninam" - let us torment them and divide them so they are not united. And what did they do to achieve this? "They burned all the meeting places of God in the land." They knew where Israel unites - in the houses of prayer - and therefore that was the first place they attacked. The Mishkan in Shiloh, the First Temple, the Second Temple - these were always the first targets of the enemies, because that is where Israel gathers together, and as long as they are united, no enemy can prevail against them. Thus, the first objective was to dismantle their unity, and thereby conquer them.
The Malbim offers a third explanation: ninam is related to the word nin, a great-grandchild. It is not enough that the Beit HaMikdash remained destroyed in their own days, but even their great-grandchildren and future descendants say in their hearts together that they burned all the appointed meeting places of God in the land. The destruction has persisted all the way to the days of their great-grandchildren, to the point that they too boast: the Holy One, blessed be He, has no place to rest His Shechinah, for we burned down His House. Within this lies a cry and a plea: Master of the Universe, rebuild Your House already, for their great-grandchildren are already crying out that they destroyed the Temple and He has no place to dwell, as though we have driven Hashem away from residing in the land.
אוֹתֹתֵינוּ לֹא רָאִינוּ אֵין עוֹד נָבִיא וְלֹא אִתָּנוּ יֹדֵעַ עַד מָה׃ - We have not seen our signs; there is no longer a prophet, nor is there anyone among us who knows until when.
The Malbim notes that their claims seemingly appear justified. The Shechinah reveals Itself on earth in three ways. First, through signs and wonders, miracles and marvels - and regarding this, "We have not seen our signs." Even in the Second Temple, five things were missing that had served as signs and wonders of the resting of the Shechinah, and Chazal say that the Shechinah did not rest in the Second Temple; and once the Temple was destroyed, there are no signs at all, no miracles and no marvels. Second, the resting of prophecy - and regarding this, "there is no longer a prophet," for we live in a generation devoid of prophets. Third, Ruach HaKodesh (Divine inspiration) - and regarding this, "nor is there anyone among us who knows until when," for no one among us knows anything. Who is there today who can tell you something through Ruach HaKodesh? We have no such thing.
To such an extent did Rav Chaim of Volozhin say more than two hundred years ago that a generation would come in which the concealment of God's presence would be so profound that there would not even be a dybbuk. A dybbuk was a known occurrence in their day, and through it one could still witness a glimpse of Divine reality - the spirit relates the sins it committed, the punishments it is receiving, who pursues it, and what its torments are. Rav Chaim said: A generation will come when even such a thing will not exist, signifying an absolute concealment of the Face. And this is Asaph's plea: behold, on the surface matters appear just as the enemies claim, that the Holy One, blessed be He, is, as it were, no longer here - for we have no signs, no prophet, nor anyone among us who knows anything.
Rashi explains "our signs" as referring to what You promised us through the prophets, yet we do not see this during the prolonged eras that we spend in exile. Asaph here prophesies about the end of the exile and asks: "nor is there anyone among us who knows until when" - how long the exile will last, how long we will continue to suffer in distress. We wait and yearn for all that the Holy One, blessed be He, promised for the End of Days, yet we do not see the signs; and as for asking a prophet when it will arrive - we do not have a prophet either.
The Radak similarly explains: we have not seen the signs of the redemption, and the exile is prolonged. "There is no longer a prophet" - from the time of the exile, since Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi died, there has been no prophet left to foretell the future to us. Another explanation: "There is not yet a prophet" (reading ein od navi as ein adayin), referring to Eliyahu HaNavi, as in "Behold, I will send you Eliyahu the prophet"; Eliyahu, who is destined to herald the redemption, has not yet come. "Nor is there anyone among us who knows until when" - how long the redemption will be delayed, similar to the phrasing, "How long (ad mah), Hashem, will You be angry forever?"
עַד מָתַי אֱלֹהִים יְחָרֶף צָר יְנָאֵץ אוֹיֵב שִׁמְךָ לָנֶצַח׃ - How long, O God, will the adversary taunt? Will the enemy blaspheme Your Name forever?
The Radak explains: the adversary and the enemy blaspheme Your Name, as though asserting that You lack the power to take us out of exile, and about this the cry goes out: "How long?" The Malbim adds that the argument is that Hashem ought to act already for the honor of His Name: after all, You are God, the Omnipotent One, so how long will You remain silent and hear their blasphemy as they taunt Your Name forever?
And why this repetition of language, and why is "taunt" (yecharef) used in reference to the adversary (tzar) while "blaspheme" (yena'etz) is used in reference to the enemy (oyev)? The Malbim explains, as he does in several places: a tzar is an open persecutor, whereas an oyev harbors enmity in his heart. The tzar taunts publicly, hence "will the adversary taunt"; while the oyev blasphemes and curses internally in his heart, hence "will the enemy blaspheme."
The Abudarham cites an intriguing observation here: "The enemy blasphemes Your Name forever" (yena'etz oyev shimcha lanetzach) - the letters of shimcha lanetzach form an anagram of ShaTzaM ChaNaKaL, an acronym for Shabbetai (Saturn), Tzedek (Jupiter), Ma'adim (Mars), Chamah (the Sun), Nogah (Venus), Kochav (Mercury), and Levanah (the Moon) - the seven celestial bodies mentioned by the Gemara in several places, which correspond to the astrological spheres. The enemy attributes dominion to them forever - in his view, they are the rulers that dictate the reality of creation, thereby dismissing the Master of the Universe and blaspheming His Name. How long will he blaspheme like this?
לָמָּה תָשִׁיב יָדְךָ וִימִינֶךָ מִקֶּרֶב חֵיקְךָ כַלֵּה׃ - Why do You withdraw Your hand, even Your right hand? Draw it out from Your bosom and destroy them!
Rashi explains: Cast it forth and draw Your hand out from within Your bosom, and fight against Your enemies; and "kalleh" (destroy) is like "kalah garesha yegaresh" (he shall completely drive you out). The Radak adds: "Your hand" refers to the left hand, for the scriptures regularly pair "Your hand and Your right hand," which indicates that "Your hand" is the left and "Your right hand" is the right. Another explanation: destroy the enemy who is within Your bosom - and the bosom of the Holy One, blessed be He, is the Beis HaMikdash, just as a person's bosom is an intimate, concealed place.
Another explanation, following the line of Rashi and the approach of the Malbim: draw Your right hand out completely from Your bosom and take vengeance for us. For a person placing his hand in his bosom is an expression of idleness and inaction. The Radak says: in the manner of a sluggard who places his hand in his bosom and does no work. Hence the plea: take Your right hand out of Your bosom and do not remain passive; rather, destroy the enemies, and do not return Your hand to Your bosom until You execute judgment upon the wicked. These words are spoken here allegorically.
The Malbim delves deeper: You do not need to take active action against the enemy; it suffices merely not to prevent the action. To illustrate: when rushing water is about to burst forth and I hold it back, the moment I remove the restraint it bursts forth on its own, without my having to open any valve. By contrast, a closed faucet requires an action to open it. This is Asaph's argument: Master of the Universe, You do not need to act against the enemy; simply do not prevent the action - remove the restraint! You draw back Your hand and Your right hand, not allowing them to strike against him, hiding them instead inside Your bosom so they do nothing. If You would only draw them out from Your bosom - "kalleh" - they will be consumed on their own.
And why would they be consumed on their own? The Malbim explains: Sometimes an enemy is mighty, and naturally speaking he cannot be defeated except through a miracle and the overturning of the laws of nature. That requires merits - the merit of the generation - for the Holy One, blessed be He, does not perform miracles in vain. But here Asaph argues: this is not an enemy that requires special triumph and miracles, but rather a weak enemy. Therefore, it is enough that You do not keep Your hand in Your bosom for him to perish. That is to say, natural providence is sufficient - allow the world to function according to its nature, and the enemy will already be destroyed. Were it a mighty enemy, there would be a need for miracles and the overturning of the natural order, where Hashem would go forth like a warrior, "stir up zeal, shout, yes, cry aloud." But here, if You only take Your hand out of Your bosom, the enemy will naturally perish.
וֵאלֹהִים מַלְכִּי מִקֶּדֶם פֹּעֵל יְשׁוּעוֹת בְּקֶרֶב הָאָרֶץ׃ - Yet God is my King of old, working salvations in the midst of the earth.
The Radak explains: How could Hashem leave us in exile for so long, when from of old He was my King, working salvations in the midst of the earth, whereas here, as it were, He is not my King, He does not defend me, and He does not save me from the hand of the enemies? And what does "in the midst of the earth" mean? As was said to Pharaoh, "so that you may know that I am Hashem in the midst of the earth" - even though I am on high, I supervise the lower realms and do with them as I will. Furthermore, it says "in the midst of the earth" rather than simply "in the earth" to hint that even among the nations, right within the oppressors themselves and within their own land, they have no power to save themselves from Hashem.
The Malbim explains: Of old You were my King, and then, not only did You not draw back Your hand into Your bosom, but You even bared Your outstretched arm miraculously, working salvations in the midst of the earth. The meaning of this is: the salvations Hashem works through nature have their operation rooted in the heavens, for natural providence is channeled through the stars and constellations, and the Holy One, blessed be He, directs His world through this system, from where influence flows down below. But when Hashem performs miracles that defy nature, this does not operate from the heavens, since it does not conform to the stars and constellations above; rather, as it were, Hashem descends down here to alter reality. This is the difference between working salvations in the heavens and working salvations in the midst of the earth. Thus he says: God was my King of old - not only through natural workings, but through supernatural acts as well.
אַתָּה פוֹרַרְתָּ בְעׇזְּךָ יָם שִׁבַּרְתָּ רָאשֵׁי תַנִּינִים עַל הַמָּיִם׃ אַתָּה רִצַּצְתָּ רָאשֵׁי לִוְיָתָן תִּתְּנֶנּוּ מַאֲכָל לְעָם לְצִיִּים׃ אַתָּה בָקַעְתָּ מַעְיָן וָנָחַל אַתָּה הוֹבַשְׁתָּ נַהֲרוֹת אֵיתָן׃ לְךָ יוֹם אַף לְךָ לָיְלָה אַתָּה הֲכִינוֹתָ מָאוֹר וָשָׁמֶשׁ׃ אַתָּה הִצַּבְתָּ כׇּל גְּבוּלוֹת אָרֶץ קַיִץ וָחֹרֶף אַתָּה יְצַרְתָּם׃ - You shattered the sea by Your strength; You broke the heads of the sea monsters upon the waters. You crushed the heads of Leviathan; You gave him as food for the people of the wilderness. You split spring and torrent; You dried up mighty rivers. Yours is the day, Yours also is the night; You prepared the luminary and the sun. You established all the boundaries of the earth; summer and winter, You formed them.
"Porarta" (You shattered) is an expression of breaking and crushing, as in "The earth is utterly broken down [por hitporerah eretz]" and "He has broken me asunder [vayfarpereni]." That is to say: in the past, You wrought such salvations - You broke the sea with Your strength and we passed through it, and You smashed the heads of our enemies in the water - "the heads of the sea monsters upon the waters." And who are the sea monsters? The Egyptians, as it is said of Pharaoh, "the great sea monster," and consequently his entire nation was likened to sea monsters. The Metzudat David explains: with strength You divided the sea into twelve paths so that the twelve tribes could pass through it; and "You smashed the heads of the sea monsters upon the waters" - that the waters hardened like rocks, and the Egyptians were hurled against them and their heads were smashed.
The Malbim explains: the miracle of the Splitting of the Red Sea, where the sea turned into dry land before Israel, was a supernatural miracle - and this is "in the midst of the earth," as we noted, not from the natural order of the heavens and the celestial system. "You smashed the heads of the sea monsters upon the waters" - at the very same time the sea became dry land before Israel on one side, it became a drowning sea for the Egyptians on the other side. This is a double miracle: beyond Hashem splitting the sea for us, He simultaneously closed the sea upon the Egyptians. And the Egyptians were called sea monsters, "the great monster that lies in the midst of his rivers," because they believed their strength came from the power of the water and the power of the Nile, and they worshipped it and the monsters within it. Therefore, the first plague that struck Pharaoh was against the Nile, his deity, which turned into blood, countering his boast, "My river is my own, and I have made it for myself."
The Malbim explains: "the heads of Leviathan" are the princes of Egypt and its dignitaries; "You gave him" - You gave him, the Leviathan, as food to the people of the wilderness (tziyim), who are the people that walked in the parched land (tziyah) in the desert, who plundered the spoils of Egypt and the plunder of the Leviathan; that is, You gave us the wealth of Egypt for sustenance. Rashi explains that Pharaoh is called Leviathan, as it says, "Hashem with His harsh sword shall punish Leviathan the slant serpent," and You crushed his head and gave his wealth as food to the "tziyim," meaning the hosts and factions You brought out of Egypt - cohorts, as in "and ships [vetziyim] from the coast of Kittim," and as the Targum translates, "and cohorts will assemble."
Ibn Ezra explains that Hashem gave the Leviathan as food to "the people of the ships [am letziyim]" - those who dwell in ships, the seafaring people. There are known places where people eat whales; among the nations there are those who hunt and eat whales, and today there are laws against whale hunting worldwide because they are becoming extinct. One who hunts a whale is not like one who slaughters a cow - he has meat for a long time, and in places like Antarctica they do not even need a freezer to preserve the meat; one leaves it by the window and it is preserved. In his view, "tziyim" refers to seafarers, as in "fleet [tzi]" and "ships [tziyim]."
The Radak likewise explains that this refers to Pharaoh, the great sea monster, Leviathan the slant serpent. However, he addresses the plural phrasing "the heads of Leviathan" - when Pharaoh had only one head. Rather, it refers to his officers and warriors: the Leviathan is the king, and his "heads" are his ministers, mighty men, and dignitaries. "You gave him as food to the people of the wilderness" - consistent with the interpretation of Rashi and the Malbim, this refers to the spoils of the sea that they took; yet Radak interprets "tziyim" neither as factions nor as sailors on ships, but as desert travelers, a people dwelling in arid wasteland (tziyah), whose entire journeys after leaving Egypt were in deserts: the Wilderness of Etham, the Wilderness of Suf, the Wilderness of Paran, the Wilderness of Kadesh, the Wilderness of Sin, the Wilderness of Moav. And this is also the direction of the Malbim.
The Alshich HaKadosh interprets this along another path: Chazal say that the Holy One, blessed be He, prepared the Leviathan to distribute to the righteous in the Future to Come - the banquet of the wild ox (Shor HaBar) and the Leviathan. He castrated the male and killed the female, salting her away for the righteous in the Future to Come; He castrated the male so they would not multiply and destroy the world. And regarding this, Asaf comes and says: this is why I protested and said, "How long, O God, shall the adversary reproach?" - Master of the Universe, how long will the enemy continue to taunt? Hasten and bring the redemption and the salvation to rescue us from the adversary and bring about his end! For "You crushed the heads of Leviathan" - You smashed the head of the female; and why is it plural, "heads," when regarding the male it was castration? Rather, that refers to the reproductive organ. Thus, both the head of the female and the "head" of the male were crushed.
And from here the Alshich argues: one who begins a mitzvah is told to complete it. Why did You crush them in the first place - was it not to distribute their flesh to Israel, "You gave him as food to the people of the wilderness"? For whom did You prepare this delicacy, the female Leviathan, if not for the nation in whom there is the moisture of devotion to Heaven? If so, You certainly prepared it for us; therefore, make haste - why delay the destined prophecies and the gracious promises, and why not redeem us immediately? On a deeper level: the banquet of the Leviathan is a feast where we accompany Hashem, "Leviathan" stemming from the word levayah (accompaniment). Especially since this does not refer to something corporeal, but to a spiritual reality of Israel being joined with the Blessed One, rather than a banquet where physical meat is consumed; this is why these matters are spoken of primarily in the manner of allegorical allusion.
"You cleaved fountain and brook" - that You split open springs for Israel from the flint and the rock; "You dried up mighty rivers" - this refers to the Jordan, when Israel came to enter the Land. The Radak notes a linguistic difficulty here: what is meant by "You cleaved a fountain"? Did He cleave the fountain itself? Rather, He cleaved the rock and brought forth a fountain from it! This is similar to "and grind flour" - is flour ground? Wheat is ground to produce flour! And likewise, "I baked bread upon its coals" - yet it is dough that is baked, and bread is the result.
Rather, says the Radak, the verse names a thing after its final outcome: I baked dough upon its coals that became bread; I ground wheat that became flour; I cleaved a rock that became a spring. Therefore, "You cleaved a fountain" means You cleaved the flint stone from which a fountain ultimately emerged, and Scripture expresses it concisely.
Radak adds: there is a contrast here, two opposites. You turned the hard flint rock into a spring, and the place of water You turned into dry land - "You dried up mighty rivers." We will similarly see further in the psalm, across several different matters, this concept of opposites, where the Holy One, blessed be He, performs two contrasting acts.
What is "mighty rivers" (*naharot eitan*)? This refers to the Jordan River, which when at full strength overflows all its banks, yet Hashem dried it up and Israel crossed through it on dry land. And when was this? In Nisan, the season of melting snows, when the Jordan rushes with all its might; therefore it is called *eitan*, for it was at its peak, overflowing all its banks. And why does the verse say "rivers" in the plural, when it is only one river? Radak explains: because other rivers flow into it, and it gathers within itself streams from other rivers.
The Malbim also notes this point, that Hashem performs opposite acts: on the one hand, He splits the rock to make it a stream, and on the other, He dries up mighty rivers to make them dry land - water from the earth, and earth from water. This is similar to what is said: "What ails you, O sea, that you flee?" and "Who turns the rock into a pool of water" - He turns the rock into a pool of water, and He causes the sea to flee, turning it into dry land.
In this part of the psalm, Asaph laments that the enemies set fire to the Sanctuary with such ease, desecrated the holy vessels, and burned all the meeting places of God - initially to confront the Patron of Israel and dismantle their unity, to the point that even their descendants boast of the destruction. Over this he cries out that we have no signs, no prophet, and no one who knows how long - a state of total concealment of the Divine Countenance - and he asks how long the adversary will taunt openly and the enemy blaspheme in his heart. From here, the request unfolds: there is no need to overturn the laws of nature; it is enough for Hashem to withdraw His hand from His bosom and let nature take its course, and the enemy will perish on his own. To reinforce this petition, Asaph recounts the wonders of the past: splitting the sea and drowning the sea serpents, crushing the heads of Leviathan and plundering its spoil, cleaving the rock into a spring and drying up mighty rivers - opposite actions through which the Holy One, blessed be He, revealed that He works salvations in the midst of the earth, far above the natural order. And upon Him Who acted in this way from of old rests our prayer that He do so now as well, and redeem us speedily.