In this part of the psalm, Asaph transitions from describing grief and despair to remembering the mighty deeds of Hashem during the Exodus from Egypt and the splitting of the Red Sea. Here, profound layers are revealed to us: the Malbim explains that everything that took place in the sea below was merely a reflection of what occurred in the upper realms, and the chapter concludes with a powerful answer to the question of "Why?" - "Your way was in the sea, and Your footsteps were not known."
אַתָּה הָאֵל עֹשֵׂה פֶלֶא הוֹדַעְתָּ בָעַמִּים עֻזֶּךָ׃ - You are the God Who works wonders; You have made known Your might among the nations.
Let us read with precision: "oseh feleh" and not "peleh." The rule is that the letters *begadkepat* at the beginning of a word should receive a *dagesh*; however, here the preceding word ends with an open syllable (one of the *ehevi* letters) and is closely connected to the following word, so the *dagesh* in the *peh* is omitted. Likewise, "hoda'ta va'amim" and not "ba'amim," even though there is no explicit open vowel letter here - because in pronunciation, the word "hoda'ta" sounds as though it ends with a *heh* ("hoda'tah"), and this unwritten *heh* softens the letter and drops the *dagesh*.
Radak explains: "You are the God Who works wonders" - You are the One in Whose hand true power lies. "You have made known Your might among the nations" - even among the nations You demonstrated Your power for the sake of Israel, when You redeemed them from Egypt and delivered them from their distress, as in the miracle of "Sun, stand still at Gibeon, and moon, in the valley of Aijalon." You made Your capabilities and Your might known among the nations.
It is important to emphasize: although we say that the Holy One, blessed be He, acts in response to human deeds, one must never imagine, Heaven forbid, that there are surprises and that Hashem merely reacts after the fact. This is a distorted conception of Divinity and is certainly not the true meaning. The proof is that the Mishnah teaches that the mouth of the earth was created at twilight on the eve of the Sabbath. After all, the mouth of the earth was created for someone endowed with free choice - Korach chose to rebel against Moshe - yet it was prepared in advance. Do not think, therefore, that Hashem's actions are merely a response to man's conduct, as if saying, "I was surprised, and now I must react."
The reason for this has already been explained in our study of the Book of Kohelet: "There is nothing new under the sun" - there is no brand-new creation, and whatever appears new has already existed from ages past. Therefore, the mouth of the earth was also created in advance. Had Korach not rebelled against Moshe, the mouth of the earth simply would never have been brought into actualization.
And if you ask: Why, then, did Hashem create it? The answer is: as a potential reality. Just as the Holy One, blessed be He, created many potential paths corresponding to the deeds of Israel - "If you follow My statutes... I will grant peace in the land" and the earth will yield its produce and the tree its fruit, whereas "if you spurn My statutes," an alternate path unfolds. Hashem created two paths. In the same way, He created the option of the mouth of the earth for Korach. But because the Holy One, blessed be He, foresees all generations from the beginning and declares the end from the start, knowing that Korach was destined to rebel, He brought the mouth of the earth into being in practice.
And if you ask: Where, then, is Korach's free will? This is the famous question of divine foreknowledge and free choice. This matter has been discussed at length, as presented in the shiurim on the Book of Iyov in Chapter 12, as well as in the lessons on *Siftei Chaim* regarding foreknowledge and free will, where these concepts are explained extensively and beautifully. There is no need to delve into that here, for it is a vast topic with multiple classical resolutions. Yet this much is clear: His knowledge is not like our knowledge, and His foreknowledge does not negate man's free will to choose good or evil. The essential point to emphasize is that we must not mistakenly assume Hashem overturns the laws of nature as an immediate reaction to what He now sees in human behavior. Before the Holy One, blessed be He, everything is known and prepared in advance - all the possibilities.
An example of this: Why do we celebrate Shevii shel Pesach (the seventh day of Pesach)? Because of the Splitting of the Red Sea. But had the Egyptians not pursued Israel, would there not have been a Shevii shel Pesach? There is no such thing. One must realize that all of Hashem's mitzvot are rooted in the foundations of Creation.
Consider an allusion to this: What did Avraham Avinu eat when the guests came to him? Matzot. Why? Because it was Pesach. Yet where do we find the stated reason for matzah? "For it was not leavened" - because their dough did not have time to rise. And when did that occur? On the morning of the fifteenth of Nisan, when they were redeemed. But what did they eat on the night of the fifteenth, prior to that? "With matzot and bitter herbs they shall eat it" - with your staff in your hand and your shoes on your feet; this was the Pesach of Egypt, and explicit verses state that they were to eat it with matzot. We see that matzah preceded the event of "their dough did not have time to rise," which happened only the following morning. From this we learn that the concept of matzah is rooted in the very foundations of Creation, 974 generations before the creation of the world: the spiritual rectification of Pesach is achieved through matzot, and the Holy One, blessed be He, orchestrated events to unfold in such a way that you would eat matzot on Pesach. But do not think that is where it originated.
The same applies to the sciatic nerve (gid hanasheh): from the foundation of Creation it was something forbidden to eat, and Hashem orchestrated events so that the guardian angel of Esav would wrestle with Yaakov and strike the socket of his hip, "therefore the children of Israel do not eat the sciatic nerve." Whoever thinks that is where it originated has not begun to understand the Torah. After all, "He looked into the Torah and created the world"; the mitzvot existed long before the creation of the world. They are the root of Creation, not a reaction to Creation.
When we say that the Torah preceded the world by 974 generations, it does not refer to "In the beginning God created" as a historical narrative; it refers to the mitzvot of the Torah. The Ramban explains that it was written continuously, with its letters unspaced and intertwined. What you now see arranged in order - that Esav was wicked, Yishmael was wicked, Korach was wicked, and Moshe and Aharon were righteous - was written in this form only after the events actually transpired.
Here lies another common misconception: Moshe Rabbeinu did not bring the written Torah down from Mount Sinai. He brought down only the Tablets of the Covenant and taught the mitzvot. The Torah was either written scroll by scroll over the course of the forty years, or written all at once at the end of the forty years - a dispute in the Gemara. But it certainly was not given in its final written form at the Giving of the Torah. For if that were so, everything would have already been written down then: all the ways they angered Hashem, the sin with the daughters of Midian, and everything else. Would they have been foolish enough to commit sins that were already recorded about them in the Torah? Furthermore, if everything were already written, where would free will be? Clearly, that is not the correct understanding.
Rather, what does it mean that the Torah preceded the world? The entire Torah is made up of the names of the Holy One, blessed be He. What we see on its external surface - "And Hashem spoke to Moshe" and the like - is only the outer layer, and it could have been arranged differently. Had the events unfolded differently, it would have been written differently, because this is only the exterior and not the inner essence. To what may this be compared? A company sells you an air conditioner, and you ask who manufactured it. A true technician tells you: know that ten different brands are made in the exact same factory in China; each one ordered its own exterior casing, but on the inside it is precisely the same machine. Similarly, allegorically speaking, the exterior of the Torah - the outer "casing" - could change, but the inner essence of the Torah is the absolute truth of the Torah.
Therefore, what we read on the level of simple peshat, the Kabbalists perceive completely differently on the inner level. "And these are the kings who reigned in the land of Edom," and the name of his city was Dinhabah, and his wife's name was Meheitavel bat Matred - on the exterior level you read who reigned and what his wife's name was, and why should you care what her name was? Yet the holy Arizal reveals that this entire passage encapsulates the creation of the worlds, the Shattering of the Vessels (Shevirat HaKeilim), and the lights descending into the vessels; all the secrets of Creation in a single passage. Thus, when we say that the Torah preceded Creation, it does not mean that the story of Korach, Esav, or Yishmael was already present in that literal form - certainly not.
רָאוּךָ מַּיִם אֱלֹהִים רָאוּךָ מַּיִם יָחִילוּ אַף יִרְגְּזוּ תְהֹמוֹת׃ - The waters saw You, O God; the waters saw You, they trembled; the deeps also shook.
Rashi explains: "The waters saw You" - when You revealed Yourself at the sea. The Radak adds: the waters of the Red Sea saw You, trembled before You, and split. "Yachilu" (they trembled) is an expression of dread, being seized with terror. "The deeps also shook" - even the deep waters agitated and split before You, for the sea split all the way to the abyss and they walked on its floor.
The Malbim follows his consistent approach here: whenever something is stated twice in the same verse, it is not a mere repetition but conveys two distinct concepts. This is the opposite of the Radak's approach, which regularly explains parallel phrasing as "a repetition of the idea in different words." Therefore, "the waters saw You, O God" carries one meaning, while "the waters saw You, they trembled" carries a completely different meaning: in the first clause, the waters saw You, God; and in the second, they saw You as water, perceiving the Holy One, blessed be He, in the aspect of water.
And what does this mean? After all, the Holy One, blessed be He, has no body and no physical form; rather, He reveals Himself according to His actions: at the Yam Suf He revealed Himself as a warrior, and at Har Sinai as an elder sitting in yeshivah. The Malbim explains: the Holy One, blessed be He, is the root of all creations. There is fire in the world - its root is from Him, blessed be He; there is water in the world - its root is from Him, blessed be He. When He wishes to nullify a specific force in creation, He acts through the root of that thing and nullifies it from its very source: the root "fire of Hashem" nullifies natural fire. Here, when He wished to override the nature of water - whose nature is to fill and flow together - and split it, He, as it were, cloaked Himself in its root form, in the source from which the element of water springs. And when the waters saw their own root coming against them - "they trembled... the depths shook."
This reflects what Chazal taught regarding the concept of fire repelling fire, "steam expels steam." In our world, when someone wants to extinguish fire, he uses water; with the Holy One, blessed be He, it is the opposite - when He wants to override fire He uses fire, and He heals bitter with bitter, and so on.
זֹרְמוּ מַיִם עָבוֹת קוֹל נָתְנוּ שְׁחָקִים אַף חֲצָצֶיךָ יִתְהַלָּכוּ׃ - The clouds poured down water, the skies gave forth a voice, even Your arrows went abroad.
Rashi explains: the skies dripped a torrent of thick water. "Even Your arrows went abroad" - Your arrows traversed. The Radak elaborates and compares this to "Hashem looked down upon the camp of Egypt through a pillar of fire and cloud": the thick clouds (avot) poured down water, and from there came the revelation; "the skies gave forth a voice" - from the skies Hashem uttered a voice against them. All of this was the confusion of "He confounded the camp of Egypt": the fire, the cloud, the water, and the thunder. "Even Your arrows went abroad" - hailstones, related to the word chatzatz (gravel). The Radak notes: even though it is not explicitly mentioned in the Torah that hail fell on them at the sea, here we have a revelation of it. Others say that "Your arrows" refers to the hailstones that fell on another occasion, upon the kings of Canaan. Small pebbles resembling hailstones are also called chatzatz, as in the verse, "He has broken my teeth with gravel" - filling his mouth with gravel, small stones.
The Malbim continues along the theme he introduced: the splitting of the sea's waters below occurred because their nature was revealed in their root above. The effect upon the lower waters came through the manifestation of the root of water, their celestial source - from there the miracle originated. Accordingly, he explains that the splitting of the water below cascaded down from the splitting of the water in the supernal clouds: everything cascades and is drawn downward, "one higher than the other," and what occurred down here was merely the final stage of that descent.
Therefore, the sequence of the verse follows a descending order: "The clouds poured down water" - the celestial clouds, through which water flowed so abundantly that they burst apart, brought about by miraculous, spiritual thunder and lightning. "The skies gave forth a voice" - the shechakim (skies) are a realm higher than the heavens (shamayim), where they grind manna for the righteous, and where the natural order and celestial system no longer govern; natural governance does not determine outcomes there, and from there the spiritual influx begins. From the thunder, lightning, and bursting of the clouds in the supernal skies, thunder, lightning, and splitting are drawn down into the lower clouds - our clouds - and this brings about the splitting of the waters below. "Even Your arrows went abroad" - the arrows descend and cascade into the realm of nature, into the clouds, and from there to the splitting of the lower waters.
קוֹל רַעַמְךָ בַּגַּלְגַּל הֵאִירוּ בְרָקִים תֵּבֵל רָגְזָה וַתִּרְעַשׁ הָאָרֶץ׃ - The voice of Your thunder was in the celestial sphere, lightnings lit up the world, the earth trembled and shook.
The Malbim continues along this line: "In the sphere" refers to the lower celestial sphere, our firmament, the heavenly bodies within the physical world. The thunder cascades down even there from above, from the realm of the supernal skies and higher spiritual levels. "Lightnings lit up the world" - the supernal lightnings descend step by step, illuminating the lower world, and through this, "the earth trembled and shook" - the waters down here were split. Thus, there is an orderly chain of descent: "the clouds poured down water" and "the skies gave forth a voice" above, then "in the sphere" within the reality of the lower world, and from there until "the earth trembled and shook" - the splitting of the sea. This is the divine influence cascading from the higher realms down to the physical realm.
Rashi explains "in the sphere (bagalgal)" as like a wheel (k'galgal) - the voice of Your thunder rolled like a wheel over the sea, confounding the Egyptian camp. The Metzudat David explains that the sound of thunder struck the wheels of Pharaoh's chariots, as it says, "He removed their chariot wheels": Hashem thundered at the wheels of the chariots and they broke off, causing their downfall. "Lightnings lit up the world" - lightnings so immense that they illuminated the entire world, and the whole earth trembled and raged before the hand of Hashem.
The Ben Ish Chai expounded this verse in an eulogy he delivered for the son of Rabbi Aharon Agasi, who passed away in his youth (and this quote appears on the back cover of the book). He said: "The voice of Your thunder was in the whirlwind (*bagalgal*)" - do not read *bagalgal* (in the whirlwind/wheel), but *bagilgul* (in reincarnation). Once the voice of Your thunder is revealed through the secret of reincarnation - "lightnings lit up the world," all matters of the world illuminate like lightning. All those matters that were concealed from us: we do not know why a certain person dies young, why another suffers hardships, why the Holy One, blessed be He, brings about such circumstances. But when one understands the concept of *gilgul* (reincarnation), one understands that whoever was born this way has an accounting from a previous lifetime, and whoever undergoes suffering did such-and-such in a previous incarnation. And when you hear such a crash of thunder, understand that it stems from *gilgul*, and through this, "lightnings lit up the world" - there is great light to understand how Hashem guides His world. Although we cannot know in specific detail why this happened to one person and that to another, the very knowledge that *gilgul* exists teaches us that things are purposeful and planned, and no person is punished for what they do not deserve.
The Ben Ish Chai further adds: the concept of *gilgul* is a great kindness that Hashem performed with His creations - *gilgul* has the numerical value of *chesed* (lovingkindness) - whereby a person reincarnates again and again to complete his deeds. And if you ask: but might he also stumble and ruin things further? This is discussed in *Mishnat HaGilgulim*, where one can find an explanation of how everything ultimately leads to rectification (*tikkun*) - even if one ruins something, at the end of the process it leads to repair.
In a work by Rabbi Tzvi Cohen, a contemporary Torah scholar, featuring commentaries on Tanach, an intriguing explanation is brought: "I heard it explained - 'The voice of Your thunder was in the wheel (*bagalgal*)'." Sometimes the sound of tragedy strikes like thunder on a clear day through a wheel (*galgal*): Heaven forbid, a child is struck by a vehicle, May the Merciful One spare us. To this they say: realize that it is not merely a *galgal* (wheel), but a *gilgul* (divine orchestration). To say, "The wheel ran him over; had the driver paid attention, the child would be with us today" - that is heresy. If he is no longer here, it is because it was decreed from Heaven. And if you ask: is the driver not guilty? Guilt is brought about through the guilty, and merit through the meritorious, but in any case one must know that what was decreed was decreed. According to this: "The voice of Your thunder was in the wheel" - tragedy struck by a wheel hitting a person; "lightnings lit up the world" - immediately following the accident, ambulances and sirens arrive with flashing lights; "the earth trembled and quaked" - and everyone is agitated and in an uproar: Why did he deserve this? Sometimes it involves a Torah scholar, sometimes a tzaddik, or a thousand other scenarios.
And whoever hears this, please pray for mercy for the son of Rabbi Shalom Cohen, a Torah scholar and Rosh Yeshiva, that Hashem send him a complete recovery: a Jew walking innocently on the sidewalk, when a bus drove over a pipe on the road, creating pressure that launched the pipe into him and struck his head - and he remains in intensive care, undergoing treatments and surgeries, may Hashem have mercy. A person asks: a righteous man, walking to a Torah class, on his way to bring merit to the public - why did this happen to him? "The earth trembled and quaked."
בַּיָּם דַּרְכֶּךָ וּשְׁבִילְךָ בְּמַיִם רַבִּים וְעִקְּבוֹתֶיךָ לֹא נֹדָעוּ׃ - Your way was in the sea, and Your path in the mighty waters, and Your footsteps were not known.
And this is the answer: Hashem's ways are hidden, like paths through mighty waters. When a ship sails through the sea, can anyone identify the path it took afterwards? Once the waters settle, nothing can be traced. In the same way, the paths through which the Holy One, blessed be He, walks are imperceptible. You cannot know why this happened to one person and something else to another; rather, as we said, "in the wheel (*bagalgal*)" - in reincarnation (*bagilgul*).
Radak explains: "Your way was in the sea" - the sea split by Your command and Israel crossed through it; "and Your path in the mighty waters" - repeating the concept in different words. He notes: the written text (*ketiv*) is *ushvilecha* in the plural, while the reading tradition (*keri*) is *ushvilcha* in the singular, without the letter *yod*. The reason: in reality, the sea was divided into twelve separate paths, hence the written form denoting many paths; however, since the Torah explicitly mentions only that the sea split, it is read in the singular. "And Your footsteps were not known" - Your movements in the sea left no trace, for once Israel exited and the Egyptians remained there, Hashem returned the waters to their place - "and the sea returned to its normal state toward morning" - and that path through the sea was discernible no longer.
The Malbim explains according to his customary approach: a *derech* (way) always refers to the primary, wide highway, while a *shevil* (path) is the small, narrow lane that branches off from it. The verse comes to convey that everything that occurred at the sea came from You: both the monumental events and the minor ones, down to the finest details - all is the handiwork of Hashem, blessed be He, both the broad way and the narrow paths.
So too we find in the Mechilta on the splitting of the Red Sea: at the time Moshe prayed, the Holy One, blessed be He, showed him legions - regiments - of ministering angels standing before them, as it says, "From the brightness before Him, His thick clouds passed with hailstones and coals of fire." And from where do we know that even the upper waters and lower waters split? As it says, "The waters saw You, O God, the waters saw You, they trembled" - these are the upper waters; "the depths also quaked" - these are the lower waters. Thus, every facet of that awe-inspiring event of the splitting of the sea, down to the most minute details, was meticulously orchestrated by the Holy One, blessed be He: not only the highway, but the narrow paths as well.
And Rav Nachman says: from every thunderclap Above, torrents burst forth Below, as it says, "The voice of Your thunder was in the whirlwind (*bagalgal*)." This aligns beautifully with what we explained: the Holy One, blessed be He, fashioned reality within the spiritual realms Above, and from there it cascaded down to this world below.
נָחִיתָ כַצֹּאן עַמֶּךָ בְּיַד מֹשֶׁה וְאַהֲרֹן׃ - You led Your people like a flock by the hand of Moshe and Aharon.
Here too, the same grammatical rule applies: nachita is vocalized as though it ends with the letter hei, which is why the word that follows is chatzon without a dagesh, rather than ke-tzon.
What is clear to us is "You led Your people like a flock": we believe and trust in Hashem from ancient times, for He placed His leadership into the hands of Moshe. And what did Hashem tell Moshe? "A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, righteous and upright is He." Our eyes are lifted toward the Shepherd. And what does the verse add? "By the hand of Moshe and Aharon" - and regarding Aharon, when tragedy struck him, "And Aharon was silent." This teaches you never to question the ways of the Creator, blessed be He, but rather to recognize that "A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, righteous and upright is He."
The Radak explains: After they came out of the sea, You guided them in the wilderness by the hand of Moshe and Aharon, like a shepherd leading his flock and watching over it. Metzudat David explains that the verse circles back to the opening theme of the chapter: when I recall all the miracles and wonders You performed for our ancestors when You brought them out of Egypt - while this psalm speaks of our present exile and what we suffer now - I realize that Your failure to redeem us does not stem from any lack of power on Your part. It is not as Haman claimed, that the Holy One, blessed be He, had supposedly grown old and retired; rather, the shortcoming lies within us, and all of this is meant to awaken us to repentance. This is the conclusion: "You led Your people like a flock by the hand of Moshe and Aharon" - You can redeem us today just as in earlier times, and the matter depends solely on our improving our ways.
The Midrash in Bemidbar Rabbah on Parashat Masei expounds the verse as an acronym on the letters of nachita (נ-ח-י-ת). "You led (nachita) Your people like a flock" - Rabbi Eliezer says: Nissim (miracles) You performed for them; chayim (life) You gave them; yam (the sea) You split for them; Torah You gave them. Through whom? Through Moshe and Aharon. Rabbi Yehoshua says: Nifla'ot (wonders) You worked for them; cheirut (freedom) You granted them; yeminecha (Your right hand) saved them; telui rosh - elevation of the head (honor and dignity) - You bestowed upon them. Through whom? Through Moshe and Aharon. Our Rabbis say: Nevi'im (prophets) You raised from them; chasidim (pious ones) You raised from them; yesharim (upright ones) You raised from them; temimim (wholesome ones) You raised from them. Through whom? Through Moshe and Aharon. And Rabbi Akiva says: Nora'ot (awesome deeds) You wrought upon their enemies; charon af (fierce wrath) You unleashed against them; yadecha (Your hand) fought for them; tehomot (the depths) covered them. Through whom? Through Moshe and Aharon.
The Midrash further expounds the phrase "like a flock": Just as a flock is not brought under the shelter of a roof, so too Israel, throughout all forty years they spent in the wilderness, never entered under the shelter of a roof - they walked in the wilderness without a ceiling, like sheep out in the open. Furthermore: just as one does not gather storehouses for sheep or prepare reserves of grain and food for them, but rather grazes them in the wilderness, so too Israel were forty years in the wilderness without storehouses, having no granaries full of grain. And furthermore: just as a flock follows wherever the shepherd leads it, so too Israel - wherever Moshe and Aharon directed their journey, they traveled after them, as it says, "These are the journeys of the Children of Israel," fulfilling that which is said, "You led Your people like a flock."
In this section, Asaf teaches us three foundational insights. First, that there are no surprises before the Holy One, blessed be He: all possibilities are prepared in advance, and the mitzvot are the very roots of creation, not a mere reaction to events. Second, according to the Malbim, that every miracle in this world is a descent through the chain of higher realms - "The waters saw You" at their root, "The clouds poured down water," "The skies sounded forth," and from there to the celestial sphere and the splitting of the sea. And third, that even when we do not understand - "Your way was in the sea, and Your path in the great waters, and Your footsteps were not known": the paths remain hidden from our sight, and what seems to us like a sudden crash of thunder is the mystery of the revolving sphere and precise Divine guidance. Therefore, the psalm concludes: "You led Your people like a flock by the hand of Moshe and Aharon" - our eyes are lifted toward the Shepherd, with the silence of Aharon and with faith that "A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, righteous and upright is He," and with complete trust in His ability to redeem us today just as of old, if only we mend our ways.