לַמְנַצֵּחַ עַל־מוּת לַבֵּן מִזְמוֹר לְדָוִד׃ - For the conductor, upon almuth-labben, a psalm of David.
The title of this psalm is a great mystery: about whom was the psalm written? We will first review the opinions expressed on this matter, and then proceed, as is our custom, with the Malbim - whose approach in our case is also shared by most commentators.
Rashi notes that some explain "al mut" as two separate words (even though it is written as a single word in the text), referring to the death of his son Avshalom. However, Rashi rejects this: "This interpretation is untenable," because the text says "laben" - it should have said "al mot haben" ("the death of the son"). Furthermore, nothing in the verses of the psalm indicates any connection to Avshalom.
Our Sages in Midrash Shocher Tov also find a connection here to the death of David's son, but to a different one: the first child born to him from Batsheva, who died. David said: Had this child not died, I would have thought my sin was not forgiven; now that he died, I know that my sin has been forgiven. That is why it begins with "Lamnatze'ach" (a song of praise) rather than a lamentation. And why does it not say "al mot haben"? Because it comes to teach us something more: "laben" is related to "libun" (whitening and purification) - David merited that his iniquities were refined and rectified, and he was cleansed of his sin. Thus, a dual message is contained here: the death of the son, and with it, the purification from sin.
Rashi cites another explanation: "laben" by anagram (rearranging the letters) spells "Naval." Naval the Carmelite grievously insulted David, and within ten days "the Lord struck Naval," for which David composed a psalm. Yet this too is difficult, as there is no mention whatsoever of Naval in the psalm. Moreover, the psalm speaks of a wicked oppressor who harassed and caused distress, whereas Naval did not harass anyone - he was a miserly and stingy man, but we do not find that he oppressed anyone.
Rashi further notes that in the Masorah Gedolah, this term appears as a single word. The Masorah refers to the textual notes printed alongside the Mikraot Gedolot: "gimel in the Masorah" means this word appears three times in the entire Tanach, and similarly "beit" (twice) or "dalet" (four times); and sometimes it says "lamed" (leita), meaning a hapax legomenon, a unique word found nowhere else. The Masorah links our word "almut" to "He will lead us almut" (Tehillim 48:15), where it is also written as one word. This teaches us that it is not "al mut" - it has nothing to do with death, but rather something else, perhaps from the root of "elem" and "almah" (youth).
Rashi himself explains that the chapter speaks of Amalek, and he brings proofs from later in the psalm. This is the meaning of "Lamnatze'ach al mut laben": this song will be sung in the future to come, when the youthful immaturity and darkness of Israel are whitened and purified. "Almut" relates to youth - a youngster, meaning Israel is still like a youth, still immature, not yet fulfilling the mitzvot properly; and when that youthful immaturity is purified and they become righteous, their salvation will draw near, and the seed of Amalek will be wiped out.
Another explanation is that of Menachem: "al mut laben" means to instruct musical melodies; "to the conductor," to the singer, to teach the melodies. "Laben" is like "lehavin" (to understand), from the root of contemplation and insight, and "almut" is the name of a musical instrument, as in "alamot shir."
The Radak cites that "laben" is like "l'bayin," from the concept of "beinayim" (an intermediary or champion): this refers to the song David composed upon his victory over Goliath, who was called "ish habeinayim" (the champion). He also quotes in the name of his father that it refers to Goliath, though his father explains that "Ben" was the name of a musician, as stated in I Chronicles 15:18: "And with them their brothers of the second rank, Zecharyahu, Ben, and Yaaziel" - proving that "Ben" is a proper name in Scripture (as it is commonly used today).
The interpretation we will focus on is that of Dunash, the Ibn Ezra, the Radak, and the Malbim, and it is the most plausible here: "Laban" was the name of a person. The Malbim has already taught us earlier that King David composed many psalms about situations and experiences he went through that are not documented elsewhere in Scripture. Do not be surprised by this - not everything was recorded in Scripture; the primary and significant events were documented, and what was not, was not. There are names that appear only once, and descriptions mentioned only once. And here, the name of that person was Laban.
This Laban fought against David, and as we will see - "You rebuked nations, You destroyed the wicked" - he was an evil man who distressed and tormented others as well. The Malbim details the sequence of events: this Laban destroyed cities and annihilated kingdoms and nations; afterward, he fought David, and David defeated him; and in the next stage, a downfall came upon him from Hashem - the very traps he prepared to bring down David ended up toppling him instead. This is the overarching framework of the psalm.
Based on this, David offers thanks to Hashem. Although it initially seemed that Laban's defeat was natural - David beat him in battle - David will later describe that there is profound thanksgiving here, for there was divine providence and a miraculous downfall orchestrated by Hashem: "He dug a pit and hollowed it out, and fell into the trap he made." David describes how, as it were, the Holy One, Blessed be He, remained silent regarding Laban. As is well known, "Woe, Assyria, rod of My anger" - the non-Jewish nation is often the rod that chastises Israel, the staff of Hashem's wrath. When Hashem is angry with us, He brings Assyria, or the Philistines, or the Iranians; in every generation there is a rod and a staff suited to the circumstances of that era. As long as Laban was destroying other nations, Hashem held His peace; but once he entangled with David, Hashem exacted retribution from him and settled the entire account: both for what he did to David and for the evil, destruction, and ruin he had previously brought upon the nations.
Ultimately, David will pray: Master of the Universe, if You wish to chastise, chastise directly by Yourself, and not through such a wicked person. For when suffering comes through an evil agent, we lose faith: we imagine that our problem is with Iran, or with the Palestinians, forgetting that our real issue is with the Holy One, Blessed be He, and that they are merely the rod. Therefore, at the end of the psalm, David will ask that Hashem chastise us directly if necessary, so that we will see Hashem's providence and His hand, making it easier for us to return to Him in repentance.
אוֹדֶה יְהֹוָה בְּכָל־לִבִּי אֲסַפְּרָה כָּל־נִפְלְאוֹתֶיךָ׃ - I will thank Hashem with all my heart; I will tell of all Your wonders.
Thanksgiving for the past, the Malbim explains, must be "with all my heart." What does "with all my heart" mean? The Chovot HaLevavot writes that the reason a person finds it difficult to thank Hashem for His kindness is that when one comes to give thanks for the past, it is usually just laying the groundwork for the future - "the words of his mouth are the words of one giving thanks, but his intention is the intention of a petitioner." When someone suddenly approaches you to thank you for a loan you gave him two months ago, you immediately realize that the gratitude is meant to pave the way for another request. David says: with me, it is not so. My thanksgiving is complete, not a setup for a subsequent petition, but genuine gratitude - for in my heart I view the favors I received as complete, not as partial favors for which I thank only to ask for more.
Furthermore: "I will tell of all Your wonders" - not like the common way of people, who recount only overt miracles, while ignoring events that seem natural on the grounds that "there was nothing special here, it was standard." It is told of Rav Merzbach, Rosh Yeshivah of Kol Torah, that a student once picked him up on a rainy day when the Rav was without an umbrella or a coat. The student said to him: "Rebbe, this is a miracle! I was not supposed to drive by here at all; it was pure chance that I passed by to take the Rebbe home." The Rav replied: "Allow me to tell you of a miracle that happened to me last week. Then, too, I forgot an umbrella and coat. I went out to the bus stop, missed the bus, didn't want to wait an hour, so I walked - and arrived home completely soaked. What do you say about that miracle?" His meaning was: must a miracle be only something that defies the laws of nature? In truth, all our affairs and circumstances are miracles, having no inherent nature or ordinary course of the world, as the Ramban famously writes. This is "I will tell of all Your wonders" - not only miracles that deviate from nature, but also nature itself, which is a hidden miracle. It is regarding this that we say in prayer, "and for Your miracles that are with us every day": each and every day Hashem performs hidden miracles for a person, and I recount them to make known that whatever one witnesses, he should recognize as a miracle from Him, Blessed be He.
אֶשְׂמְחָה וְאֶעֶלְצָה בָךְ אֲזַמְּרָה שִׁמְךָ עֶלְיוֹן׃ - I will be glad and exult in You; I will sing praise to Your name, Most High.
This is the third element: I am not like other people whose primary joy comes when they have attained something, so that their love and joy are merely self-love and self-satisfaction over their personal gain. David says: with me, when I attain something - "I will be glad and exult in You." The focus of my joy is not the salvation I experienced, but that through this salvation the Name of Heaven is sanctified and I can recount all Your wonders. Personal benefit is not the main objective; rather, through it I can sing praise to Your name and proclaim that You are supreme and sovereign over all.
בְּשׁוּב־אוֹיְבַי אָחוֹר יִכָּשְׁלוּ וְיֹאבְדוּ מִפָּנֶיךָ׃ - When my enemies turn back, they stumble and perish before You.
After my enemy turned back, meaning he turned his back to me in battle and fled, what occurred next - "they stumble and perish" - happened a second time, and it was no coincidence: "from before You", from Your hand, through You. As we will see later, something supernatural occurred here: the second time Laban came to fight David, he stumbled over what he himself had prepared, into the pit he himself had dug - and thus everyone recognized that this came from You.
כִּי־עָשִׂיתָ מִשְׁפָּטִי וְדִינִי יָשַׁבְתָּ לְכִסֵּא שׁוֹפֵט צֶדֶק׃ - For You have executed my judgment and my cause; You sat upon the throne as a righteous judge.
When they came to fight against me, You championed my cause, executed my judgment, and struck them in battle - and from then on, as it were, You did not rise from the throne of judgment, but continued to sit upon it, for You are a righteous judge. At first, when that Laban ruined many nations and destroyed them, Hashem did not avenge them; but once Hashem sat upon the throne to avenge me and fight on my behalf, He remained seated upon His throne to exact retribution for the destruction of the other nations as well.
The Malbim notes with precision: it says "You sat le-kise" (to the throne) rather than "You sat al kise" (on the throne). The prefix lamed always indicates "toward", an ongoing continuum. "Go le-shalom" means toward peace, something continuous; whereas "be-shalom" refers to whatever peace currently exists, and nothing more. "You sat le-kise" signifies an enduring, continuous sitting, as in "Sit on the ground (la-aretz), there is no throne", "and she, emptied, shall sit upon the ground (la-aretz)", "they sit upon the ground (la-aretz) in silence", and likewise, "and their children forever shall sit upon a throne (le-kise) for you" - in all of which the meaning is that they will remain seated. Here too: You sat upon the throne as a righteous judge to judge Laban for the other wrongs he perpetrated against the other nations as well.
And what is the purpose of the duplicate phrasing "my judgment and my cause" (mishpati ve-dini)? The Malbim explains: mishpat refers to a clear-cut matter, a decided verdict beyond dispute; whereas din refers to a case involving claims and counterclaims - you argue this, the opposing side argues that, and the matter requires deliberation. "They sat for din" means the verdict has not yet been rendered, but they are hearing arguments: state what you have to say, and you state what you have to say. "They executed mishpat" means they have already issued the ruling and reached a final decision. Here David says: You, Hashem, both argue on my behalf and execute the judgment, acting, as it were, as both the defense advocate and the judge. You executed not only "my mishpat" but also "my din", all the claims and counterclaims. Thus, this thanksgiving is a complete acknowledgment to Hashem that everything comes from Him, blessed is He.
גָּעַרְתָּ גוֹיִם אִבַּדְתָּ רָשָׁע שְׁמָם מָחִיתָ לְעוֹלָם וָעֶד׃ - You have rebuked nations, You have destroyed the wicked; You have blotted out their name forever and ever.
"You have rebuked nations" - the nations that came to assist that Laban; "You have destroyed the wicked" - this refers to Laban himself, who was the wicked one. Furthermore, "You have blotted out their name forever and ever", so that they would never rise again. From the moment their downfall began, the hand of Hashem was upon them and their household, to crush them and destroy them, leaving no remembrance of them whatsoever.
The Malbim further notes: when the word ge'arah (rebuke) appears without the prepositional letter beit following it, it denotes destruction. Had it said "ga'arta ba-goyim", we would understand it in the sense of a verbal rebuke and raising one's voice; but "ga'arta goyim" is an expression of destruction, as in "Rebuke (ge'ar) the wild beast of the reeds" - meaning to ruin and destroy them.
הָאוֹיֵב תַּמּוּ חֳרָבוֹת לָנֶצַח וְעָרִים נָתַשְׁתָּ אָבַד זִכְרָם הֵמָּה׃ - The enemy - destructions have come to an end forever; and cities you have uprooted, their very memory has perished.
"The enemy" here is an exclamation: You, the enemy! David now addresses him directly. "The ruins are ended forever" - the cities that you ruined are ended forever, destroyed never to rise and be rebuilt again, and therefore you do not tremble with fear that someone might come to avenge them; you left nothing of them behind, there is no redeemer for those people. "And cities you have uprooted" - "uprooted" (natashta) means, according to the Malbim, to uproot from the very core; and in those cities "their very memory has perished" - only their memory has perished, but it was not said of them that their ruins are ended forever. They are not ended forever, and someone will still be found to avenge their blood.
וַיהֹוָה לְעוֹלָם יֵשֵׁב כּוֹנֵן לַמִּשְׁפָּט כִּסְאוֹ׃ - But the Lord sits forever; He has established His throne for judgment.
And who is the blood redeemer? The Holy One, blessed be He. Hashem sits forever, having prepared and established His throne for judgment, to judge whoever fails to practice justice and whoever commits injustice. And as we mentioned, Hashem does not rise from the throne of judgment - "You sat on the throne" - but rather sits on His throne and judges you for everything you have done. And even though "their memory has perished," do not imagine that the Holy One, blessed be He, does not remember them.
Rashi, who interprets the entire chapter as referring to Amalek, explains here: "The Lord sits forever" - that the Name will be whole; "He has established His throne for judgment" - that the throne too will be whole. For as long as Amalek exists, "a hand is upon the throne of the Lord (keis Kah)" - the Name is divided, Y-K, and the throne is divided, keis, and it is not a complete throne. But when the name of Amalek is blotted out, then "the Lord sits forever; He has established His throne for judgment."
וְהוּא יִשְׁפֹּט־תֵּבֵל בְּצֶדֶק יָדִין לְאֻמִּים בְּמֵישָׁרִים׃ - And He will judge the world with righteousness; He will pass judgment on the peoples with uprightness.
Let us continue with the Malbim: You, the enemy, Lavan, know that although you thought that "their very memory has perished," Hashem sits forever and "He will judge the world with righteousness" - and He will plead the cause of the oppressed from the hand of their powerful oppressors, echoing the verse in Kohelet (Ecclesiastes 4:1). Hashem will plead the cause of those you oppressed and robbed by force, and He will not pervert their judgment, but will judge with justice and uprightness.
Why is the world judged "in righteousness (tzedek)" and the peoples "in uprightness (meisharim)"? And why does it say "judge (yishpot)" here, and there "pass judgment (yadin)"? We have already learned that mishpat refers to something set and measured, whereas din is the hearing of claims. There is also a distinction between tzedek (strict justice) and yosher (upright equity): tzedek is a just ruling without wrongdoing; whereas yosher is on the level of "you shall do what is right and good," going beyond the strict letter of the law - and this is not necessarily tzedek, for many times strict justice strikes us as not equitable.
Here is an example: A person burned his fellow's promissory note. You hold a promissory note stating that Reuven owes you a million dollars; Shimon comes along and burns it - according to strict law, he owes you nothing. How much did the piece of paper cost? Ten cents; take ten cents. In truth he has caused you a huge loss, but strictly according to the law he owes no more than that. This is strict justice, but ostensibly it is not upright equity, because equity goes beyond the letter of the law to do good, which is absent here.
Likewise, there is the incident in the Gemara regarding that sage who hired porters to carry a barrel for him from one place to another, and they broke his barrel. He took them to court, and the beit din told him that they were exempt from paying. He asked: Exempt? Is that the law? They told him: "That you may walk in the way of good men," based on what is right and good - for they toiled to carry your barrel and gained no benefit, and it broke unintentionally. Afterwards, the porters said: We worked all day, what will we bring home to our families? The beit din told him: Pay them their wages as well. He asked: Is that really the halachah? They answered: No, but based on "and keep the paths of the righteous," from the aspect of doing what is right and good. We see that what is right and good does not necessarily correspond to strict justice: according to the law, if you caused damage, you must pay; if you worked a month, you receive payment. But according to what is right and good, one acts beyond the letter of the law.
The Malbim explains: The governance of the world at large operates by an ordered and set system of judgment; Hashem governs the entire world according to justice without any wrongdoing, and nothing deviates from the boundaries of judgment. Everything is measured, preordained, and known - and this applies to the world as a whole and all living creatures, except human beings. When it comes to human beings, however, who are the "peoples," Hashem judges them "in uprightness." First, it says yadin, meaning arguments and claims; when a human being is judged, claims and counterclaims must be heard, taking into account his circumstances, why he acted as he did, whether he was under duress, and the level of that duress. For every single action of a person there is a hearing, and in Heaven they examine what led to it. Second, this is not harsh, unyielding judgment (dina kashya), but lenient judgment (dina rafya): Hashem judges in uprightness, beyond the letter of the law. Indeed, it is written that had the Holy One, blessed be He, dealt with Avraham Avinu according to strict justice, he could not have endured; rather, there is also the attribute of mercy. Thus, many times the Holy One, blessed be He, shows compassion and mercy, and even though according to strict justice they would deserve very harsh consequences and strict judgment, He pities and shows mercy - "He will pass judgment on the peoples with uprightness," with equity, beyond the strict letter of the law.