לִבְנֵי־קֹרַח מִזְמוֹר שִׁיר יְסוּדָתוֹ בְּהַרְרֵי־קֹדֶשׁ׃ - By the sons of Korach, a psalm, a song; its foundation is in the holy mountains.
Radak explains the phrase "By the sons of Korach," as we have already seen previously: this refers to the singers among the descendants of Korach, who were either the ones who established the psalm or who were accustomed to reciting it. There are two perspectives on the matter: either David gave them the psalm to sing, or they composed it themselves.
"Its foundation" - the foundation of the song. And upon what is it founded? Upon a holy place, upon Jerusalem and Zion. And why does it say "mountains" in the plural ("harrei")? There are two possibilities: either because there is Mount Zion and there is Mount Moriah, which is the Temple Mount, and therefore it used the plural; or because it comes to express the mountains surrounding Jerusalem - "Jerusalem, mountains surround it," one of which is the Mount of Olives. Mount Zion is generally the seat of royalty, and everything is included in what verse 3 will state: "the city of God, Selah."
אֹהֵב יְהֹוָה שַׁעֲרֵי צִיּוֹן מִכֹּל מִשְׁכְּנוֹת יַעֲקֹב׃ - Hashem loves the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Yaakov.
What is there to love about a gate? Does the Holy One, blessed be He, love wooden doors? Radak explains: the elders and the sages are the ones who sit in the gates, as the verse says in the Book of Ruth, "at the gate to the elders," and "the elders who are at the gate." Thus, the meaning is that the Holy One, blessed be He, loves the sages and the elders who sit at the gate. And although all the dwellings of Yaakov are beloved before Him, as it is said, "How goodly are your tents, Yaakov, your dwellings, Yisrael," nonetheless, He loves the gates of Zion more - because in the gates of Zion the sages and those occupied with the service of Hashem are concentrated.
The Malbim opens with a major principle: sometimes we perceive the greatness of a person, a nation, or a place precisely through the flaw and shortcoming attributed to them. A criticism leveled against a distinguished and eminent person - that very same criticism would be considered high praise for someone of lesser stature.
The Malbim provides an example: people criticize a generous person for giving only a tenth of his wealth to the redemption of captives rather than a fifth - not twenty percent, but merely ten. Yet, had a miser given such an amount, what tremendous praise he would have received! "He gave a tenth of his wealth!" But regarding a very wealthy and generous person, people say: What, only a tenth? Redeeming captives is a matter of saving lives; he should have given twenty percent.
Indeed, there is also a halachah regarding this in the laws of Lashon Hara. If someone says about another person, "This individual studies for three hours a day" - is that praise or criticism? The Chafetz Chaim says: it depends. If he is a full-time kollel student (avrech) - it is a severe criticism; if he is a working man (baal habayis) - it is great praise. Thus we see that the exact same thing is considered a disparagement relative to one person, and high praise relative to another.
The nations, says the Malbim, would speak disparagingly of Zion and of Israel. Their claim was as follows: The fact that the Holy One, blessed be He, forbade the altars (bamot) and commanded that offerings be brought only in Jerusalem proves that He does not love you for your own sake. For had He loved you for your own sake, He would have welcomed the offerings you sacrificed to Him everywhere, in all the dwellings of Jacob.
To what can this be compared? If a mother were to tell her son that she will hug and kiss him only when they are at home, and nowhere else - "I only love you at home" - it would mean that she does not truly love you; perhaps she loves the house. For if she loves you, her love for you exists everywhere. And so they argued: If Hashem loves offerings from you, why only in Jerusalem, why specifically in the Beit HaMikdash? From this they sought to prove that the love and the Shechinah resting upon them is not on their own account - for if it were, He would love all the dwellings of Jacob. And since He loves only the gates of Zion, it must be a sign that He does not love Israel all that much. This, in the eyes of the nations, was a disparagement.
נִכְבָּדוֹת מְדֻבָּר בָּךְ עִיר הָאֱלֹהִים סֶלָה׃ - Glorious things are spoken of you, O city of God, Selah.
The Malbim adds a grammatical principle: whenever a form of the root "dibur" (speech) is paired with the preposition "bet" - "medubar bach" (spoken in/against you) - it always denotes disparagement. When people say "medubar alecha" (spoken about you), it can refer to praise or criticism, but "medabrim bach" is always disparagement. As in, "Vayedaber ha'am b'Elokim uv'Moshe" ("And the people spoke against God and against Moses") - did they speak favorably? It was disparagement. Nowhere in Tanach does the phrase "medabrim bach" signify praise and exaltation.
If so, when encountering here "Glorious things are spoken against you" - an explanation is necessary: after all, "spoken against you" (medubar bach) always denotes disparagement! Rather, the meaning is this: the very thing they speak against you as a disparagement - saying, "Hashem loves the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob," where the slight is that Hashem does not truly love Israel, for had He loved them He would accept an offering wherever Jacob dwells, so why does He accept it only in Jerusalem? - that very disparagement is itself a great honor.
How so? Because in this very disparagement, they concede that Jerusalem is the city of God, the place where the Shechinah dwells, the site Hashem chose for His habitation. And this is an enormous honor: that through you, Jerusalem, Hashem establishes a permanent dwelling among the people of Israel. The disparagement leveled against Israel - "Behold, Hashem does not love you so much, since He accepts offerings only in Jerusalem" - is itself immense praise for Jerusalem. It turns out that what was intended as a slight against the people of Israel serves as praise for Jerusalem, which is the catalyst for the resting of the Shechinah here. They fail to realize that through their very words, they are praising the city of God, acknowledging that it is uniquely designated for the Shechinah's presence. "Selah" - according to the Malbim, this always indicates that a theme has concluded; that is, this marks the completion of the first part.
Rashi explains: You, Jerusalem - words of honor were spoken of you from the mouth of the Holy One, blessed be He. And what is that glorious matter spoken of you? That you are the "city of God, Selah," meaning that you will remain the city of God for all eternity.
The Radak explains in two ways. First: "Glorious things" refers to noble character traits, which consequently refers to its inhabitants - the people of Jerusalem are praised for their noble virtues. Second: glorious virtues are spoken of you, for you surpass all lands; according to this explanation, the verse refers to Jerusalem itself, not its inhabitants. For the inhabited world is divided into seven climatic zones, and Jerusalem stands in the central zone, at the very center of the inhabited world, as it is said, "those who dwell at the navel of the earth." And what is the navel? The choicest location, the point from which sustenance originates. Therefore, the climate of Jerusalem is finer and more tempered - that is, perfectly balanced - than all other climates, both for physical health and for wisdom, as it is written, "Fair in climate, the joy of the whole earth," and as Chazal taught: "The air of Eretz Yisrael imparts wisdom." Thus, it possesses great virtue in its own right, by virtue of its physical location, and in addition it is the "city of God, Selah" - for Hashem chose to dwell there and cause His glory to abide there.
אַזְכִּיר רַהַב וּבָבֶל לְיֹדְעָי הִנֵּה פְלֶשֶׁת וְצֹר עִם־כּוּשׁ זֶה יֻלַּד־שָׁם׃ - I will mention Rahab and Babylon to those who know Me; behold Philistia and Tyre, along with Cush: "This one was born there."
These verses are obscure, and therefore interpretations of them abound. Whenever a verse lacks clarity on its surface, many commentators attempt to break it down and understand what is written here.
The Radak explains: "Rahab" refers to Egypt, as it is written in Yeshayahu, "that hewed Rahab in pieces." And this is the meaning: when I mention to those who know Me the great nations of the world, enumerating them one by one - I find no nation as praiseworthy as Zion, that is, Jerusalem. And to whom is this addressed? "To those who know Me" [leyode'ai] - to those who recognize the virtue of Zion, where "yode'ai" functions like "yod'im" (those who know). And if you wonder at this phrasing, the Radak notes: do not be surprised, just as Scripture writes, "and cut out windows for it" [chaloni] - where it should have grammatically said "chalonot" (plural) - which shows that Scripture can express itself in this manner. Alternatively, it refers to the psalmist: "to those who know Me" - those like me, who truly recognize the greatness of Zion.
וּלְצִיּוֹן יֵאָמַר אִישׁ וְאִישׁ יֻלַּד־בָּהּ וְהוּא יְכוֹנְנֶהָ עֶלְיוֹן׃ - And of Zion it shall be said: "Each and every person was born in her, and the Most High shall establish her."
The explanation continues: In all the great nations, if a wise man emerged from among them, it occurred only at distant intervals, and one says in wonder, "So-and-so was born in that place." It is a marvel that a wise person was born there, that someone who left a mark on history was born there. Not so in Zion: "And of Zion it shall be said: Each and every person was born in her" - of countless sages one can say that they were born in her. So-and-so was born in Zion, and this one was born in Zion, and Yirmiyahu, and you can enumerate an entire line of sages, great leaders, and scribes who were born in her. In other lands, if you find one sage who emerged, it is a rare phenomenon, and you say "this one was born there"; but in Zion it is not merely "so-and-so was born there," but "each and every person was born in her" - there, many people of stature, renown, and great wisdom are born.
"And He, the Most High, shall establish her" - the Radak explains that this is an inverted construction: "and He, the Most High, will establish her." The Holy One, blessed be He, who is the Most High, He will establish her and place her firmly on her foundation. Similar constructions appear in Scripture, such as "and he commanded me my brother" meaning "and he, my brother, commanded me," and "a place there a grave" meaning "a place of a grave there." At times the word order is inverted, and so it is here. That is to say: Hashem, who is exalted above all and created the entire world, is the One who formed and established this place to be more praiseworthy than all other places. A second possibility is that this is phrased as a prayer and supplication: Master of the Universe, You who are the Most High, establish her and uphold her on her foundation for many years, so that she will never be destroyed.
The Malbim explains that there are two distinctions between the inhabitants of Zion and those of other nations' cities. The first distinction relates to the collective assembly: In every other nation, individual citizens do not inherently contribute to the wholeness and perfection of the nation as a whole. Although a nation comprises many people, if a single individual is missing from it - the nation's identity is not diminished on his account. Egypt is still called Egypt even if this or that person is absent. It is like a single grain of wheat missing from a grain heap: one does not say that the heap ceases to be a heap because one grain was removed.
Not so the gathering of the people of Zion, who are considered like limbs of a single, complete body. Here one cannot say, "A hand is missing, it does not matter, the main thing is that the body is complete overall" - for without a hand, the entire body is considered blemished. Among the Jewish people, we are considered one nation and one body, where the absence of one individual is like the absence of a limb, which casts a flaw upon the whole and constitutes a collective deficiency. Each and every person completes the perfection of the whole, and if one person is missing in Zion - the void is felt across the entire collective.
This is what the verse means: If I come to mention to those who know Me - to those who understand - the collective of a single nation, such as Rahab and Babylon, I do not mention the individual people within it. "I will mention Rahab and Babylon" - only the general collective, the collective name of the land, and not each and every person. Why? Because the nation, in its essence and wholeness, stands whether so-and-so is present or not. And if I come to mention who was born in the land of Philistia, or Tyre, or Cush - where the gathering of people gave the place the name Tyre, Cush, or Philistia - I say, "this one was born there": a Philistine nation was born there, a Tyrian nation, a Cushite nation.
Not so when I come to mention who made Zion a unique nation: "And of Zion it shall be said: Each and every person was born in her, and He, the Most High, shall establish her" - each and every person who was born in her. It is not enough to mention the land in general terms; rather, one must mention each and every individual within her, because every person completes the totality of the nation. Among the nations, one person more or one person less makes no difference, and it will still be called Egypt, Tyre, or Philistia. Among the Jewish people it is not so: each individual completes the wholeness of the nation, and if someone is missing - the nation is missing a limb. Just as each individual limb completes the body, so too this individual person - "he shall establish her supreme" - is what transforms the place into the stature of Zion in its entirety, bearing the name of Zion when all are present within her.
This is the meaning of the teaching that every Jew is an entire world, and whoever destroys a single Jewish soul is considered as having destroyed an entire world. There are those who attempt to excise the words "from Israel" out of a sense of political correctness, but no matter how much people distort the texts or redact them, the truth paves its own path, and these words refer specifically to the Jewish people. This does not, heaven forbid, imply any permission or command to kill a gentile, but the statement "as if he destroyed an entire world" was not said in that context; one does not desecrate Shabbat to save a gentile, whereas for a Jew one does desecrate Shabbat. Why? Because every single Jew is essential to the totality of the nation, and the complete whole - which is the spiritual body of Adam HaRishon, the collective reservoir of all the souls that descended to this world to effect rectification - cannot be complete if even a single soul is missing.
From here, the holy Ari explains, in the end all souls will be rectified; all will achieve their tikkun. It may take a long time, and the rectification may involve great hardship and suffering - after all, regarding that person who threw a stone at the prophet Zechariah, it is taught that he reincarnated a hundred times - but in the end, everyone will be rectified.
And why is it essential that everyone be rectified? Because this is not like game pieces where one could say: if not this one, then that one, and if neither, then nothing at all. It is like a puzzle: if you say, "I assembled a complete puzzle, just one piece is missing" - anyone who looks at it will say: forget it, do not hang it up. It is comparable to a person who smiles while missing a tooth; you tell him not to smile. Now seemingly, what is the problem? He has thirty-one teeth, so why focus on the deficiency? Rather, this is a deficiency that casts a blemish over the whole, like an impaired person missing an arm - the flaw is noticeable throughout the entire body. Every Jewish soul is a puzzle piece completing the treasury of souls within the body of Adam HaRishon.
Therefore, "And of Zion it shall be said, every single man was born in her." Do you wish to know who Zion is? You must count them. And we know that there are sixty myriads of Israel; everything we see today, and throughout the generations, is nothing more than sixty myriads of souls whose sparks descend and rectify. Each of us is not an entire soul, but rather a spark of a soul, and we come to rectify parts of those sparks. Yet if there were to be fewer than sixty myriads, it would not be the collective nation; just as if a single tribe of Israel were missing, it would not be the collective nation, but a truncated, severed nation, bearing a blemish. Every individual Jew is part of the perfection of creation, and therefore regarding the private individual, "He, the Most High, shall establish it" - every single individual is what elevates the Jewish people to the level of "Most High."
It turns out that the meaning of the verse is: "I will mention Rahab and Babylon to those who know Me" - when one wishes to mention Egypt, one mentions "Rahab," with no need to mention individual names. "Behold Philistia and Tyre, with Kush" - and when one comes to state their components, one says "this one was born there," so-and-so was born there, there the Philistine nation was born, the Tyrian nation, the Kushite nation. But when one comes to mention Zion - "And of Zion it shall be said, every single man was born in her," one must mention every single individual of it, for every individual is what transforms it into Zion, transforming it into a complete body.
There is an additional distinction between them, the Malbim explains, on the level of the individuals themselves. Beyond the fact that in Israel each person undergoes a process of perfection that advances the collective nation - where every advancement of mine, yours, and his leads to the general advancement of the entire collective - it is different among the nations of the world. A gentile, no matter how much he perfects himself, his perfection is isolated: you perfected yourself, and what will you have? You will have Gan Eden, according to the measure of a gentile. But he does not create a general transformation for his nation, and certainly not a general transformation for the world; the rectification of the world does not depend on him. If he achieves advancement, it is personal advancement for which he will receive reward above, and nothing more. Whereas with us, every single individual, in pursuing the path of perfection, also elevates the entire collective. Moreover, each individual person on his own is considered like an entire nation, like a complete assembly.
יְהֹוָה יִסְפֹּר בִּכְתוֹב עַמִּים זֶה יֻלַּד־שָׁם סֶלָה׃ - Hashem will count in the register of the peoples: "This one was born there," Selah.
The Malbim explains: An individual, a single person born in Zion - Hashem will count him "in the register of the peoples," as if he were an entire nation. This private individual is considered a whole nation, and is not regarded as merely a single person. "Selah" - the conclusion of the matter.