We have arrived at Chapter 92 in Tehillim, a psalm we recite every week, and for that reason it is fitting that we endeavor to understand it in depth. This was the song of the Levi'im on Shabbat, and Rashi explains that the psalm speaks of the World to Come, which is entirely Shabbat. The Radak adds that the psalm also pertains to our Shabbat here, not only the Shabbat of the future, as we will see below.
מִזְמוֹר שִׁיר לְיוֹם הַשַּׁבָּת׃ - A psalm, a song for the Sabbath day.
The Midrash Shocher Tov states that Adam HaRishon recited this psalm. He was created on Friday, sinned and fell, and at the twelfth hour of Friday was expelled from Gan Eden. The Holy One, blessed be He, was about to issue an "apophasis" - a death sentence - against him, when Shabbat entered and shielded him, saving him from the verdict. Adam then came to sing a "hymnon," in the language of the Midrash, an anthem of song and praise to Shabbat, on whose account he had been spared. He said: "A psalm, a song for the Sabbath day." Shabbat said to him: "Do you sing an anthem to me? Let you and me sing an anthem to the Holy One, blessed be He." And immediately: "It is good to give thanks to the Lord" - both of them together, Adam HaRishon and Shabbat, thanking the One Who truly deserves thanks, the Holy One, blessed be He.
The Malbim explains that this song speaks of Hashem's providence in His world. On the surface, the world seems to run according to the laws of nature: the sun rises every morning, rain falls in the winter, it is cold in winter and warm in summer - a routine, fixed reality. Nevertheless, the Malbim says, the wise person will perceive Hashem's providence within it, observing the punishment of the wicked and the reward of the righteous. Hashem hid His providence from the eyes of the masses so that free will could exist; therefore, if you do not see it, it is only because providence is concealed, but the one who reflects truly sees it.
It was the approach of the Chafetz Chaim to observe all global events and see within them historical reckonings. During the Spanish Civil War, an internal conflict that according to some historians claimed around a million lives, the Chafetz Chaim heard of it and said: "Do you think the Holy One, blessed be He, forgot what Spain did four hundred years ago? Do you think the Spanish Expulsion was forgotten? The Holy One, blessed be He, has His own timing, and now He is exacting retribution."
And there is no need to look as far back as the stories of the Chafetz Chaim. We have discussed Ukraine several times, which today is bleeding. Has the Holy One, blessed be He, forgotten the massacres that the Ukrainians, the cruelest of our enemies, inflicted upon us? And this refers not only to the Holocaust, but also to Chmielnicki and his cohorts; whoever reads of the massacres of 1648 and 1649 (Tach ve-Tat) will find horrific atrocities, yet Chmielnicki is celebrated there as a national hero. Jewish history in Ukraine is steeped in blood. If so, what we see today is a sign that the Holy One, blessed be He, remembers. And why is this not obvious to the eye? Because it is not immediate. Had the Ukrainian who murdered a Jew taken a bullet to the head that very moment, people would say: here is the hand of God. But the Holy One, blessed be He, says: I do not operate by your stopwatch. He has His own timeline, and when the time comes, He exacts retribution from a person as is fitting.
Moreover, the leader currently holding them together and giving them the strength to fight is Jewish - "and a young boy leads them." Consider his background: neither a military man nor a seasoned politician, but an actor who played a president in a television series. The nation fell in love with the character and elected him. One stands back and marvels at the irony of history, at how the Holy One, blessed be He, runs His world: specifically this Jew stirs Ukrainian patriotism and harasses Russia, with whom we also share a long historical reckoning, and whose infants will yet be dashed against the rock. Russia, too, operates against us in diverse ways, and from her as well will the Holy One, blessed be He, exact retribution. We have all the time to wait and see; and what has been settled so far is nothing - the true retribution will come with compound interest.
Thus, explains the Malbim, this psalm comes to show that even though the world appears to run according to nature, one who reflects deeply discerns the punishment of the wicked and the reward of the righteous. An entire discourse was dedicated to this topic: ultimately, it is well with the righteous and ill with the wicked, but great patience is required to wait for the end. Anyone who examines the broad sweep of history - and many examples were cited there - will see that ultimately the righteous attained good and the wicked suffered ill, even though in the immediate term the exact opposite appeared to be true.
Why did the Holy One, blessed be He, create a reality in which this is not obvious and clear? The Malbim explains: in order to preserve free will. If we were to see the wicked immediately punished on the spot and the righteous rewarded on the spot, the world would not be divided into righteous and wicked, but rather into the wise and fools. Who would turn on electricity on Shabbat if he were then unable to move his hand for a week? Who would drive a car on Shabbat if the next day he required a wheelchair for two weeks? This would be a world of robots, and Hashem does not desire that. He wants a person to have free choice, and out of knowledge of Hashem and faith in Him, to perform His will.
Therefore, there is nothing in this world that compels an inescapable, undeniable conclusion regarding the existence of the Creator. Everything can be debated, rationalized, and explained away - so that one is never coerced. Even when the Holy One, blessed be He, performs miracles, He enclothes them within nature, leaving room for someone to interpret and say: "Well, that was merely natural." The splitting of the Red Sea was seemingly the greatest revelation of Divinity, an entire nation crossing the sea on dry land, and yet what did Hashem do the night before? "A strong east wind all that night." Can an east wind really dry up a sea? Rather, it was to give the Egyptian an excuse to claim: "There was a gale all night, a storm unseen in eighty years, and it was probably because of this that the sea split." The Holy One, blessed be He, leaves an escape hatch for the wicked, for without an escape hatch he would be compelled to recognize His Divinity and would be acting under duress - and for what, then, would one receive reward for faith and divine service? Precisely because the Holy One, blessed be He, communicates with us indirectly, and a person can choose to see or choose to ignore, one earns reward.
And since the Sabbath day is a testimony to supernatural guidance and Divine providence, testimony that the world was not abandoned to nature but is directed by the Holy One, blessed be He - it is upon this theme that the Psalmist established this psalm: "A psalm, a song for the Sabbath day."
In Otzrot HaAggadah, Rav Zakkai cites the Katuv LeChaim that the initial letters of "Mizmor Shir LeYom HaShabbat" form the word "LeMoshe." It is straightforward to say, as noted earlier, that the eleven psalms encompassing this section begin with "A prayer of Moshe" and were all uttered by Moshe, and an allusion to this appears here as well. However, the Katuv LeChaim offers a different explanation.
Our Sages teach that while still in Egypt, Moshe Rabbeinu approached Pharaoh and told him: "If you work them relentlessly, they will perish. Any king who wants slaves desires good productivity, and if you do not grant them food and rest, what will you have left?" This is like the tale of the man who nearly trained his horse to stop eating; everything went wonderfully, except that after a week the horse dropped dead, and the man lamented, "What a pity, he had almost gotten used to it!" Moshe told him: "Grant them one day a week to rest." Pharaoh agreed, and Moshe Rabbeinu chose the Sabbath day. Thus, the Jewish people's observance of Shabbat began while still in Egypt through the agency of Moshe, which is why "A psalm, a song for the Sabbath day" alludes to "LeMoshe."
Another explanation is based on the Holy Zohar, which states that a talmid chacham is called Shabbat, and likewise states that every talmid chacham is called Moshe. Indeed, while the name "Moshe" does not appear in the Talmud as the actual name of any Sage, it does appear as an honorific: "Moshe, you have spoken well!" When praising a scholar, he is addressed as Moshe, because every talmid chacham possesses a spark of Moshe Rabbeinu. If so, every talmid chacham has a spark of Shabbat and a spark of Moshe, and therefore "Mizmor Shir LeYom HaShabbat" alludes to "LeMoshe," as these concepts are fundamentally intertwined.
This brings to mind that Rav Chaim Kanievsky authored a work compiling all the names of the Sages found in the Talmud and Midrashim. He recounted that even as a young boy, he had an ambition to write, following the example of his father, the Steipler. He took a notebook and titled his composition Kodesh Kodashim ("Holy of Holies"). When his father saw this, he disapproved and crossed out the letter dalet, replacing it with a resh: Keresh Kerashim ("A Plank of Planks"). His father demanded the utmost of him and made no concessions. Around the age of bar mitzvah, he produced a treatise resolving the difficult questions raised by Rabbi Akiva Eiger. He showed it to his father, who glanced at it and said: "Rabbi Akiva Eiger himself was already aware of these resolutions." Rav Chaim recounted that this pushed him to demand ever more from himself. One would hardly recommend applying these methods in our generation; today, one must be gentle, offer compliments, and offer praise even when a child says something nonsensical, so as not to break his spirit but to encourage him forward - our generation is fragile. But in that generation, there was a demanding standard: "Why are you satisfied with this? Push forward!" And indeed, he later authored a work resolving all the instances where the Maharsha poses a question and simply writes, "and this can be resolved," without elaborating. Rav Chaim came and supplied the resolutions, along with many other magnificent, monumental works.
Regarding that same work on the names of the Sages, Rav Chaim related that when asked what he contemplated when waking in the middle of the night and needing to fall back asleep - since according to the ruling of the Gra which they followed, one may not meditate on Torah thoughts before reciting Birkat HaTorah, and after sleep Birkat HaTorah is required (whereas Sephardic custom holds that thought is not like speech and contemplation is permitted, which is also the ruling of Rav Ovadia Yosef) - he replied that he would meditate on the names of the Tannaim and Amoraim. He rarely managed to finish the letter Alef before drifting back to sleep: Abaye, Rav Adda, Rabbi Abbahu, and so on in alphabetical order, just as he arranged in his book.
In the sefer Tehillot Maharitz, the author cites the words of Chazal that this psalm was composed by Adam HaRishon. Scripture states, "And Kayin left the presence of Hashem" - he went out joyful. Adam HaRishon encountered him and asked him: "What happened regarding your judgment?" He replied: "I repented, and I was granted a compromise." Adam HaRishon began clapping his hands against his face and exclaimed: "Such is the power of teshuvah, and I did not know it?" Immediately, he stood up and recited, "A psalm, a song for the Sabbath day." Thus, Shabbat is directly linked to the concept of teshuvah - yet this is puzzling, for throughout the entire psalm there is no mention of repentance!
Rav Pincus has an entire essay on this matter, and in brief: the word Shabbat shares the root of lashuv (to return), shivah, tashuv. Even though there are no confessions, expressions of regret, or mentions of sins on Shabbat, this is in fact the highest expression of teshuvah. For a sin is distance from the Omnipresent, and teshuvah is returning and reconnecting with our Father. And since we are returning and reconnecting with our Father, this is not the place to mention sins. It is like a son meeting his father after a long separation at a grand celebration thrown by the father; he does not open with confessions and reminders of past transgressions, for this is a time of joy. The teshuvah of Shabbat is the expression of closeness to God, without resorting to confessions and regrets, but simply sheltering in the shade of the Holy One, blessed be He.
And so the Tehillot Maharitz explains: there are two paths in the way of teshuvah. A primary foundation of teshuvah is that one's heart be broken within him, sighing with a broken back over the past, and fearing for the future lest he sin again or encounter a stumbling block. Adam HaRishon undertook such repentance: for one hundred and thirty years he separated from his wife, wore girdles of fig leaves - akin to sackcloth in our days - and sat in the Gichon River; all these were afflictions and self-mortifications he accepted upon himself for his sin.
Yet there is another path, which is the way of the Chassidim: to be constantly in joy, as King David said, "Before Elohim I will sing praises to You." Through joy and songs of praise, one can sweeten and annul the aspect of Elohim, the attribute of strict justice in the world, draw down mercy and lovingkindness, and return in repentance out of love. This is the difference between Yom Kippur and Sukkot: Yom Kippur embodies teshuvah out of awe and fear - "A lion has roared, who will not fear?" - whereas Sukkot embodies "You shall rejoice on your festival," teshuvah out of joy. And this is the meaning of "For you shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace" - as the Chassidic masters teach, through joy one emerges from all problems, from all troubles, and from all sins.
According to this, it is wonderful: Adam HaRishon sees Kayin walking out with a broad smile, joyful, and is astonished - "You committed such a grave sin, and you are happy?" There is a story of a man who came to a rabbi and told him with a big smile that he had eaten pork, asking for a path of teshuvah. The rabbi said to him: "Take half a kilo of lemons, squeeze them, and drink the juice." The man said: "How wonderful, what a nice rabbi! And will that atone for me?" The rabbi replied: "No, but at least it will wipe that smile off your face! You committed a sin - at least feel remorse, at least feel some pain!" And here Kayin told him: "I repented, and I was granted a compromise." That is to say, there is another mode of teshuvah: teshuvah born of joy, arising from a person's desire and longing for closeness to God without plunging into self-depression. Then Adam HaRishon began clapping his hands against his face: "Such is the power of teshuvah! I did not know its power could also be realized through pleasantness and joy; I thought it was solely through mortifications and afflictions." Immediately he arose and recited, "A psalm, a song for the Sabbath day" - crossing over to the other approach, to teshuvah in the manner of Shabbat: returning to Hashem, blessed be He, through delight, through Shabbat songs, through the festive meals and restful sleep, through love and song.
From here emerges a great lesson. This approach brings a person to a reality where teshuvah does not suffocate him and does not ultimately lead him to cast off the yoke entirely. It has been noted often that one of the yetzer hara's tactics is that when a young man begins to return in teshuvah, voices immediately whisper to him: "Do you realize how many sins you have committed? Come, start fasting, mortifying yourself, and abstaining from everything! Do you know how many tikkunim you need? Look in the sefarim - hundreds of years' worth!" Who pushes him toward this? The yetzer hara, because it knows that the more it suffocates him at the start of his journey, the more forcefully the spring will snap back. Therefore, anyone who returns in teshuvah guided by a rabbi and grounded in Torah receives many cautionary brakes: "Do not start with fasts and mortifications; that is not your stage at all. Right now, like a ballistic missile, you need to break through the atmosphere, and all your energy is required for the ascent. Once you reach cruising altitude, once you are firmly established after five years of teshuvah, you can begin to examine what you did, what needs rectification, and in what manner" - and even then, each according to his individual situation, and certainly without imposing rectifications and self-mortifications beyond his capacity. These matters must be handled with guidance, not through a path of brokenness that ultimately leads to an even more severe breakdown. It is possible to return in teshuvah through the path of love and singing praise to the Master of the Universe.
טוֹב לְהֹדוֹת לַיהֹוָה וּלְזַמֵּר לְשִׁמְךָ עֶלְיוֹן׃ - It is good to give thanks to Hashem, and to sing praises to Your Name, Most High.
The Radak explains: the Sabbath day is good for serving Hashem more than any other day of the week, because on it a person is free from worldly affairs, his soul is purified from the distractions of the body, and he engages in wisdom and divine service. In our generation, this is understood all the more. In the general world, there is not a moment when a person is not exposed to media: a radio here, a flickering screen there, and nowadays everyone carries a flickering screen in their pocket. Constant notifications, rumors, terror attacks, false alarms - an endless loop that grips and preoccupies him. Then Shabbat arrives, bringing calm: put everything aside, there is a wife, there are children, there is a home, there is Torah. Open a sefer in tranquility, without a smartphone at your side, without distraction; you are now alone with the Master of the Universe. Regarding this it says, "It is good... to sing praises to Your Name, Most High" - the elevated soul finds its place to praise Hashem, blessed be He, Who is the Most High.
The Malbim explains that the verse speaks of two forms of divine leadership: individual Divine Providence (hashgachah) and general leadership, which is the natural order of the world. Corresponding to individual Providence, it says, "It is good to give thanks to Hashem," and corresponding to general leadership, it says, "and to sing praises to Your Name, Most High." For in every instance, thanksgiving is directed to the four-letter Name of Hashem (Havayah), whereas song is directed to His "Name" - "I will sing praises to Your Name," "to sing praises to Your Name, Most High." And what is His "Name"? Renown and public recognition. When people say someone has "made a name for himself," or "magnify Your Name in the world," it refers to public renown. To sing praises to His Name means to publicize and proclaim the Name of the Creator, blessed be He, throughout the world.
The name Havayah (the Tetragrammaton) reflects the recognition of Hashem, blessed be He, in His very essence, which becomes visible through the wonders He performs for us. When a person sees that the Holy One, blessed be He, performed a personal miracle for him, that is a private kindness; therefore, "it is good to give thanks to Hashem" - an expression of gratitude for His providential care, for the individual miracle. By contrast, joyful song and praise stem from His general governance, through which the majesty of His blessed Name is made known via nature, revealing the Creator's dominion across His entire universe - not merely His focused care for me, but the proclamation of His Name, His capabilities, and His power in sustaining everything.
לְהַגִּיד בַּבֹּקֶר חַסְדֶּךָ וֶאֱמוּנָתְךָ בַּלֵּילוֹת׃ - To recount Your kindness in the morning, and Your faithfulness in the nights.
Rashi explains that Hashem's kindness "in the morning" refers to the era of redemption, for redemption is compared to morning, whereas exile is termed night. "And Your faithfulness in the nights" - while we are still immersed in the suffering of exile, that is precisely where faith is required: we believe in Hashem, anticipate the redemption, and trust that He will uphold His promise and bring us salvation. And when that salvation arrives, we will say, "To recount Your kindness in the morning," giving thanks for the kindness that is the morning itself. This is akin to the sages' teaching that the morning star (ayelet ha-shachar) represents the redemption, which breaks forth like the dawn; just as the sun rises little by little, so too the redemption unfolds gradually, not in a single instant.
Radak explains that both by day and by night we must thank Hashem for the kindness He bestowed upon us by granting us the day of Shabbat for rest; and "Your faithfulness in the nights" means we believe that the kindness of the Holy One, blessed be He, will endure forever. When we come to recount His kindness, we will also recall this sublime kindness of giving us the Shabbat - an elevated favor, providing the time when we can engage in spiritual pursuits, detach from the material world, and cleave to Him, blessed be He.
And why specifically "in the morning"? Throughout the week, a person rises in the morning and heads out to his daily labor, whereas on the Sabbath day, he rises in the morning and enters into delight and joy: praying in the synagogue, returning home for the festive meal, a day of true rest. It is then that one can "recount Your kindness in the morning" - on a morning so distinct from every other morning, a person calls to mind Hashem's mercies, reflecting on how much kindness He showed us by giving us the day of Shabbat.
Consider also that the Holy One, blessed be He, gave us Shabbat at a time when the concept was utterly foreign to all the nations. The Midrashim note that the nations viewed Shabbat as mere indolence: these Jews are lazy, needing a day off every seven days. In Soviet Russia, there was only one day off all year, May Day, Workers' Day, for they eradicated every religious observance and eliminated all holidays; aside from that, let the labor weigh heavily upon the people. Judaism came and introduced a revolutionary truth: once every seven days, a person must recharge his spiritual batteries. Look at how widely the world has embraced this concept today - not only Saturday but Friday as well, shifting to a five-day work week and seeking to reduce it further. They realized that if you suffocate workers, you will never achieve maximum productivity; grant some breathing room, and you will receive far greater output. How much kindness Hashem showed us by giving us the day of Shabbat when not a single nation could even fathom such a concept!
Our Sages also apply this verse, as we explained regarding the psalm as a whole, to the day that is entirely Shabbat and rest, to the life of the World to Come: "in the morning" is the era of redemption, and "in the nights" refers to the exiles. When the morning arrives, we will proclaim: How much kindness Hashem performed for us by taking us out of exile, even though our many sins warranted our staying there, yet He redeemed us nonetheless! And during the exile itself, we declare: in this dark night, Your faithfulness lives in our hearts; we believe with complete faith that You will redeem us with an everlasting redemption.
Malbim has already explained that natural governance - the constant governance of the Holy One, blessed be He, through the laws of nature - is called "emunah" (faithfulness). Emunah denotes truth, constancy, and stability: Hashem is faithful to guide His world through nature, the sun is faithful to rise every morning, and so forth. Hashem established this at the Creation of the world, enacting fixed, immutable laws of nature. By contrast, miraculous governance, the realm of open wonders, is classified as "chesed" (kindness), for He was under no prior obligation to perform them: Hashem performs an act of kindness with us and splits the Sea; He performs an act of kindness and rains down manna from heaven for the Children of Israel. These are pure kindnesses, not an obligation.
The Psalmist therefore compares these two modes of governance to day and night. Night is a time when creatures rest and motion ceases, corresponding to the mode of governance wherein the Holy One, blessed be He, leaves the world to operate on "standby," in its regular, steady course, without overt divine intervention. The night is quiet, and natural governance is likewise quiet. Morning, on the other hand, is the time when life and creation awaken to renewed activity, corresponding to the governance of kindness, in which the Holy One, blessed be He, awakens to acts that alter reality and bring about miracles.
Therefore, it says: "To tell of Your kindness in the morning" - the morning represents the realm of kindness, the mode of providence wherein Hashem operates supernaturally, performing miracles through His divine providence. And "Your faithfulness in the nights" - faith represents that which is constant, truthful, stable, and perpetual, and the metaphor for this is the night, which is a fixed time without dramatic changes, where the works of Creation maintain their natural laws. This does not mean that Hashem performs miracles exclusively during morning hours, but rather that morning serves as a symbol of miracles: in the morning, one rises into action and initiates new endeavors, and so when we wish to say that Hashem guides His world miraculously, we say it is like morning, a renewal of activity; and when we wish to say that He guides His world through nature, we say it is like night, static, a fixed reality that does not change. Morning and night here serve as metaphorical concepts.
The Otzrot HaAggadah brings an allusion: morning alludes to days of joy and gladness, days in which one sees light; while night represents the opposite - times of sorrow, sadness, and darkness. The verse comes to teach: if a person lives with a sense of joy and gladness, he must thank Hashem and publicize it - "To tell of Your kindness in the morning." And if a person lives in sorrow and sadness, he must believe that everything is for the good - "And Your faithfulness in the nights." When a person goes through a period of "night," one must hold fast to faith and know that even though the period is dark and difficult, the Holy One, blessed be He, still watches over him, and everything that happens is for the good. And when there is "morning" and open kindness, that is when one must publicize the kindness of Hashem and thank Him for all the good He has bestowed upon us.
It is well known that when a person experiences a kindness, he often promises to publicize it, and in Bnei Brak one sees many flyers: "I recited Tehillim for forty days and was helped, and I promised to publicize it." Once, someone hung a note: "I turned to a party activist for forty days and was not helped, and I promised to publicize it - and then I was helped."
Mizmor shir leyom haShabbos is a song about Divine Providence. Shabbos testifies that the world is not abandoned to nature, but rather guided by the Holy One, blessed be He. One who contemplates sees the punishment of the wicked and the reward of the righteous - even though providence remains concealed so that free will may endure, and even though the timetable is not ours. Adam HaRishon, who was saved in the merit of Shabbos and learned from Kayin that there is also teshuvah through joy and love, opened with this song; and from him we learn that one can return to Hashem out of delight and song. "It is good to give thanks" - for the personal miracle and providence; "and to sing praise to Your Name, Most High" - for the general governance through which His Name is made known across the world. "To tell of Your kindness in the morning" - in the time of redemption, in times of kindness and joy, we shall publicize His goodness; "and Your faithfulness in the nights" - in exile, within the veil of nature, and during days of darkness, we hold fast to the faith that everything comes from Him and everything is for the good.