Introduction: Continuing the Study of the Sabbath Psalm
This psalm is "A Psalm, a song for the Sabbath day," and as it continues, the psalmist describes singing and giving thanks to Hashem - with musical instruments, and out of contemplation of the Creator's works. We continue from verse 4 onward, following the explanations of the Rishonim and the Malbim.
Upon a Ten-Stringed Instrument and Upon a Psaltery - Musical Instruments and the Melody of the World
עֲלֵי־עָשׂוֹר וַעֲלֵי־נָבֶל עֲלֵי הִגָּיוֹן בְּכִנּוֹר׃ - Upon a ten-stringed instrument and upon a psaltery, with resonant music upon the harp.
"Upon an asor" - we play upon an instrument that has ten strings, and it is named asor for this reason. "With resonant music (higayon) upon the harp" - higayon denotes vocal expression, uttered with one's mouth: they would sing vocally while the harp accompanied the singing. As musicians often do to sweeten the sound, they would accompany the vocal melody with the playing of the harp.
The Malbim explains that musical melodies and the nature of their movements correspond to the cosmos and the universal harmony of creation. The Malbim mentions this concept in several places, and we also find this in Sefer Iyov: he compares the entire world to a grand symphony, in which every single component plays its part - the sun does its part, the moon its part, the rain and clouds theirs - and from the combination of all these forces, a complete harmony and mighty symphony emerges, which he calls the "melody of universal music."
At times, this melody is expressed in a harmony resembling an instrument of ten strings. What is the connection to ten? The Malbim explains that this refers to the celestial spheres, which correspond to a ten-stringed harp. In other places, he elaborates that the world is, as it were, bound and interconnected by strings - not literally physical cords, but meaning that every part is connected, intertwined, and influences another, and these constitute the strings of the harp. Similarly, the nevel (psaltery), which has eight strings, corresponds to the sphere of the constellations and what lies below it, which totals eight, and that is why it specifically mentions eight.
"For You Have Made Me Rejoice, Hashem, in Your Work" - Shabbat as a Time for Contemplation
כִּי שִׂמַּחְתַּנִי יְהֹוָה בְּפָעֳלֶךָ בְּמַעֲשֵׂי יָדֶיךָ אֲרַנֵּן׃ - For You have made me rejoice, Hashem, through Your work; I will sing of the deeds of Your hands.
The Ibn Ezra, along with other commentators, links this verse to the psalm's opening title - "A Psalm, a song for the Sabbath day." He writes that because the soul of the wise person is preoccupied with worldly matters during the six workdays, it withdraws in solitude on Shabbat to comprehend Hashem's deeds and wonders. When is "For You have made me rejoice, Hashem, through Your work"? On Shabbat, when one has the leisure to contemplate Your work. During the weekdays, one is immersed in labor and livelihood, but on Shabbat, a person's soul withdraws to comprehend Hashem's deeds and wonders - and therefore, "You have made me rejoice in Your work." The Ibn Ezra adds that this is akin to the Sabbatical year (Shemittah), which was instituted so that farmers could be free to engage in the study of Torah. Then "You have made me rejoice, Hashem, through Your work" - when I realize that Your deeds are upright.
The Radak explains along the same lines as the Ibn Ezra: on the Sabbath day, I am able to contemplate the works of the universe, which is the study of the natural world. When I contemplate it, I grasp from it as much as I am capable of grasping, and then joy and song arise in my heart - "I will sing of the deeds of Your hands." Therefore it is phrased in the singular: I contemplate each and every one of God's deeds. During the weekdays I lack the time to reflect, but on Shabbat I have the time, and then I can sing with praise over every action of the Holy One, blessed be He, and give thanks before Him.
Action and Deed - Miracles and Nature
The Malbim notes the precise wording here: What is the difference between simachtani ("You have gladdened me") and aranen ("I will sing"), and what is the difference between pa'alcha ("Your deed") and ma'aseh yadecha ("the works of Your hands")? In numerous places, the Malbim explains that there is a fundamental difference between a pe'ulah (an ongoing action) and a ma'aseh (a finished work). When something is complete, it is called a ma'aseh - the action has reached its conclusion. But when the undertaking is still ongoing, and He is still actively working at it, it is called a pe'ulah. Thus, "with Your deed (b'fa'olcha)" refers to those matters in which the Holy One, blessed be He, is still actively at work; "the works of Your hands (ma'asecha)" refers to those things where He has already completed His action.
All of physical reality is, as it were, already complete: the laws of nature are finished, fixed laws operating routinely without alteration - and this is ma'aseh, a fixed work established during the six days of Creation that continues without change. In contrast, Hashem's active involvement through Divine Providence (hashgachah), namely miracles, is called pe'ulah, because at every single moment Hashem renews the miracle fitting for that hour, and renews His Providence in events according to what the nation needs for salvation and what the individual needs for rescue.
Thus, corresponding to kindness (chesed), which represents providential guidance - the miraculous - it says, "For You have gladdened me with Your deed." A person rejoices when recognizing that Hashem's guidance watches over him, that the Holy One, blessed be He, rescues him from every distress; it is a profound joy to know that Someone accompanies us with constant Providence. And corresponding to nature, ordered in absolute perfection, it says, "at the works of Your hands I will sing (aranen)" - rinah is joyful song; I sing and praise Hashem for nature, which stands steadfastly at its post and does not deviate from its role.
And how much we must give thanks for this! Although this seems fixed and self-evident to us, imagine waking up one day and the sun did not rise on time - its clock had failed. Imagine how the entire world would be thrown into chaos in a single moment. Suddenly the sun comes up at ten in the morning, like a child who overslept. Therefore, we must sing for this consistency, for everything that operates in an orderly fashion, for thanks to it we can conduct life in this world without surprises: without the sun suddenly failing to rise, without years of continuous summer and no winter, or the reverse - years of winter alone, endless floods and no summer. We must thank Hashem, blessed be He, Who embedded nature within His world, enabling us to conduct our lives accordingly.
How Great Are Your Works - A Depth Beyond Our Grasp
מַה־גָּדְלוּ מַעֲשֶׂיךָ יְהֹוָה מְאֹד עָמְקוּ מַחְשְׁבֹתֶיךָ׃ - How great are Your works, Hashem, how exceedingly deep are Your thoughts!
Radak explains: When I contemplate them, I realize how great and exalted they are, to the point that it is impossible to comprehend them in their fullness and truly understand Hashem's deeds. Indeed, the reasons for everything that occurs in the world have not been revealed even to the sages, leaving difficult questions about worldly events: why things happened this way and not another. One such question: Why did Hashem create the world roughly five thousand seven hundred years ago, and not ten thousand years ago? Who possesses an answer to this? So His wisdom decreed, and we do not know His mind or His thoughts, for they are deep below and great above. Who can know why Hashem acted in this manner and not another - "How great are Your works, Hashem, how exceedingly deep are Your thoughts."
Why Hashem Divided His Governance - Preserving Free Will
The Malbim explains that the verse comes to explain why Hashem divided His governance into two: a fixed natural order, and a miraculous, providential governance that transcends the bounds of nature. Why did the Holy One, blessed be He, not create a reality where the world simply follows its natural course forever? To this, the verse says that there is a profound thought here: in order to leave room for free choice and for reward and punishment.
For if everything were rigidly immediate - you do good and immediately receive good, you do evil and immediately receive evil - the world would not be divided into the wicked and the righteous, but into the wise and the foolish, since only a complete fool would do evil. If someone turned on a light on Shabbat and his hand was instantly burned, who would ever repeat it? If the Holy One, blessed be He, punished immediately through overt Providence, people would refrain from evil out of sheer terror rather than out of choice - they would be robots, programmed to do good. And the Holy One, blessed be He, does not desire robots; He has plenty of angels. He wants you to act out of choice, to have within your power the ability to choose good or to choose evil.
And this is what the verse means: Your natural works "are great" - the orderly deeds are vast and mighty, and consequently there are no obvious deviations, no immediate dynamic of "do this and receive that," no visibly overt Providence. A person can commit evil and the sun will still shine upon him and the rain will still fall for him, and everything continues as usual. And regarding this, "how exceedingly deep are Your thoughts" - what profound thought is at work here, that You conceal Your providential governance so that it is not readily discernible.
In Every Miracle There Is Room to Err
Divine Providence is neither obvious nor overt, and therefore, in every miracle Hashem performs, He leaves room for error. This is the meaning of "Your thoughts are very deep" - that even when You perform a miracle, You do not eliminate free will, but give people the ability to say, "This is not a miracle." Just like at the Splitting of the Red Sea - what is written there? All the night before, a strong east wind blew. Did the wind really dry up the sea? Who has ever seen an east wind carve out a path through the sea? Why, then, was the east wind necessary? So that anyone who wants to say, "I heard from the meteorologists that no such wind has been recorded in the eighty years of modern documentation, and it was likely that which caused it" - will have something to cling to. The Holy One, blessed be He, says: Write it down! Let whoever wishes to err come and err. Hashem always leaves an escape hatch, so that whoever wants to flee through it will not be forced to stay; he can offer explanations and find arguments. If you truly wish to reflect - you will see Godliness; and if you do not wish to reflect - you can escape.
Based on this, several other episodes become clear, and another example illustrates this well. Moshe Rabbeinu comes before Pharaoh, and with which sign does he begin? With a staff turning into a serpent. Pharaoh begins to laugh at him: he brought schoolchildren, he brought his wife, and they too turned sticks into serpents. They said to him: Are you bringing straw to Afraim? Afraim was a place overflowing with grain, and one does not transport straw there - just as one does not sell ice to Eskimos. So they said to him, why are you showing us signs? We are not impressed. On the surface, this is astonishing: Hashem sent him, and He could have given him a far more impressive sign! He could have told him: Look at the sun, in which direction do you want Me to move it - and let us see if your magicians can do that! Did Hashem not do this elsewhere? With Chizkiyahu, the sun retreated ten degrees! But had He done so, no room would have remained for free choice. Hashem never places a person in a situation where there is no room for choice. And yet, if you truly wish to see Hashem's presence, you will see it even in the staffs, for Aharon's staff turned back into a staff and then swallowed their staffs. Let us see you do that; where are your colleagues who can do that? In other words, what was shown was already enough, but a sign from which there is no escape route - Hashem does not want to force you into that. He always wants to leave you the option of choosing not to see: if you choose the path of truth, you will certainly see the truth, and if you insist on being stubborn, you can remain stubborn.
This is "Your thoughts are very deep": what profound thought is at work here, that the Holy One, blessed be He, conceals miracles in such a way that they appear natural, in order to leave man room for free choice. Hashem's works are indeed great - the miracles are immense - but His thoughts are deep, concealing them in a manner that they are not obvious to every eye.
The Joy of Discovery - and What Remains Concealed
The Sefer Tehillot Maharitz explains that the human soul always rejoices and sings to recognize the wonders of the Creator and to behold new things. If someone were told that in the depths of the ocean a new creature was found that science had never known until today - which indeed happens every few years, when a creature is discovered whose existence was unknown and undocumented in books - we would all be intrigued: show me a picture, what does it look like, what are its capabilities? It is a reality that man finds joy and song in knowing and recognizing the wonders of the Creator, discovering new aspects of the mysteries of creation and the depths of the universe, things unknown from days of old.
And all these things ought to strengthen us and serve as a sign: just as those things were covered and hidden - and no one would claim this creature was created just now, but rather that only today have we reached deep enough into the ocean to know that such creatures exist - so too must a person recognize that there are countless other forces concealed and hidden from our eyes, which we have not grasped because our intellect is too limited to comprehend things so lofty and deep. As we say in the prayers: "Before You all hidden things are revealed" - the hidden matters are revealed only to Him, blessed be He, along with the multitude of secrets from the beginning of creation.
This is the meaning of "For You have made me glad, Hashem, through Your work; I will sing of the deeds of Your hands": when I rejoice in Your work and sing of Your wondrous deeds, where is that meant to lead me? To the realization of "How great are Your works, Hashem! Your thoughts are very deep." Consider the things you have just discovered: it becomes evident how great Hashem's works are, though we did not know them until now, and how exalted and sublime they are, though we did not recognize them. Just as prior to the discovery of DNA, the entire concept of the genetic code in man was completely unknown, and once its complexity was revealed and the immense wisdom embedded in it came to light, a person feels great joy upon hearing of such discoveries that open his eyes to understand Hashem's deeds. From this, one can appreciate how vast and profound Hashem's works are; for from what you have discovered, you realize how much still remains hidden and undiscovered - and how much you still do not know regarding the unfathomable depth of Hashem's works that have not yet been revealed to our eyes.
The Boor and the Fool - The Flourishing of the Wicked
אִישׁ־בַּעַר לֹא יֵדָע וּכְסִיל לֹא־יָבִין אֶת־זֹאת׃ - A boor cannot know, nor does a fool understand this.
בִּפְרֹחַ רְשָׁעִים כְּמוֹ־עֵשֶׂב וַיָּצִיצוּ כָּל־פֹּעֲלֵי אָוֶן לְהִשָּׁמְדָם עֲדֵי־עַד׃ - When the wicked flourish like grass, and all the workers of iniquity blossom, it is that they may be destroyed forever.
The Radak explains that this verse can be connected to what precedes it or to what follows it. If we connect it to what precedes it: we said, "Your thoughts are very deep," and about this the verse states that a boor and a fool will neither know nor understand this - for one who reflects sees how great are Hashem's deeds and how deep His thoughts, whereas the boor does not know this and the fool does not understand. And if we connect it to what follows, the reference is to the next verse: a boor cannot know and a fool cannot understand this - namely, what? "When the wicked flourish like grass, and all the workers of iniquity blossom."
The boor and the fool stand astonished: How can it be that there is a righteous person who suffers, and a wicked person who prospers? Why do the wicked flourish like grass? With the very first rain, you immediately see how much grass springs up; yet when you plant a tree, your soul is nearly exhausted before you see any fruit. Until a palm tree produces dates, immense effort is required, whereas the grass sprouts right with the first rain. The boor and the fool do not understand this, but the wise know: "It is that they may be destroyed forever." And why does the wicked person truly enjoy such great success here? Because the meager reward coming to him, Hashem grants him here. This is "that they may be destroyed forever" - meaning this will cause that afterward, in the World of Truth, nothing will remain for him. The reward he receives here for his few good deeds is paid out to him in this world so that he will be lost from the World to Come, just as Moshe Rabbeinu says: "And He repays those who hate Him to their face, to destroy them" - "to their face" in this world, "to destroy them" from the World to Come.
Even After the Explanation - Questions Remain
The Radak adds that the boor and the fool do not understand the success of the wicked in this world and the suffering of the righteous in this world. Now, seemingly there is an explanation here, for Moshe Rabbeinu said, "He pays back His enemies to their face, to destroy them." True, says the Radak, but this does not solve all the questions; we are left with many unresolved and difficult questions. Chazal tell us that even Moshe Rabbeinu did not fully comprehend the mystery of a righteous person who suffers and a wicked person who prospers. And seemingly this is puzzling: after all, he himself said, "A boor cannot know, and a fool cannot understand this... when the wicked bloom like grass... it is to destroy them forever," and as noted, Moshe authored this psalm, and he is also the one who said, "He pays back His enemies to their face, to destroy them" - so why did he not understand? Rather, in truth, there are countless further details here that we simply cannot fathom.
This is why Moshe Rabbeinu asked three things of the Holy One, Blessed be He; two were granted to him, and one was not. And what was not granted to him? Why there is a righteous person who suffers, a righteous person who prospers, a wicked person who suffers, and a wicked person who prospers - why there is no apparent uniformity in divine providence. This the Holy One, Blessed be He, did not reveal to him, but rather said to him: "I will show favor to whom I will show favor, and I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy" - I will show favor to whom I will show favor even if he is unworthy, and I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy even if he is unworthy. And why? Because he found favor in the eyes of Hashem. "And Noach found favor in the eyes of Hashem." Finding favor in Hashem's eyes is something beyond our comprehension; there are certainly deep, inner reasons for it, but we cannot reduce it simply to performing more mitzvos or fewer mitzvos, for the verse states, "for I regret that I made them," and immediately follows with, "And Noach found favor."
Chazal explain that the Holy One, Blessed be He, regretted the generation and also Noach, and that even Noach was deserving of destruction along with that generation - yet Noach found favor. And what is this concept of finding favor? We have discussed this, and one who wishes may examine the teachings on reincarnation (gilgulim), where this connects to Moshe - "for you have found favor in My eyes": that Noach was destined to be rectified in Moshe, and the Holy One, Blessed be He, wished to give the Torah in the generation of the Flood and planted Moshe in that generation, but it did not succeed, as the Tikkunei Zohar puts it, and so He had to uproot the planting and replant it anew. This is the inner meaning of "found favor" and "for you have found favor in My eyes." There is an extensive discussion on this based on the holy Arizal, and one who wishes may delve into it.
But for our purposes, what do we understand from all this? That we do not understand. That in truth, even after the explanations of "He pays back His enemies" and the like, we have no true ability to fathom the depth of these matters. These are the works of Hashem about which it is said, "How great" and "how profound" - who can truly grasp every detail and the precise intention behind each and every matter? This is especially true when it comes to suffering: why does suffering exist? Sometimes it is suffering of love (yissurin shel ahavah), sometimes to magnify one's reward, sometimes to exact retribution for a misdeed, sometimes to cleanse one's sins, and sometimes as a warning to bring a person to repentance. Who can know who received which kind of suffering? There could be ten people who endure suffering, each for an entirely different reason, and none of us can know these calculations - it remains hidden from us. This is the meaning of "A boor cannot know, and a fool cannot understand this": no one can truly comprehend, and even though "when the wicked bloom like grass" leads "to destroy them forever," this still does not answer all the questions in every situation.
Why Specifically Grass
The Radak explains: It is not for nothing that the verse uses the example of grass. Grass indeed grows rapidly, but with the arrival of the first summer sun it withers and dries up just as quickly. By contrast, the date palm and the cedar, which serve as the parable for the righteous as we will see later in the psalm - it takes ages for them to grow, but a palm tree can endure for many decades, and likewise a cedar endures for years. It takes time for them to grow, but once they do, they endure for a very long time.
The Malbim explains: "A boor cannot know, and a fool cannot understand" - that the blossoming of the wicked like grass is with the purpose "to destroy them forever." That is, their success here in this world is directed toward their eternal destruction. This is what the boor and the fool do not understand, and this is part of the profound depth of Hashem's thoughts in the world, that the fool will not grasp it - for if the fool were to understand this, he would no longer possess free will. We return to what we discussed earlier: to preserve free choice, Hashem ensures that the boor does not know and the fool does not understand. As a result, we lack comprehension of why reality is the way it is, which gives rise to questions and struggles in faith. It is here that we are called upon to exercise faith, to trust in Hashem and know that His judgment is just, and that He is faithful to reward and to exact retribution from those who do evil. Had the Holy One, Blessed be He, revealed everything to the fool and the boor, there would be no test and no need for faith at all, since we would see everything openly.
Who Is a Boor and Who Is a Fool
What is the difference between a boor (bo'or) and a fool (ksil)? We elaborated on these concepts when we studied Mishlei. A "boor," according to the Malbim, is a beastly, animalistic person, from the root of "and he sends forth his animal (be'iroh)" - an animal; "and gave drink to the congregation and their cattle (be'iram)" - be'iram refers to their livestock; and Bilam son of Be'or, of whom Chazal say that he cohabited with animals (be'ir). Thus, an ish bo'or is a crude, animalistic individual.
By contrast, a fool (ksil) can sometimes be a very brilliant person. This has been noted many times: a ksil can be a professor, perhaps holding multiple degrees, and yet remain a fool. And why is he called a ksil? Because he follows the desires of his heart; he possesses knowledge, yet does nothing with it. When a person suffers severely from diabetes, and one sees him eating an enticing cream cake, knowing full well that in a minute or two he could end up in an ambulance - an acute blood-sugar spike, a mortal danger - and people say: but he is a professor! Who knows what he is a professor of, perhaps cake studies; what is clear is that he is an utter fool. How can someone commit such folly, knowing he is gambling with his life? And one might object: but he possesses great intelligence! It has nothing to do with intelligence. The concept of a ksil relates to conduct - this person, in his conduct and behavior, acts as a total fool. This is what the Malbim explains: a ksil can be an intellectual, neither animalistic nor boorish; he can be an educated person, yet he nevertheless pursues the lusts of his heart and does wickedness.
Knowledge and Understanding
And what is the difference between "does not know" (lo yada) and "does not understand" (lo yavin), between knowledge (yedi'ah) and understanding (binah)? We have seen this several times in Mishlei as well. Knowledge is something attained through the senses, something directly observable: "and you shall know" - something I recognize, see, and know exists. In contrast, binah is something that requires contemplation, reached through deduction and logic: if A resembles B and B resembles C, presumably A resembles C. I have not seen it with my eyes, but logic dictates it. This is binah: contemplating a matter deeply, and through this depth reaching conclusions via rational proofs.
The fool (kesil), says the Malbim, knows things that can be deduced from the latter to the former, from effect back to cause, through empirical observation and experimentation. All methods of scientific inquiry work this way, from effect to cause. A person dies - what caused his death? They perform an autopsy, discover certain substances that spread through the body, and conclude: if we see this substance spread through the body, it is a sign that he suffered a heart attack, since we have seen that following a heart attack this substance is released; or they see cardiac contraction and the like. Did you actually witness the heart attack? No, but from the results, I deduce what occurred at the outset.
Yet we have often discussed how scientists arrive at absurdities through extrapolations of this sort. For example: the world has existed for billions of years. Why? Because they see results. What results? That the decay of Carbon-14 occurs at a certain rate, and if a certain concentration of Carbon-14 is observed, it supposedly proves the world has existed for billions of years. But this is fundamentally flawed, for the core premise assumes that the rate of carbon decay today is identical to what it was a thousand or two thousand years ago - and who says it never changed? Or, for instance, they say that there are galaxies moving away from us, already light-years distant; and if they originated here and traveled outward, billions of years must have elapsed. This, too, is baseless: who is to say the Holy One, blessed be He, did not create His world from the very beginning with these galaxies already distant? You claim the universe is expanding - it may indeed be expanding, but who says it originally expanded from a single point and at the rate you hypothesize?
And we know that the world was created in its full stature and maturity (bi-tzivyono u-ve-komato). We have noted before that had a scientist stood in the world at the very moment of creation and been asked how long it had existed, he would have begun counting tree rings and conducting laboratory tests. How old was Adam HaRishon when he was created? Twenty years and one minute old. Chazal tell us he was created looking twenty years old, not as an infant. Thus, a scientist arriving one second after the world was created - imagine the mistaken conclusions he would draw, simply because Hashem created His world fully formed! In plain terms: one cannot work backwards from effect to cause and produce conclusions that are completely certain and infallible.
Consider the case where scientists examined a stalactite cave and concluded it had existed for tens of thousands of years. How did they calculate this? There are stalactites and stalagmites, and they observe how frequently a drop of mineral water falls. If one drop falls per year, and building such a formation requires a million drops, it supposedly means the cave has existed for a million years; if a thousand drops, a thousand years. All of this rests on the assumption that the rate of dripping never changed. Yet what actually happened? In a cave discovered in the United States, local residents recalled playing there forty years earlier when there were no stalactites at all! What had actually occurred? A stream had flowed above and later dried up. As long as the stream flowed, mineral-rich limestone deposited at a rapid pace, and a formation assumed to take a thousand years to form was created in a single year. Coming after the stream has vanished and attempting to deduce the past from the present often yields completely erroneous conclusions.
There are, of course, phenomena that can be tested right now. Take gravity, for instance: it is a fact verifiable here and now, not a conclusion deduced after the fact. Take an object, drop it, and observe; an apple falls on your head, and you know gravity exists. Some things can be observed before our very eyes; this is empirical scientific truth and beyond dispute. However, drawing conclusions about the distant past from present effects is not scientific certainty, but an estimation. Thus evolution, which some wish to present as established scientific fact, was never an established truth to begin with, but a theory - "the theory of evolution" - because one does not truly know what transpired, but attempts to draw conclusions from the results. Today, the findings point in the opposite direction. Darwin himself, the founder of the theory, stated that everything hinged on future discoveries, as paleontology, geology, and archeology had not yet advanced sufficiently, and that if we dig enough we will find all the transitional forms. Yet today, having dug extensively, no transitional forms have been found; not a single creature can be definitively identified as an intermediate stage between amphibian and mammal, or land animal and bird, and the like. Periodically people attempted to fabricate findings - finding a fragment here, a supposed "ape-man" there, constructing elaborate narratives - and it all turned out to be fabrication. The conclusion: labeling something "scientific fact" merely because you have a theory is far from true. This does not mean science has no truths: in areas where an experiment can be conducted here, repeated, and observed, that is scientific fact, those are verified realities. A scientific truth is reproducible anywhere with identical results; if it works only under subjective conditions, it is not established science at all.
The Fool Refuses to Contemplate
To return to our point: the fool knows things that can be grasped from effect to cause, through observation and empirical experience, and from them he draws conclusions. But, says the Malbim, he refuses to utilize the proofs of intellect, to understand through deep reason: to contemplate whether his path is true, whether his actions are proper, whether it is conceivable that the Holy One, blessed be He, created such an intricate world merely to live here for seventy years and die. A world without continuation, a world devoid of purpose? To grasp this requires tevunah (understanding). And this is the meaning of "A senseless man does not know, nor does a fool understand this" - the fool does not understand because he refuses to contemplate. "Everything is fine; don't ask me difficult questions, don't create conflicts for me, everything is fine."
This brings to mind what Rav Uri Zohar recounted. He spoke of trying to persuade his colleagues in the entertainment industry, telling them there was someone who claimed to have proof of Torah, and they agreed: fine, let us go and debate him. These were intelligent people; he himself held a university degree - Uri Zohar was not an uneducated celebrity who had done nothing in life except stand on stage, but an educated man. He said to them: "There is someone who can prove it; come with me, help me debate him." They said: "Agreed, we are traveling to Jerusalem." Yet on that day, he traveled alone. Not a single person came with him. "It doesn't work for me today," "I can't make it right now." It turns out that no one really wanted to hear, and understandably so - because if I listen, it obligates me; if I listen, I might be convinced and have to change my life. This is what is meant by: the fool does not understand; he refuses to contemplate, because he fears that if he contemplates, he will be compelled to face the conclusions.
In contrast, the senseless man (ish ba'ar) "does not know." Knowledge relates to what is perceived by the senses, and the brutish man, being driven purely by animalistic instincts, does not even perceive that which is sensed. The fool, on the other hand, at least knows what is sensed and can deduce cause from effect; but to contemplate, to see "Who created these," to "Lift up your eyes on high," to ask what the ultimate purpose is, whether it is conceivable that all of this exists without Providence, whether it could possibly run on its own - to contemplate this he is unwilling. Therefore, "nor does a fool understand this."
In summary: The psalm teaches us that Shabbat is a time of contemplation, when man steps away from his labor to rejoice in the deeds of Hashem. "For You have gladdened me, Hashem, with Your work" - corresponds to the providential guidance constantly renewed at every moment, wherein a person rejoices knowing that the Holy One, blessed be He, accompanies him; "I will sing for joy at the works of Your hands" - corresponds to the fixed, orderly laws of nature, through which the world operates reliably. "How great are Your works, Hashem! Exceedingly profound are Your thoughts" - great are the deeds, and profound is the Divine thought that clothes miracles in the garb of nature and preserves room for error, all to safeguard free will. For this reason, "A senseless man does not know, nor does a fool understand this": the flourishing of the wicked like grass, whose true end is "to be destroyed forever," remains concealed; the boor does not even perceive sensory reality, while the fool - though knowledgeable and educated - refuses to contemplate rational truths. And we too, after all explanations, stand before depths beyond our grasp, where faith and trust are required, knowing that the judgment of the Holy One, blessed be He, is righteous and true.