Introduction: A Chapter of Contemplating Creation
Psalm 104 is a chapter of contemplation upon the entirety of Creation: the heavens and the earth, the mountains and the springs, the plants and the animals, the creatures of the land and the creatures of the sea. Here we stand at the section where King David summarizes his wonder at the Creator's wisdom, transitions to discussing the marine creatures, and moves from there to the sustenance of all living beings and to the mystery of the gathering of the spirit at the time of death.
מָה־רַבּוּ מַעֲשֶׂיךָ יְהֹוָה כֻּלָּם בְּחָכְמָה עָשִׂיתָ מָלְאָה הָאָרֶץ קִנְיָנֶךָ׃ - How manifold are Your works, Hashem! With wisdom You have made them all; the earth is full of Your creations.
"Mah Rabu" - Two Meanings
The Radak explains "Mah rabu" in two ways. One possibility is that "mah rabu" means "how great," for the root rav denotes greatness, as in the phrase "over all the officers (rav) of his house." The second possibility is according to its plain meaning, denoting quantity: the works of Hashem are manifold and numerous. In every single thing the Holy One, blessed be He, created, He created many varieties. If we observe ants, Hashem did not create merely one ant of a single type, but countless species of ants. So it is with all animals; there are many distinct species. And even if in the original Creation there was a single archetype, from it the Holy One, blessed be He, branched out many diverse species.
"The Earth Is Full of Your Creations" - No Superfluous Screw in Creation
Everything that exists in the world is the acquisition of the Holy One, blessed be He. The Radak explains: after concluding his description of the land creatures, and having mentioned the plant kingdom and the celestial luminaries - in which Divine wisdom is revealed with greater clarity - David turns to speak of the sea creatures, which are less visible and demand deeper contemplation. Therefore, he introduces: "The earth is full of Your creations (kinyanecha - Your acquisitions)." The entirety of the earth consists of the works and acquisitions of Hashem, and there is no coincidence here. An acquisition is not accidental: when you own an acquisition, you acquired it deliberately, deciding that you specifically wanted this and not that. So too throughout the earth, wherever we look, we see Hashem's acquisition - something created with forethought, bearing the clear imprint of Divine design.
Consider an illustration: if someone were to tell you that there is an extra, superfluous screw in your Mazda, you would tell him he is talking nonsense. How much does a screw cost the Mazda company? Four cents. And yet, it is inconceivable that they would place a superfluous screw. If it is not necessary, they do not put it in. This is not a carpenter casually saying, "Let us drive in another screw, just in case." Rather, if they placed it, its placement was precisely planned - at which point and why four screws are required here instead of three. Everything is engineered. Can one then claim that the works of Hashem came about randomly, "more or less"? "The earth is full of Your creations" - in everything one can perceive how vast and great are Your possessions, and how immense is the wisdom embedded in all the works of Hashem: "With wisdom You have made them all."
And consider: all this was stated based on what was visible back then. What should we say today? All the wonder the ancients had for the human body and mineral elements was according to their grasp. But with our understanding today, when we are familiar with atoms that compose every substance in Creation, and the DNA in man which is a vast and profoundly wise genetic code - all of these grant us deeper insight and contemplation: "How manifold are Your works, Hashem! With wisdom You have made them all; the earth is full of Your creations."
The Wisdom in Survival: Preparing the Means of Existence for All
The Malbim explains that David concludes here with wonder at the wisdom of Hashem: even though His works are vast and He made diverse and extraordinary creatures, nonetheless "with wisdom You have made them all" - You prepared for all of them the means of survival. This is a marvel in its own right: how the Holy One, blessed be He, created predators that prey on other creatures, and yet every species possesses the means to exist, and no creature completely wipes out another. Certainly, the Holy One, blessed be He, may decree that a species like the mammoth will no longer exist in the world, but under the normal order, He designed living beings such that while the lion is stronger than the deer, He endowed the deer with fleetness of foot; while predators are stronger than lower creatures like mice and rats, these smaller animals hide in burrows and crevices where a lion, cat, or any threatening animal cannot reach. He gave strength and dominion to one creature over another, yet He also gave the weaker creature the ability to endure and not become extinct.
This is the meaning of "with wisdom You have made them all": there is an entire ecological system where one part sustains another, and yet all continue to exist. Fish swallow other fish, yet this does not cause fish to disappear from the sea. Even though a whale can engulf one or two thousand fish in a single gulp, this does not result in a sea filled only with whales and no fish. From this, says the Malbim, you see that "the earth is full of Your creations": the Holy One, blessed be He, established a reality where the earth remains populated, where His creations remain intact and the world is not depleted, "and the individual entities multiply as needed until they fill the earth" ("entities" refers not only to humans, but to each being that exists).
Until now, he spoke of land creatures, and therefore used the phrasing "the earth is full of Your creations," as Radak explains: he began with land creatures because they are more visible to us. Marine creatures are much more visible to us today, as we have cameras and the ability to descend beneath the surface of the sea to explore its inhabitants; but in the past, familiarity with sea creatures was very sparse. What could people know? Only the fish that could be caught. Who could descend into the belly of the sea to investigate, and who could photograph it? Today, we are able to know and recognize much more, and to see just how much "the earth is full of Your creations."
Even from a Floor Tile, One Can Acquire Fear of Heaven
The sefer Imrot Tehorot cites the Yismach Yisrael, explaining "the earth is full of Your acquisitions" based on the holy Rebbe of Vurke, that even from a floor tile one can acquire fear of Heaven. Do you hear? Even from the floor, one can acquire fear of Heaven. With every single step a person takes on earth, he can contemplate Hashem's kindness, seeing that Hashem fills all worlds and encompasses all worlds, and how He oversees everything with individual divine providence (hashgachah pratit). This is "the earth is full of Your acquisitions": look at the earth, without necessarily looking up at celestial bodies or gazing too high. Even here on earth, you can see how the Holy One, blessed be He, guides a person's steps and orchestrates his path. From every single creature here on earth - learn of Hashem's possession, acquire an awareness of Godliness, and use this to serve Hashem, blessed be He.
זֶה הַיָּם גָּדוֹל וּרְחַב יָדָיִם שָׁם רֶמֶשׂ וְאֵין מִסְפָּר חַיּוֹת קְטַנּוֹת עִם גְּדֹלוֹת׃ - Yonder is the sea, vast and wide, where creeping creatures are without number, living things both small and great.
The Sea: Countless Creeping Things, Small and Great
From here onward, the Malbim explains, he speaks of marine life. Behold: the sea is vast and wide, and You did not leave it empty of living things either; there too, creeping creatures are without number. And although You did not assign each sea creature a distinct dwelling - unlike land creatures, where one lives here, another in the mountains, another in burrows, and another in an enclosure, each with its designated habitat - in the sea this is not so; rather, countless creeping things share the same space.
The Malbim explains that this refers to the reproduction of fish: fish produce millions of eggs, and a single female fish can yield several million eggs. As a result, "living things both small and great" dwell together: the whale, the tiniest fish, and the sardine - all swim in the very same habitat and territory. Even so, see that although the large creatures swallow tens of thousands of smaller ones every day, their species do not perish; they are never wiped out and continue to thrive. The large fish, the Walfisch ("fisch" meaning fish, "Wal" meaning whale), feeds on small fish such as herring; yet they multiply in such vast numbers that the Arctic waters become crowded, and they spread out to distant islands in enormous shoals, as is well known.
In simple terms: the Holy One, blessed be He, knows that there is an inherent imbalance, that whales and large fish consume vast quantities of small fish. Therefore, He ensures that reproduction is balanced accordingly, multiplying the small fish in vastly greater numbers. A human gives birth to a single child; an animal sometimes gives birth to two or three offspring, like cats and dogs; whereas fish spawn millions - precisely because of their high rate of depletion.
שָׁם אֳנִיּוֹת יְהַלֵּכוּן לִוְיָתָן זֶה יָצַרְתָּ לְשַׂחֶק בּוֹ׃ - There ships go, and the Leviathan You formed to play with.
"There Ships Go" - Man's Dominion Over the Sea
The Radak explains: even in the sea, which is not the natural habitat of terrestrial creatures, You granted wisdom to man so he could harness whatever is in the sea for his needs. First, he travels across the sea from place to place: when he wishes to journey from country to country, he sails by way of the sea. Second, he uses the creatures of the sea for his food, fishing for his livelihood, as Hashem told him: "And rule over the fish of the sea" - the word rediyah denotes dominion, meaning that you govern even the fish of the sea. It is through ships that man rules over the fish, for how much can one catch from the shore? The bulk of fishing takes place out at sea, aboard ships.
"Leviathan You Formed to Play With" - Multiple Facets
The Leviathan is the great sea creature mentioned in the Book of Iyov, where we learned at length how Iyov describes its tremendous might, speaking of it even though no human had seen it. This does not refer to the whale commonly known today, but to a species of sea creature of which Chazal say the Holy One, blessed be He, slaughtered the male, knowing that if they were to multiply they would destroy the world, and preserved the female in salt for the Future to Come.
Radak explains "to play with it" - that man plays with all the creatures of the sea, and You created the Leviathan for man to play with. And what is meant by "play"? Not literal playing, but in the sense of "and princes are a sport to him" and "he scorns every fortress": anything a person disdains, he scoffs at, as though mocking it, like "Hashem will laugh at him", "You laugh at them", "You mock all nations", and "He who sits in heaven laughs." The Leviathan is considered play for man - he casts nets and hunts even it. Come and see how fully the Holy One, blessed be He, placed everything into the hands of man.
Chazal expound homiletically that "to play with it" refers to the Master of the World, as Rashi cites from Tractate Avodah Zarah, that for three hours a day the Holy One, blessed be He, plays with the Leviathan, and "Will you play with it as with a bird?" This is, as it were, a metaphor: do not imagine that tremendous exertion was required for creation - to the Holy One, blessed be He, it is like play. Certainly, deeper and more internal dimensions are involved here.
In practice, people indeed hunt whales, shooting them with harpoon arrows; there are laws against whaling, though in China it seems the law is not strictly observed, as with other matters. The method of the Eskimos to hunt a whale was: they would take a sharp, jagged bone, bend it, and freeze blubber over it so that it remained bent and frozen. The whale comes and swallows it, sensing food; it enters its intestines, the fat melts, and the bone springs open like a coil, slicing its stomach, and within a few hours it dies. They create an internal strike within it. In any case, for our purposes, you see that the Holy One, blessed be He, gave man dominion even over the great creatures of the sea.
Metzudat David explains differently: "This Leviathan" - the Leviathan famed for its immense size, which You created to play and roam in that sea, fearing no creature while all of them serve as food for it. That is, it is neither man playing with the Leviathan nor the Holy One, blessed be He, playing with it, but the Leviathan itself frolicking in the sea: "This sea, great and broad" - and within it, "this Leviathan You formed to play therein."
Malbim explains: "There ships go" - they travel in order to catch fish, and among them ships go to the frozen ocean, to the polar regions, to hunt the whale, the Walfisch. The ships go "to contend with the Leviathan that You formed," and the clever strategies of humans find ways to hunt this Leviathan - hinting that hunting it requires cunning - "they divide it among the merchants," as the verse uses "Canaanite" for a merchant: the whale is massive, yielding immense quantities of meat, and they would divide and apportion it among the merchants. And "to play with it" is like "Let the young men arise and play before us," meaning they contend to see if they can conquer the whale. It is no simple challenge; this is not fishing for tuna.
Leviathan - From the Language of Accompanying
When we mention the concept of the Leviathan - that at the banquet of the Future to Come they will feast on the Leviathan, and that may we merit to sit in the sukkah made of its skin - one must know the explanation of the Maharal: one should not imagine literal whales, nor imagine that we will eat a whale. Are they speaking to us about food? This refers to a future realm that is entirely spiritual perception, so what relevance is there to any physical feast? Rather, the Leviathan is a concept: Leviathan stems from levayah, accompaniment. They are telling us that we will accompany Hashem, just as we find in other Midrashim that the Holy One, blessed be He, will be in the center and lead a dance for the righteous, with everyone pointing to Him - may we merit with Heavenly assistance to be part of that dance. This is the aspect of Leviathan: accompanying Hashem. And just as Hashem said to Yeravam ben Nevat: "Repent, and I, you, and the son of Yishai will stroll in Gan Eden" - meaning they would accompany Hashem. That is to say, it conveys how intimate the connection and cleaving to Him, blessed be He, will be; and that is the expression of Leviathan, signifying companionship, connection, and accompaniment.
כֻּלָּם אֵלֶיךָ יְשַׂבֵּרוּן לָתֵת אָכְלָם בְּעִתּוֹ׃ - All of them look to You with hope, to give them their food in its proper time.
All of Them Look to You with Hope - Sustenance for All Living Things
Radak explains: You, Master of the World, created all these living creatures, and You also created their food; yet despite all this, every single day "they look to You with hope" - that You will give their food in its proper time, as it is written, "He gives food to all flesh." And this is accomplished through the unfolding chain of causality: the Holy One, blessed be He, does not spoon-feed them, but arranges causes so that the lion has what to eat and the fish have what to eat. It is in Your power to give to them, and in Your power to withhold from them.
And why does it say "in its proper time" (singular) rather than "in their proper time" (plural)? Radak explains: each and every species has a specific food suited for it and a specific time for eating - this one eats at night, this one during the day, and that one at noon - and You provide each one its food at its proper time. Others explain "in its proper time" as referring to the season of the food itself, for every food has its season and growing period: there is a season when watermelons grow and a season for oranges, and each food has the time during which it is available.
Radak notes a difficulty here: What is the meaning of "look to You with hope" (eilecha yeshaberun)? Where do we see a lion or a deer turning their gaze in hope to Hashem for their sustenance? He explains: Even though they lack the intellect to comprehend who gives and who prepares their food, by their ingrained nature they look toward the natural order and routine appointed for them - it is their nature to await their food. They do not know Whom they are awaiting, but we know that when they look with expectation, they are awaiting Hashem: "They look to You with hope" - You are the One who gives and prepares. It is like a newborn baby crying; we know he wants to eat, and from whom does he want it? From his mother. Yet does he truly understand what a mother is, who gives him food, and how to ask of a mother? Of course not. The Holy One, blessed be He, placed this innate yearning within his nature. So too, "all of them look to You with hope" - all the living creatures in creation look with yearning, an expression of hope and desire, asking Hashem to give them their food in its proper time.
Three Variations in Sustenance
The Malbim explains that after discussing the dwelling places - where each creature resides, the fish in the sea and the ibexes in the crags of the rocks - the psalm now discusses their sustenance. Regarding sustenance, there are three variations, three differing conditions. Let us present the upcoming pesukim first in order to see the Malbim's explanation in its entirety.
תִּתֵּן לָהֶם יִלְקֹטוּן תִּפְתַּח יָדְךָ יִשְׂבְּעוּן טוֹב׃ - You give to them, they gather it up; You open Your hand, they are sated with good.
תַּסְתִּיר פָּנֶיךָ יִבָּהֵלוּן תֹּסֵף רוּחָם יִגְוָעוּן וְאֶל עֲפָרָם יְשׁוּבוּן׃ - You hide Your face, they are terrified; You take away their breath, they perish and return to their dust.
"You give to them, they gather it up" - sometimes Hashem gives sustenance in limited measure, which is implied by "they gather" (yilkotun): little by little, like one gathering crumbs. At other times, He gives generously - "You open Your hand, they are sated with good," with an abundance that satisfies more than enough. Why does gathering (likut) denote scarcity? Because gathering is always done one by one, as in the verse, "and you shall be gathered one by one" (Yeshayahu 27:12), said of the future redemption. Our Sages also noted that three fallen stalks do not constitute leket (gleanings left for the poor), but only two - meaning one or two is considered gleaning, but one does not say, "I gathered a hundred." It is like the man who went to a gas station and asked, "How much is a liter of gas?" The attendant said, "Seven shekels." He asked, "And how much is a drop?" The attendant said, "A drop is free." He said, "In that case, drip it out for me!" Simply put, one cannot gather a large quantity all at once; gleaning is always bit by bit. Thus, sometimes provision is in the manner of "they gather," and sometimes "You open Your hand, they are sated with good" - there are periods of drought, and there are periods of great abundance.
The third variation is: "You hide Your face, they are terrified." There is a state where the Holy One, blessed be He, hides His face and does not grant them their food at all, and then they are terrified. Furthermore, "You take away their breath" (tosef rucham) - the end of life has arrived, as if to say te'esof rucham ("You gather in their spirit") - and then "they perish and return to their dust." That is, there is also a state of famine in which animals die, and not only animals, but human beings as well; at times there is a famine in which many people perish. This is the meaning of "You hide Your face, they are terrified" - Hashem conceals His countenance, there is no abundance, and inevitably the life-breath of man or beast is gathered in, and death ensues.
"Their Food in Its Season" - An Insight from Chovot HaLevavot
Let us return to "all of them look to You with hope." The work Tehilot Maharitz cites a passage from Chovot HaLevavot (in Sha'ar HaBitachon, as discussed at length in the series on that work) describing a traveler in the desert who was overcome by severe thirst. He walked on and found a pit of water whose water was murky and foul - but when there is no choice, one drinks anything. This is unlike our generation, where some feel that if there is no bottled water or soda, there is nothing to drink. People sometimes rely on a countertop water filter whose bulb has not been replaced in two years and whose filter has not been changed in four, yet remain convinced they are drinking pure distilled water - fortunately they cannot see the microbes, for an unmaintained filter can become a breeding ground for bacteria, worse than tap water itself! Yet a person often entertains illusions, convinced of the water's purity despite the taste. One might have a water dispenser at home and still drink regular tap water - what could be wrong with good, wholesome water?
To return to the parable: That traveler drank whatever he could find from that pit, just so he would not die of thirst. He continued on his journey and soon reached a fresh, flowing spring of magnificent, sweet water. But he had already quenched his thirst; he had no appetite left and could not enjoy it. He lamented: "If only I had not drunk back there, I could have enjoyed this pure, fresh water properly!" This is what we mean when we say, "all of them look to You with hope, to give them their food in its season" - that the Holy One, blessed be He, should provide our sustenance at the right time. What is considered "not in its season"? A person looks for something to eat at home, searches around, and finally settles on stale bread from a couple of days ago. He eats it and dulls his hunger, and suddenly learns that the family is going out to a restaurant. He arrives there, looks at everyone eating with hearty appetites, while he is stuffed from the stale bread he ate earlier. Therefore, one prays: Master of the Universe, provide the food in its season! May Hashem send us our sustenance at the fitting and proper time, not after one has already filled himself with inferior fare, but providing the finest sustenance precisely when he truly needs it.
Radak distinguishes between the two parts of the verse: "You give to them, they gather it up" refers to times of drought, when creatures gather sustenance little by little; by contrast, "You open Your hand, they are sated with good" refers to times of plenty, when the Holy One, blessed be He, brings abundance to the world, opening His hand so that all take generously.
You Hide Your Face - And None Can Help but Him
"You hide Your face, they are terrified" - when You hide Your face from them, meaning You withhold sustenance from them and they have nothing to eat, for it is only in the light of Your face that You have given to us; all abundance in the world is through the light of Hashem's face, and if Hashem hides His face, there is no ability to be helped by anyone other than Him, Blessed is He, as the Radak writes. And then, "You take away their breath, they perish" - toseif rucham means You gather their spirit, as in "He gathers His spirit and His soul to Himself" (Iyov 34:14), "and return to their dust" - man returns to the dust as he was originally.
Rashi interprets "toseif rucham" as an expression of destruction and cessation, as in "safu tamu" ("they have ceased and ended"). Where else do we see this? In the Haftarah of Tisha B'Av: "Asof aseifam" (Yirmeyahu 8:13) - I will destroy them. And similarly, "ve-zichram lo yasuf mi-zar'am" ("nor will their memory perish from their descendants," Esther 9:28), along with other places where this type of expression is found.
The Added Spirit Before Death
It is brought in the holy Zohar that when they wish to take a person's soul, an angel calls out and says, "Who would not fear You, King of the nations?" (Yirmeyahu 10:7), and no one hears these words except the dying person, as it says, "Toseif rucham yigva'un" - meaning, You give them an addition (tosefet) of wisdom at the time they expire. The Zohar homiletically interprets this in a wondrous way: when a person is just moments before passing away, he receives an added spirit (tosefet ru'ach), and it is brought in the sefarim that at that moment he receives all the levels of his soul.
Indeed, it is related about righteous people that in their final moments they said they saw those who came to welcome them. Thus it is told of the grandfather of the Pnei Yehoshua, the author of the Meginei Shlomo, who authored a work to resolve the words of Rashi and defend him from the mighty challenges of the Tosafists - a wondrous and renowned work. At the time of his passing, he said he saw Rashi coming to welcome him into the World of Truth, for Rashi, as it were, owed him gratitude for having resolved all the questions against him. Thus there is an aspect of an added spirit before death: "Toseif rucham yigva'un" - before they expire, there is an addition of spirit, and therefore the dying person can often see things that others cannot see.
A story is told of someone who went to visit a relative who was in the hospital during his final hours. He walked over to sit on the bed, and the patient said to him, "No, no, do not sit there!" He asked, "What happened?" The patient said to him, "Do you not see him? He is sitting there, do not sit there." In short, he was already seeing the Malach HaMavet (Angel of Death). This is "Toseif rucham yigva'un."
Likewise, a woman related about her father, who, may Hashem have mercy, had many sins to his name and had suffered considerably. He would constantly complain that he just wanted to die, asking why Hashem placed him here and pleading to be taken, even uttering words toward the Holy One, Blessed is He, that would make ears tingle. On one occasion, he reached a critical state, on the verge of death, but doctors managed to stabilize his vitals and by Hashem's kindness he returned to life - and from then on, he fell completely silent. It was understood that he had seen there was nothing enticing awaiting him above to rush toward, and from that point on, he was not willing to say another word.
It is written in the holy sefarim as a parable that a person just before death is like a flame: a moment before the candle goes out, the flame leaps up and flares, and then the candle is extinguished. In the same way, there is an added spirit before a person passes away, allowing him to see and perceive things he normally cannot perceive, and then the candle goes out. Incidentally, this is sometimes physical as well: one often hears from people, "We were already coming to take father home from the hospital; he had passed the crisis, baruch Hashem they stabilized him, and he was feeling better" - and when they arrived, suddenly his vitals collapsed, and suddenly, may Hashem have mercy, he passed away. This is not an isolated occurrence; many times one hears that just before passing, the person had begun to feel better. "Toseif rucham yigva'un" - before expiring, there is a surge of strength, just as with "And Israel strengthened himself and sat up on the bed" (Bereishit 48:2), followed later by his passing. We see that there is a reality of strengthening, not only spiritual but also physical, after which the person passes away. This is the source: sometimes at the moment of expiring, there is an aspect of an added spirit.
In summary: Dovid HaMelech concludes his contemplation of Creation with the exclamation, "How manifold are Your works, Hashem! In wisdom You made them all" - the sheer multitude of species and deeds is entirely calculated, and there is no superfluous screw in Creation. Wisdom is evident in how He prepared the means of existence for every creature, even though the strong preys upon the weak, and likewise in the sea: "creeping things without number," small creatures alongside great ones, and immense fertility that preserves the species. "The earth is full of Your possessions" - from every step on earth one can acquire fear of Heaven. From there, the chapter transitions to "All of them look to You with hope": all creatures are dependent upon the Provider of bread, with three cycles in sustenance - scarce gathering, an open hand of abundance, and the hiding of the Face in which they are terrified and perish. Regarding "toseif rucham," we learned that it denotes both destruction and the added spirit and wisdom before passing - from which we learn to contemplate, to give thanks, and to serve Hashem, Blessed is He, while our breath is still within us.