Introduction: The Chapter of Thanksgiving
Chapter 107 is a psalm of thanksgiving. In it, King David enumerates the categories of people who are obligated to give thanks to Hashem - those who traverse the desert, prisoners, the sick, and seafarers - and each group follows the same recurring structure: a description of the distress, the cry to Hashem, the deliverance, followed by "Let them give thanks to Hashem for His lovingkindness, and for His wonders to the children of men." In this section, we will focus on the cry in the wilderness, the guidance to an inhabited city, and the second tribulation - those dwelling in darkness and the shadow of death in prison.
Tze'akah and Ze'akah - Rescue and Salvation
וַיִּצְעֲקוּ אֶל־יְהֹוָה בַּצַּר לָהֶם מִמְּצוּקוֹתֵיהֶם יַצִּילֵם׃ - Then they cried out to Hashem in their trouble, and He rescued them from their distresses.
The Malbim makes a precise observation: with desert travelers and seafarers, the text uses "vayitz'aku" with the letter tzadi, whereas with the prisoners and the sick, it says "vayiz'aku" with a zayin. A tze'akah is greater than a ze'akah - it is far more powerful and intense. And in exact correspondence: where tze'akah is used, it says "He rescued them" (yatzilem), and where ze'akah is used, it says "He saved them" (yoshi'em). For rescue (hatzalah) is greater than salvation (yeshuah). The greater the distress, the greater the cry, and the greater the rescue - one precisely matching the other.
What is the difference between rescue (hatzalah) and salvation (yeshuah)? Salvation can be granted without fully rescuing. If a person is drowning and someone throws him a life preserver, has he been rescued? Not necessarily. But he has been granted salvation - for now he has something to hold onto, and soon the rescue team may arrive, or it may not. Salvation can be temporary; rescue is complete deliverance.
One can also derive a moral lesson from this: corresponding to the depth of one's turning to Hashem, blessed is He, so is the magnitude of the salvation. It depends on the degree of our reliance on the Holy One, Blessed is He - the more completely a person leans on Hashem, the more, as it were, the Holy One feels bound to rescue him. When you cry out with a tze'akah, meaning your entire being turns to Hashem declaring, "Only You can save," the Holy One says: I will not merely save you - I will fully rescue you. But when you only offer a ze'akah, when you say, "Master of the Universe, help me," while simultaneously pursuing various other avenues - that is a ze'akah and not a tze'akah, and for that comes a minor salvation, not a complete rescue.
"Did You Come to Me Now?" - His Right Hand Is Stretched Out to Receive the Penitent
The Sefer Ha-Ikkarim writes regarding the verse, "Then they cried out to Hashem in their trouble": It is human nature to say, "Why have you come to me now when you are in distress?" - just as Yiftach said to the elders of Gilead, who had driven him away as the son of another woman and told him, "You will not inherit in the house of our father," yet when trouble struck, they sought him out. That is how human beings operate: you were unkind to me previously, and now that you need me, you turn to me? A person in that situation has no desire to help.
Come and see how different the ways of Hashem are: Hashem, blessed is He, desires lovingkindness, and His right hand is outstretched at all times to receive those who return. One might have thought that the Holy One, Blessed is He, would say to a person: "Only now, when you are in distress, do you cry out to Me? Earlier you treated Me dismissively, you did not care for spiritual matters, you did not come to pray, you did not attend a Torah class, you did not seek Me or speak to Me - and suddenly, out of distress, you remember Me?" Yet despite all this: "Then they cried out to Hashem in their trouble, and He rescued them from their distresses." Yonah similarly says: "I called out of my distress to Hashem, and He answered me" - even though my calling was born of distress, almost having no other choice and under duress, seemingly unworthy of being accepted, still "He answered me." For the Holy One, Blessed is He, is abundant in lovingkindness, and His right hand is outstretched to receive the penitent.
"And He Guided Them on a Straight Path"
וַיַּדְרִיכֵם בְּדֶרֶךְ יְשָׁרָה לָלֶכֶת אֶל־עִיר מוֹשָׁב׃ - And He guided them on a straight path, to go to an inhabited city.
The Malbim explains that He performed a miracle for them by showing them a direct path to reach an inhabited city. This refers to supernatural Providence, for the chapter speaks of "His lovingkindness" (chasdo), and chesed - as we have explained - is the conduct that transcends nature. Out of this entire harrowing reality, the Holy One, blessed be He, paves a path for us, guides us, and brings us to our desired destination.
Let Them Give Thanks to Hashem for His Lovingkindness - and Recount His Wonders to the Children of Men
יוֹדוּ לַיהֹוָה חַסְדּוֹ וְנִפְלְאוֹתָיו לִבְנֵי אָדָם׃ - Let them give thanks to Hashem for His lovingkindness, and for His wonders to the children of men.
The Ibn Ezra writes: "The word yodu [let them give thanks] serves for a second time." This is a concept we have mentioned several times - a word opening the verse also applies to its second half, as if it were written twice. The early commentators call this loke'ach acheret imo ("carrying another along with it"). A famous example is: "That He did not make our portion like theirs, nor our lot like that of all their multitudes" - meaning, and He did not make our lot like all their multitudes; the "not" at the beginning carries over into the next clause. So too here: let them give thanks to Hashem for His lovingkindness, and let them give thanks for His wonders to the children of men.
The Radak offers a novel interpretation: "Let them give thanks to Hashem for His lovingkindness" - when they reach an inhabited city, they offer thanksgiving to Hashem, blessed be He; "and His wonders to the children of men" - and they shall recount His wonders to other people. Under the simple understanding, we would have thought that they thank Hashem for the wonders He performs for human beings, but the Radak explains that there is an additional obligation here - to recount Hashem's wonders to people, that a person should praise and extol the miracle done for him.
This idea is alluded to in the Korban Todah (the thanksgiving offering). One who brings a thanksgiving offering brings forty loaves of bread with it, and all of them must be eaten on that very same day - there is no possibility of freezing them, and after that time they become nosar (forbidden leftover sacrificial food). What is a person to do with forty loaves of bread in a single day? He gathers all his friends. And that is precisely the point: people will come and ask what happened here, why there are crates of bread, and he will tell them - "I offered a thanksgiving offering; you wouldn't believe what a miracle happened to me!" In this way, a large crowd gathers before whom the miracle is publicized. This is "and His wonders to the children of men" - we must recount these wonders to our fellow human beings.
A Miracle in Human Terms
The Malbim explains that when Hashem rescues us, we are obligated to give thanks from two perspectives: first, on account of the kindness (chesed) He bestowed upon us; and second, on account of the miracle and wonder. And even though this miracle is not a wonder relative to Hashem, blessed be He, but only in human terms - one must still give thanks and praise for it. A miracle on the scale of the Holy One, blessed be He, is something immense: "Sun, stand still at Gibeon," or the splitting of the Red Sea. But on our human scale, even a small thing that worked out just when one needed it is a miracle, and we marvel at it and give thanks for it. "For He satisfies the longing soul, and the hungry soul He fills with good" - people who were thirsty and hungry, and the Holy One, blessed be He, provided for them precisely at the moment they needed it; although this is a miracle only in human terms, we give thanks to Hashem for this as well.
The sefer Tehillot Maharitz explains that a person must praise, thank, and laud Hashem for every good He bestows upon him, recognizing that everything is an act of lovingkindness from Him, and that all bounty flows solely from Him, blessed be He. "Nifla'otav" (His wonders) comes from the root peleh, meaning something concealed and hidden, as in the verse, "Why do you ask my name, seeing it is hidden (peli)?" That is to say: even though there are many kindnesses and miracles that Hashem performs for us that are hidden and cloaked in the garments of nature, they too are acts of lovingkindness and they too are miracles. A person might say: "True, but we have Iron Dome." Yet how can one explain that twelve hundred missiles were fired here, a substantial portion of them were not intercepted, and from all those missiles that struck, in an entire country of Jews, only two non-Jews were killed - a Palestinian and a foreign worker? Is there any natural explanation for this? This is what is called a miracle cloaked in nature. As if the missile struck where it did merely by chance - but there is no chance; everything is deliberate and everything is from Him, blessed be He. Therefore, "Let them give thanks to Hashem for His lovingkindness" - even for things that are in the category of peleh to man, in the sense of being hidden, where people do not visibly see an overt miracle, for these too one must give thanks.
The Longing Soul
כִּי־הִשְׂבִּיעַ נֶפֶשׁ שֹׁקֵקָה וְנֶפֶשׁ רְעֵבָה מִלֵּא־טוֹב׃ - For He satisfies the longing soul, and the hungry soul He fills with good.
The Radak explains: the soul that yearned in the wilderness for water - Hashem has now satisfied it upon reaching an inhabited city; and similarly, the soul that was hungry for food - He has now filled with good. "Shokekah" carries the sense of yearning. The Malbim is more precise, explaining that shokekah specifically denotes yearning for drink. This fits the language very well: shokekah shares a root with mashkeh (drink), and one who craves drink is called shokek. This is also the case in Yeshayahu 29:8 and in other places.
Dwellers in Darkness and the Shadow of Death
יֹשְׁבֵי חֹשֶׁךְ וְצַלְמָוֶת אֲסִירֵי עֳנִי וּבַרְזֶל׃ - Those who sat in darkness and the shadow of death, bound in affliction and iron.
Those imprisoned in jail must also give thanks to Hashem, blessed be He, when they are released from their confinement. Ibn Ezra explains "dwellers in darkness" - most of them were held in a dungeon pit, a sunken underground chamber shrouded in darkness. "Bound in affliction and iron" - prisoners afflicted by having their feet bound in iron fetters so they could not escape. In old cartoons, a prisoner was often depicted chained to a heavy iron ball - just try running and escaping like that. Even today, when guards want to prevent escape, they shackle a prisoner's legs with a short chain so he can walk only in measured steps. Metzudat Tzion explains "tzalmavet" (shadow of death) - the shadow of death, a darkness like the blackness of the grave.
The Malbim adds: after surviving the perils of the wilderness and reaching an inhabited city, they encounter another danger - wicked fabrications are leveled against them, and they are thrown into prison. As the verse says, "As if a man fled from a lion, and a bear met him" - a person flees one distress only to run headlong into another. And there, their suffering is bitter in two respects: on account of the place - darkness and the shadow of death, and on account of being captive - they are afflicted and shackled in iron fetters so they cannot escape.
Why Iniquity Is Mentioned Specifically for Prisoners and the Sick
כִּי־הִמְרוּ אִמְרֵי־אֵל וַעֲצַת עֶלְיוֹן נָאָצוּ׃ - Because they rebelled against the words of God, and spurned the counsel of the Most High.
The Radak emphasizes that these prisoners were captured because of their sins. Notice carefully: with both the prisoners and the sick, the text explicitly mentions sin - "Fools, because of their rebellious way, and because of their iniquities, are afflicted," and only afterward, "He sends His word and heals them." By contrast, regarding desert travelers and seafarers, the text makes no mention of iniquity. Why? Because the journey through the desert is not inherently a sin, nor is going out to sea a sin - a person needs to sail from country to country. Rather, when distress befalls them, it comes so that they will return to Hashem, turn away from their sins, and be saved by Him. But in the travel itself, there is no reason to mention sin. In the case of the prisoner and the sick person, however, one asks: How did you end up in prison? How did you fall ill? It stems from prior sin. And as Rashi states: suffering comes upon a person only because of sin.
The Malbim explains why this second misfortune arrived: after a miracle was performed for them and they were saved from the wilderness, they reverted to their corrupt ways - "they rebelled against the words of God," and in doing so, "spurned the counsel of the Most High." For the counsel of the Most High was that through the miracle they would return to Him; but when one is rescued and returns to his bad habits, he spurns that divine counsel. Therefore, the Holy One, blessed be He, says: now you will enter prison. There was a plan from on High to redeem you, but if you insist on continuing in your evil deeds, you will continue to suffer tribulations.
And what is the difference between "the words of God" and "the counsel of the Most High"? The Radak explains: the mitzvot were not addressed to the people of Israel alone, but to all nations - only that we have additional commandments, and the Holy One, blessed be He, sanctified us in the purity of the body and the purity of food as well; a non-Jew may eat and do as he pleases in those realms. But the rational, intuitive commandments - do not murder, do not steal, do not commit adultery, establishing courts of justice, and the like - were given to Adam and his descendants after him, and they apply to all humanity. These are "the words of God": baseline human conduct and a system of enforcement to handle anyone who acts improperly, and this suffices for the nations. But for us, the Holy One, blessed be He, gives further counsel on how to conduct ourselves in a way that attains holiness, elevation, divine service, and closeness to Him - this is "the counsel of the Most High." When a person rebels against that counsel, Hashem sends him chastisement through illness or sends him into captivity.
He Subdued Their Heart with Labor
וַיַּכְנַע בֶּעָמָל לִבָּם כָּשְׁלוּ וְאֵין עֹזֵר׃ - Therefore He subdued their heart with labor; they stumbled, and there was none to help.
Through the hardship of captivity, Hashem subdued their heart. Because they did not appreciate the miracle He performed for them when He brought them out of the wilderness, He placed a stumbling block before them so that they were cast into prison, thereby humbling their heart. "They stumbled, and there was none to help" - they realize that in that place no human being can save them, but only Hashem, blessed be He.
וַיִּזְעֲקוּ אֶל־יְהֹוָה בַּצַּר לָהֶם מִמְּצֻקוֹתֵיהֶם יוֹשִׁיעֵם׃ - Then they cried out to Hashem in their distress; He saved them from their straits.
יוֹצִיאֵם מֵחֹשֶׁךְ וְצַלְמָוֶת וּמוֹסְרוֹתֵיהֶם יְנַתֵּק׃ - He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death, and snapped their bonds.
Here, as mentioned, the cry is spelled with a zayin (ויזעקו) rather than a tzadi (ויצעקו). The Radak maintains that both mean the same thing, as is his usual approach: when an idea is repeated with different words, he does not look for a specialized explanation, but rather sees it as poetic flourish - once written this way, and once written that way. According to the Malbim, however, this is certainly not the case: with a tzadi, it signifies greater distress and a louder cry; with a zayin, a lesser cry.
The Malbim explains that "they cried out to Hashem" means they repented, and Hashem then brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death and snapped their bonds. The Radak explains: "their bonds" refers to the ropes and chains with which they were bound, and snapping them means that the Holy One, blessed be He, orchestrated circumstances for them to be released from prison, putting it into the hearts of their captors to release them from confinement. Do not imagine that a supernatural force descended and snapped the chains; rather, the Holy One, blessed be He, works through providential events so that the captors themselves release them from prison.
Thanksgiving for the Second Miracle
יוֹדוּ לַיהֹוָה חַסְדּוֹ וְנִפְלְאוֹתָיו לִבְנֵי אָדָם׃ - Let them give thanks to Hashem for His lovingkindness, and for His wonders to the children of men.
כִּי־שִׁבַּר דַּלְתוֹת נְחֹשֶׁת וּבְרִיחֵי בַרְזֶל גִּדֵּעַ׃ - For He shattered bronze doors, and cut down iron bars.
The Radak explains: when they leave captivity, they give thanks to Hashem, blessed be He, and recount to people the wonders He performed for them, as explained earlier. But why is this verse repeated once again, when it was already stated earlier? The Malbim explains: they are obligated to give thanks now for the second miracle. One miracle occurred when exiting the wilderness, and a second miracle now when emerging from prison. Hashem shattered the bronze doors that were locked before us and cut down the iron bars - and this warrants a thanksgiving in its own right, an additional expression of praise.
"He Shattered Bronze Doors" - A Playful Insight
In the booklet Agra deHillula, it is cited in the name of the author of Emunas Avraham, who noted playfully: "Shibar daltot nechoshet" ("He shattered bronze doors") forms the acronym shadchan (matchmaker). For very often in a shidduch, there are obstacles like bronze doors: one side objects, they heard this or that about the family, one parent says, "He deserves better" or "She deserves better," and the like. Along comes the shadchan, breaks through those bronze doors, and with smooth speech succeeds in bringing the shidduch to a joyful conclusion.
And in the book Yekahen Pe'er, it is noted that people jokingly offer a different acronym for shadchan: Sheker dover, kesef notel - speaks falsehood, takes money. He goes to the bride's side and spins tales - what a groom! Adorned with every virtue, such piety, such diligence in Torah study. Someone once asked Rav Kanievsky who the masmid (most diligent student) of the yeshiva was, and he replied: "I do not know; let us wait until evening and see who gets engaged, and then I will know." Whoever gets engaged, people come to the celebration and proclaim him the yeshiva's foremost masmid and the cream of the crop.
Yet one can rest assured - this cuts both ways. King Solomon says, "One man among a thousand I have found, but a woman among all these I have not found," yet on the other hand he says, "Many daughters have done valiantly, but you surpass them all." On the one hand, he found not a single woman, and Solomon knew women; yet on the other hand, "many daughters have done valiantly." Some have jokingly resolved this by pointing out that one must read the passage to its end: "Many daughters have done valiantly... Grace is deceitful and beauty is vain." Others explain that "a woman among all these I have not found" refers to a married woman; but "daughters," when a girl reaches the stage of shidduchim - "many daughters have done valiantly," the shadchan will weave tales of the Arabian Nights about how wonderfully she has excelled. Stories are spun about the young man, stories are spun about the young woman, and thus in the end, the match is made.
In the sefer Yekahen Pe'er, an interesting question is raised: Why do we pay a shadchan (matchmaker) at all? After all, the Gemara derives from the Torah, the Prophets, and the Writings that a woman is paired to a man by Hashem - everything has already been settled in Heaven! You may imagine that you are acting and accomplishing, but in truth, everything comes from Him, blessed be He. The Brisker Rav used to say that all our involvement in shidduchim is merely to calm the parents' nerves: they are anxious, wondering, "So, what is happening with the child?" so you call this shadchan, speak to that one - and it reassures you that you are doing something. In reality, though, we do nothing; everything is entirely from Him, blessed be He. If so, why does the matchmaker deserve payment? It is like "grinding flour that has already been ground" - the flour was already ground in Heaven, and even without your mediation, the match would have materialized. Rather, the answer is: we pay the shadchan for the falsehoods and exaggerations told during the shidduch. For lies and exaggerations certainly do not come from Heaven; Heaven did not commission you to lie - that was your own personal doing, outside your divine mission, like volunteer work, and for that you deserve compensation.
In summary:
We learned that a tza'akah (an inner, heartfelt cry) is greater than a ze'akah (a vocal cry), and rescue (hatzalah) is greater than salvation (yeshuah) - and corresponding to the depth of one's turning to Hashem and reliance upon Him is the magnitude of the salvation. We saw that although it is human nature to turn away someone who comes only in his hour of distress, Hashem desires lovingkindness, and His right hand is outstretched to accept those who return at all times. We learned that a dual obligation rests upon us: to give thanks for the kindness and to recount His wonders to humankind, even for a miracle that is considered wondrous only relative to human perception, and for miracles hidden within the garment of nature. And in the distress of the prisoners, we saw that retribution comes only because of sin - for they rebelled against the words of God and spurned the counsel of the Most High after already having been delivered - and when their hearts were humbled and they cried out, Hashem brought them out from darkness and the shadow of death, orchestrating circumstances to break their bonds, and for this additional miracle they are bound to offer additional thanksgiving.