Chapter 112 is entirely a praise of the person who fears Hashem: his character, his path, and his reward in this world and in the World to Come. The chapter opens with the fortunate state of the reverent person, continues with the blessing of his offspring, the wealth and riches in his home, and the light that dawns for the upright even in the midst of darkness. We will proceed through the verses in order, alongside the explanations of the Rishonim and the Malbim, as well as the insights of Chazal and the mussar associated with them.
הַלְלוּ־יָהּ אַשְׁרֵי־אִישׁ יָרֵא אֶת־יְהֹוָה בְּמִצְוֺתָיו חָפֵץ מְאֹד׃ גִּבּוֹר בָּאָרֶץ יִהְיֶה זַרְעוֹ דּוֹר יְשָׁרִים יְבֹרָךְ׃ - Halleluyah! Praiseworthy is the man who fears Hashem, who delights greatly in His mitzvot. His offspring will be mighty in the land; a generation of the upright will be blessed.
It is told of Rabbi Yosef Dov Soloveitchik, the author of the Beis HaLevi, that when he was in Warsaw to print his work Beis HaLevi al HaTorah, his son, Rabbi Chaim Soloveitchik, happened to be there. Rabbi Chaim looked over the manuscript and was deeply impressed by his father's explanation of these verses. When he expressed his admiration, his father told him: "Know that I have an even more extraordinary insight into this, but I did not feel it was appropriate to put it in writing, which is why I did not mention it."
And this is the explanation: The Gemara expounds, "'He delights greatly in His mitzvot' - in His mitzvot, and not in the reward of His mitzvot." He desires the mitzvah itself, rather than pursuing its reward. One who serves solely for reward is essentially saying to the Master of the Universe: If there were no compensation, you would not see me here; I only come because You pay. This is precisely what we learned in the Mishnah: "Do not be like servants who serve the master for the sake of receiving a reward, but rather be like servants who serve the master not for the sake of receiving a reward."
The Beis HaLevi explained to him: It is well known that parents pass down character, traits, and temperaments to their children. Yet this inheritance consists of the tools alone; how to use them is entirely the child's choice. If a father is impudent and coarse, his son may inherit brazenness; however, it is entirely possible that the son will channel it into holy audacity, to run forward and accomplish great deeds for the glory of the Creator. The father utilized this energy for the profane, while the son harnesses it for holiness. So too with pride: the father acted with arrogance, but the son "his heart was uplifted in the ways of Hashem." The father bequeaths the raw traits, but their application depends on the son.
According to this, when a father performs mitzvot solely to receive reward, what does he pass down to his son? The trait of chasing compensation: if there is a paycheck, one works; if there is no paycheck, one does not work. The father may have been meticulous in observing mitzvot and zealous in their pursuit, albeit for the sake of reward, but what he transmitted to his son was the trait of pursuing profit, not necessarily the pursuit of mitzvot. The son might then pursue business, worldly pleasures, and financial gains for the sake of profit. Thus, the father was a merchant in spirituality, and the son becomes a merchant in materialism. This is the meaning of: "Praiseworthy is the man who fears Hashem, who delights greatly in His mitzvot" - not in the reward of His mitzvot, but purely for the sake of Heaven. Therefore, "His offspring will be mighty in the land; a generation of the upright will be blessed," for his descendants will likewise perform deeds purely for the sake of Heaven.
Rabbi Chaim asked: "If so, the wonder is all the greater: why did Father not include such a magnificent explanation in the book?" The Beis HaLevi answered him: "I did not want to discourage the ordinary laymen who serve Hashem for the sake of reward. They might conclude: 'If so, serving for reward is worthless, so perhaps we should not serve at all,' and they would grow lax in the service of Hashem. Such an insight is not fitting to put into print, even though it is a deeper and truer explanation than what was published in the book."
הוֹן־וָעֹשֶׁר בְּבֵיתוֹ וְצִדְקָתוֹ עֹמֶדֶת לָעַד׃ - Wealth and riches are in his house, and his righteousness endures forever.
Ibn Ezra explains: The wealth he possesses did not come to him through theft or violence, but with righteousness - this is "and his righteousness endures forever." Although he has wealth and riches in his house, no one can claim that this wealth was acquired dishonestly. Radak explains: "Wealth and riches are in his house" - for him and his children, "and his righteousness endures forever" - in the World to Come; the acts of charity and righteousness that he performs here with that wealth will stand to his credit there as well. Other commentators explain that this refers to this world: that very wealth, with which he performs mitzvot, will endure forever for his children after him and continue through future generations, without the wealth turning into something harmful.
The Malbim explains that the verse here enumerates an additional virtue of one who fears Hashem: he will have wealth and riches in his house. What is the meaning of this apparent redundancy, "wealth and riches"? There can be wealth without riches - when a person possesses vast wealth, yet Hashem has not granted him the ability to enjoy it. Perhaps he is imprisoned, or perhaps he owns a closet full of expensive designer clothes, yet in practice he is dressed in a hospital gown, may Hashem protect us. He may have enough food to feed an entire city, but the doctor has forbidden this and that - this is dangerous, that is prohibited - leaving him with only tofu and bland foods. He has bread, but cannot eat it; he has clothing, but cannot wear it. The blessing here is that his wealth is accompanied by genuine riches: he is actually able to enjoy it. The Malbim continues: and even so, this does not come at the expense of the World to Come - "and his righteousness endures forever," for it remains intact there as well, and his reward was not consumed in this world through his wealth and riches.
In the sefer Imrot Tehorot, he cites Rabbi Yitzchak Chayot, based on Pirkei D'Rabbi Eliezer: A person has three companions - his money, his family, and Torah and good deeds. When a person passes away, the first to abandon him is his money; it remains at home. Not only that, but people immediately gather and begin whispering: Did he leave a will? How much did he leave? Does anyone know about this account? Maybe there is something else in overseas banks? The body is still warm, and they are already debating what he left behind. The family accompanies him only until the grave; once he descends into the final resting place, he parts from them as well. And what continues to accompany him? "And his righteousness endures forever," "Your righteousness shall go before you, the glory of Hashem shall gather you" - the acts of charity and good deeds become an advocate that accompanies him for eternity.
And observe how precise this is: To what is a person most attached? To his money. He keeps his money tucked tightly in his pocket; he does not hold even his children so close. Next comes his family. And in last place - the synagogue, Torah, and mitzvos, an hour a day, if he happens to find time and if it is convenient. Yet remarkably, the very thing to which he was most attached, his money, abandons him first. The second advocate, the family, accompanies him a short distance and then says: From here on, you must manage on your own. And who actually stays with him? Precisely the third companion, that mere "half-friend" - the Torah and mitzvos from which he often sought to escape. They are revealed as the ones that stand by him forever. This is the meaning of the verse: wealth and riches remain in his house, but his righteousness is what accompanies him and illuminates his path on high.
The sefer Me'ir Einei Yisrael recounts that a man came to the Chafetz Chaim and told him about a certain wealthy man who had passed away, adding, "Oh, how much money that man left behind!" The Chafetz Chaim said to him, "Do you remember that last week a certain destitute pauper passed away?" The man replied, "Yes." The Chafetz Chaim said, "He too left behind a great deal, an enormous amount - he left behind Russia, America, France, Abu Dhabi; he left behind so much!" Simply put: what difference does it make whether the money was legally yours or not? No one takes anything from this world, whether rich or poor. The essential question is what a person takes to the Next World - mitzvos and good deeds. How can one say that someone "left behind" wealth, when in truth nothing here belonged to him in the first place? Therefore, whatever a person can take Above - that is where he should invest.
It is further related that the Chafetz Chaim once spoke with his son-in-law, Rabbi Tzvi Hirsch Levinson, and told him that one must understand that this world is also a world. This does not mean what empty-headed people say: "True, one needs Torah and mitzvos, but my friend, this world is also a world and one has to enjoy life here!" Rather, his intention was: we yearn for the life of the World to Come, but the path and the route pass through this world. Where does one purchase the ticket to the World to Come? Right here.
A well-known parable illustrates this: A man flew abroad, crammed into an uncomfortable flight - cramped, stuffy, noisy, crying children, unable to move, and whenever he reclined his seat, the passenger behind him pushed it back. He asked the flight attendant, "Why is it so crowded here?" The attendant replied, "You made a mistake; had you wanted comfort, you should have bought a first-class ticket, where conditions are entirely different." The man asked to see it. Seeing the spacious seats, he said, "Wonderful, I am moving here." The attendant said, "You cannot switch; that ticket costs a different price." The man offered, "I will pay the difference." The attendant replied, "My friend, tickets are bought on the ground." This is precisely the point: one arrives Above and realizes that there are higher sections - but tickets can only be bought down below. Whatever you acquire here is what you will have there. Above, even if a person brings silver and gold, even if he were to offer all the pleasures of this world, he cannot obtain even a single fraction of the reward of the World to Come. There, it is already too late, and worldly wealth is not his anyway. Only here can one accomplish anything.
When the Chafetz Chaim heard the expression "this world is also a world," he became animated and said: "This world is the world!" That is, whatever can be attained there can only be acquired here. For this reason, even the Vilna Gaon - of whom it could certainly be said, "and she laughs at the final day," looking forward to the day of receiving his reward - wept as he was about to depart this world. Why, seemingly, would he weep? If anyone was worthy of anticipating seeing the Master of the Universe and finally receiving his reward, it was he, a man who had only a few unaccounted-for minutes in an entire year; every single moment was so calculated, so entirely devoted to Torah, that his greatness and spiritual stature defy description. Yet even so, he wept. They asked him, "Why does our master weep?" He answered, "Here in this world, for a mere thirty or forty coins, one buys a pair of tzitzis, and regarding tzitzis it is written that one merits thousands of servants in the World of Truth and merits gazing upon the Master of the Universe - 'and you shall see Him,' literally Him. But once you arrive Above, 'I have no desire in them' - it is over. 'If a man were to give all the wealth of his house for love, they would utterly scorn him' - I would be willing to give everything, but there they will scorn me, because it is already too late." And he added, "How could I not weep? Even Moshe Rabbeinu, with all his merits, had such a struggle with the Satan when he came to take his soul, and did not wish to depart from the world - because here, one can always achieve one more thing." This is what the Chafetz Chaim meant: here is true life. One who lives a life of Torah and mitzvos here merits the life of the World to Come. It is not merely that one can achieve things while in this world, but that it is only through this world that anything can be attained. This is the place of investment.
The Gemara in Kesubos expounds the words "and his righteousness endures forever" as referring to one who writes sefarim and lends them to others, since people continuously study from the books he provided. For this reason, some say that a person should not donate a sefer to a synagogue or beis midrash outright, but rather lend it, for as long as it remains on loan, it is still his property, and his righteousness endures forever. Someone once remarked wittily: Why is it called "his righteousness endures forever"? Anyone who checks his own bookshelf will unfortunately find a few sefarim that do not belong to him; many people have a habit of borrowing books, but rarely remember to return them. Thus, "one who acquires sefarim and lends them, his righteousness endures forever": Do not worry, you will never get them back; they will remain with him and he will forget all about it, so the merit will stand for you forever!
Rabbi Yitzchak HaKohen Huberman of Ra'anana, author of Ben Le'ashri, explains the verse based on the well-known principle that the trial of wealth is greater than the trial of poverty. How many completely God-fearing wealthy people do you know? There are many poor people who are completely God-fearing, but there are not many wealthy people like that. "Yeshurun grew fat" - and immediately "and kicked." Suddenly, a person feels like an important figure, someone who does not need to bow before anyone. On the contrary, everyone bows to him, flatters him, and exalts him. About this the verse says: "Wealth and riches are in his house" - and yet, despite all of this, "and his righteousness endures forever." He holds fast to his path of righteousness and has not changed his ways in the wake of wealth. He did not become a different person, nor did he begin acting arrogantly and feeling superior; even though wealth and riches fill his home, his righteousness endures as before, just as it always was.
And in the name of Rabbi Yisrael Salanter it is told that when he lived in Kovno, he would take part before Pesach in the collection of ma'ot chittim, visiting wealthy individuals to solicit donations for the poor. One well-to-do man gave him a certain sum for kimcha dePischa, and the following year, when he returned, the man gave him the exact same amount. Rabbi Yisrael Salanter said to him: About you the verse says, "Wealth and riches are in his house, and his righteousness endures forever." Compared to last year, your situation today is far better; people say that you expanded, bought additional branches, and Baruch Hashem prospered - wealth and riches are in your house. Yet your charity "endures forever" - it remained exactly as it was, the very same sum. Perhaps you should update the amounts according to what the Holy One, blessed be He, has granted you?
The book Tehilot Maharitz cites this interpretation and notes that while it is clever, it is not the straightforward meaning of the verse. Why? Because all the verses here are meant to praise, whereas this interpretation presents a criticism - that the rich man continues giving the same small sums he gave in his poverty. The verses speak in praise of the tzaddik, and therefore the simple meaning is the exact opposite.
פִּזַּר נָתַן לָאֶבְיוֹנִים צִדְקָתוֹ עֹמֶדֶת לָעַד קַרְנוֹ תָּרוּם בְּכָבוֹד׃ - He has dispersed, he has given to the needy; his righteousness endures forever; his horn shall be exalted in honor.
People say that every poor person has a generous heart. A wealthy person often feels that everyone wants to take his money; he is like a bunker, and parting with his funds is not easy. A poor person, on the other hand, has no problem giving, and he gives with joy. This is the homiletic sense of "He dispersed, he gave to the needy": the attribute of dispersal, of open-handed generosity, the Holy One, blessed be He, gave to the needy, while the wealthy received a generous helping of stinginess.
Once, a man came to the Chafetz Chaim and asked for a blessing to become wealthy, promising that he would give charity, separate a tenth and a fifth, support yeshivot, and so on. The Chafetz Chaim blessed him, and Baruch Hashem he succeeded tremendously in his business. After a year or two, he returned and said: Baruch Hashem I have merited this, and the Rav's blessing bore fruit. But what can I tell the Rav? I feel that I want to give, but I cannot. My heart is closed, my hands are tight. The Chafetz Chaim told him: What did you think, that you would be given the money of a rich man while keeping the nature of a poor man? When you received a rich man's wealth, you also received a rich man's yetzer hara. And what is the rich man's yetzer hara? Not to give from what has been given to him. Along similar lines, a story is told of someone who turned to the Master of the Universe and prayed: Master of the Universe, grant me twenty million, and I promise to give ten million to yeshivot and charity. Then he caught himself and said: Wait, why should the Holy One, blessed be He, believe me? You know what, Master of the Universe - if You do not believe me, just give me my ten million, keep the ten million for the yeshivot with You, and distribute it to them Yourself!
And this is the praise of the tzaddik: even though wealth and riches are in his house, it did not change him. "And his righteousness endures forever" - he gives with the same generosity with which a poor person gives. Just as the poor person is not stingy and has an open heart, so too this wealthy man, when blessed with wealth and riches, did not change for the worse, but preserved his noble character trait.
זָרַח בַּחֹשֶׁךְ אוֹר לַיְשָׁרִים חַנּוּן וְרַחוּם וְצַדִּיק׃ - Light dawns in the darkness for the upright; gracious, merciful, and righteous.
Incidentally, in this verse Rav Ovadia Yosef once found an allusion to Rav Elbaz, may Hashem lengthen his days in goodness, who has merited to return many in teshuvah: "Zarach bachoshech ohr liyesharim" forms the acronym ELBAZ (reading the initials in reverse: ohr liyesharim bachoshech zarach). For upright people, light has dawned in the darkness, illuminating for them the path of Torah and drawing them close in teshuvah.
Rashi explains: "Light shines in the darkness for the upright" - as though Hashem caused light to shine in the darkness for the upright, so to speak, as He Himself becomes their light, as in the verse, "Hashem is my light and my salvation." The Ibn Ezra explains that troubles are likened to darkness - "The people walking in darkness have seen a great light" - and salvation is like light: "Though I sit in darkness, Hashem is a light to me"; when I experience troubles, the Holy One, blessed be He, illuminates for me. And when troubles come upon the world, light will shine for the upright, for the Holy One, blessed be He, will shine upon them and they will not be included in that suffering - by virtue of His being gracious, merciful, and righteous. The Ibn Ezra further explains that the word "light" carries over to what follows, meaning that the opening word recurs implicitly later in the verse, just like "That He did not set our portion like theirs, nor our lot like that of all their multitudes," where it is as though it says again "and did not set our lot like that of all their multitudes." So too here: light shines in the darkness for the upright, a light that is gracious, merciful, and righteous - a light that possesses grace, mercy, and righteousness; this is the light that the Holy One, blessed be He, shines upon the upright.
The Radak explains "gracious, merciful, and righteous" as referring to the Holy One, blessed be He, in His ways: gracious - He shows favor to the good; merciful - He has compassion on them and rescues them from troubles; and righteous - as in "righteous and upright is He," acting in the path of justice, giving to the good according to their ways and to the wicked according to their deeds. Therefore, light will shine for the upright, for they are worthy and to them light is fitting.
The Metzudat David applies this to Gehinnom: there Hashem shines light for the upright, because He is merciful and righteous. That is, even if a person must pass through Gehinnom on account of sins he committed - for in the World of Truth there is no offsetting, one does not say so many mitzvot cancel out so many sins, but rather one must be cleansed of the sins, and that cleansing takes place in Gehinnom - nonetheless, the Holy One, blessed be He, shines light for him there. And if you will, this is akin to what was said of the sons of Korach, that a place was fortified for them in Gehinnom: there is an aspect of Gehinnom within which a place is set apart, within which the Holy One, blessed be He, shines light; Gehinnom with leniencies. Just as Chazal said that for one who is meticulous in reciting the Shema, they cool Gehinnom for him: he deserves Gehinnom and will receive it, but he will have air conditioning.
Once, the Chazon Ish heard someone reciting Keriat Shema according to the Brisker approach, repeating and emphasizing "Shema, Shema, Shema Yisrael" over and over again. He said to him: "Why are you reciting it this way? Recite it properly once." The man replied: "Honored Rabbi, it is written that for one who is meticulous with its letters, they cool Gehinnom for him." The Chazon Ish said to him: "It is true that they cool it, but what do you want - for them to put you in a deep freeze? That is already too much cooling; that would be a Gehinnom of cold, and that is certainly not worthwhile." In any event, we see that even regarding Gehinnom, an aspect of "light shines" applies.
The Malbim explains: "Light shines in the darkness for the upright" - even in darkness, at a time when, so to speak, there is no success. A person experiences periods of light, of abundance and blessing: everything goes well, peace at home, peace with the children, peace at work and in the synagogue, wherever he is, everything succeeds. And there are periods of darkness: here things get stuck and there things get stuck, here things do not work out and there is strife. When a person clings to Hashem, may He be blessed, he knows that the darkness itself is a salvation for him, and that even within the darkness, Hashem is present.
The teachings of the Baal HaTanya shed light on this: What was the difference between Moshe and the Jewish people, and why did Moshe achieve spiritual attainments that Israel did not merit? It is said, "And Moshe approached the thick darkness where God was." Israel saw thick darkness and gloom - "And the people saw and trembled, and stood from afar"; only one was willing to enter inside into the thick darkness, and that was Moshe, who knew that God was there. In a place where there are troubles, trials, and difficulties - one who withstands them merits to perceive Godliness. But one who sees thick darkness and difficulties and retreats remains truly far away. The righteous person knows that the darkness is for his salvation and for his good, and Hashem shines light for him within the darkness to hint to him of this. Indeed, one can always see that within troubles it is possible to find points of light that teach that the Holy One, blessed be He, is there.
Anyone who examines even the terrible Holocaust in Europe will find this. In Mishnat HaChalomot, full accounts are recorded of extraordinary rescues that came about through dreams: people who were hiding in a bunker, and one of them received an instruction in a dream to flee the bunker immediately. He notified his companions, and they fled; a few minutes later the Nazis arrived - apparently someone had informed - and threw a grenade into the place where they had been hiding. One can imagine what would have happened had they stayed. In other words, within the darkness, light flashes. And what is its purpose? To show a person, "I am with him in distress": even in the direst situations, the Holy One, blessed be He, is there with you and saves you right inside that place.
Where do we see an expression of this? This was discussed at length regarding Yosef. Yosef was exiled to Egypt, and it is impossible to describe what he endured: sold as a slave, plunging from the heights of prestige to the lowest depths of degradation, and destined to sit for twelve years in an Egyptian prison - not a pleasant stay and not prison pita, but a dungeon pit: "They have placed me into this pit." And what parting gift was he given along the way? A caravan carrying spicery, balm, and lotus, varieties of pleasant fragrances, so that this righteous man would not suffer - for the Ishmaelites typically carried petroleum, pitch, and tar, which have a foul odor. Seemingly, with all the misery he was enduring, is this what they give him? It is as if someone suffered a severe car accident and they brought him a piece of candy; is that compensation?
Rav Baruch Mordechai Ezrachi explained this with a parable of a child entering surgery. He is gripped by fear, seeing the bright overhead light and the doctors in surgical gowns, and he is filled with great anxiety. Suddenly, he looks toward the round window of the operating room and sees the faces of his mother and father - and that changes the entire picture. Will they save him now? Will they take him out of there? No. But he knows that everything is overseen, that father is here and mother is here. This is the meaning of the Holy One, blessed be He, sending flashes of light into the darkness, so that we may know that the matter is being orchestrated and arranged by Him; it is not a random mishap that sprang out of nowhere, nor damage whose origin is unknown, but surgery performed with complete sterilization, guided by the Holy One, blessed be He. And how do we know? From the fact that Hashem shines light into the darkness, to demonstrate that He is gracious, merciful, and righteous. It may well be that this entire trial came to multiply his reward, and it may be that it came to cleanse his sins and rectify him; and everything proves that even within the distress - "I am with him in distress."
The tzaddik senses this. But the wicked person - he immediately has complaints, grievances, and questions: Why do I deserve this? Why is the Holy One, blessed be He, doing this to me? Why, why? And so he loses out: those very troubles that were meant to purify him no longer purify him, for not only did he fail to recognize them as the hand of Hashem, but he even harbors resentment. In the sefer Agra D'Kallah, a wonderful thought is written: when trouble befalls a person, he immediately sinks into bitterness - how, then, should he cope? After all, troubles come to cleanse us of sins; therefore, at that moment he should say: "Look upon my affliction and my toil, and forgive all my sins." At that instant, he connects himself to the Master of the Universe and says: I know that this suffering comes from You, and I know that through it You are granting me atonement for my sins. He harbors no complaints, but rather acceptance and agreement with whatever the Holy One, blessed be He, does; and it is written that he then merits tremendous loving-kindness. When a person accepts the judgment of Heaven upon himself as just, he merits great light. A person should say: Master of the Universe, I know that this is for the good, and everything You do is solely to bestow abundant good upon me.
Fortunate is the portion of one who fears Hashem: he desires the mitzvos themselves and not their reward, and therefore his descendants follow in his footsteps - "a generation of the upright shall be blessed." The wealth and riches in his house are wealth accompanied by true contentment, which he enjoys without it detracting from his World to Come, for "his righteousness endures forever": money stays behind at home, family accompanies only as far as the grave, and only charity and good deeds accompany forever - because tickets can only be purchased down here. Even when he becomes wealthy, he does not change: he gives generously like a poor person, and in every situation, even in the midst of darkness and distress, he knows that "light dawns in the darkness for the upright" - the Holy One, blessed be He, is there with him, gracious, merciful, and righteous. One who recognizes this and accepts divine judgment upon himself merits great light.