We continue with Chapter 116 of Tehillim. This chapter is part of Hallel, and consequently there is an immense abundance of commentaries on it: anyone who wrote a commentary on the Haggadah of Pesach also commented on Hallel, and anyone who wrote a commentary on the siddur also explained Hallel, so many homilies and expositions have been stated on these verses. We will proceed through the verses in order, examining Rashi, Radak, and Malbim, and adding the derashot and ethical insights contained within them.
אֶתְהַלֵּךְ לִפְנֵי יְהֹוָה בְּאַרְצוֹת הַחַיִּים׃ (ט) - I shall walk before Hashem in the lands of the living. (9)
Rashi explains that the "lands of the living" refers to Eretz Yisrael. David's enemies drove him out of Eretz Yisrael, forcing him to wander and flee, even reaching Achish, king of Gath, and escaping outside the Land, having driven him from attaching himself to the heritage of Hashem. Now he declares: I will walk before Hashem in the lands of the living; I am returning here, to the land of the living, to the Holy Land, to Eretz Yisrael.
Radak notes that the verse is phrased as a prayer: I will yet walk before Hashem in Eretz Yisrael, where the Shechinah resides. David said this while exiled among the Philistines, outside the Land, still longing and praying for the merit to reach the Holy Land. Eretz Yisrael is called the "land of life," just as it is called "a land of the deer" (eretz tzvi) and "a desirable land" (eretz chefetz), being the most coveted of all lands. Those who dwell in it are alive and healthy - and "life" connotes health, as in the phrase "until they lived" (ad chayotam), meaning until their recovery and return to health. And why is it called the land of life? Because its air is finer than that of all other lands, as the Gemara states in Bava Batra 158b, and as it is written, "Fair in climate, the joy of the entire earth," and similarly it says of it, "And the inhabitant shall not say, 'I am sick'" - whoever dwells in Yerushalayim will not say "I am sick," for it is a place of health. Eretz Yisrael is the place of life. Chazal also teach that it is called the land of life because the dead of Eretz Yisrael will live at the Resurrection of the Dead. Others say it is called the "lands of the living" in reference to the preceding verse, "For You have delivered my soul from death" - it was in this place that he was revived, and consequently it is called the land of life.
Radak also cites the exposition of Chazal in Pesachim 118a, that this contains an allusion to David walking before the tzaddikim at the Resurrection of the Dead. Likewise, Chazal homiletically expound that "eretz tzvi" alludes to the skin of a deer: when deer skin is on the animal, it has a certain size, but once flayed and removed, it shrinks and becomes much smaller. Why? Because while on the deer it is stretched taut. Unlike a cow, whose skin hangs loosely, a deer's skin is tightly stretched, and the moment it is removed, it contracts. So too is Eretz Yisrael: when its inhabitants dwell upon it, it expands to hold them, and when its inhabitants are not upon it, it contracts.
Malbim explains: From now on, as long as I remain in the lands of the living and alive, I will continually walk before Hashem. And what is meant by "I shall walk before Hashem"? As it is written, "Walk before Me and be wholehearted" - the way of the righteous, who cling to the Master of the World, always walking by His light and living continually by His word. I will walk before Hashem when I am in the lands of the living, in a place where I will have true vitality, unlike the mortal danger I faced outside the Holy Land.
הֶאֱמַנְתִּי כִּי אֲדַבֵּר אֲנִי עָנִיתִי מְאֹד׃ (י) - I kept faith even when I said, "I am greatly afflicted." (10)
Rashi explains that this verse relates back to the claims of Tziva. Tziva told David that Mefiboshet was rejoicing over Avshalom's rebellion, believing that the kingship would now be restored to him, as a descendant of Shaul - yet this was a lie. In truth, Mefiboshet had asked Tziva, who was his servant (an esteemed servant who himself owned servants), to saddle the donkey so that he could go out to greet David. Instead, Tziva fled, went to David, and slandered Mefiboshet. As a result, King David decreed that everything belonging to Mefiboshet would be transferred to Tziva. David erred in doing so, as it was forbidden for him to take action based on hearing only one side of the matter.
Afterward, Mefiboshet arrived and showed that he had neither trimmed his mustache nor tended to his nails as a sign of mourning ever since David was driven from his throne, demonstrating how deeply pained he was by David's plight. He explained that he had instructed Tziva to saddle his donkey, but Tziva had run off. King David was uncertain where the truth lay, and therefore said, "You and Tziva shall divide the field" - meaning the property would be split between them. Chazal teach that in the wake of this ruling, which was an unjust verdict - since Mefiboshet had done no wrong, and his property should not have been taken from him - a Heavenly Voice (bat kol) went forth and proclaimed: Rechavam and Yarov'am shall divide the kingdom. Consequently, the division of the monarchy was decreed, and we have discussed in the parashah lectures how these matters are intrinsically connected.
According to this, the verse is explained: "I believed, for I spoke" - I believed the words of Tziva when he said about Mephibosheth that he was waiting to see me killed so that he could return to kingship. And when I said what I said, "I was greatly afflicted" - I spoke harsh words and suffered for it.
אֲנִי אָמַרְתִּי בְחׇפְזִי כׇּל־הָאָדָם כֹּזֵב׃ (יא) - I said in my haste, "All men are deceitful."
When I was rushing to flee from Absalom who rebelled against me, I said: "All men are deceitful" - every person betrays the one who loves him. I saw my own son betraying me and seeking to kill me, and all of Israel repaying me evil for good. And this also led me to believe the words of Tziva: if all men are deceitful, Mephibosheth is also deceitful, and whatever is told about how he wanted to greet me and mourned that the kingdom was taken from me - that too is a lie. Therefore I believed Tziva, and I said something I should not have said; I said it in my haste.
Rashi brings another explanation for "in my haste," as we explained above regarding Sela HaMachlekoth, when Saul and his men surrounded David from every side. Then he said: "All men are deceitful" - even Samuel the prophet, who was a faithful prophet, well known throughout all Israel, whose prophecies no one doubted. I said even Samuel was deceitful, for Samuel had said that I would be king, yet here was Saul about to kill me. Then the Holy One, blessed be He, sent him miraculous salvation, and through this he saw that not all men are deceitful.
Radak explains: "I believed, for I spoke" - I had great faith when I would speak at the time I was greatly afflicted. "Afflicted" means that I was suffering, at the time I was fleeing. And when I was in my haste, as it is written, "And David made haste to get away," I said: "All men are deceitful" - anyone who says that kingship will be mine spoke falsely, for see how much I am afflicted and how much I am pursued; there is no chance that I will receive the kingship.
Radak asks: Doesn't it say in Psalm 31, "And I said in my haste: I am cut off from before Your eyes"? And he explains: In the moment of haste, David feared he would die by the hand of Saul, and afterward he said to himself: This cannot be, for Hashem promised me kingship, and if I am now killed by Saul, how will His word be fulfilled? I believe in Him even though I am in great danger and the odds are slim. That is, initially he said, "I am cut off from before Your eyes" - I thought that it was all over, that I had lost my chance; but his ultimate conclusion was that he believed. "I said in my haste, all men are deceitful" - this was only in a moment of haste, only in a time of danger. But now, after thinking about things a second time, I return and believe: "I believed, for I spoke" - I truly believe that the Holy One, blessed be He, will restore me to the kingship.
From here we learn a great principle. Many times we look at great people and think that their spiritual levels came easily. Rav Yitzchok Hutner says that people do not speak enough about the failures of the great; it always seems to us that from infancy a great person was already accomplished. But if we know that even the tzaddik - "for a righteous man falls seven times and rises up" - experienced falls and stood firm, faced struggles and overcame them, it becomes much easier for us to apply this to ourselves: I struggle, and I sometimes fall, but I can also overcome, for even the tzaddik did not become a tzaddik in a single moment; he too had falls and severe demands held against him.
King David reached a state of diminished faith, to the extent that he said, "I am cut off from before Your eyes" - it is over, I no longer have any chance of reigning. Yet he strengthened himself in faith during that difficult time, rose up again, and confronted the challenge: "I believed, for I spoke," even though I was greatly afflicted, and even though in my haste I said all men are deceitful - I strengthened myself in faith, and behold, Hashem was my help. This teaches us that even the righteous have struggles. The difference is that the wicked person sees a struggle and flees, while the righteous person sees a struggle and confronts it. And even if one falls, one confronts it once more. Only in this way can a person succeed and grow.
Here we must add a point relevant to our own times. The very questions we ask also stem from that same mentality of "my power and the might of my hand" that brought us to this point, which we have not yet shed. What is the line of thought? There is a ceasefire, so what, are we doing nothing, are we not eradicating Hamas - wait, are you the one eradicating Hamas? We need to change our mindset and understand that we are in the hands of the Creator, blessed be He. And if the Holy One, blessed be He, created such a situation, which is truly impossible, where it seems impossible both to strike at them and to rescue our people, we must understand that this is the will of the Creator, blessed be He. We must confront this reality and pray to the Holy One, blessed be He: "And I waged wars" - Master of the Universe, wage the war Yourself, and ensure that in this entire impossible situation we emerge victorious. But to say, "If I do not strike them" - who are you? This is that same flawed conception of our strength and our might, that the IDF will achieve this and the IDF will reach that, the same persistent error that continues to accompany us. We find ourselves in a situation that appears to us as a retreat, and we must trust in Hashem that everything is from Him and everything will be for the best. That is what is required of us at this stage.
The Malbim explains: "I believed when I spoke" - I believe with all my heart in what I am saying and concluding now, and I say: "I was greatly afflicted" when I said in my haste that all mankind is deceitful. That is to say, during my time of despair, when I was hurried and distraught, I said rashly and without composure that all mankind is deceitful. And what does "all mankind is deceitful" mean? That there is no substance to human life; "he comes in vanity and departs into darkness, and his name is covered with darkness"; man is like a deceitful brook - flowing and drying up. I spoke these words without prudence; I said them in haste, when I was in an afflicted, lowly, and downtrodden state. Therefore, I fell into despair and said: What will become of man, he has no hope. But now I see that there is hope, and I realize that that entire statement was made only when I was greatly afflicted, in deep torment, poverty, and humiliation. Now, as I strengthen myself and cling to faith, I see that those words should never have been spoken and are not true; rather, man has hope and reward, and man is not deceitful, as we will see further on.
In Sefer HaRemez, the author cites on "I believed when I spoke" the words of Iyov, "From my flesh I shall behold God." When a person contemplates this wondrous machine called man, he cannot help but stand astonished before the immense wisdom embedded in the human body. Even Darwin, who began fabricating and spinning tales about the origin of species, admitted that the eye posed the greatest difficulty to his theory. Why? Because there are hundreds of thousands of capillaries and fibers connecting the eye, and how could these things assemble themselves? According to the theory of evolution, an organ that endures and serves a purpose is preserved in the organism, while an organ that develops without serving a purpose atrophies and naturally drops away. How then could hundreds of thousands of capillaries begin to form when there was no immediate need for them? When would they be needed? Only when the eye is fully complete and able to see. Who constructed them throughout those millions of years of gradual development if the benefit only emerges at the very final moment? It turns out that something was built without an immediate purpose, functioning only at the very end.
Darwin himself acknowledged this as a difficulty for his theory, and said that the proof would come from archaeology - that they would discover all the transitional stages, and then it would be known whether his words were true. Today it is clear to all that this was baseless, for we possess extensive fossil research, yet we do not have proof of a single transitional species. We have distinct, known creatures - such as the frog, which is an amphibian - but Darwin's claim was that all terrestrial animals ultimately evolved from marine life, and that everything arose from that same primordial chemical soup. According to his theory, we should see countless intermediate stages leading up to the dog, to the cow - where are they? Transitional forms would represent everything "nature" supposedly filtered out without developing further, leaving only the species alive today - yet we do not have even a single genuine example. All of this contradicts the theory. Scientists repeatedly attempted to piece together bone fragments and claim they were transitional forms, but the fraud was exposed time and again: bones were taken and artificially joined together in a specific way to "prove" the theory. Whoever wishes may read Rabbi Zamir Cohen's book, which brings numerous examples of exposed frauds, where clever individuals tried by force to prove their claims through fabricated combinations and interpretations, all of which proved to be complete falsehoods.
Returning to our subject: whoever contemplates the human body - "I believed when I spoke" - will see how much faith can be drawn from the human body itself, which was created in such an extraordinary way that divine design is evident even in its external features alone. We have already elaborated on this in Chovot HaLevavot and in the Chazon Ish's Emunah U'Vitachon. Consider the very form of man: the Holy One, blessed be He, fashioned a hand for man, and how much sophistication and wisdom reside in the hand! Imagine if the fingernails were inverted with the fingerprints - nails on the underside and the soft pad on top. Try to imagine how one would navigate daily life with such fingers! And imagine if the finger were slightly stickier - how could we turn the pages of a book? And if it were less sticky, completely smooth like the back of the hand - how could we turn pages or grasp delicate objects? The fingertip possesses a precisely calibrated level of friction: on the one hand, when holding something it does not slip, and on the other hand, it does not stick to the skin after letting go. Furthermore, every person has a unique fingerprint - an imprint of a bespoke creation fashioned specifically for you, unparalleled anywhere in the world, just as no two faces are identical.
The same applies to the eyes: they are positioned high up and recessed into their sockets. If a person takes a blow to the face, bruising spreads all around, yet the eye remains protected because it is recessed within. The eye has wipers that clean it constantly without our even noticing; in a car, the windshield wiper can feel distracting, but with the eye one does not notice, as it happens in the blink of an eye. Above them are the eyebrows, which intercept sweat, without which acidic perspiration would run into the eyes and cause stinging irritation. Whoever observes how much wisdom and precise engineering exist in the human body surely sees how the Holy One, blessed be He, created man with wisdom, recognizing through this the King of kings, the Holy One, blessed be He - "from my flesh I shall behold God" - and arriving at complete faith in Hashem.
Likewise, if one contemplates the power of speech: what immense capability the Holy One, blessed be He, granted to man in allowing him to speak! After all, our primary advantage over animals is communication. Human beings can speak to one another, share experiences and what they are going through, and teach one another. One person learns something and can then teach another how to repair things, how to apply knowledge to heal people, and so forth. All of this comes from the power of speech, from the faculty of articulation - a power the Holy One, blessed be He, bestowed upon man, and whoever contemplates it will attain faith through it.
The Chazon Ish writes: The Creator saw that life would not fulfill its intended design without communication between people, and that a world in which everyone is deaf and mute would be devoid of value and devoid of substance, worse even than chaos; so He went and fashioned a machine that chirps distinct sounds, and we call this machine a mouth. According to this: "I believed" - if I wish to attain faith in Hashem, blessed be He, how do I reach it? "When I spoke" - when I contemplate the power of speech with which the Holy One, blessed be He, endowed me, through this I attain faith. How wondrous is the power of speech, through which people communicate with one another and through which man holds superiority over the animals, as man is defined as "the speaker." And when Chazal enumerate who is deemed legally incompetent (a shoteh), one category is a deaf-mute (cheresh), for a person who is both deaf and mute was historically viewed as lacking full communicative cognition. The intellect placed within us is defined as a "speaking spirit" (ruach memalela), and therefore "I believed" - I arrive at faith when I contemplate "when I spoke," through the miracle of speech.
The sefer Tehillot Shmuel explains this homiletically: A person is obligated to believe "that I will speak" - that I will yet speak, I will yet tell the tale. And what will I tell? "That I was afflicted greatly." When someone is in distress, when someone is in misery, what can sustain him? Let him picture himself sitting with his family, with his relatives, with his children and his grandchildren, recounting to them what he is going through right now. This is "I had faith, for I will speak": What keeps my faith alive? The knowledge that I will yet speak of having been greatly afflicted. All my hardships right now - I will yet recount them to my grandchildren.
And that is truly what happened after the Holocaust. Hitler intended to annihilate the Jewish people, but where is he, and where are the Jewish people? The Jewish people live, endure, breathe, and carry on. Those who were burned in the crematoria, those few remnants who survived, of whom only human ash was supposed to remain - they rebuilt themselves. Contrast this with what happened to others who suffered a blow: you take a hit, you should pick yourself up - but their idea of rising up is arming themselves, firing missiles, and committing murder. And what is left of them? Nothing. And what is their future? Zero. But if a person, even in distress and hardship, harbors no thirst for vengeance, he builds. When the Jews left Auschwitz, they were not planning how to take revenge on the Germans; that was not the plan at all. The plan was: How do we rebuild ourselves? What do I do now to reconstruct my life? True, there were those who hunted Eichmann, but that was not the path the nation chose as its foundation. Not a nation entirely mobilized for weaponry, war, revenge, and lost causes. When Hamas committed its atrocities on October 7th - did they actually think they were going to conquer the State of Israel? If Israel were truly backed into a corner, it has nuclear capability; no one could rationally think it could be wiped out. Rather, here is an entity whose entire focus is vengeance for its misery and wallowing in it. And that is a mistake. Even in the depths of distress, a person must envision: How do I emerge from this, and how do I later tell my children, from the height of my success, wherever I may reach, all that I endured, when it has all become history? "I had faith, for I will speak" - even when "I was greatly afflicted."
Do you know where the Klausenburger Rebbe established Laniado Hospital? In Netanya - but in truth, it was founded back in Auschwitz. When he was in Auschwitz and saw Jews dying like flies, he vowed: When I make it out of this hell, with Hashem's help I will build a hospital that will provide healing for Jews, a hospital founded on Torah values, a Jewish hospital. A person in Auschwitz is normally thinking about how to get a crust of bread - yet what was he thinking about? How to build a hospital! One might have thought this man was a Musselman, living in delusions, having lost his sanity - and many indeed lost their minds in the Holocaust. But this is precisely what is written here: "I had faith, for I will speak" - I will yet speak of having been greatly afflicted. He was already building the future, rather than looking at the present, saying "I am crushed, it is over, nothing is left of me," and sinking into despair. Instead, believe that you will yet make it out, and that you will recount and speak of it all - of all the salvations and everything Hashem did for you.
The Maharsha explains these verses in light of Rabbi Yitzchak's teaching in the Gemara (Megillah 6b): If a person says to you, "I toiled and did not find" - do not believe him; "I did not toil and found" - do not believe him either, for one does not attain anything without toil; "I toiled and found" - believe him. This is what is meant here: "I had faith, for I will speak" - I believed that I had found, and what do I speak and declare? "I was greatly afflicted." When did I believe? When I was afflicted - through exertion and arduous effort. When I exerted myself intensely, then my belief was genuine, and then one can believe that you truly found it. But "I said in my haste: All mankind is deceitful" - when someone claims, "I did this quickly, in a rush, without exertion," do not believe him; nothing of substance is achieved that way. If you imagine that through an accelerated crash course you suddenly become a genius - "all mankind is deceitful"; you did not toil, and you did not find; do not believe it.
On the words "I had faith, for I will speak," the Netivot Shalom offers one of the most well-known explanations of this verse, a famous Chassidic insight: When a person speaks, he roots faith deep within his heart. Chassidim, as is well known, hold frequent gatherings to share stories of faith and tales of tzaddikim. What is the purpose of this? When you speak words of faith, it strengthens your own faith. "I had faith, for I will speak" - when I speak and recount matters of faith, it brings me to genuine emunah, strengthening my knowledge and recognition of Hashem. How much more so on the night of Pesach, which channels faith for the entire year: by recounting the Exodus from Egypt, we plant faith deeply for all generations to come.
Let us conclude this verse with the words of the Rim of Trani. He explains that to understand these verses, one must "transpose and interpret" - adjust the sequence slightly, and then the meaning becomes clear. Now that I have seen the Holy One, blessed be He, help and deliver me, I believed in Him. But when I was greatly afflicted, and in my panic I voiced harsh thoughts because I saw myself persecuted and suffering while the Holy One, blessed be He, did not seem to save me - that was what I said in my misery, in my desperate state. And what did David fear? That from then on, people would lose faith in the Creator and diminish their trust in Hashem, blessed be He; when I spoke harsh words in my haste, people might come to say that there is no salvation from Hashem. But now that You have helped me, "I believed" - I was reinforced in my faith in the Creator, blessed be He, from Whom everything comes. No longer will they say, "See, they trust in Him, yet He does not save"; rather, on the contrary, they will see that King David trusted in the Almighty, and behold, Hashem sent him salvation.
A story is told of Rav Assouline, who recounted that a man phoned him one day and asked if he could come over right away. The Rav told him that he had something to finish first and would come a bit later. The man pleaded: "No, I urgently ask that you come right now, it is pressing." The Rav was surprised, as it was not this man's nature to pressure or make demands; he was always polite and unassuming. The Rav arrived, and the man handed him a sum of money for tzedakah, saying: "I put this together specially for you. And if you wonder why I could not wait for you to come later, it is because with the yetzer hara, one must not wait a single moment. A moment later, the yetzer hara would begin to argue: 'Maybe we should give this to someone else; who says you need to give it right now; maybe wait for the holidays.' He has all kinds of schemes along the way. I knew that if the money is available right now, give it, fulfill the mitzvah immediately, and it is done, secured. Otherwise, you end up battling your inclination, and who knows what hurdles he will throw in your way."
מָה־אָשִׁיב לַיהֹוָה כׇּל־תַּגְמוּלוֹהִי עָלָי׃ (יב) - How can I repay Hashem for all His bounties toward me? (12)
With this verse, "How can I repay Hashem," we will begin with Radak's commentary in the next lesson, with Hashem's help.
We learned that "I shall walk before Hashem in the lands of the living" expresses David's aspiration and prayer to return to the Land of Israel, the land of the living, and to walk there constantly before Hashem in the manner of the righteous. "I kept faith even when I spoke" was explained from several perspectives: according to Rashi, regarding the episode of Ziba and Mephibosheth and what was said in haste during the flight; according to Radak and the Malbim, that all the despairing words, "all mankind is deceitful," were spoken in a state of affliction and lowliness and are not true, and once composure returned, faith returned and grew stronger - teaching us that even the righteous experience falls, but the tzaddik struggles and rises again. From here stem many homiletic lessons: "From my flesh I behold God" - one who reflects upon the wonders of the human body and the power of speech arrives at faith; "I will yet recount" - even in times of distress, one must build the future rather than wallow in the past; "If one says: I have labored and found, believe him" - there is no attainment without toil; and the very words of speech itself, which root faith firmly in the heart. All of these share one common theme: to strengthen our trust in Hashem, blessed is He, knowing that everything is from Him and everything is for the best, and to carry out the good immediately, without delay.