Introduction: The Letter Tet in Chapter 119
We continue in Chapter 119, with the letter Tet. The central axis of the verses before us is King David's plea to learn: not merely to perform the mitzvot, but to delve into them, to grasp their underlying reasons and all their details - without this knowledge becoming a prerequisite for observance. The five verses we will study revolve around this theme.
"According to Your Word" - Fulfilling the Promise
ט֭וֹב עָשִׂ֣יתָ עִֽם־עַבְדְּךָ֑ יְ֝הֹוָ֗ה כִּדְבָרֶֽךָ׃ (סה) - You have dealt well with Your servant, Hashem, according to Your word. (65)
Radak explains that Hashem's Name here is an address and an invocation: "You have dealt well with Your servant, Hashem" - You, Hashem, have acted benevolently with me; what You promised me, You have fulfilled for me. The Malbim notes that the central point of this verse is "words" (devarim): since David asked Hashem to fulfill His promise, to fulfill His word, he now says - indeed You have dealt well with Your servant according to Your word, fulfilling for me the very promise You made.
"Teach Me Good Reasoning and Knowledge" - A Plea to Understand the Reasons for the Mitzvot
ט֤וּב טַ֣עַם וָדַ֣עַת לַמְּדֵ֑נִי כִּ֖י בְמִצְוֺתֶ֣יךָ הֶאֱמָֽנְתִּי׃ (סו) - Teach me good reasoning and knowledge, for I have believed in Your commandments. (66)
Radak explains: Teach me the goodness within the reasons of the Torah and mitzvot, and the knowledge within them. For I believe that You commanded them, that they are righteous laws, and therefore teach me their good reasoning. The concept is profound: when a human being legislates a law, one cannot be certain that the law is good, that he took into account every scenario that might arise, or that it is equitable and just. But when the law is Divine, we are assured that it is truth, eternal, enduring, devoid of any flaw or failing. Sometimes a person hears a particular mitzvah and has a difficulty with it: he does not understand what is good about it, and at times might even think it could cause harm. King David says: since I believe with complete faith that it comes from You - teach me the goodness within it.
An Example: The Sale of a Daughter as a Maidservant
Some people ask: the Torah permits a situation in which a father takes his daughter before the age of twelve and sells her as a maidservant, receives money for her, and hands her over to another person to employ her in domestic cleaning and service. How can such a mitzvah be understood? By our logic, the Torah should have prevented this. I believe that this is Hashem's commandment, but it is difficult for me to see where the "good reasoning and knowledge" lies within it.
Yet as we have explained: let us ask ourselves what we would say about a person who sells his daughter as a maidservant. A heartless person, a wicked person, a cruel person. An eight-year-old girl, and you sell her to be a servant in another household? Would you ever entrust your children to such an individual? Never in a lifetime. And if we had the ability to remove his children from his custody - we certainly would. And that is precisely what the Torah intended: remove the children from him! He wants to sell his daughter as a maidservant? Hurry, purchase her! Do not leave her there for a moment. Such a person is dangerous to raise children, he is wicked and corrupt - take the daughter into another home.
And what happens in the new home? The Torah commands ve-ye'adah (designation) - that the master of the house, the wealthy homeowner, must marry her or designate her for his son. What have we accomplished here? We removed a daughter from the broken home of a corrupt individual and brought her into a home where the Torah mandates how to honor her. The Torah warns us to treat a Hebrew servant with utmost care: you cannot assign them any labor you wish, you cannot make them perform unnecessary demeaning tasks, and there are many other legal boundaries concerning a Hebrew servant and maidservant and how they must be treated. Even if he marries her, the Torah warns that he must not diminish what any ordinary wife receives - "her food, her clothing, and her conjugal rights he shall not diminish." Do not think: "This is a wife I acquired cheaply, so I do not need to invest much in her." You are told: No, sir, you are commanded to treat her with honor, as a noble lady. And as the Ramban phrases it - he must make her a noblewoman. Here you suddenly begin to realize how much good reasoning and knowledge there is in Hashem's mitzvot. Ordinarily, one cannot simply take a daughter from a corrupt person and remove her from his home - after all, he is her father. What do we do? The Torah comes and says: permit him to sell her, and leap at the opportunity as one who finds great spoil. The main thing is to get her out of there. Thus, even a mitzvah that on the surface appears incomprehensible to us - when one delves into it, one discovers how much goodness, reason, and profound wisdom are embedded within the commandments.
Brit Milah - A Reason Revealed in Our Generation
This is how people once viewed the mitzvah of milah: What is this thing, performing surgery on an infant, against his will, at such an early stage, with no apparent logic? Why cut a part of a person's body? Yet today it is widely known and documented how much brit milah prevents disease. The British royal family circumcises all its male children - not because they are pious and righteous, but because they know from scientific studies that it prevents diseases, both for the man and for the woman. Suddenly, one discovers how much good reason and discernment there is in the Torah, which was previously unknown. This is the meaning of "Teach me good judgment and knowledge": many of the decrees and mitzvot seem to us to lack any apparent reason, but I - "for I have believed in Your commandments" - believe with complete faith that this comes from You, and if it comes from You, there must be a good reason here. Therefore, teach me this reason.
The Malbim: Reasons and Details - But Not as a Condition
The Malbim explains: "Teach me good judgment and knowledge" - do me this favor as well, to teach me all the details of the mitzvot. "Good judgment" (ta'am, lit. reason or taste) means to comprehend the reasons for the mitzvot, to understand why the reason for the mitzvah is good; and "knowledge" (da'at) means knowing the mitzvah in all its details. I ask for both: both to understand their reasons and to know all their details.
And let no one think that the reason I ask for good judgment and knowledge is that I do not believe in the mitzvah, and that until it is explained to me I will not fulfill it - Heaven forbid! Therefore, he concludes: "For I have believed in Your commandments." There is no impediment to knowing the reasons of the Torah; on the contrary, it is a great mitzvah for a person to investigate the reasons for the mitzvot, to delve deeply, to understand, and to reflect. What, then, is forbidden? To make it a condition: "Master of the Universe, if I understand, I will fulfill it, and if I do not understand, I will not fulfill it; I do not do things I do not understand."
First of all, this claim is sheer nonsense. One can demonstrate to any person how many things he does without understanding them: you take pills without understanding what is in the pill, how it works, and why it is effective. Why do you take it? Because the doctor said so. Thus, you certainly do things you do not understand; you simply trust the doctor. You trust the doctor, yet you do not trust the Holy One, blessed be He? Clearly, the assertion "I do not do things I do not understand" is completely false. Secondly, even if a person were to make this a condition - "Master of the Universe, I want to understand and then I will observe" - that is very grave, for you are saying that if the matter has not passed through the scales of my own intellect, I will not do it; I do not trust the Holy One, blessed be He. King David says: Heaven forbid! Even though I ask to know the reasons for the mitzvot and all their details, it is not as a condition. "For I have believed in Your commandments" - I believe in Hashem's commandments one hundred percent, and even if I do not understand, I will do them. Yet there is a need to delve deeply into the mitzvot; a person should not remain superficial, and therefore he asks to delve deeper - not out of a lack of faith.
The Beit HaLevi: Why the Reasons of the Torah Were Not Revealed
In Yalkut Peninim, an explanation of the verse is brought in the name of the Beit HaLevi based on the words of Chazal: Why were the reasons for the Torah's commandments not revealed? Because for two verses whose reasons were revealed, the greatest man in the world stumbled through them. It is written: "Neither shall he multiply wives to himself, that his heart turn not away" (Devarim 17:17). Shlomo said: "I will multiply and my heart will not turn away; women will not sway my heart - this was said of an ordinary person, not the wisest of all men; it will not happen to me." Yet it is written: "And it came to pass, when Shlomo was old, that his wives turned away his heart" (I Melachim 11:4). Furthermore: "He shall not multiply horses to himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt, to the end that he should multiply horses" (Devarim 17:16). Shlomo said: "I will multiply and I will not cause them to return." Yet it is written: "And a chariot came up and went out of Egypt for six hundred shekels of silver" etc. (I Melachim 10:29).
What do we learn from this? That sometimes writing the reason is actually a stumbling block, for it causes a person to think that it does not apply to him. Had the Torah merely written, "Neither shall he multiply wives" - the Torah forbade it, period - Shlomo would not have multiplied them. But because the reason was stated, "that his heart turn not away," he said: "This does not apply to me." Likewise regarding horses: had it merely said, "He shall not multiply horses," he would have refrained. But once the reason was given, "nor cause the people to return," he said: "Is that the concern? Do not worry, I will not return the people to Egypt." So too we find with Rabbi Yishmael, where the reason "lest he tilt [the oil lamp on Shabbat]" caused him to say, "I will read and will not tilt"; yet he read and tilted.
Therefore, King David comes and asks: "Teach me good judgment and knowledge" - please, Hashem, teach me the reasons of the mitzvot as well, and there is no need to fear that through knowing the reason I will stumble in it. Why? "For I have believed in Your commandments." The Beit HaLevi explains: I believe in Your commandments even without the reason, and consequently, even when I know the reason, for me it remains a complete faith that is not contingent upon understanding the reason. Therefore, there is no fear that by virtue of knowing the reason I will come to be lenient with the mitzvah.
"Before I Was Afflicted I Strayed" - Whoever Does Not Learn, Stumbles
טֶ֣רֶם אֶ֭עֱנֶה אֲנִ֣י שֹׁגֵ֑ג וְ֝עַתָּ֗ה אִמְרָתְךָ֥ שָׁמָֽרְתִּי׃ (סז) - Before I was afflicted I strayed, but now I have kept Your word. (67)
Rashi explains: "Before I was afflicted [or: before I expounded]" - even before I delved into Your mitzvos in the study halls, I erred regarding them inadvertently and sinned; but now that I have labored over them, I have kept Your Torah, for study teaches me to turn away from transgression. In other words, if a person does not study, he errs - there are no two ways about it. The Mishnah Berurah cites the Ya'aros Devash in his introduction to the third volume, Hilchos Shabbos, that if a person has not studied the laws of Shabbos, it is impossible that a Shabbos passes without him stumbling into some transgression. And if he is certain he has not stumbled, it is simply because he has not studied! He does not know that here there is an issue and there a prohibition; he does not know what is muktzeh, he does not know the laws of preparation (hachanah), the laws of carrying (hotza'ah), and a thousand and one other things - because he has not learned. But when one studies the Torah and the mitzvos, automatically "I have kept Your word." And this continues the previous request: "Teach me good judgment and knowledge" - teach me the mitzvos so that I will not stumble inadvertently as I did before.
The word "e'eneh" (אענה) is interpreted by Rashi as an expression of review and recitation in the beis midrash, as in "My tongue shall speak (ta'an) Your word," and as in "May Hashem cut off for the man who does it, master and scholar (er ve'oneh)" - in the tents of Jacob: "er" refers to sages, and "oneh" refers to students. Thus, "oneh" here is used in the sense of Torah study.
Radak brings another interpretation: "e'eneh" is related to submission (keni'ah), like "and their wealth will not humble itself (lo ya'aneh)," or like "na'aneisi lach" - I submitted to you. That is: before I humbled myself before the Holy One, Blessed is He, I erred unintentionally; I did not turn toward Your mitzvos and Your word, nor did I take them to heart to remember them. But now, when I saw that I sin and stumble and turned away from Your word, I surrendered and returned to keep Your word: "and now I have kept Your word" - I will remember it constantly so that I do not err or forget anything of Hashem's mitzvos. Radak further explains that "e'eneh" is like "And Iyov answered and said" (Vaya'an Iyov vayomar) and "And you shall respond and say" (ve'anisa ve'amarta), meaning the responsive recitation and discourse of Torah study: before I engaged in study, I erred greatly, for someone who does not study inevitably stumbles in halachah; and once I returned to study the Torah of Hashem, "now I have kept Your word," because when I study, I naturally observe Your mitzvos.
The Malbim explains similarly to Radak: if I do not know all the details of the mitzvos and their underlying reasons, I will easily transgress a commandment inadvertently. Therefore, he requests, "Teach me good judgment" - even before I must answer and apologize, saying, "It was unintentional, I didn't mean to, I didn't know it was forbidden." Teach me Your commandments, and then I will never have to resort to this claim at all.
And yet, the Malbim adds, lest we think that once I know the reasons for the mitzvos, I will no longer observe them simply because Hashem commanded them, but rather because intellect dictates it. That would be very flawed, for it would mean I fulfill Hashem's commandments only when I understand them, and if I do not understand, I do not fulfill them! But we proclaim, "Na'aseh venishma" - we will do and we will hear: first one acts, and afterward one understands. Therefore he says, "and now I have kept Your word" - even now, when I have not yet gained such deep wisdom in the Torah and the mitzvos, I observe the commandment simply because it is Your word, because You commanded it. And all the more so when I fulfill them after knowing their reasons - it will not be on account of understanding the reason, for I have always fulfilled them, even when I did not understand.
"You are good and do good" - A Request for an Unearned Gift
טוֹב־אַתָּ֥ה וּמֵטִ֗יב לַמְּדֵ֥נִי חֻקֶּֽיךָ׃ (סח) - You are good and do good; teach me Your statutes.
Ibn Ezra explains the dual phrasing: "Good" - even without being asked, "and do good" - to one who asks. "Good" reflects Your very essence; "do good" is when You bestow goodness upon another who has petitioned You. Both without being asked and upon request, You bestow goodness.
Radak explains: "You are good," and goodness will come to me from You, and You do good to all. That is, when You bestow good upon me, it is a benefit for the entire community, since when it goes well with David, he channels goodness to the multitude. And what is the good that You will bestow upon me that will also flow to the public? "Teach me Your statutes" - teach me Your statutes so that I may teach them onward to others, and through this, the benefit will extend to the entire nation as well.
The Malbim points out that the key word here is chukim (statutes). David asks: Master of the World, do not teach me only the reasons for the mitzvos that are rationally intelligible, but also the chukim - "I have engraved a statute," matters that normally lie beyond our comprehension. In those, too, I wish to understand the deeper reason. The Malbim notes that the phrase "Teach me Your statutes" appears seven times in our chapter - seven times David asks that Hashem teach him His statutes, so that he might grasp even the rationale of commandments whose reasons are not revealed. And by what merit? David says: not by my own merit, but because "You are good and do good" - since You, Master of the World, bestow boundless good, grant me this favor as well. And this aligns with what we have explained several times, that the righteous always ask for an unearned gift: he does not approach as someone to whom something is owed, nor as a claimant, but rather pleads - Master of the World, do kindness with me; You are indeed good and do good, so bestow Your goodness upon me and teach me Your statutes.
"The wanton have smeared me with falsehood"
טָפְל֬וּ עָלַ֣י שֶׁ֣קֶר זֵדִ֑ים אֲ֝נִ֗י בְּכׇל־לֵ֤ב ׀ אֶצֹּ֬ר פִּקּוּדֶֽיךָ׃ (סט) - The wanton have smeared me with falsehood; with all my heart I will preserve Your precepts.
What does "taflu" mean? Rashi explains: they attached, joined. A "davar hatefel ledavar" means something joined to another. When people want to describe someone who clings to another, they say he is nitpal to him. Likewise, in the language of Chazal, small children and dependents are called tafli - "talu beh tafli", children depend on him, because they cling to him. Similarly, they used to make a plaster coating for a vessel called a tiflah (spelled with a tet), a layer applied and pasted onto the vessel. This is also like the verse in Iyov, "and You plaster over my iniquity" (vatitpol al avoni). Thus: the insolent plastered falsehood upon me - they came and said of David HaMelech that his inside does not match his outside. But You, Master of the Universe, know that with my whole heart I safeguard Your commandments.
There is also a lesson in character traits here: a person does not see his own faults, and "do not mention your own blemish to your fellow." For who were those who plastered falsehood upon David? The insolent sinners. Precisely the wicked, those who are themselves full of disgrace, possess the audacity to cast disgrace upon others. This is always the way of the wicked: a person finds it uncomfortable to deal with his own flaws; it requires work, it requires rectification, it is a long path of battling inclinations, character traits, and natural dispositions. And who likes to work hard? It is far easier to find fault in others and say, "Look, that one is like this, and that one is like that." In this way, a person deflects attention from himself onto someone else, presents himself as a respectable person, and elevates himself at the expense of his fellow's failure - instead of rectifying himself, which demands effort and inner resources.
The Malbim: Pikudim Against the Deniers
The Malbim points out that the central concept here is "pikudim" (precepts), explaining: here David explains why he is so eager to know the reasons for the mitzvot - why he asked, "Teach me Your statutes," and before that, "Teach me good discernment and knowledge." It is because there are insolent people who dispute the Torah and the mitzvot, and therefore he asks that Hashem teach him the Torah and mitzvot so that he can stand against them. Some of them have "plastered falsehood upon me" - denying the Torah and the mitzvot through fabrications concocted in their own minds. In response to this, he says: "With all my heart I will preserve Your precepts."
What are "pikudim"? As the Malbim mentions on several occasions, the pikudim are the mitzvot that serve as a memorial to Hashem's deeds performed in ancient times. For example, the Korban Pesach, which is a memorial to the fact that the Holy One, blessed be He, passed over the homes of the Children of Israel and struck the Egyptians; and Sukkot, to remember that the Holy One, blessed be He, sheltered us with the Clouds of Glory throughout all those days in the wilderness. These are the commandments that Hashem instructed us to observe in order to remember the miracles He performed for us.
These pikudim are the answer to those who plaster falsehood, to those who claim there is no truth to the Torah and no truth to the mitzvot. The pikudim prove and remind us that the Exodus from Egypt occurred and that the Giving of the Torah took place - the holiday of Shavuot commemorates the Giving of the Torah, and all the mitzvot instituted to commemorate historical miracles prove that those events truly occurred. For otherwise, how could everyone suddenly decide on a single night that tonight we eat matzah? Who was the first person to decide this and manage to convince everyone? And again, if he was a madman, how could he convince an entire nation? Historically, it is impossible to convince a public to adopt a practice by telling them, "You were all there." An individual might claim a personal miracle and sway masses, but one cannot convince people that my father, your father, and his father all came out of Egypt and all ate matzot - unless my father told me so, and his father told him. A person who came with such an invented claim would be institutionalized. How, then, do we truly say, "We ate matzot, and therefore we eat matzot"? Because that is what happened in history, and Jews all over the world eat matzah on this night, for on this night there is the mitzvah of "Vehigadta levincha" (and you shall tell your child) - each person is commanded to recount it to his child. This began from the Exodus itself: our ancestors left Egypt, and from that moment began telling their children. You cannot fabricate mass history - a story about an individual can be invented, but an event that took place before the eyes of millions cannot be forged into history. We have already mentioned this foundation several times, and we have studied it in the Kuzari as well.
Thus, the pikudim - the mitzvot through which we transmit to future generations the message of the plagues of Egypt, the Exodus, and the Giving of the Torah - are the very response to those who fabricate lies. They counter those who come and argue that the Splitting of the Red Sea could not have happened, claiming it was merely high and low tides or other baseless and illogical explanations. By the way, the Flood recounted in the Torah is universally known: in virtually all cultures, there is a tradition of a great flood. The Torah describes an event known not just to us, but to everyone. Furthermore, geological findings show that the earth was once entirely covered with water - for fish fossils are found on mountaintops, in places dozens of miles away from any body of water. What are fish fossils doing up there? Inevitably, the entire world was submerged in water, and the fish reached those heights as well.
How to Deal with Heresy
This verse also gives us insight into how to act in the face of heretics. When someone comes to express heretical views and incite us away from the service of Hashem, what is the proper response? To redouble one's strength in the service of Hashem. The more he tries to bend me toward the opposite direction, the more reinforcement I must add to the side of holiness. For if I remain neutral, his efforts might succeed. As the Gemara says, "Shani minut demashcha" - heresy is enticing, and a person can be drawn after it. Therefore, "The insolent have plastered falsehood upon me" - and precisely because of that, "With all my heart I will preserve Your precepts"; I strengthen myself even more in keeping Your precepts. When they come to pull me away from the service of Hashem, it demands a counter-reaction of resistance; if I simply remain as I was, I could be swept along by their theories.
In Summary:
In the section of the letter Tet, David HaMelech gives thanks for the fulfillment of the promise - "You have dealt well with Your servant, according to Your word," and makes three requests regarding study: "Teach me good discernment and knowledge" - to understand the reasons behind the mitzvot and all their details; "Teach me Your statutes" - to attain some understanding even of the decrees (chukim) beyond human comprehension, not out of personal merit but by virtue of "You are good and do good," in the manner of the righteous who ask for an unearned gift. Throughout, the decisive condition recurs: "I have believed in Your commandments" - investigating the reasons is a great mitzvah, but it is never a prerequisite for observance; even when I know the reason, I perform it because You commanded. "Before I was afflicted I went astray" teaches that one who does not study will inevitably falter, and only study leads to "I have kept Your word." Finally, in confronting "The insolent have plastered falsehood upon me" - the answer lies in the pikudim, the mitzvot that serve as living testimony to historical miracles; and in the face of all incitement, one must respond with renewed fortitude: "With all my heart I will preserve Your precepts."