Before us are the concluding verses of the letter Shin in Chapter 119. These four verses are constructed, as the Malbim consistently explains throughout this chapter, around the various "names of the Torah": mishpatim (judgments), Torah, mitzvot (commandments), edot (testimonies), and pikudim (precepts). We will proceed through the verses in order, citing Rashi, the Radak, the Metzudot, and the Malbim, along with homiletic and mussar insights derived from them.
שֶׁבַע בַּיּוֹם הִלַּלְתִּיךָ עַל מִשְׁפְּטֵי צִדְקֶךָ׃ (קסד) - Seven times a day I praised You for Your righteous judgments. (164)
What is the meaning of "seven", and where do we praise Hashem seven times a day? Rashi counts them one by one: during Shacharit, two blessings before the Shema and one after it; and during Maariv, two before it and two after it. These are the seven blessings of Kriat Shema. And "for Your righteous judgments" refers to Kriat Shema itself, which represents the righteous judgment of the Holy One, Blessed be He - verses from the Torah.
The Radak explains the verse according to its plain meaning (peshat), rather than the homiletic approach. In his view, "seven" is not an exact count but an idiomatic expression, similar to "sevenfold for your sins" or "seven times a righteous person falls and rises." This numerical idiom appears throughout Tanach and the words of Chazal in various contexts: whenever one wishes to convey "many times," one says "seven." Here too, the meaning is: I praise You many times for Your judgments, which are upright and righteous, whenever I mention them.
שָׁלוֹם רָב לְאֹהֲבֵי תוֹרָתֶךָ וְאֵין לָמוֹ מִכְשׁוֹל׃ (קסה) - Great peace have those who love Your Torah, and there is no stumbling block for them. (165)
The Radak explains: Those who love the Torah will never stumble. Their path is upright, and they will always enjoy peace, because they are content with the little they acquire of this world and do not worry about the future - what will be, how we will manage, and what we will do. A person who lives in constant anxiety, apprehension, and fear has no peace. But one who clings to the Torah of Hashem lives in the present day and moment: he knows that right now he did the right thing, right now he fulfilled Hashem's commandment.
We once noted: What does it mean to be truly happy (me'ushar)? It means having approval (ishur) for every action one takes. I woke up in the morning and put on tefillin - I have approval; this is what Hashem wanted. I washed my hands and ate breakfast - this is what Hashem wanted. I went to the beit midrash - this is what Hashem wants. For every single deed, I have divine sanction. By contrast, a person who acts purely on his own whim - who told him that he is doing the right thing? He himself does not know, and in such a state, true happiness remains far from him. True happiness is affirmation; and when a person lives according to the Master of the World's design, every action carries approval from the very highest authority.
In the sefer Givat Pinchas, a wonderful nuance is cited in the name of the Ksav Sofer: it does not say, "Abundant peace to those who study Your Torah," but rather "to those who love Your Torah" - referring to those who uphold and support the Torah. And specifically to them it is said, "and they have no stumbling block," meaning that their reward will arrive in its fullness without any flaw. This is not the case for Torah scholars themselves, where the matter is not guaranteed: one may have learned not for its own sake, driven by some ulterior motive; he may have had interruptions along the way, lapses of attention, or failed to study with proper diligence. But the supporter of Torah upholds it completely, and there is no fault in him - he fully supported the avrech, and if the avrech paused for a moment or was idle, it is not his fault, and he receives a complete reward.
According to this, we can understand why Moshe Rabbeinu places Zevulun before Yissachar - placing the supporter of Torah before the student of Torah: because the merit of the supporter is immense, being whole, whereas the student of Torah may fall short in his study. In this same way, the commentators explain the term applied to women - "confident" (she’anannot): because they are secure in their reward. The man cannot be entirely confident - perhaps he dozed off for a moment during the shiur, perhaps he chatted, perhaps he lost concentration. But the woman says: I gave him up for two hours in the evening so he could attend the shiur. She is entitled to a full reward, even if her husband did not utilize the time properly, for what was hers to do and sacrifice of herself - she sacrificed, and how much he actually learned is no longer in her hands.
In the sefer Od Yosef Chai, it is explained: sometimes peace itself is the stumbling block. When? When one makes peace with the wicked, or when one is willing to compromise on the observance of mitzvos and on certain core principles in order to preserve peace and avoid discord and division. Here lies a very great danger, that out of this very "peace" a stumbling block will emerge. It may very well be that one must fight and forgo peace. Therefore, when contemplating compromise, one must ask: Is this in accordance with the Gedolei Yisrael? Is this the right course of action? Regarding this, the verse says: "Great peace have those who love Your Torah" - if you consult the Gedolim and act in accordance with the Torah, "and they have no stumbling block," you will not stumble through this peace.
At one time, there was an effort to hold "dialogue" between secular and religious Jews, symposiums where representatives from both sides of the divide would gather and each express their view. When the Gedolei Yisrael were consulted, they strongly opposed it. The reasoning: a person who comes to such forums does not come to listen; he comes to be heard. And we have nothing to hear from them. A Torah Jew walks with the truth in hand, and one who possesses the truth has no need to hear from another - on the contrary, it can only sow confusion. If someone had truly come to listen, we could explain the truth to him; but if he came only to make his own voice heard, what is the value of the encounter? We favor dialogue and communication when someone comes to us open to hear, when he genuinely wants to listen and discover what we have to offer.
And we have a great deal to give. Our wagon has been full for thirty-three hundred years, moving forward steadily while all the other wagons have long been consigned to the scrapyard. The Jewish wagon marches proudly toward the destination set for it from Heaven, toward the coming of Mashiach. Nothing in our tradition has changed: the same tefillin that Moshe Rabbeinu donned, we don today; and the same Torah that Moshe Rabbeinu transmitted, we pass on to the next generation. We do not exchange our Torah every two years, nor our methods, nor our approach to study. We have a paved path. If someone wants to learn, let him come and we will teach him.
Once, someone asked the Chafetz Chaim about Communism, which was sweeping across the world at the time. People were convinced that it was the solution: no excessively wealthy and no impoverished, total equality, everyone studying the same things and educated in the same institutions, an end to the terrible disparity between the homeless on one side and the holders of vast fortunes on the other. The Chafetz Chaim replied to them: If something is good, it is written in the Torah; and if it is not written in the Torah, it is not good. Within seventy years, Communism collapsed with a resounding crash, and it became clear that it was anything but good. Anyone who still wishes to see the supposed beauty, splendor, and progress of Communism need only look at North Korea, at Russia which is beginning to tilt back in that direction, at Colombia, China, and the rest of the totalitarian regimes, and understand where it all led.
And the reason is simple: it runs contrary to human nature, for by nature a person does not work for someone else. That is also why the kibbutzim dissolved - the moment someone launched a successful start-up, he immediately left the kibbutz; would he stay to share everything with everyone else? And why are people beginning to return to the kibbutzim today? Because they heard that prime real estate is being distributed: many kibbutzim are undergoing privatization, and the plots are divided among the founding families. The conclusion remains unchanged: if something is good, it is written in the Torah. If so, what does the secular world have to offer us? What can someone innovate beyond what Abaye and Rava, the Rambam, the Vilna Gaon, the Ben Ish Chai, the Chafetz Chaim, and all the giants of the generations have already taught us? If the secular world had produced an exemplary education, magnificent youth, stellar integrity, derech eretz, refined character traits, and noble conduct, one might say perhaps there is something there. But when one witnesses colossal failure, why go there? To hear how they failed, only to run further away?
שִׂבַּרְתִּי לִישׁוּעָתְךָ יְהֹוָה וּמִצְוֺתֶיךָ עָשִׂיתִי׃ (קסו) - I have hoped for Your salvation, Hashem, and I have performed Your commandments.
Rashi explains "I have hoped (sibarti)" as hochalti, yearning and anticipating. The Metzudat Tziyon writes that it conveys hope, as in "whose hope (shivro) is in Hashem his God." The Radak clarifies: "For Your salvation" refers to the salvation of the soul; "and I have performed Your commandments" means doing them for the sake of Heaven, not out of anticipation of reward, but rather because You commanded it, and knowing that through this salvation will come - that is what I await and yearn for.
שָׁמְרָה נַפְשִׁי עֵדֹתֶיךָ וָאֹהֲבֵם מְאֹד׃ (קסז) - My soul has kept Your testimonies, and I love them exceedingly.
First, a grammatical note on the pronunciation: we read it as shamrah and not shomrah, because there is a meteg under the letter shin, indicating that the mem takes a sheva na. The Radak explains: my soul kept Your testimonies - it contemplated them, and through that, "and I love them exceedingly." When a person guards and preserves something, he contemplates it and delves into it, and from that deep reflection comes love.
שָׁמַרְתִּי פִקּוּדֶיךָ וְעֵדֹתֶיךָ כִּי כׇל דְּרָכַי נֶגְדֶּךָ׃ (קסח) - I have kept Your precepts and Your testimonies, for all my ways are before You.
The Radak explains "for all my ways are before You" in the spirit of "In all your ways acknowledge Him," and in accord with the teaching of Chazal, "Let all your deeds be for the sake of Heaven": it is the precepts and testimonies that taught me that all my ways should be before You. We have often noted this point - to truly attain closeness (devekut) to Hashem, action is required. The Torah is a Torah of deeds, not merely theory. It does not just say, "think about the love of God, contemplate devotion"; rather, it gives very precise instructions: this is how you bind tefillin on your arm and head, envelop yourself in tzitzit, take a lulav and wave it, take a shofar and sound it, take matzah and eat it. Practical actions, not merely abstract thoughts. The goal is certainly to reach inner depth and inwardness, but it all begins with a concrete action.
Thus the verse explains: I have guarded Your precepts and Your testimonies, and they brought me to the point where "all my ways are before You" - that all my actions are done for the sake of Heaven. Note the precise wording: not only the precepts and the testimonies, but "all my ways." This recalls what has been mentioned several times from the Shulchan Aruch in Siman 231, that a person must ensure all his actions are for the sake of Heaven. When going to sleep, it should not merely be because one is tired, but so that he can rise tomorrow morning to pray and study Torah, which is only possible if he sleeps. When eating, it should not merely be because one is hungry, but to strengthen his body for the service of the Almighty. So it is with every single deed, until one fulfills within himself, "In all your ways know Him, and He will make your paths straight." Even things that seem neutral, mundane, and earthly - those too I do for His holy Name.
Rashi explains "for all my ways are before You" to mean: You know all my ways. According to this, it explains the reason for what was said at the beginning of the verse: I kept Your precepts and Your testimonies because nothing is hidden from Your eyes, and You know all my ways.
One can delve deeper into this based on what Rav Friedlander explains: What is individual Divine Providence (hashgachah pratit) really? As discussed at length in Siftei Chaim, it does not merely mean that the Holy One, blessed be He, knows what is happening with every creature at any given moment. For if we accept the view of most commentators that there is no hashgachah pratit over animals, does that mean Hashem does not know what is happening with them? Anyone who claims so is a heretic! And if Hashem knows what is happening with everything, what is unique about man? Rather, individual Divine Providence means that the Holy One, blessed be He, knows what is happening with you at every single moment, arranges trials and challenges suited to your current state, constantly watches over you - and through this also protects you and rescues you from all kinds of harm.
Over animals, by contrast, there is general species providence (hashgachah minit): ensuring the species does not go extinct, that the elephant species continues to exist. Hashem certainly knows what is happening with every ant and every elephant; nothing is hidden from Him. But He does not actively orchestrate their individual affairs. If a particular elephant has a sore back or an itch on its leg, the Holy One, blessed be He, does not focus His providence upon it in order to intervene. It is not that He lacks knowledge, but rather that He does not direct providence there to take action. With human beings, however, according to what a person is going through, Hashem watches over him and acts in response: He brings him trials and assists him in whatever situation he finds himself. That is the definition of hashgachah pratit. According to this, "all my ways are before You" means: all my deeds are under Your individual Divine Providence, Master of the Universe, for at every given moment You know all my ways and interact with me in accordance with those paths.
One can also explain the verse in another way. Our Sages teach that the rectification for one who repents is to do the opposite of that in which he stumbled. If someone frequently desecrated Shabbat, he should organize classes on the laws of Shabbat, encourage others to keep Shabbat, and so on. In whatever area a person acted wrongly, he should now do the opposite, and in that lies his rectification. To what can this be compared? To a piece of iron that was bent. If you straighten it only to the zero point, it will bend back again. To truly straighten it, you must bend it to the opposite side, and only then will it become straight.
So too it is written concerning a penitent, that he should initially go to the far extreme, and only later adopt the golden mean. The exceptions are pride and anger, regarding which the Rambam writes that one must always remain at the opposite extreme, distancing oneself from arrogance to the absolute utmost. But with other character traits, the Rambam teaches that one should follow the middle path, and one arrives at the middle path only after first swinging to the far extreme. Therefore, a person who rectifies his ways does so in the very same realm in which he sinned. If he possessed "feet that hasten to run to evil," he should now run to perform mitzvot. If he heated himself up with enthusiasm for a sin, he should engage in baking matzot or any mitzvah that involves physical heat; he should search for the Four Species, wearing out his feet in the market for four hours, sweating and hot, and this will atone for having heated himself up for a sin.
According to this, we can find an allusion here: "I have kept Your precepts and Your testimonies, for all my ways are before You" - since all my ways were previously against You (negdecha), as I committed sins that provoked Your anger and went against what You commanded, therefore now I have meticulously kept Your precepts and Your testimonies. The term "guarding" (shemirah) denotes extra vigilance and great precision: I guard them with exactitude because in the past my ways were against You, and now I must go to the opposite extreme. With this, we conclude the letter Shin in Psalm 119.
In the four concluding verses of the letter Shin, we reviewed four fundamental pillars of the service of Hashem: constant praise for the Creator's righteous judgments; abundant peace without stumbling - a peace born of love for the Torah and following a Rav and the Torah leaders of Israel, not an illusory peace built on compromise and accommodation with an empty wagon; yearning for Hashem's salvation through performing mitzvot for the sake of Heaven, in whose merit the Holy One, blessed be He, helps a person overcome his evil inclination; and guarding the precepts and testimonies out of the realization that "all my ways are before You" - that everything is under individual Divine Providence, which leads a person to ensure that all his deeds, even the most mundane, are done for the sake of Heaven. And that is a truly happy person: one who has approval for all his deeds from the highest hierarchy, from the Master of the Universe.