Introduction: A Song of Jerusalem
Psalm 122 is one of the Songs of Ascents (Shirei HaMa'alot), and it is dedicated entirely to the praise of Jerusalem. King David opens with joy over walking to the House of Hashem, continues by describing the stance of Israel at the gates of Jerusalem, and arrives at the very essence of the city - the city that binds all the tribes together. We will examine the verses in order, alongside the commentaries of Rashi, Ibn Ezra, Radak, and Malbim, and the words of Chazal and the ethical lessons derived from them.
Verse 1: I Rejoiced When They Said to Me
שִׁיר הַמַּעֲלוֹת לְדָוִד שָׂמַחְתִּי בְּאֹמְרִים לִי בֵּית ה' נֵלֵךְ׃ - A Song of Ascents, of David: I rejoiced when they said to me, "Let us go to the House of Hashem."
Chazal explain that King David said this concerning the building of the Beit HaMikdash: when the Temple is built, "I rejoiced when they said to me" that we are going to the House of Hashem. The Yerushalmi explains the background: when the Holy One, blessed be He, said to David, "You shall not build a house for My Name" - Hashem sent him the prophet to inform him that the Temple would not be built through him.
What did the scoundrels of that generation do? They would walk by David's windows and say to him: David, when will the Beit HaMikdash be built? When will we "go to the House of Hashem"? Their entire intent was to harass him, pain him, and taunt him. Rashi notes that they would say: When will that old man die, so that his son Solomon can reign and build the Beit HaMikdash? In other words, their real intention was: David, do you not realize that you are a stumbling block to the building of the Temple? Since Hashem said that it will not be built by your hand but by your son, perhaps you should already pass away from this world so that your son can build the Temple!
Yet David said: Even though I know they intend to provoke me, I rejoiced in their words, as it is stated, "I rejoiced when they said to me, 'Let us go to the House of Hashem.'" According to this, it can be explained: they were hinting that he should already depart from this world, and he replied - I rejoiced! I am even ready to "go," to pass on from this world, provided that the House of Hashem is built. And the Holy One, blessed be He, said to him: "When your days are fulfilled... I will raise up your seed after you... he will build a house for My Name." Thus, David rejoiced even when reminded of his own death, as long as a House would be built for Hashem.
There is an additional insight here in the phrase "let us go" (nelech). David speaks about himself: even though I am king, and the custom of a king is to lead the nation and march at the head of the army - despite all that, "I rejoiced when they said to me, 'Let us go to the House of Hashem.'" "Let us go" implies together, not with me at the forefront. Even when we all go as one, I rejoice. And why? Because I am glad to be like one of the people among my brethren when going to the House of Hashem. "I am a companion to all who fear You" - I do not view myself as a king walking in front; rather, to the House of Hashem, everyone goes together.
Three Interpretations in Ibn Ezra, and a Note from Radak
Ibn Ezra cites: Rabbi Moshe said that David composed this song so that it would be sung along with the melodies in the House of Hashem when the Temple would be built. That is, David himself had not yet merited the construction of the Temple, so what does "I rejoiced when they said to me" mean? Rather, he composed a song to be recited in the future, when they would sing in the Beit HaMikdash. Rabbi Yehoshua said that the song was spoken regarding the structure David erected in Zion - not about a future Temple, but about the very place where he spread the curtain and placed the Ark. Ibn Ezra brings a third explanation: it refers to the Third Temple, where each and every Jew says, "I rejoiced when they said to me, 'Let us go to the House of Hashem'" - everyone waits and yearns for when the Third Temple will finally be built, when we will merit going on pilgrimage.
Radak notes that here it is stated, "A Song of Ascents, of David," whereas in the other Songs of Ascents David is not mentioned. He answers: it is very possible that the others were composed by the other poets, as ten individuals took part in composing the Book of Tehillim, and only this Song of Ascents was composed by David; therefore, his name is mentioned specifically here.
The Malbim: The Nation as a Body, Jerusalem as the Heart and Brain, and the Temple as the Soul
The Malbim explains this with great depth. The song speaks in praise of Jerusalem, depicting the entire nation as a single body composed of individual limbs: hand, foot, head, and the like - these are the tribes, the limbs of the body. And what connects all these limbs into one unified body? Jerusalem. "A city that was joined together" - it is what binds all the tribes together. This accords especially well with the opinion that Jerusalem was not divided among the tribes (there is a dispute whether it belongs to Judah and Benjamin or was not divided among the tribes at all, belonging instead to all of Israel) - according to this view, it is even more understandable that this city is what unites all the tribes.
When the individual limbs unite into a complete body, the Malbim explains, two levels come to rest upon it: the spirit of life and the intellectual soul - which are the lower dimension, the powers of action and intellect; and beyond that, the divine soul also rests upon it, a portion of God from Above. In the analogue: the Beit HaMikdash is the divine soul dwelling within the body, the place where the Shechinah rests; while the city itself is comparable to the heart and brain in the body, which correspond to the spirit of life and the intellectual soul. Accordingly, "I rejoiced when they said to me, 'Let us go to the House of Hashem'": since the Holy One, blessed be He, dwells in Jerusalem - the dwelling place of the Shechinah and the divine presence - it turns out that upon this body, Klal Yisrael, rests the supreme spirit corresponding to the divine soul, for the Holy One, blessed be He, rests His Shechinah among us. Over this, I felt great joy.
"Li" - For My Sake: Clearing David's Name
In the sefer Zeh HaSha'ar, an explanation of "I rejoiced when they said to me [li]" is brought based on the Gemara. In Sanhedrin, Rava expounded: What is meant by the verse, "For I am ready to limp [letzela nachon]"? Batsheva was destined for David since the six days of Creation. "Nachon" means prepared, and "tzela" refers to the rib [tzela] taken from Adam HaRishon - and King David was the reincarnation of Adam HaRishon, as alluded to in the acronym of "Adam": Adam, David, Mashiach. David says: that same rib taken from me was prepared for me, and that was Batsheva.
And in Masechet Shabbat: Rav Yehudah said in the name of Rav, what is meant by the verse, "Show me a sign for good, that my enemies may see it and be ashamed"? David said before the Holy One, blessed be He: Master of the Universe, forgive me for that sin (the sin of Batsheva). He replied: You are forgiven. David said to Him: Show me a sign in my lifetime! He replied: In your lifetime I will not make it known; in the lifetime of Solomon your son I will make it known. When Solomon built the Beit HaMikdash and sought to bring the Ark into the Holy of Holies, the gates clung to one another and refused to open. Once he said, "Hashem God, do not turn away the face of Your anointed; remember the lovingkindness of David Your servant" - he was answered immediately. At that moment, the faces of all David's enemies turned black as the bottom of a pot (the underside of a pot, where the fire burns, was blacker than black). They had always said: David is wicked, David is a sinner, David does terrible things - and here they saw that the gates opened only when David was mentioned, and all the people and all Israel knew that the Holy One, blessed be He, had forgiven him for that sin.
According to this, "I rejoiced when they said to me [li]" is interpreted - "li" meaning "for my sake," through me. People would say that in my merit the doors opened and the Ark entered, in my merit "let us go to the House of Hashem." There is a wonderful allusion to this in the rashei tevot (acrostic): "Samachti be'omerim li beit Hashem" forms the letters of "bishvili" (for my sake). David then rejoiced that his name would be cleared through this: all that he had suffered from slander and everything spoken against him - now they say that for my sake the House of Hashem was opened, and through this my name is cleared.
"Li" - "Harei At Mekudeshet Li"
He brings another allusion: Chazal taught that Batsheva was destined for David from the six days of Creation, yet those who opposed him claimed that he had taken a married woman and acted improperly. Here, "li" (to me) alludes to the formula of betrothal, "Harei at mekudeshet li" ("Behold, you are consecrated to me") - I rejoiced when they said "li," meaning that Batsheva truly belonged to me. And how do I know? "Let us go to the House of Hashem" - for when they go to the House of Hashem, the doors open only for King David, proving that she was prepared for him, and that he did not take something that did not rightfully belong to him.
Based on this, a story is related. In Ashkenazic lands, Jewish daughters were customary not to come to the synagogue until after they were married. For the first time, the bride would be brought to the synagogue with great joy, splendor, and beauty, and from then on she would attend synagogue (not on a fixed basis, since women are not obligated in communal prayer, but nonetheless from that point she would begin to come). It is told that on the first Shabbat after the wedding of the daughter of Rav Leib Mochiyach, the Rav of Pressburg, they brought her to the synagogue with great celebration. She said to her father: "Father, hear a vort: King David says, 'I rejoiced when they said to me, Let us go to the House of Hashem,' and I say so as well: I rejoiced when they said to me, 'Harei at mekudeshet li' (Behold, you are consecrated to me), and through that, 'Let us go to the House of Hashem' - now I can go to the House of Hashem, from now on I go to the synagogue."
Verse 2: Our Feet Were Standing
עֹמְדוֹת הָיוּ רַגְלֵינוּ בִּשְׁעָרַיִךְ יְרוּשָׁלָ͏ִם׃ - Our feet were standing within your gates, O Jerusalem.
Rashi cites the homily of Chazal: Our feet were standing in battle everywhere - because of your gates, Jerusalem, where they engage in Torah. That is, our standing firm, our ability to hold our ground and fight forcefully against the enemies, comes in the merit of "your gates, O Jerusalem," in the merit of those who engage in Torah. It is not the soldiers who sustain the nation, but the Torah learners who sustain it. As the Gemara relates: they sought to show him the "neturei karta," the guardians of the city, and they showed him the soldiers. He said to them: "These are the destroyers of the city; the guardians of the city are the Torah scholars," and through them comes the greatest protection. If so, by what power did our feet stand firm in battles? In the merit of "your gates, O Jerusalem."
However, that is a drash, and it is interesting that Rashi turned immediately to the homiletic interpretation without explaining the simple meaning of the verse (peshat). The Ibn Ezra, known as an exponent of peshat, explains the literal meaning: "were standing" - we stood to gaze upon your gates, O Jerusalem. When a person arrives at a magnificent and beautiful place, he stops in his tracks and takes in the splendor of its beauty; so too, we would stand and marvel at the construction of the walls and the beauty of the gates.
The Ibn Ezra brings another explanation, which he says is the correct one, and Radak explains similarly: the city was so full of people that we were pressed together at the gates and could not enter due to the sheer multitude coming and going. In simple terms: a traffic jam formed at the gates of Jerusalem. And what happens when there is a jam? "Our feet were standing within your gates, O Jerusalem" - we were forced to stand still, because of the throngs of people coming and going. One might have thought this explanation was said in jest, but this is the Ibn Ezra and this is the Radak: there was congestion at the entrance. Thus we see that this has existed from time immemorial, and is not something unique to our days.
The Malbim explains according to his approach: even before we came to the House of Hashem to behold the chambers of Divine light radiating from there - which represents the soul within the body, the spiritual, Divine soul that bestows vitality upon all of Israel - already when our feet tread within the gates of Jerusalem we attained standing, a firm footing, through which all of Israel become like a living, complete body. That is to say, already at the first stage, when we possessed the aspect of the heart and brain, which serves as preparation to receive the spirit of life and the intellectual soul - the lower levels - already then we possessed firm standing. And afterwards, when the Beis HaMikdash was built, we merited the spiritual soul, with Hashem causing His Shechinah to dwell among us.
Verse 3: The Rebuilt Jerusalem
יְרוּשָׁלַ͏ִם הַבְּנוּיָה כְּעִיר שֶׁחֻבְּרָה־לָּהּ יַחְדָּו׃ - Jerusalem built up as a city that is bound firmly together.
Rashi explains that the verse refers to the future: when my son Solomon builds the Beis HaMikdash within it, then it will truly be "built up" - with the Shechinah, the Temple, the Ark, and the Altar. Here too, Rashi is compelled to explain how it can say "Jerusalem built up" when the Temple did not yet exist, and the answer is that David is speaking of the future.
And regarding "as a city that is bound firmly together," Rashi cites the homiletic exposition of Chazal: like Shiloh, where the Shechinah also rested, as it is written, "to the rest and to the inheritance" - and Chazal derive a textual comparison from this: "the rest" refers to Shiloh, while "the inheritance" refers to Jerusalem. An inheritance is the place where we have established our permanent home, whereas Shiloh was merely a temporary resting place. Furthermore, Chazal say that Jerusalem is built in the heavens, and the earthly Jerusalem is destined to be just like it. This is the meaning of "as a city that is bound firmly together": some might assume this refers to the unification of the eastern and western parts of the city - but this has nothing to do with East Jerusalem; rather, the intent is that the earthly Jerusalem will unite with the heavenly Jerusalem opposite it. That is also why it is destined to descend in fire, as Rashi cites in Tractate Sukkah.
Why Jerusalem Is Higher Than All Lands
Based on this principle, we once explained the teaching that the Land of Israel is higher than all lands, and Jerusalem is higher than all of the Land of Israel, and in fact higher than the entire world. One explanation is that this refers to a spiritual sense - it is not measured in meters, but on a spiritual level, and the highest place spiritually is Jerusalem. And if we wish to provide a natural explanation as well: the standard metric today for measuring height is relative to sea level, but that is an arbitrary standard devised by humans. Had the world had a ceiling, we would measure by proximity to the ceiling - whatever is closer to it is higher; and since the world has no ceiling, people needed to establish some vertical baseline by which to measure, and they chose sea level. But who is to say this baseline is correct? The true baseline is to measure relative to "Above." And what is the place closest to spirituality, closest to "Above"? The earthly Jerusalem, which aligns directly opposite the heavenly Jerusalem. Note: no matter how the earth rotates, in every position the earthly Jerusalem aligns opposite the heavenly Jerusalem. Thus, the roof, the "Above," is the heavenly Jerusalem - there is no other roof and no other ceiling; and the closest thing to it is the earthly Jerusalem, which is why Jerusalem is higher than everything. The Land of Israel, being closest to Jerusalem, is higher than the rest of the world, while the rest of the world slopes downward and is therefore lower.
Ibn Ezra and Radak: A City in Which Everyone Unites
The Ibn Ezra explains that during the Three Pilgrimage Festivals, Jerusalem was like a mother-city to which all its surrounding daughter-villages gather in a time of fear. Why does he specifically mention fear? Apparently because in those times, people were accustomed to gathering and uniting in one central location during times of peril. So too, during the Three Festivals, it appeared as though everyone had joined together in one place, as everyone converged upon Jerusalem - and this is the meaning of "that is bound firmly together."
The Radak explains that this statement is, as it were, voiced by the people of the exile: when Jerusalem was built up and the Shechinah rested within it - how praiseworthy, glorious, and magnificent it was! Where else could you find a city like it, "that is bound firmly together," where the entire congregation of Israel was united together within it, where all of Klal Yisrael joined as one? And in truth, such a reality existed nowhere else, for the obligation of the pilgrimage festival rested upon every man - anyone who owned land was obligated to ascend; there was no concept of people simply staying home, but rather everyone went up for the festival. If so, where could one find another city like it, where the entire congregation of Israel was bound together in unity?
The Malbim: Uniting the Limbs into a Single Body
The Malbim explains in his characteristic way: "Jerusalem built as a city bound firmly together" - that through Jerusalem, the individual limbs unite into a single body. The tribes are likened to the limbs of the body, and they connect in Jerusalem to form a single, complete body. And as we have discussed in the past, when there was fear that the tribe of Benjamin might be wiped out during the episode of the Concubine of Gibeah (Pilegesh b'Givah), we learned that if the tribe of Benjamin were lost, the Jewish people would be considered blemished - as though a limb were missing from the body, like a person without an arm or a leg, and Heaven forbid the completeness of Am Yisrael would be diminished. The totality of the Jewish people consists of the twelve tribes of Yah, and without them there is a flaw. In Jerusalem, the individual limbs unite; all of Israel gathers in one place. And for this reason, Chazal explicitly state, there was the fear that they would ascend for the festival pilgrimage and Rehoboam would win their hearts, which is why [Jeroboam] created a simulated substitute for them, outwardly resembling something spiritual.
The Baba Sali: Every Kind of Splendor in the World in One Place
The Baba Sali explains "Jerusalem built as a city bound firmly together" in this way: A person who wants to build a place and make it with great splendor and magnificence brings all kinds of artists and designers, so that each one will offer their opinion on what should be done, and in the end he selects the best and leaves the rest. But if he is very clever, he brings all the ideas together, and in doing so creates the most magnificent structure: this one says, "Let us beautify it with such a tower," another says, "Let us beautify it with such a gate," and a third says, "Let us place a breathtaking monument right at the city's entrance" - and he takes everything and implements everyone's suggestions. (Incidentally, from a modern design perspective this would be a catastrophe; any designer will tell you that you need a unified design language, and if you mix everything together it results in a hodgepodge. But here, the Baba Sali says that when something is wondrous and each one suggests a beautiful element - include them all, and it will become the most magnificent and splendid of all.) And behold, because the Holy One, Blessed is He, loves Jerusalem so dearly, He wished to combine in it every kind of splendor. What did He do? "Jerusalem built as a city bound firmly together" - all the varieties of splendor in the world were joined together within it; the Holy One gathered all the splendor in the world and brought it together in one place.
In Summary:
This chapter opens with the joy of David - a joy that is not contingent on his personal honor: even when the scoffers of the generation taunt him about his death, and even when going to the House of Hashem is "let us go" together as equals rather than the king leading at the head, he rejoices, provided that the House of Hashem will be built. And ultimately, his name was fully vindicated, for it was for his sake that the gates of the Temple opened. "Our feet were standing" - in the merit of those who engage in Torah at the gates of Jerusalem, we stood firm in battle; and according to the peshat, we stood gazing at its beauty, and due to the multitude of people entering and leaving, our feet came to a standstill at its gates. And "Jerusalem built as a city bound firmly together" - it is the city that unites all the tribes of Israel into a single, complete body, for which the city serves as the heart and the brain, and the Beit HaMikdash is the divine soul within it; it corresponds directly to the heavenly Jerusalem and is therefore the loftiest of places, and within it, out of His immense love, the Holy One, Blessed is He, gathered every kind of splendor in the world together.