Psalm 124 is a brief song of gratitude for deliverance. It is an expression voiced by Israel in their exile: when enemies rose up to destroy us, had the Holy One, blessed be He, not been with us - what would have remained of us? The Malbim explains that this psalm describes how Hashem's lovingkindness rescued us from two types of enemies: enemies of the body and enemies of the soul.
שִׁיר הַמַּעֲלוֹת לְדָוִד לוּלֵי יְהֹוָה שֶׁהָיָה לָנוּ יֹאמַר־נָא יִשְׂרָאֵל׃ - A song of ascents, of David: Had Hashem not been for us, let Israel now say.
לוּלֵי יְהֹוָה שֶׁהָיָה לָנוּ בְּקוּם עָלֵינוּ אָדָם׃ - Had Hashem not been for us when man rose up against us.
We have mentioned numerous times that enemies of the soul are sevenfold worse than enemies of the body. Rav Finkel ztz"l once said: what Germany did not do to us, America did. Germany sought to destroy the bodies, and six million Jews perished in the crematoria; but America consumed far more millions of Jewish souls - Jews living there who stripped themselves of every spark of Judaism. And how? Without inquisitions, without crematoria - everything through a gentle caress, an embrace, equal rights, generosity, abundance, and boundless opportunities: just come and take. And people took, slipped, and reached dire, tragic states. The rate of assimilation there is exceedingly high - over fifty and sixty percent, and in some places seventy and eighty percent, may Hashem protect us.
The blow dealt by enemies of the soul is far harsher than that dealt by enemies of the body. Against enemies of the body we at least resist and fight back; furthermore, even if a person's physical body is cut down, his soul endures for eternity. But if one cuts down the soul, he has cut him off for eternity, leaving nothing left of him. And against enemies of the soul, we do not fight at all, for on the contrary: the host country wishes to treat me well, granting me equal rights and providing me with abundance.
In his time, when the Chasam Sofer was informed that Napoleon had established emancipation - equal rights for Jews - he began to weep. He said: when the gentile persecutes the Jew, the Jew knows how to resist; but when the gentile treats the Jew well, the Jew melts away. He relinquishes his will, his Jewish identity, and the struggle for his principles; he readily accepts whatever the gentile offers him and becomes assimilated into society, may Hashem protect us.
Regarding the words "Had Hashem not been for us," the Malbim explains that two things served as our stronghold. The first is that we were dedicated to Hashem: that we devoted ourselves to Hashem, blessed be He, relied on Him with all our heart, and forgot neither His Name nor His Torah. This is the meaning of "Had Hashem not been for us, let Israel now say" - had it not been for our declaration that Hashem is ours, we would have had no existence. We believed in Him, placed our hope in Him, and yearned for Him; that was the first prerequisite. The second is "Had Hashem not been for us when man rose up against us" - once I have taken Him as my God, believing in Him, trusting in Him, and praying to Him, He comes to me and protects me. The first action is mine, that I take Him for myself; the second action is His, that He delivers us when man rises against us. Just as we trusted in Him, so He saved us. And without these two factors, we would have perished both in body and in soul, as the subsequent verses will elaborate.
The book Kol Eliyahu cites a question in the name of the Vilna Gaon that causes anyone who hears it to wonder how they never noticed it before: In the Shemoneh Esreh prayer, we say, "God of Avraham, God of Yitzchak, and God of Yaakov." Yet Yaakov represents the lower state of the Jewish people, from the word eikev (heel), whereas Yisrael represents the higher state, an expression of mastery and nobility (serarah), and it was already stated, "No longer shall your name be called Yaakov, but Yisrael" - so why do we not say "and God of Yisrael"? The Gaon answers: if you count the Hebrew letters of "אלהי אברהם אלהי יצחק ואלהי יעקב", there are exactly twenty-six letters, corresponding to the numerical value of the Tetragrammaton, the Name of Havayah, blessed be He. Saying "and God of Yisrael" (ואלהי ישראל) would have brought the count to twenty-seven, since Yisrael (ישראל) has one more letter than Yaakov (יעקב), and the allusion to Hashem's Name would no longer remain.
According to this, they also explained the verse, "Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel, My way is hid from the Lord, and my judgment is passed over from my God?": Why do you say Jacob, when you ought to have said Israel? To this the answer is: "My way is hid from the Lord" - if they say Israel, the Name of Hashem would be concealed, for instead of twenty-six there would be twenty-seven. Therefore we specifically use Jacob. And this is also the depth of "Had it not been for Hashem Who was with us... let Israel now say": by right it ought to have said Israel, but because of the allusion to the Name of Hashem, Jacob is mentioned.
אֲזַי חַיִּים בְּלָעוּנוּ בַּחֲרוֹת אַפָּם בָּנוּ׃ - Then they would have swallowed us alive, when their wrath was kindled against us.
In the simple understanding, "they would have swallowed us alive" means that they would swallow us while we were still alive, breathing and kicking. Radak, however, explains differently: "alive" (chai) here is in contrast to cooked, as in "he will not take cooked meat from you, but raw (chai)" - meat that has not undergone cooking. This is a parable: a person normally eats meat only after it is cooked, but out of their overwhelming desire, when they see the meat in the pot while it is still raw, they seize it and swallow it whole. So too, "let us swallow them up alive as the grave" - like a person eating raw meat because he lacks the patience to wait for it to be cooked. Had the Holy One, blessed be He, not protected us from their hand, that is what they would have done to us.
The Malbim explains: "Then they would have swallowed us alive, when their wrath was kindled against us" - when man rose up against us in fierce wrath to destroy us, they would have swallowed us alive. This corresponds to the destruction of the body.
אֲזַי הַמַּיִם שְׁטָפוּנוּ נַחְלָה עָבַר עַל־נַפְשֵׁנוּ׃ - Then the waters would have engulfed us, the torrent would have swept over our soul.
The Malbim states: Corresponding to the destruction of the soul, the verse says, "Then the waters would have engulfed us." That is, when their wrath was not kindled to wipe us out, but rather the opposite - they drew us close, treated us affectionately, and sought to merge us into one nation with them - then the waters would have engulfed us, and the torrent would have swept over our soul; not merely over the physical body, but cutting off our soul entirely.
"A torrent" (nachlah) - according to Radak, this denotes a rushing stream, as in "the brook of Egypt" (nachalah Mitzrayim). Rashi, by contrast, interprets nachlah as an expression of illness: sickness and affliction passed over our soul.
אֲזַי עָבַר עַל־נַפְשֵׁנוּ הַמַּיִם הַזֵּידוֹנִים׃ - Then the treacherous waters would have swept over our soul.
Radak analyzes the grammatical phrasing: "waters" (mayim) is plural, rushing and flowing waters, so why does the verse say "swept" (avar) in the singular? He answers that avar stands in place of avru (the plural form), following the style of the verse, "the water of sprinkling was not dashed upon him, he is unclean" - where the singular is used rather than the plural. Another possibility: the singular verb refers back to the torrent mentioned in the preceding verse - "Then it swept over our soul," referring to that torrent containing the treacherous waters. And the treacherous waters are waters that flood with insolence and malice, just as the nations seek to engulf everything and destroy us.
The Malbim adds: Had the nations succeeded in engulfing us spiritually, "the treacherous waters" would have washed over the holy soul, for water is consistently used as an allegory for heresy and insolent rebellion against the service of Hashem - as in the rabbinic warning, "lest the disciples drink from the bad water," water that is corrupt and turns a person corrupt. These concepts parallel each other: corresponding to "Had Hashem not been with us," where we did not forget His Name, they sought to obliterate our soul through forced apostasy.
Here a fundamental distinction must be made. When a gentile comes to force us from our religion - a person does not merely turn to Hashem, cry out, and leave it at that; he fights. But when the gentile comes to destroy us - here one cries out to Hashem and can suffice with that. And this is truly the difference between Chanukah and Purim. On Purim, Mordechai and Esther did not rally the people for battle. And do not say there was no chance - did the Chashmonaim stand a chance against the Greek Empire? Twelve young men, what were their odds? Rather, the explanation is that in Greece it was not a physical war; they did not come to kill, but rather said: Stay here, just assimilate into Hellenism. And in that situation, it is our duty to rise up and fight, for safeguarding religion is man's responsibility.
The Chafetz Chaim said that it is very possible we sinned in not rising up to fight with sword and spear against the Bolsheviks, against the heretical ideologies that came to force religious conversion upon us. Since they did not come to destroy us physically - prayers are not enough; rather, one must rise up and fight. And do not ask what the odds are; who looks at the odds when they come to take away your faith? You do not calculate odds; you rise up and take action.
And this is what is stated here: "Had Hashem not been with us" - in that we did not forget His Name - they would have consumed our soul; but we remained attached to Hashem and fought. On the other hand, "Had Hashem not been with us when man rose up against us" - this refers to the Holy One, blessed be He, saving us when man rose up against us to destroy us physically. There we turn to Hashem: Master of the Universe, it is Your role to guard our bodies. But safeguarding our soul and our spirit - that is our responsibility.
And people often get confused about this. You see someone sending his son to a lukewarm school, from which you know students emerge freezing cold, not lukewarm. You ask him why, and he replies: "The boy needs to learn a trade, he needs to earn a living, he needs a diploma." You ask: "And what about spirituality?" And he answers: "Hashem will help, it will be fine; we grew up like that too." First of all, he fails to recognize the immense differences between that generation and this one. Secondly, and this is the greater tragedy: earning a livelihood is not your responsibility at all; it is incumbent upon the Holy One, blessed be He, and Hashem sustains all from the eggs of lice to the horns of the re'eimim. But the spirituality of your son - that is your responsibility. "And you shall teach them diligently to your children and speak of them," and "The child is gone, and as for me, where shall I go?" - this will be the reckoning demanded of a person regarding his children: what could he have done? Thus, it turns out that people take livelihood upon themselves and cast spirituality upon the Holy One, blessed be He, saying, "Hashem will help." And why should Hashem help if you do not make the effort to place him in the very best environment?
Rav Mazuz notes that the Hebrew phrase for "then they would have swallowed us alive" (azai chayim bela'unu) has the numerical value (gematria) of "politics" (politika). He points to chapter 55, verse 24, where it is said, "Men of blood and deceit shall not live out half their days" - and "shall not live out half their days" (lo yechetzu yemeihem) also equals the gematria of "politics." Both ideas align: men of deceit, and also men of "blood" - which alludes to money.
בָּרוּךְ יְהֹוָה שֶׁלֹּא נְתָנָנוּ טֶרֶף לְשִׁנֵּיהֶם׃ - Blessed is Hashem, Who did not give us as prey to their teeth.
The Radak explains: Blessed is Hashem Who did not allow them to devour us. And the Malbim explains that corresponding to Hashem saving us from the destruction of the body, the verse states: "Blessed is Hashem, Who did not give us as prey to their teeth." And in what merit were we saved? Because Hashem was with us, for we held fast to His religion and His Torah.
נַפְשֵׁנוּ כְּצִפּוֹר נִמְלְטָה מִפַּח יוֹקְשִׁים הַפַּח נִשְׁבָּר וַאֲנַחְנוּ נִמְלָטְנוּ׃ - Our soul escaped like a bird from the fowlers' snare; the snare broke, and we escaped.
The enemies sought to trap our soul - meaning, in the spiritual realm, to bring us to heresy. They wanted to trap us in a snare, like a bird before which a net is spread with food inside. A hunter typically snares a bird specifically with what attracts it: it sees food and does not realize that this is the trap to capture it. And we - our soul escaped; it did not enter the snare, and we withstood the trial. And what happened then? "The snare broke" - those enemies were broken and destroyed, "and we escaped."
"The snare of fowlers" (pach yokshim) means a trap set as an obstacle (mokesh), which is anything placed for someone to stumble over; anything intended to cause a mishap is called a mokesh, not necessarily what is called by that word today. The Radak adds that the bird cannot escape unless the trap itself is broken; so it is with us among the nations - they will perish and be destroyed, the trap will break, and then we will escape.
By the way, they tell of a man who was in an accident and his car was totaled. When they asked him what happened, he replied, quoting the verse: "The trap [literally, 'sheet metal' / pach] was broken, and we escaped." And another man whose car was stolen said: "The sheet metal escaped, and we were broken" - for they were left to walk on foot.
The book Yosef Tehilot cites in the name of the holy Arizal, and likewise in the teachings of reincarnations (Mishnat HaGilgulim), that whoever neglects washing his hands (netilat yadayim) is reincarnated in water. And this is the meaning of: "Then the raging waters would have swept over our soul; blessed be Hashem, Who has not given us as prey to their teeth." Because we are meticulous in netilat yadayim, we are saved from the raging waters. Where is the matter of washing hinted at here? In the phrase: "netananu teref leshineihem" - the initial letters spell NaTaL (washed). Whoever does not wash, the raging waters will pass over him and he will have to be reincarnated in them; but whoever washes his hands, they will not pass over him.
He brings another allusion there: the acronym of "Baruch Hashem shelo netananu" forms the word bayshan (a bashful, shamefaced person). This hints that whoever commits a sin and feels ashamed of it is forgiven for all his iniquities, when he genuinely feels shame over the sin he committed, and then the Sitra Achra (the side of impurity) departs from him. And this is also alluded to in the continuation: "Shelo netananu teref" - the initial letters spell Satan. By feeling ashamed of the sin, the Satan departs from you, the Sitra Achra withdraws from you, and you are saved from it.
עֶזְרֵנוּ בְּשֵׁם יְהֹוָה עֹשֵׂה שָׁמַיִם וָאָרֶץ׃ - Our help is in the Name of Hashem, Maker of heaven and earth.
Here one must pay careful attention: many mistakenly read "ozerenu in the Name of Hashem," but this is incorrect; it is written "ezrenu." People confuse it with another passage where "ozerenu" appears, but here the phrasing is: "Our help (ezrenu) is in the Name of Hashem, Maker of heaven and earth" - He possesses power over the upper realms and lower realms alike, and He can help us and extricate us from the snare, which is the exile.
The Malbim explains: our help is in the Name of Hashem - the very fact that we trust in Hashem and hold fast to Him, that is our help. And because He is the "Maker of heaven and earth," we believe that He governs nature as well as that which is beyond nature; the earth represents nature, and the heavens represent that which is above nature. Since we rely upon Him and place our trust in Him, the Holy One, blessed be He, assists us and performs miracles for us that transcend nature.
Chapter 124 is Israel's song in exile celebrating the rescue from two types of enemies: enemies of the body, who sought to swallow us alive, and enemies of the soul, who swept over us with the raging waters of heresy and assimilation - and these are by far the harsher threat. Two strongholds sustained us: that which we were to Hashem, holding fast to His Name and His Torah and fighting for our spiritual survival, and that which Hashem was to us, saving us when men rose up against us. Guarding the body is entrusted to the Holy One, blessed be He, but guarding the soul - our own and that of our children - rests squarely upon us, and in this battle one must not calculate odds. Once we withstand the trial and refuse to enter the trap, the snare is broken and we escape. Therefore we conclude: "Our help is in the Name of Hashem, Maker of heaven and earth" - one who trusts in Him merits supernatural assistance.