Psalm 121 is a chapter of protection. We continue here our examination of the verses that deal with the Holy One's providence over man and over the Jewish people: a ceaseless protection, neither by day nor by night, neither in body nor in soul, neither in exile nor in redemption. We will follow the order of the verses, presenting the insights of the Ibn Ezra, the Radak, the Malbim, and the Alshich HaKadosh, alongside the lessons our Sages drew from them regarding the magnitude of Divine providence.
הִנֵּה לֹא יָנוּם וְלֹא יִישָׁן שׁוֹמֵר יִשְׂרָאֵל׃ - Behold, He neither slumbers nor sleeps, the Guardian of Israel.
The Ibn Ezra explains that "Israel" in this verse refers to Yaakov Avinu. The Holy One promised him, "And I will guard you wherever you go," and look at what actually happened: when Yaakov Avinu was asleep, who watched over him? The Holy One. "Angels of God ascending and descending upon it" - Hashem was guarding and watching over Yaakov while he slept. This is the meaning of "He neither slumbers nor sleeps, the Guardian of Israel": do not think that Hashem sleeps, as it were. Look, while you sleep, Hashem is awake for you. Not only is sleep entirely inapplicable to Him, but even when you are asleep, the Holy One is watching over you.
There is also an allusion here: even at times when we are, in a sense, "asleep" - asleep from the mitzvot - even then the Holy One watches over us. Although it sometimes seems to us that there is no Divine providence, know that providence always continues. There is hester panim (concealment of the Divine countenance), and providence is less apparent, but a state of sleep does not exist. Even when we sleep, the Holy One still watches over us.
The Radak notes precisely: slumbering (tenumah) is less than deep sleep (sheinah). "He does not slumber" - not even dozing off, and all the more so "He does not sleep" - fully asleep. The meaning is that even when we are in exile, and it appears as though Divine providence has departed from us, the Holy One protects us constantly. The proof is that the nations have not wiped us out. Even in the direst circumstances, Divine providence was at work.
Take, for example, the greatest concealment of the Divine face - the horrific Holocaust in Europe roughly eighty years ago. Anyone who examines it will see immense, supernatural providence there, in details that are difficult to describe. A striking series of dreams from the Holocaust era illustrates this: a group of people was hiding in a bunker, when suddenly one of them dreamed that he was told to flee immediately. They said to him, "What are you talking about? This is our salvation!" Yet they got up and fled into the forest. Ten minutes later, the Germans arrived - someone had apparently informed on them - and threw grenades through the ventilation shafts, blowing up the bunker when no one was inside. Through a dream, they were warned from Above. There are many such accounts showing how Divine providence operated during the Holocaust. Even when it appears that the Holy One is concealing His face, there is still individual Divine providence for those destined to be saved, with assistance granted from Heaven. This is "He neither slumbers nor sleeps, the Guardian of Israel": although the nations sought to wipe us out, hated us, and brought us to the most dire straits, the Holy One did not allow them to harm us to the extent of their intentions.
This providence has accompanied the Jewish people throughout all generations, even the most difficult ones. Regarding this, the Yaavetz wrote in his famous essay: "Many have distressed us, yet they could not destroy us and wipe us out; whereas the expectations of all the mighty ancient nations came to naught, their protection departed, while we, who cling to Hashem our God, are all alive today. What will a sharp philosopher answer to this? Did mere chance bring about all of this?" Where is ancient Babylon? Where is ancient Egypt? Where is Greece? What remains of all those mighty empires?
Notice the exact wording: specifically, "you who cling to Hashem your God are all alive today." All those who strayed even slightly are no longer with us. Where are the Karaites? Where are the Sadducees and the Boethusians? Where are the Essenes? Anyone who broke away - search for them in history, and you will not find them. There is no need to look far; observe our own generation. A Reform temple sought to hold a gathering for the grandchildren of the founding generation, and could not find even one grandchild who remained connected to the Reform movement. There is endurance only for those who cling to Hashem.
The Yaavetz continues with his famous words: "As my soul lives, when I contemplate these wonders, they appear greater to me than all the miracles and wonders that Hashem, blessed be He, performed for our forefathers in Egypt, in the wilderness, and in the Land of Israel. And the longer the exile lasts, the more verified the miracle becomes, and the work of His might and power becomes known." In other words, there is a miracle greater than the Exodus from Egypt, greater than the splitting of the Red Sea, and greater than all the miracles of the wilderness: the incomprehensible, illogical survival of the Jewish people, far above the natural order. Historians and nations of the world stand before this reality dumbfounded, and they offer very piercing observations. Entire empires once dominated the earth and proudly raised the torch - in the words of Leo Tolstoy and others - only to be consumed by their own flame, leaving nothing behind. Only the Jewish nation witnessed them all, outlived them all, and is still here today, showing no signs of aging and no signs of disintegration. You do not need someone to recount this miracle to you; you see it with your own eyes today.
What is more, this occurred specifically after the horrors of the Holocaust. Naturally speaking, what happened to the Palestinians could easily have happened to us: they did not endure a Holocaust, yet they felt dispossessed of their land, and where are they today - stranded in Gaza and refugee camps. Or we could have simply assimilated: if we are persecuted because we are Jews, let us assimilate and become like all the nations. Yet reality proved to be the exact opposite: the Jewish people returned to their land and renewed their existence here. "And you, mountains of Israel, shall yield your branches and bear your fruit for My people Israel, for they will soon return" - and Chazal remark: there is no clearer sign of the final redemption than this. The earth resumes yielding its fruit after two thousand years of lying barren. The Ramban writes that when traveling from Tzfat to Jerusalem, one could hardly spot a single tree; the entire land was desolate. Mark Twain, who visited here, described the country as appearing under the weight of an ancient curse. And then the Jewish people arrived - and behold, the blossoming of the wasteland, the draining of the swamps, and everything begins to thrive. The Green Line was named precisely because from that border inward, everything is vibrant green, while outside it, the land remains as barren as it was.
One has to be a true denier to look at such a reality with his own eyes, defying all odds and transcending nature, and still cling to hollow ideologies. A person is asked, "Do you believe?" and he responds with vague slogans, as Dudu Topaz once said, may his merit protect him: "I believe in the eternity of Israel." When members insisted on mentioning the Name of Heaven in Israel's Declaration of Independence, Ben-Gurion adamantly refused; only under pressure from the religious council members did he agree to a neutral compromise: "with trust in the Rock of Israel and its Redeemer" - allowing each to define his own redeemer, one pointing to the Master of the Universe and another to the IDF, as long as God's Name was not explicitly stated. This demonstrates that whatever a person sees before his eyes will not sway him: whoever desires to deny will find a way to deny. Heresy begins from desire: a person wishes to deny in order to indulge his heart's cravings, and he will readily latch onto the most absurd excuses to maintain his disbelief.
The Malbim makes a precise distinction: "He does not slumber" - slumber stems from exhaustion and weakness, when fatigue creeps into a person's limbs and he drifts off. "Nor does He sleep" - this refers to natural sleep; for every human being, even when not currently tired, possesses an innate need to sleep, as the Holy One, blessed be He, built into human nature. With the Holy One, blessed be He, "nor does He sleep" means that no such nature exists in Him at all. In a human being, even without full exhaustion, if one vows not to sleep for three days, we administer lashes to him and he may sleep immediately, for such a vow is impossible to keep; and even someone exerting supreme effort will eventually succumb and close his eyes. With the Holy One, blessed be He, sleep does not exist even as a natural concept. Consequently, there is never a single moment in which we are not under His active providence.
יְהֹוָה שֹׁמְרֶךָ יְהֹוָה צִלְּךָ עַל יַד יְמִינֶךָ׃ - Hashem is your guardian; Hashem is your shade upon your right hand.
The Ibn Ezra explains: "Hashem is your guardian" - from adversaries and from all sickness, from everyone who oppresses us and from every illness. And why? Because "Hashem is your shade upon your right hand": just as a shadow never departs from a person, so too does the protection of the Holy One, blessed be He, never leave us. Furthermore, the right side always represents the attribute of loving-kindness - the Holy One, blessed be He, serves as our shade on the right side, providing constant chesed and shelter.
The Malbim adds: beyond Hashem protecting us from earthly perils - such as diseases, damages, enemies, and troubles - He is also "your shade," guarding us against celestial harm. Certain dangers stem from human actions: one who ventures into a hazardous place risks injury from wild animals or perils at sea. But other events fall into the realm of natural forces beyond human control: meteor showers, hailstones the size of tennis balls, earthquakes, and tsunamis. Who can flee from such forces? Regarding this the verse states, "Hashem is your shade upon your right hand" - He acts as a canopy of shade to shield you even from disasters originating from the heavens.
יוֹמָם הַשֶּׁמֶשׁ לֹא יַכֶּכָּה וְיָרֵחַ בַּלָּיְלָה׃ - The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night.
The Radak continues the theme of shade: Hashem shades you so that the heat of the sun will not strike you by day, and the cold will not strike you at night under the moon. For the sun's heat dries up moisture, while the moon increases moisture. By day the air is drier, and at night there is no sun to dry the dampness, so the moon brings coolness and dew. A person who sleeps outside even for a little while, even on a summer day, wakes up wet or sticky and feels the moisture descending upon him. These extremes of heat and cold are the causes of illness - and the Holy One, Blessed is He, guards you from both of them.
The Malbim adds: You will be protected from the harm of the sun by day and from the harm of the moon by night, even though their natures are opposite - the sun is hot and dry, while the moon is cold and moist - and you are preserved from both opposites alike.
יְהֹוָה יִשְׁמׇרְךָ מִכׇּל רָע יִשְׁמֹר אֶת נַפְשֶׁךָ׃ - Hashem will guard you from all evil; He will guard your soul.
The Malbim explains that since Hashem is your guardian, you have protection in two distinct areas. The first is protection of the body: "Hashem will guard you from all evil", so that no bodily harm will befall you from any evil in the world. The second is "He will guard your soul", protection of the soul from sin. This protection extends across all places and all times, as the next verse will state: "He will guard your going out and your coming in" corresponding to all places, and "from now and forever" corresponding to all times.
The Radak explains: "He will guard you from all evil" - that neither people nor beasts of the field will harm you. "He will guard your soul" - that if illnesses do come upon you, they will serve as an atonement for your sins. Thus, even when illness befalls a person, the illness itself guards his soul. Sometimes death is decreed upon a person, and suffering is considered as severe as death; therefore, afflictions are brought upon him to redeem him from death - the tribulations take the place of the death that was decreed upon him.
There is a story of a man who came to a Rebbe and described his suffering and his severe poverty. The Rebbe told him: There is nothing to do; this is a situation that many face. He turned to him again, and again the Rebbe told him to find a way to cope. The man said: Rebbe, I have a relative who can help me, and he would give gladly - should I turn to him or not? The Rebbe replied: No, do not turn to him. The situation worsened, and he approached him again, and once more the Rebbe said: I do not advise you to turn to him. His wife said to him: Perhaps the Rebbe thinks the relative will give begrudgingly; go and convince him to give whole-heartedly. He went back to the Rebbe, who told him: If you want to go, go; what can I tell you? He went, and that relative helped him tremendously, transforming his situation. But after a period of time, the man fell ill, and his sickness grew severe. He immediately connected this to having disregarded the Rebbe's counsel. Unable to walk on his own, he sent a messenger to tell the Rebbe of his condition and ask him to pray for him. The Rebbe said: What can I do? Death had been decreed upon this man, and a pauper is considered as dead. Poverty was given to him to redeem him from death. He came to me and asked for assistance; I told him it would not help him, that poverty was what would redeem him from death, and I told him it was not worthwhile - yet in the end he insisted. Now what can I do? Apparently, Heaven had forbidden the Rebbe from revealing this explicitly, which is why he did not say it. In any case, we learn from here: what a person sees as evil and considers a misfortune is sometimes the exact opposite - that is where the salvation lies. Were it not for the poverty, he would not have remained alive at all, and it turns out that the poverty itself was the good thing that saved him.
The wife of the Rebbe of Neshchiz became very ill, and her illness dragged on. She came to him with a complaint and said: You pray for everyone, you deliver everyone from their illness, and only me you ignore. Here I have been suffering for a long time, and you do nothing. She expected him to storm the heavens for her recovery. He said to her: Let me explain. Once I had an ascent of the soul, and I saw a person who arrived at the Heavenly Court. Apparently, he was not a great tzaddik. The angels began to ask: Who will advocate on his behalf? And no one came, not even a single angel. Then they asked: Who wishes to prosecute him? And crowds of dark angels arrived, piling sin after sin onto the left scale. Before the verdict was sealed, they asked again: Is there any defender? And then I saw an angel, half limping and half stumbling, who brought a small bundle and placed it on the other scale - and it tipped the entire scale. I asked: What is this? They told me: These are the afflictions of this Jew. His suffering is what tipped the scale. (A similar story is recounted with slight variations about the Rashash, and there are several versions.)
And the Gra says: Were it not for suffering, we would not find our hands and feet in the World of Truth. That is, we would have no standing or defense up there, and if there is anything that gives us merit, it is the afflictions that refined us from the sins we committed here. He said to her: The people who come to me do not understand this, but from you, the Rebbetzin, I would expect understanding. She said to him: Indeed, you are right - I do not want it; let the afflictions remain. Look at such strength: a truly great person understands that what appears to you as bad is actually the greatest blessing you could have.
The holy Alshich explains: Whenever any trouble comes upon a person, one must know that it is not the wild serpent that kills, but sin that kills. The iniquity becomes an impure, destructive force, and it is what strikes him, as it says: "And has melted us by the hand of our iniquities" (Yeshayahu 64:6), and "Your own wickedness shall chastise you" (Yirmeyahu 2:19). Who is "your own wickedness"? It is the very evil that we created ourselves: through our sin, we created a destructive force, and it is what strikes us. Furthermore, that destructive force does not want to remain alone; it brings companions - one sin drags along further sins, causing the person to stumble and sin repeatedly.
According to this, "Hashem will guard you from all evil" - from what evil? From the very evil you created yourself, from the destructive agent formed by sin that drags you into further transgressions. And there is an additional, wondrous insight here: "evil shall guard your soul" - the evil you committed will itself guard your soul. How? If you repent for it, intentional sins are transformed into merits. It turns out that the larger and more harmful that destructive angel was, so through repentance out of love (teshuvah me-ahavah) it will transform into a benevolent angel and a greater advocate of merit, channeling Hashem's goodness upon you. And this is the greatest protection a person can possess.
יְהֹוָה יִשְׁמׇר צֵאתְךָ וּבוֹאֶךָ מֵעַתָּה וְעַד עוֹלָם׃ - Hashem will guard your going out and your coming in from now and forevermore.
The Gemara in Moed Katan relates that at their departure from this world, Rabbi Yochanan and Rava asked the Angel of Death not to torment them. The reason for this is explained in the teachings of reincarnation (gilgulim): the soul's greatest hesitation in returning to this world in a reincarnation is the dread lest it be subjected again to the sword - that it will once more have to undergo death through the Angel of Death. This is the greatest terror, and it is why a soul is reluctant to reincarnate. The Gemara relates that one of them experienced the departure of the soul like the prick of a bloodletting needle (rivda de-kusilta), while the other experienced it like pulling a hair out of milk (mashchal banita me-chalva), which slips out smoothly without any difficulty. Even so, this slight discomfort was enough for them, and they stated that they would not wish to return and live again, because "the terror of the Angel of Death is immense" - the dread of facing death is that formidable.
Regarding this, it is said: "Hashem will guard your going out" - Hashem will safeguard your departure from this world, which is the most difficult transition. And if you ask: what good is it that Hashem guards my departure, if afterwards I return in a reincarnation and must depart again, perhaps through a harsh death, or perhaps in the second lifetime I will corrupt my deeds and suffer a painful demise at the hands of the Angel of Death? To this, the verse says: "He will guard your going out and your coming in." Hashem will instill within you a pure spirit from on high when you arrive, so that you will always be drawn toward merit and will never meet a death wherein the Angel of Death terrifies you excessively. Even if you come into this world not just once, but return in multiple reincarnations - as the holy Ari taught, that a person can be reincarnated even a thousand times - and even "from now and forevermore," the Holy One, blessed be He, will protect you from sin, so that you will not have to experience that agonizing death.
In the sefer Tehilot Maharitz, the author asks: Why is there a duplication: "He will guard you from all evil" and "He will guard your soul"? He explains: It is human nature not to be particularly watchful against harm unless one has already suffered an unpleasant experience - from which point onward he knows to be cautious. In reality, people gamble with their fate; a person often needs to encounter danger firsthand to understand what to avoid. But with the Holy One, blessed be He, this is not so. "Hashem will guard you from all evil" - even while "He will guard your soul." That is, even in a state where your soul is guarded and we feel secure, saying, "Everything is fine, everything is under control," and we feel no need for special protection - even then, Divine protection continues.
The Ibn Ezra explains: "Hashem will guard your going out" - your going out to war; "and your coming in" - upon your return from battle as well. To this we may add based on the famous story: Warriors returned from the battlefield crowned with victory, and a pious man (chasid) said to them: "You have returned from the minor battle, but the great battle still lies before you." They asked, "What is the great battle?" He answered: "The war against the evil inclination and its legions. Overcoming the physical enemy is only the minor battle; now let us see you confront the yetzer hara - that is the great battle." This is "Hashem will guard your going out and your coming in": both as you go out to battle and when you return from it, you require protection from the yetzer hara.
The Radak explains: Hashem will guard you in exile, and at your departure from exile - that you will leave in peace and arrive safely in Eretz Yisrael. "From now and forevermore" - Hashem will guard you for all eternity.
Psalm 121 teaches that there is not a single moment without Divine protection. "He neither slumbers nor sleeps, the Guardian of Israel" - not only is there no slumber before the Holy One, Blessed be He, but even when we sleep, and even when we are asleep to the mitzvos, Providence continues, just as He guarded Yaakov Avinu in his sleep. The eternity of the Jewish people, which the Yaavetz viewed as a miracle greater than all the miracles of Egypt, is living testimony to this. "Hashem is your shade upon your right hand" - protection from earthly afflictions and celestial harms alike, from the heat of the sun and the cold of the moon. "He will protect you from all evil, He will guard your soul" - safeguarding the body and guarding the soul from sin; and even suffering and tribulations themselves are at times salvation and atonement, as illustrated by the deeds of the Rebbe and the Rav of Neshchiz, and through teshuvah out of love, the evil itself turns into an advocate of merit. Finally, "He will guard your going out and your coming in from now and forever" - protection when departing from the world and entering it, in going out to war and returning from it, in exile and in redemption, in all places and at all times.