Psalm 136 is one of the most familiar psalms in Tehillim, and it is known as "Hallel HaGadol" (The Great Hallel). This title serves to distinguish it from the "Egyptian Hallel" - the Hallel recited in abridged form on Rosh Chodesh and in full on the Yamim Tovim. Here, with its twenty-six praises each concluding with "ki le'olam chasdo" (for His kindness endures forever), we are speaking of Hallel HaGadol; through this name we know that the reference is specifically to this psalm, rather than to the psalms recited on Pesach and on every Rosh Chodesh.
הוֹדוּ לַה' כִּי־טוֹב כִּי לְעוֹלָם חַסְדּוֹ׃ - Give thanks to Hashem, for He is good, for His kindness endures forever.
The Radak opens by noting that the psalm contains twenty-six verses, and each one concludes with "ki le'olam chasdo." Our Sages in Pesachim 118a state that these correspond to the twenty-six generations that lived from the creation of the world until the giving of the Torah. During those generations, there was not yet any Torah to provide them with the merit to be sustained by Him, blessed be He, so the Holy One, blessed be He, nourished them purely out of His chesed. This immediately raises a question: if so, who sustains the nations of the world today? After all, they still do not have the Torah today either! To this the Radak answers: the entire world stands in the merit of Israel. Once Hashem gave the Torah to the Jewish people, a single individual like "Chanina my son" is sufficient to sustain an entire world - whoever engages in Torah upholds the creation.
According to the peshat, the Radak explains, each of the twenty-six praises has its own specific theme, and on each and every praise it repeats "ki le'olam chasdo" to emphasize that this beneficence is an enduring, eternal goodness - a kindness that knows no interruption. Why repeat this phrase in every single verse, rather than stating it once at the beginning for all of them? To amplify the praise, demonstrating that in every detail and facet, Hashem's chesed is an eternal kindness that endures forever. The Metzudat David adds: this is unlike the kindness of flesh and blood, whose benevolence is "like a morning cloud" - a vapor that appears for a few moments and vanishes. The kindness of the Holy One, blessed be He, is an everlasting kindness that never ceases.
The Malbim explains the connection to the preceding psalm: there, the psalmist commanded us to bless and praise Hashem - "House of Israel, bless Hashem; house of Aharon, bless Hashem," concluding with "Blessed be Hashem from Zion, Who dwells in Jerusalem, Halleluyah." After commanding us to give thanks for all the good we have received from Hashem, which stems from the goodness and kindness that the Holy One, blessed be He, bestows upon us, our psalm arrives and declares: know that the kindness of the Holy One, blessed be He, is eternal. Whether He governs the world through natural order, or through the miraculous providence that transcends nature - the two modes of leadership mentioned in the previous psalm, "Your Name endures forever" and "Your memorial is throughout all generations" - both spring from Hashem's kindness toward us, an eternal and constant kindness. And the very first theme the psalmist opens with is the kindness embedded within nature itself.
הוֹדוּ לֵאלֹהֵי הָאֱלֹהִים כִּי לְעוֹלָם חַסְדּוֹ׃ - Give thanks to the God of gods, for His kindness endures forever.
At first glance, this phrasing sounds jarring: "God of gods" - as though there are multiple deities with one supreme God set over them! Rather, one must understand the precise usage of the Holy Tongue. "El" denotes power: as in "it is within the el of my hand" - within my power. From this root also comes the title for judges and magistrates, who are wielders of power and authority: "unto the Elohim the case of both shall come, whomever the Elohim shall condemn." Therefore, "God of gods" means the supreme Power over all powers. The angels possess great force, and they are "gods" relative to that which exists below them, just as Hashem told Moshe, "See, I have made you an elohim unto Pharaoh" - meaning that Moshe was appointed a ruler and master over Pharaoh. The angels are, in the phrasing of the Ramchal, the "officials of nature": the ministers appointed by Hashem to direct everything beneath them, guiding everything according to the will of the Creator, blessed be He. And the Holy One, blessed be He, is the ultimate Power above all these forces that govern creation.
הוֹדוּ לַאֲדֹנֵי הָאֲדֹנִים כִּי לְעוֹלָם חַסְדּוֹ׃ - Give thanks to the Lord of lords, for His kindness endures forever.
Radak explains: The celestial spheres are masters over the lower realms. When we speak of the influences of the constellations (mazalot), we are referring to the spheres - the sun, the moon, and the stars, which are the constellations that exert influence below. A constellation is called mazal because divine bounty descends, flows (nozel), and exerts influence through it down to the lower world, as in the verse, "Water shall flow from his buckets" (yizol mayim mi-dalyav), denoting a flow and influence. They were called galgalim (spheres or wheels) because the ancients believed that all celestial bodies moving in a fixed path - the planets - revolved inside a transparent sphere. Without this concept, they could not understand how they moved in their orbits: anything spun in a circle tends to fly outward due to inertia. Therefore, they understood that they must have a track - an invisible sphere within which the celestial body revolves. Today we know that this is not due to a physical sphere, but rather gravity prevents them from flying off; the larger the body, the greater its gravitational pull, which causes all the planets to move in their orbits. In any case, we can understand the concept: "Give thanks to the Master of masters" - those spheres are masters over the lower realms, and the Holy One, blessed be He, is the Master over them; He is the One Who channels bounty to those constellations so that they may bestow it down here.
The Malbim explains this duality: In the view of the ancients, the natural order is governed by "gods" (elohim, powers) and "masters" (adonim). In their view, the stars and constellations are the masters of the earth - and this was the motivation behind idol worship, worshipping the sun, moon, and stars: they believed that the constellation exerts influence, and that worshipping it would yield favor. And the angels who guide the system are, in their view, the "gods" over those masters - the ones who impart power and vigor to the spheres. Regarding this, Scripture declares: Hashem is the One Who grants power to the angels, and Hashem is the One Who grants leadership and mastery; He is the Master of masters. Everything stems from a single Power, and there is no multiplicity of powers as the idolatrous nations believed.
From this we can also understand why we emphasize, "Hashem is our God, Hashem is One" (Hashem Elokeinu Hashem Echad). Why is the name of the Holy One, blessed be He, expressed in the plural form - Elokim - when He is completely one and singular? The meaning is that all the powers in the world reside within Him; He is omnipotent, the Master of all capabilities and all powers, and He is therefore called Elokim because all forces originate from Him. Even though the name takes a plural form, Scripture comes and declares: know that Hashem is One. Everything stems from a singular, unified source, and there is no multiplicity of powers. He is the God over what they perceived as multiple deities, and He is the Master over what they perceived as multiple masters in nature and creation.
לְעֹשֵׂה נִפְלָאוֹת גְּדֹלוֹת לְבַדּוֹ כִּי לְעוֹלָם חַסְדּוֹ׃ - To Him Who alone does great wonders, for His kindness is forever.
Rashi explains: At the beginning, when Hashem performed all these great and wondrous deeds, not a single angel had yet been created. This accords with the Midrash that the angels were created on the second day. And why not on the first day? The Midrash explains: so that people would not say that Gabriel was stretching the heavens from one side and Michael was stretching from the other, as though the Holy One, blessed be He, had assistants and helpers, with each lending a hand. Therefore, the angels were not created on the first day at all, and the Holy One, blessed be He, did everything entirely alone.
Radak adds: After mentioning the angels and the spheres, the psalm says, "To Him Who makes" (le'oseh) - to show that they are not primordial like the eternity of the Holy One, blessed be He. Rather, they are "effects" (alulim) and He is their "Cause" (ilah), using philosophical terminology. A "cause" is the originator, and an "effect" is that which results from it. For example, clouds are the cause and rain is the effect, as rain falls through the clouds. When we say that everything in creation comes from Him, blessed be He, we mean that Hashem is the Cause of all causes and the Origin of all effects, and everything that exists in the world is an effect derived from Him. In other words, do not think that just as the Holy One, blessed be He, is primordial, so too are these forces primordial. No. Hashem performed all the wonders alone when these forces did not exist at all, and He created the forces of nature, the angels, and the celestial spheres; afterward, He directs everything, for He is the God of gods and the Master of masters. Therefore it says "To Him Who makes" - to teach you that they are not primordial, but rather He made them and brought them into being anew.
The Malbim explains that up to this point, the psalm spoke of the natural order of providence; from here on, it begins to speak of the wondrous order - supernatural providence, the miracles in which the Holy One, blessed be He, upends the systems of nature. In natural governance, we observe the apparent operation of natural forces, the influences of celestial bodies - sun, moon, and stars - within nature. But wondrous events, belonging to the realm of miracles, come from Hashem alone: "To Him Who alone does great wonders" - without the mediation of "gods" and without the mediation of "masters." The Holy One, blessed be He, suspends the power of natural forces and acts with supernatural might, alone, with no other power beside Him.
There was once a Jew who had eleven children. When he had finished marrying them all off, at the wedding of his youngest child, he stood up and said: "I want to tell you that I married off all my children without help from Heaven." The listeners were astonished - after all, he seemed to be a devout believer; how could he say such a thing? He explained to them: "What does 'help' mean? Help means that I do the work and Hashem assists. But here, there was no help from Heaven - here, the Holy One, blessed be He, did everything. I did nothing at all." This is "Who alone does great wonders." Moreover, at times a person only gets in the way. Leave the Holy One, blessed be He, to run the matter, for He manages it far better, and do not interfere - sometimes, by acting, you only cause damage.
A similar story is told of the Brisker Rav. His son was privileged to make an illustrious match, and the father sensed that the son was feeling slightly proud. He said to him: "Know that the reason you received such a match is because your father is me." The son replied: "Father, but the groom is also worth something!" The Rav answered: "Know that had there been a different groom, the match might have been even more successful; the groom here was merely something of an obstacle." He did not want him to feel haughty, and sought to lower his sense of pride.
לְעֹשֵׂה הַשָּׁמַיִם בִּתְבוּנָה כִּי לְעוֹלָם חַסְדּוֹ׃ - To Him Who makes the heavens with understanding, for His kindness is eternal.
Now he mentions the heavens, which encompass all the celestial spheres, the stars, and everything found in the skies. The Holy One, blessed be He, made them and created them anew with His understanding, and in their creation He performed a kindness for the world. This kindness never ceases - the heavens endure constantly, and therefore "for His kindness is eternal," a constant, enduring, and everlasting kindness.
The Malbim explains a major principle here, which he already elucidated in his commentary on Mishlei: throughout Scripture, wisdom (chochmah) is attributed to the creation of the earth, while understanding (tevunah) is attributed to the craftsmanship of the heavens. Why? Because wisdom is the discernment between good and evil, and this discernment must be received from Hashem, blessed be He. In contrast, understanding is something a person contemplates, delves into, and reaches conclusions about through his own faculties. The reason for this is that if man were to decide for himself what is good and what is evil, he would arrive at the most terrible distortions. A person might decide that an unwanted pregnancy should simply be terminated, where the entire concern is for the welfare of the pregnant woman who does not desire it; you have decided that this is what is good, but perhaps what is truly good is to care for the one about to be killed? We see that in decisions between good and evil, there must be a divine, heavenly determination defining what is good and what is evil. Otherwise, even Hitler could decide that the Jewish people are immoral because they insist on surviving contrary to the law of nature whereby the weak perish - that is the theory of evolution, and the Jewish people are anti-evolutionary, insisting on being weak and yet surviving, and therefore, in his view, acting against morality, conscience, and nature. Woe to us if man were to set moral rules for himself: there are people who burn down laboratories and beat people for conducting animal testing - for an animal's sake, you would humiliate a human being, beat him, even threaten him with murder, as long as a monkey is not harmed. That is gentile morality, and that is what happens when man takes the reins of decision-making in matters of wisdom.
Therefore, wisdom - what is good and what is evil - must be received from God. Only Hashem determines what is good and what is evil, and then, even if something does not make sense to you, such as the commandment to destroy Amalek, which may appear bad in your eyes - since it originates from the Source of good, it is good, and that is how it must be. And one who decides not to fulfill it out of pity, as they had pity on Agag, will ultimately suffer the consequences at their hands when Germany arises, and only then see whether he acted correctly or not - and that cost six million lives. For this reason, wisdom, which is the discernment between good and evil, corresponds to the realm of the earth, for here on earth there is free choice and discernment between good and evil.
What Chazal meant by "If one tells you there is wisdom among the nations, believe it" refers to an entirely different matter: it speaks of scientific knowledge. Indeed, we find several instances where the Sages of Israel conceded to the gentile scholars regarding celestial bodies and similar empirical, research matters - but not in matters of the wisdom of good and evil. A gentile can teach us, at most, about nature, nothing more. In matters of conduct and spirituality, a Jew has nothing to take from a gentile. What have they received that we did not receive? What sources do they possess that we do not have? We possess the direct sources of access to spirituality itself; we have prophets, and the Torah was given to us.
The Chofetz Chaim says: If a certain thing were good, it would have already been written in the Torah; and if it was not written in the Torah as guidance for us, it is not good. Do not search for or adopt ideologies. When people asked him in his day about Communism, he replied: If this were the proper way to live - kibbutzim and the entire communist philosophy - the Torah would have commanded us to live that way. And since the Torah did not command it, this is not the right way for a person to live. It took eighty years for people to realize this, whereas we have known what is right and wrong all along. The secular world does not know, so it must run experiments: "Let us try it; here is something new." But the Chofetz Chaim says: It is a waste of time; it is not written in the Torah, it does not suit the human psyche, and it is not the proper way a society is meant to build itself. Today everyone recognizes this: communist countries remain only where there is totalitarian rule, such as China, because it is convenient for the rulers to control the populace - but as a way of life for human beings, it is not the way, for the Torah did not present it as a model. Regarding technical disciplines, sciences, and empirical research, however - yes, if a gentile is wise, conducted research, and the findings are clear, the Sages of Israel acknowledged the scholars of the nations.
Returning to our subject, the Malbim explains: Understanding is the discernment between truth and falsehood, and in the heavens, good or evil does not apply. In the realm of the earth, one can say, "You did a good thing," or "You did a bad thing," because free choice exists there. But in the conduct of the heavens, there is no question of good and evil, only of existence or nonexistence, being or nonbeing, truth or falsehood. Therefore, the verse states, "To Him Who makes the heavens with understanding."
לְרֹקַע הָאָרֶץ עַל־הַמָּיִם כִּי לְעוֹלָם חַסְדּוֹ׃ - To Him Who stretches the earth over the waters, for His kindness is eternal.
Here he mentions an aspect of the Creation that is sheer kindness from the Holy One, blessed be He: that Hashem suspended the natural tendency of water. By nature, water would cover the earth, just as it was initially when the entire world was submerged in water, and just as we see to this day that water covers more than half the globe. Yet the Holy One, blessed be He, in His kindness, cleared the dry land, gathered the water into one place so the dry land appeared, providing space for human beings, plants, and animals. The word roka denotes spreading and hammering flat, as in "hammered sheets of metal (riku'ei fachim)" - Hashem flattened and spread the earth over the waters. Even though water is naturally situated above earth, the Holy One, blessed be He, established a reality where the dry land is elevated above the water, and He barred the waters from overwhelming the earth, as Scripture states: "Who placed sand as a boundary for the sea, an eternal decree that it cannot transgress," and "that the waters should not transgress His command." This, too, is among His wonders, that the waters do not inundate the dry land; and when the waters do transgress the land, Heaven forbid, that is a tsunami - and we see how it sweeps away everything, leaving nothing behind. The Holy One, blessed be He, in His abundant mercy, demarcated and set a decree and boundary for the sea, and in this His kindness is clearly seen.
The Radak asks: How is this kindness eternal, given that the Holy One, blessed be He, brought the Flood? He answers: That was only for a short time, to take vengeance upon the wicked, and it does not detract from the eternity of His kindness. Moreover, even during the Flood, the Holy One, blessed be He, preserved the living species through wise design - by means of Noach and the Ark; and furthermore, Hashem swore that there would never again be a flood upon the earth. Thus, it is entirely justified to say, "For His kindness is eternal."
The Malbim notes a nuance in the wording: it does not say "spread out" in the past tense, but "spreads out" in the present - because the Holy One, blessed be He, in His goodness renews the work of Creation continually every day, and the ongoing existence of creation is an act of perpetual creation. It is not something created and finished. Anyone who has studied Nefesh HaChaim knows that the ten utterances through which the Holy One, blessed be He, created the world remain enduring and standing - "Forever, Hashem, Your word stands in the heavens." The command "Let there be light" is what creates light at every single moment, and if the utterance "Let there be light" were to cease for a single moment, there would be no existence of light in the world. It is not that the utterance created it and from then on things function by inertia; rather, the utterance continuously brings into being everything that exists at any given moment. "Let the earth bring forth grass" - at every single moment, the earth produces grass, vegetation, plants, and fruit by virtue of the divine speech that endures even now. This is not like a contractor who built a house and walked away, where one no longer needs him to hold up the balcony; with the Holy One, blessed be He, His word stands firm at every moment, continually recreating the work of Creation.
Therefore, the Malbim explains, the earth could just as easily revert to a state of tohu vavohu (chaos and void), since at the dawn of Creation water covered it, and it could return to its primordial state. That is why we say, "For His kindness is eternal": there is a constant kindness from Hashem, Who continually spreads out the earth over the waters, so that the earth remains in a state where we can walk upon it, and where crops, produce, livelihood, and animal life are possible - all stemming from perpetual renewal, a kindness that accompanies us day by day and hour by hour.
לְעֹשֵׂה אוֹרִים גְּדֹלִים כִּי לְעוֹלָם חַסְדּוֹ׃ - To Him Who makes great lights, for His kindness is eternal.
Now the psalmist mentions the great luminaries through which the world endures, which likewise never cease, and then proceeds to detail them one by one. Seemingly, there is a difficulty here: if he gives thanks separately for the sun and separately for the moon, what does the general thanksgiving, "To Him Who makes great lights," add? A further difficulty: why does it say "great lights" in the plural, when there is a greater light and a lesser light? It seems this can be resolved by recognizing that we give thanks both for the original creation and for the final outcome. "To Him Who makes great lights" is thanksgiving for the original creation, when initially both were great. Afterward comes a second, distinct thanksgiving for the outcome after the change: the sun to rule by day, and the moon to rule by night. This is also precise in the wording "the moon and stars," for it implies that prior to the division of roles - before the sun was made large and the moon diminished - there were no stars; when were they created? The Holy One, blessed be He, assigned the stars to accompany the moon in order to appease her. Thus, the text speaks of both stages: the stage of the great lights, and the subsequent stage when they became the sun and the moon.
אֶת־הַשֶּׁמֶשׁ לְמֶמְשֶׁלֶת בַּיּוֹם כִּי לְעוֹלָם חַסְדּוֹ׃ - The sun to rule by day, for His kindness is eternal.
The Radak explains: The sun rules by day for the benefit of the world, illuminating and warming the atmosphere, bringing benefit to animal and plant life, and this is an unceasing kindness from Him. It is impossible to imagine a world without a sun - the world simply could not exist. Nor is this true only in the total absence of the sun: if the sun were slightly farther away from us, the world would freeze to death; and if it were slightly closer, as we have felt in recent weeks, the world would swelter to an unlivable degree. Hashem designed the sun in the most exact proportions, for His kindness is eternal.
The Metzudat David adds: Give thanks to the One Who made the sun to rule by day, and set its boundary which it does not transgress. That is, part of the thanksgiving for this perpetual kindness is that the sun has a boundary, that there is a time when it sets. For if there were light constantly, it would not be healthy or beneficial for man, and it would be difficult for him to regulate his conduct - waking hours and sleeping hours - and he would not know when to cease from his labor and when to rest. Therefore, for the very fact that it is "to rule by day" alone, followed by the moon, one must give thanks for this as well.
אֶת־הַיָּרֵחַ וְכוֹכָבִים לְמֶמְשְׁלוֹת בַּלָּיְלָה כִּי לְעוֹלָם חַסְדּוֹ׃ - The moon and stars to rule by night, for His kindness is eternal.
Hashem gave the moon to rule by night along with the stars. The Radak explains that the moon and stars serve the needs of desert travelers and seafarers. First, for navigation: one who travels and wishes to know which way is north has the North Star, by which people could determine direction long before the compass and modern technological tools were invented. Another benefit of the moon is that many vegetables grow through its influence, especially the gourd family - cucumbers, watermelons, and the like. Furthermore, the tides are influenced by the moon: there are places where the sea rises at certain hours and times according to the lunar phases, and likewise in rivers there are times when the water rises and times when it recedes. This is due to the force of gravity: the larger a body is and the greater its mass, the greater its gravitational pull, and when the moon draws near, it exerts this attraction. It follows, in accordance with the Radak's words, that these celestial bodies serve the needs of seafarers, nourish plant life, and the moon also exerts power over water. In this context, he connects what is written in Iyov 38: "Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades, or loosen the cords of Orion?" - teaching that every single star possesses an influence over plants, stones, and metals, exerting its distinct effect. For all of this we give thanks: "The moon and stars... for His kindness endures forever."
And through these two luminaries together, the Radak notes, the world is sustained, for heat and cold are the very prerequisites of life. Had the sun shone constantly, the world would grow hotter and hotter without any cooling period, and could not survive; had there only been the moon continuously, the world would grow colder and colder, with nothing to impart vitality through warmth. The very fact that the Holy One, Blessed be He, designated one to rule by day and the other to rule by night, thereby establishing a cycle of warming and cooling, warming and cooling - this enables the world to exist, and this is an enduring kindness.
The Malbim adds: "To Him Who made great lights" - here, too, we see the abundance of His kindness, in that the sun shines by day and the moon by night. This, too, is among the wonders of Divine Providence: at night "all the beasts of the forest creep forth" and man rests from his labor, and when the sun rises "they gather." For many creatures, their sustenance and activity occur specifically at night - thus showing how the Holy One, Blessed be He, bestowed kindness upon all His creations.
After recounting the creation of the world in general - nature, the heavens, the earth, the sun, and the moon - the psalmist moves on to recount the specific kindness shown to Israel, demonstrating that the Holy One, Blessed be He, alters the laws of nature as He wills. From this point forward, the psalm speaks of kindnesses unique to us, rather than universal phenomena like the sun and moon: "To Him Who struck Egypt through their firstborn" and all that follows - particular kindnesses that the Holy One, Blessed be He, performed for us alone.
Hallel HaGadol opens with thanksgiving containing twenty-six praises, corresponding to the twenty-six generations that were sustained solely by the Creator's kindness until the Giving of the Torah, after which the world is sustained in the merit of Israel engaged in Torah study. The repetition of "for His kindness endures forever" in every verse serves to magnify the praise and to teach that the kindness of the Holy One, Blessed be He, is unlike mortal kindness, which is fleeting like a morning cloud, but is instead an eternal kindness. The psalm begins with natural governance - Hashem is the God of gods and the Lord of lords, the Supreme Power above the angels and celestial spheres, with everything flowing from one unified Source; it proceeds to supernatural governance - "Who alone works great wonders," without any intermediary; and it returns to the natural realm - the heavens made with understanding, the earth spread over the waters in continuous creation renewed each and every day, and the luminaries, each within its boundary and dominion, whose heat and cold form the very foundation of the world's existence. From there, the psalm transitions from the universal kindness manifest in creation to the particular kindnesses that the Holy One, Blessed be He, bestowed upon His people Israel.