Introduction: From General Providence to the Wonder of Man's Creation
After King David explained individual Divine Providence in our chapter - how providence envelopes all of man's deeds - he now comes to demonstrate the uniqueness found specifically in man. Providence over man is far more distinct than over all other creations, and the proof lies in his very creation: within man himself, in his formation, are awesome wonders. From here on, the psalm deals with the wonder of man's composition of body and soul, and what is required as a result in gratitude to the Creator.
"I Will Thank You, for I am Awesomely and Wonderfully Made" - Contemplating Creation
אוֹדְךָ עַל כִּי נוֹרָאוֹת נִפְלֵיתִי נִפְלָאִים מַעֲשֶׂיךָ וְנַפְשִׁי יֹדַעַת מְאֹד׃ - I will thank You, for I am awesomely and wonderfully made; wondrous are Your works, and my soul knows it very well.
Radak explains: "I will thank You, for I am awesomely and wonderfully made" - for the awesome wonders present in my formation, I thank You. "Nifleiti" means that from the great astonishment I experience when contemplating my formation, I stand constantly astounded: how wondrous are Your works within me, how complex and full of wisdom is the creation of man. "And my soul knows it very well" continues "wondrous are Your works" - Your works are wondrous to the utmost, and my soul knows it. That is to say: it is the rational soul that knows and reflects on how wondrous the deeds of Hashem are. In the rest of the natural world, nothing truly recognizes the works of Hashem, nor can anything delve into the vast wisdom present in all of nature; but within me You placed the rational soul, and it is what knows the wonders of Your deeds. The rational soul can comprehend what wondrous, complex, and immense things the Holy One, Blessed is He, established in the world and in man, and it alone can thank You for this.
Radak further writes: The wonders of creation are revealed and evident to the wise; every single organ was created with wisdom, with the specific nature it was given, for a purpose and function. Every person must contemplate them, and through this, recognize the wonders of the Creator and thank Him for them. And these words were written in an era when scientific knowledge of nature was still very rudimentary; how much more so today, when knowledge of nature is so vast, when DNA has been discovered, and it is known how meticulously every detail and every cell in the human body is designed. All of this deepens our awareness of how much loving-kindness Hashem has bestowed upon us, and how much wisdom exists in the human being.
The Practical Application: Reciting Asher Yatzar with Kavanah
The greatest practical takeaway from all of this contemplation is to recite the blessing of "Asher Yatzar" with devotion. We bless: "Who formed man with wisdom and created within him openings and cavities... if one of them were to be ruptured or blocked" - Heaven forbid, one cannot imagine what could happen in a single moment. And the Holy One, Blessed is He, maintains this entire system in full operation.
Rav Yerucham of Mir once remarked in a talk to his students that in truth - when a person realizes what happens with food from the moment it enters the mouth until the moment it leaves the body - a person ought to, after relieving himself, call home and tell his parents that everything passed safely. Baruch Hashem, everything arrived where it needed to go, the nutrients reached their destination, the body received what it needed, the waste was expelled, and everything is functioning properly as it should. If only a person knew how many operations the body performs merely in the process of eating - yet we have grown accustomed to it. The bare minimum is to recite "Asher Yatzar" with kavanah.
But how does a person usually recite "Asher Yatzar"? While drying his hands, while walking, while glancing at his phone, and while returning a call. Everything casually, in passing. Yet it is written that there is a wonderful segulah never to fall ill - to be meticulous in reciting "Asher Yatzar" with kavanah. Therefore, one must pay attention: stop everything, stand still, dedicate a minute to it, recite the blessing, and only then move on. After all, when one recites a blessing hurriedly and superficially, afterward he cannot even remember whether he recited it or not. Where do all these doubts come from? Because we did it casually, and so we do not remember what we did or how we blessed. A person must take note: "I am awesomely and wonderfully made; wondrous are Your works, and my soul knows it very well."
The Malbim: Two Extremes of Creation - And One Creator
The Malbim explains that awesome wonders are found in man's formation, citing from elsewhere that the two extremes of creation - the spiritual and the physical - are distinct in all their aspects. As far as the heavens are from the earth, so distant is spirituality from physicality: one is spiritual and the other physical; one is simple and the other composite. "Simple" means devoid of internal composition, whereas physical matter is composed of many parts; one endures in the individual (the soul) while the other endures only through the species; one resides in the heights of the universe and the other in the lowest depths. There is thus a vast distinction between the spirituality within man and his physicality.
This very dynamic led ancient peoples to believe that these are two distinct forces created by two separate deities, by two distinct agents. For since the polarity between them is so vast, it seemingly defies logic that the same Creator fashioned two entirely polarized extremes. But the Malbim explains: this was precisely the wisdom of the perfect, infinite Agent - the Holy One, blessed be He, whom the Malbim frequently defines as bilti ba'al tachlit, meaning boundless and without end - who performs a single act that can encompass two seemingly contradictory, polarized extremes. Behold, He created man, who belongs to the beings of the terrestrial world in terms of matter and physical body, and to the spiritual celestial beings in terms of his soul. From this you may know that one God created them, and the Holy One, blessed be He, stamped His seal upon all the work of Creation.
The Parable of the Craftsman: Crafting in Silver and Crafting in Iron
This is evident in two ways. The Malbim cites an insight from the author of Sefer HaIkkarim: a craftsman who produces delicate, intricate works in silver - anyone who has seen antique jewelry knows the immense artistry involved, how they spun silver into gossamer threads and soldered them into exquisite filigree - is certainly a master craftsman. Yet one who is capable of doing so with iron or flint rock, materials far less receptive to delicate processing and refinement, evokes true astonishment. Iron is typically a rugged, powerful material used to construct massive structures, not for crafting intricate, highly delicate details. Whoever can produce such delicate work in iron and hard flint, which are not naturally suited to such craftsmanship, earns great prestige for that vessel by virtue of the artisan's skill. The object derives its worth from the one who fashioned it.
So too, the Malbim explains, are the engravings that the Holy One, blessed be He, fashioned in the human soul: the soul of man is spiritual by nature, and therefore the wisdom of the Artisan is not as immediately astonishing within it, for by its very nature it is suited to absorb intellect and wisdom. But that the Holy One, blessed be He, should engrave all of this within physical matter - within the parts of the human body composed of flesh and bone, which were likewise designed to receive the seal of intellect, wisdom, and comprehension - that is the true wonder. An artwork fashioned from coarse materials holds no inherent value from its raw matter, much like craftwork done in plain stone or iron, which are not intrinsically precious. The human body itself is likewise not intrinsically precious: what is it made of? Dust, earth. That is why when a person passes away, there is nothing to be done with the body except to bury it; even the Germans, who tried to extract utility from the human body, produced at most soap from it. There is no inherent value in the material. Yet in its intricate composition, the wisdom of the Maker is revealed. To witness that the Holy One, blessed be He, created a soul with wisdom - the soul is naturally equipped to receive wisdom, so that is not an extraordinary cause for amazement; but the dense, physical body - come and see how extraordinarily complex it is, and with what profound wisdom the Holy One, blessed be He, created it! This is what David means by "wondrous are Your works": regarding the body, the craftsmanship itself is wondrous, and although the raw material is of no great value, it possesses dignity, honor, and prestige because of the magnificent craftsmanship, which displays the wisdom of the Maker.
"And my soul knows it very well" - my soul marvels exceedingly. While in the soul itself the Maker's craftsmanship is less striking, because it is inherently receptive to such form; it is a precious, hidden spiritual substance, akin to craftwork in silver, where silver itself is precious and naturally lends itself to delicate artisan work. Nevertheless, in the creation of the soul as well, one can recognize the sublime excellence of the deed that the Holy One, blessed be He, wrought in man: although it is already elevated by virtue of its spirituality, the wisdom of the blessed Maker is still deeply evident within it.
"And My Soul Knows It Very Well" - The Hidden Wonders
In his commentary Yosef Tehillot, the Chida explains this based on the teachings of Rabbi Shmuel Primo: beyond the wonder that we perceive with our own eyes, there are numerous wonders that we neither see nor feel. This is what David means: "I will thank You for the awesome wonders of my creation," and I say "wondrous are Your works" that are visible, "and my soul knows it very well" how many wonders remain hidden. A prime example is the miracles that the Holy One, blessed be He, performs for us every single day; a few are evident to us, but the vast majority are concealed from our view. What deliverances He has just granted us, what sinister plots our enemies devised that they failed to execute - this we do not know. These are matters that "my soul knows very well," even though I do not perceive them tangibly.
And why does "my soul know it very well"? Because the perceptions of the soul are limitless, infinite perceptions. This is why a person can suddenly feel in their soul that something is happening far away; they may not know how to explain it, but their soul senses it. This is especially true between a mother and her children, or between two close siblings or twins - the soul senses that something has occurred. With righteous individuals, these spiritual intuitions are far stronger and more vivid. That is why we seek counsel from a tzaddik on various matters, for his intuitions are holy intuitions; if he says, "My inner sense tells me this," or "My heart tells me this," one should follow his intuition. People would frequently ask Rav Chaim Kanievsky questions and specifically ask to know what his very first response was - before anyone tried to explain or persuade him. What did he say initially: to proceed with the surgery or not? And they would act accordingly. For such is the intuition of a righteous person, "my soul knows it very well." When the soul is holy, and when a person refines it through immersion in Torah, their intuitions stem from the depths of the soul, and the soul perceives what takes place in the higher realms.
Concerning this he says: while there are many wonders in what the Holy One, blessed be He, performs in the physical world, things that we can actually see - "I was awesomely and wondrously made, wondrous are Your works" - there are countless other wonders that I am incapable of seeing, and yet "my soul knows." My soul senses just how many miracles Hashem performs for us without our even realizing it.
What We Have Been Spared From Until Now
A vivid illustration is what took place this past week on Simchat Torah, the terrible and horrific tragedy that struck the communities in the South. This came to illustrate what the Holy One, blessed be He, has spared us from until now. For to us it seemed obvious: who are we dealing with there? People who barely know how to hold a weapon. And we have an army, we have nuclear capability, we have fighter jets, we have intelligence - we have this, we have that. And the Holy One, blessed be He, showed that despite all of our "we have" - you fell asleep. You fell asleep on watch, because when the Holy One, blessed be He, does not will it, everyone becomes blind and helpless; no one interprets the signs correctly, and everyone is convinced the arena of conflict is elsewhere while completely failing to understand what is unfolding right under their nose. All of this comes to show how many miracles and wonders Hashem has performed for us until now - that all this did not happen until now, and that up to this moment, the Holy One, blessed be He, was guarding us.
And how did this happen? We have already discussed the straightforward understanding: until now there was still a measure of unity, but unfortunately, over this past year, that unity unraveled completely - each man's sword against his fellow, internal strife that threatened to tear the nation apart. Then the Holy One, blessed be He, brings a terrible tragedy, and suddenly the entire nation unites once more: there are no right-wingers and no left-wingers, no "us" and no "them," everything becomes one. But the question must be asked: Why must we be united through suffering? Why cannot we unite on our own, and remain unified even without tragedy? This is the meaning of "and my soul knows it very well" - there are countless wonders that Hashem performs for us of which we are completely unaware, and those wonders are known to Him alone.
And regarding this it is said: "Praise Hashem, all nations... for His kindness has overwhelmed us." It is asked: Should the nations praise Hashem because His kindness has overwhelmed us? If it had overwhelmed them, it would be understandable, but because it overwhelmed us? Rather, yes: there are many wonders for which we cannot give praise, because we do not even know the miracle and the wonder Hashem performed for us. But the gentile knows what schemes he planned to carry out and how everything fell apart at the last moment, without us doing a thing, without us knowing or even imagining it. And he offers praise, saying: See how the Holy One, blessed be He, protects His people - here it fell apart, here it did not work out, here it blew up halfway through. How many wonders the Holy One, blessed be He, performs, and for this one must thank Hashem, blessed be He.
The Shelah and the Baal Shem Tov: The Heavenly Voice the Soul Hears
The holy Shelah explains on "Wondrous are Your works": nifla'im ("wondrous") is an expression of concealment, as in "If a matter is hidden (yipaleh) from you" - concealed from you. And despite all this, "and my soul knows very well," for sometimes a spirit of purity is aroused within a person through the force of the voice calling out to the ear of his soul. And with this, the question of the Baal Shem Tov is resolved: Every single day a heavenly voice (bat kol) goes forth from Mount Chorev and proclaims, "Return, wayward children" - and what is the purpose of this proclamation if no one hears it? Rather, it is certainly heard: "and my soul knows very well." Those stirrings of teshuvah that exist in the world, where every day people repent and are aroused to mend their ways - all of this stems from that heavenly voice. The soul senses it.
However, the Shelah adds: Only one who listens to the voice of the wise person who rebukes is worthy of this. One who listens to the voice of the sages shows awakening; but one who does not listen to the voice of the wise rebuker will certainly not be aroused. And this is the meaning of "If you will diligently listen (shamo'a tishma)": if you listen to the one who rebukes with an ear of flesh, you will also hear with your heart and change your deeds. Through this, a person hears the voice of God proclaiming, "Return, wayward children," and is aroused. Thus, even though Hashem's deeds are concealed, "my soul knows very well" - one who goes and listens to the voice of the sages is awakened by it and changes his ways.
"My essence was not hidden from You" - A Creation Within a Creation
לֹא־נִכְחַד עׇצְמִי מִמֶּךָּ אֲשֶׁר־עֻשֵּׂיתִי בַסֵּתֶר רֻקַּמְתִּי בְּתַחְתִּיּוֹת אָרֶץ׃ - My essence was not hidden from You when I was made in secret, woven in the lowest depths of the earth.
Radak explains: "Was not hidden (lo nichchad)" is like "it is not hidden (lo nichchad) from my lord," meaning it was not concealed. "My essence (otzmi)" - some say this refers to my body: my body was not concealed from You. "When I was made in secret" - the Holy One, blessed be He, wove the embryo, and in the language of the Gemara, this is fashioning a vessel within a vessel. There is a craft where someone builds a ship in a bottle, an extraordinary art, for he builds it with tweezers, inserting piece after piece into the bottle and gluing part to part until an entire ship is formed inside the bottle. Reflect, then: the Holy One, blessed be He, fashions a creation within a creation - creating man inside his mother's womb, "I was made in secret" inside my mother's belly.
"Woven in the lowest depths of the earth" - "the lowest depths of the earth" here refers to the womb, which is a hidden, lowly place, and is therefore called "the lowest depths of the earth"; this is a metaphorical expression, not literal earth. A proof of this is from what is written in Yechezkel, "and one wheel was upon the earth" - was this celestial wheel really upon the earth? Rather, it means in a place that is low and base relative to the celestial wheels above it.
And as for what is written, "when I was made (useti) in secret," Radak explains that this is related to kneading (isui), an expression of crushing and squeezing - and in this he disagrees with Ibn Ezra, who explains useti as coming from asiyah, meaning "I was made." Radak cites "there their virgin breasts were bruised ('isu)," which denotes kneading, pressing, and squeezing. He compares man, as it were, to milk from which cheese is made. Cheese used to be curdled - not in a freezer, but condensed into a solid mass - and they would do this by hand, kneading it with their hands. So too, metaphorically: the Holy One, blessed be He, takes a droplet from man, a fluid drop, kneads it, and from this mass forms a child. This is "I was kneaded (useti)," just as Iyov says, "Did You not pour me out like milk and curdle me like cheese?" And then, "woven (rukamti)" - the Holy One, blessed be He, wove man with sinews, bones, flesh, and skin, and this is the wondrous creation of man.
Ibn Ezra: "Otzmi" - The Latent Potential
Ibn Ezra explains otzmi in the sense of my strength and my might: "My essence was not hidden from You" - my strength and power. The intention is the potential that precedes the finished act, what is termed becho'ach (in potential): the old man exists in potential within the youth, and the power of speech exists in potential within the newborn. A baby does not know how to speak, but the potential is within him becho'ach; old age is not present in the baby, but the potential is within him becho'ach. Becho'ach means that the matter is inside, ready for it. By contrast, bapo'al (in actuality), he is still a nursing baby, but becho'ach old age is already within him as well. Becho'ach is that which is latent within, destined to develop when the time comes.
This is what the verse means: "My essence was not hidden from You" - the potential (becho'ach) within me is indeed concealed from the sight of the eyes and the perception of the heart, but from You it was not hidden; before You, everything is revealed. This can also be understood in light of scientific discoveries. We mentioned previously that Adam HaRishon was not meant to die, and the Ramban already addresses the question: How can one say he was not meant to die, when naturally everything wears out and decays? The answer is simple: the reality of Adam HaRishon after the sin was completely different from his reality before the sin. Before the sin, as the sacred books write, Adam HaRishon's body was on the level of our soul today - and if so, it is no wonder that he was not meant to die.
Yet this can also be stated simply, even from our physical, modern perspective: naturally speaking, a person could live for thousands of years. What causes a person to die? A gene within him, the gene responsible for aging. Scientists work tirelessly to isolate this gene, for if they succeed, man could once again live endlessly long lives. And why? For a simple reason: every single day, thousands of cells in our bodies are renewed - thousands of cells die and thousands of cells are renewed. As someone once remarked, after ten years a man would need to remarry his wife: you are no longer you and she is no longer she, not only because human temperaments change, but also because almost none of the cells remain from years ago. Everything is renewed; and if everything is renewed, there is no biological reason why a person should not go on living, since all the cells constantly regenerate.
If so, this is what the Ibn Ezra means: nothing is hidden from You regarding how everything exists in potential. This gene is already present in an infant, and thus old age already exists within him potentially; even though in actuality it will only manifest sixty years later, potentially it is already within him. "My essence was not hidden from You" - indeed, from our eyes it is hidden, for one sees an infant incapable of speaking, yet the Holy One, blessed be He, placed within him the potential to speak; this is not hidden from Hashem, but only from human eyes that cannot perceive it.
And what is the meaning of "When I was made in secret, woven in the depths of the earth"? We have already seen a difficulty here, for an embryo is not formed in the depths of the earth; thus the Radak was forced to explain that this refers to the lowest part of the woman, termed the depths of the earth. But the Ibn Ezra cites another explanation in the name of Rabbi Moshe, that this speaks of Adam HaRishon: "woven in the depths of the earth" refers back to Adam HaRishon - dust from the ground, from the depths of the earth, from which the Holy One, blessed be He, intricately formed him. And this is truly marvelous.
The Malbim: The Body as the Garment of the Soul - and Proof of One Creator
The Malbim explains: "My essence was not hidden from You" - my fundamental essence cannot be denied before You; that is, one cannot deny that a single Creator performed both types of creation. Although they appear vastly different from one another, it is impossible to claim that they were produced by two creators, that there were two powers in creation and two deities. "When I was made in secret" - this refers to the spiritual soul, which emanated from the celestial hidden realm, from the supernal spheres, a place concealed from us. And those very same works were "woven" into the parts of the body formed in the lowest depths of the earth. In other words, that spiritual soul taken from the secret realm was joined and integrated by the Holy One, blessed be He, with the body that comes from the depths of the earth.
The body is a garment for the soul, fashioned to its exact measure, to the extent that all the soul's inner powers are expressed externally through the body. The body is a garment and a mold in the form of the soul. On an inner, esoteric level this is certainly true: just as the physical body has 248 limbs and 365 sinews, so too the soul possesses 248 spiritual limbs and 365 spiritual sinews, and this entire reality is the clothing of a physical entity over a spiritual one.
If so, this is a clear sign that one Creator fashioned both of them. The complete alignment between man's spiritual component and his physical component serves as proof that the Holy One, blessed be He, created both parts, and it is impossible to assert that there are two creators here. For had there been two creators, they would have produced two separate creations: one a spiritual creation and one a physical creation. Why would they suddenly decide to join hands, unite, and produce an entity that binds soul and body so that they function in harmony as one flesh? After all, they would be two distinct powers. Perforce, one must conclude that everything was brought into being by a single Power: that "I was made in secret," which is the creation of the soul, is intrinsically bonded with "I was woven in the depths of the earth," which is the physical body woven from the seed, the corporeal part.
"Your Eyes Saw My Unformed Substance" - The Generations Foreseen from the Beginning
גׇּלְמִי רָאוּ עֵינֶיךָ וְעַל־סִפְרְךָ כֻּלָּם יִכָּתֵבוּ יָמִים יֻצָּרוּ וְלוֹ אֶחָד בָּהֶם׃ - Your eyes saw my unformed substance, and in Your book they were all written, days were fashioned, and one of them is His.
Rashi explains: From the time You created the world, Your eyes beheld the unformed substance of all future generations. The Holy One, blessed be He, as the One Who foresees the generations from the beginning, saw and showed - as is also written regarding Adam HaRishon - all the generations destined to come. And what is "my unformed substance" (golmi)? Rashi explains: my form and the blueprint of my structure before I was born. Even before one enters the world, the Holy One, blessed be He, has already foreseen the exact blueprint of his form.
In summary: Dovid HaMelech leads us from general divine providence to the great wonder found within man himself. "I am awesomely and wondrously made" - contemplating creation inspires thanksgiving, and demands that one recite the blessing of Asher Yatzar with deep intention. The Malbim teaches that precisely in the fusion of the spiritual and the physical, two poles as distant as the heavens are from the earth, the wisdom of the Maker is made evident: the soul, emanated from the celestial hidden realm, was clothed within a body woven from the lowest depths of the earth in complete harmony - proof that a single Creator fashioned them, and not two independent powers. "And my soul knows very well" adds that there are wonders unseen by the physical eye which only the soul perceives: the hidden miracles that Hashem performs with us each day, and the voice calling to the ear of the soul that awakens it to teshuvah - for one who bends an ear to the voice of the wise rebuker. And finally, "Your eyes saw my unformed substance": even before we were born, the Holy One, blessed be He, already envisioned our form and structure, and all generations are inscribed before Him in His book.