Psalm 147 is a psalm of praise and thanksgiving, describing the Holy One, blessed be He's governance of His world: from His providence over the stars and the beasts of the field, to His special providence over Jerusalem and the Jewish people. In this part of the psalm, we arrive at the question: Whom does the Holy One, blessed be He, choose, and what does He desire? And from there, we turn to the praise of Jerusalem, to His governance of nature through snow and frost, and to the great gift given exclusively to Israel - the Torah.
לֹא בִגְבוּרַת הַסּוּס יֶחְפָּץ לֹא בְשׁוֹקֵי הָאִישׁ יִרְצֶה׃ - He desires not the strength of the horse, nor does He favor the legs of man.
רוֹצֶה יְהֹוָה אֶת יְרֵאָיו אֶת הַמְיַחֲלִים לְחַסְדּוֹ׃ - Hashem favors those who fear Him, those who wait for His lovingkindness.
Whom does Hashem favor? Not the strength of the horse, nor the legs of man, but those who fear Him - those who wait for His lovingkindness, awaiting the chessed of Hashem. They place their trust neither in the power of a horse nor in their own physical prowess, but solely in Hashem, blessed be He, knowing that He will provide their sustenance through His great chessed. The Malbim explains: they make no worldly effort at all, but rather place their hopes entirely in Hashem's chessed.
However, one must realize that the matter of making no hishtadlut (effort) at all depends on spiritual levels. As the Chazon Ish writes, only individuals of an exceptionally high spiritual standing can refrain from any effort whatsoever and rely on the Holy One, blessed be He, to provide and sustain them.
This is illustrated by the story of the holy Alshich and a simple Jew. The Rav gave a sermon explaining that whoever trusts completely in Hashem, blessed be He, has his livelihood provided by Hashem without needing to make any effort at all. That Jew decided that he would no longer go out to work. When his wife asked him what happened, he replied, "The Rav said that whoever sits at home, studies Torah, and recites Tehillim, Hashem provides his sustenance." And so he sat for a week, then two weeks, reciting Tehillim, until the bread ran out in the house. Having no choice, he had to sell his donkey and cart, which he had used to haul charcoal from the forest. He sold them, and that gave them enough to live on for several more weeks. A few weeks passed, and the last penny was gone. His wife said to him, "What will become of us? What will we eat? Here you sit at home studying Torah, and we have nothing to eat!"
Suddenly, they heard the donkey braying outside. They thought, "Apparently the donkey, which was accustomed to this place for ten years, mistakenly returned to its old master's house." They went outside, and there was the cart, filled with dirt. He began sifting through the dirt and discovered that beneath the surface, it was filled with gold coins, fully covered by dirt on top. He went to the forest to look for the Arab who had bought the donkey and cart from him, where they used to dig charcoal. Arriving in the forest, he saw a pair of legs sticking out of the ground. It turned out that as the buyer was digging charcoal, he had unearthed a treasure. He began taking out the treasure and loading it onto the cart, and so that no one would notice, he covered it with dirt. He climbed down deeper to retrieve more, and evidently a mound of earth collapsed and buried him there. No one knew of this treasure, and the Holy One, blessed be He, brought him an entire fortune as a reward for his bitachon in Hashem.
The students came and asked the holy Alshich: "Rebbe, how did he merit this, while we also trusted in Hashem and did not merit it?" He told them: "He trusted in Hashem truly and completely. You say, 'I hope Hashem helps, and if not - I also have another option,' hedging your bets. But one who trusts in Hashem with absolute conviction - Hashem provides for him. That Jew was a simple villager, without intellectual sophistication: the Rav said so, Hashem says so, so I believe, and so I trust."
One who is genuinely on this level may rely on it. But one who is not on this level must make some measure of hishtadlut, and through that hishtadlut, the Holy One, blessed be He, will provide his livelihood. And as the Mesillat Yesharim explains, hishtadlut is not what actually produces the result; rather, hishtadlut is merely an obligation. Once a person has made a minimal effort toward earning a living, he has fulfilled his duty. The requirement for hishtadlut is a decree imposed by the Holy One, blessed be He, upon all mankind: "By the sweat of your brow shall you eat bread." But it does not say that the more you sweat, the more you will eat. One must sweat, exert a modest effort - once you have made the effort, you have fulfilled your obligation.
שַׁבְּחִי יְרוּשָׁלַ͏ִם אֶת יְהֹוָה הַלְלִי אֱלֹהַיִךְ צִיּוֹן׃ - Praise Hashem, O Jerusalem; laud your God, O Zion.
Radak explains that this does not refer to the physical city of Jerusalem itself, but rather to its inhabitants, speaking by way of metaphor: Jerusalem and its residents, you who trust in Hashem, may He be blessed - praise your God, O Zion. According to Radak, Jerusalem and Zion represent poetic parallelism, repeating the same idea in different words. But the Malbim, as is his approach, teaches that there is no mere duplication in Tanach; repetition always carries distinct meaning.
The Malbim distinguishes three differences: between shabchi (praise/laud) and haleli (praise/glorify), between Jerusalem and Zion, and between the four-letter Name of Hashem (Havayah) and Elokayich ("your God"). The root shevach always implies enhancement - something possessed a certain goodness, and you elevate it to become even finer. That is: magnify Hashem's praise far beyond how He is praised by all the nations. The Name of Havayah indicates general providence, in the sense that Hashem created His world, whereas Elokayich points to individual divine providence - the God Who is uniquely ours, Who watches with personal care over the people of Israel and over the righteous. This itself is the difference between the nations and Israel: over the nations there is general providence, and Hashem guides them through the ordinary laws of nature; over Israel there is individual providence, which denotes a miraculous governance, a realm above nature.
Likewise, there is a difference between Zion and Jerusalem: in Zion sat the sages and leaders; it was the heart of Jerusalem and its most prominent quarter, and there they praised Hashem from the perspective of wondrous, miraculous providence. In Jerusalem, however, lived the general populace, and they praised Hashem from the perspective of overarching providence, the general governance by which Hashem guides His people. The sages and the righteous, who experience this wondrous, individual providence, praise Elokayich - the God Who belongs uniquely to you through personal providence, Zion, which stands on a higher spiritual plane than Jerusalem.
Even so, the Malbim adds, Jerusalem is still on a higher level than the nations. For providence over the nations is broadly collective, whereas Jerusalem - even if these are not the righteous individuals dwelling in Zion - still belongs to the people of Israel, and the guidance over it is attributed to the Name of Havayah, blessed be He, which is a far more elevated governance than that over the nations.
כִּי חִזַּק בְּרִיחֵי שְׁעָרָיִךְ בֵּרַךְ בָּנַיִךְ בְּקִרְבֵּךְ׃ - For He has strengthened the bars of your gates; He has blessed your children within you.
Radak explains: Jerusalem will never fear or worry that an enemy will come against it, for Hashem will protect it as though it had formidable bars, just as it is written, "Upon your walls, O Jerusalem, I have stationed watchmen." They will live without fear, as if sentries were standing guard upon the ramparts.
Yet consider this: living inside a fortress, living enclosed behind locked walls - that is how one lives when driven by fear. And when the enemy senses that fear, a disaster like October Seventh can occur. Surrounding oneself with walls is not the ultimate path. The true path is deterring strength: being so formidable that if anyone even contemplates causing harm, they will suffer a crushing blow. Then, even if everything remains wide open, the enemy will not dare approach, for he is terrified. Therefore, out of profound security and peace, the gates will always stand open, as was prophesied concerning Jerusalem: "Your gates shall be open continually; day and night they shall not be shut." There will be no need to fear enemies, reflecting absolute security. "He has strengthened the bars of your gates" is thus a metaphor: the Holy One, blessed be He, will grant such strength and power that there will be no fear of enemies whatsoever. The city will be safe and protected even without bolts, even when the gates remain open at all times, because enemies will dread coming near even without specialized guards. Our true protection will come from Hashem, even without gates.
"He has blessed your children within you" - that they will be blessed with the fruit of the womb and blessed in the work of their hands, at home and in the field, as Radak explains.
And the Malbim explains: "For He has strengthened the bars of your gates" - meaning that no enemy will be able to approach us; "He has blessed your children within you" - we will not need the strength of the horse for battle, because no one will come to wage war against us at all. This is the meaning of "And they shall beat their swords into plowshares," fashioning digging tools out of weapons of war.
This calls to mind the period when the Cold War between the United States and Russia came to an end, and it was decided to decommission the warheads of numerous missiles. They contained titanium, which was then repurposed to manufacture writing pens - for those who remember, people once wrote with fountain pens and ink. In this way, the prophecy of "And they shall beat their swords into plowshares" was already realized in miniature: they took weapons, the missiles, dismantled them, and began producing pens from the titanium.
The Malbim continues: "He has blessed your children within you" - your children will not need the strength of the warhorse in battle, for none will come to fight against us; nor will they need "the legs of man," which refers to journeying far and wide in pursuit of food and livelihood. The blessing will dwell right here, within you, with no need to chase after it in distant realms.
In *Tehillot Maharith*, it is explained that the two are interdependent: when one strengthens the bars of the wall of religion and chinuch, then "He has blessed your children within you." There are those who think that every form of progress and technology that appears must immediately be embraced, immediately brought inside, immediately learned, and disseminated. Unfortunately, very quickly, once people come to their senses, they realize how the golem turned on its creator, and how many troubles, spiritual ruin, and decline arose from that very technological advancement. But one who strengthens the bars of the gates - who does not rush to adopt every novelty simply because that is what everyone else is doing, but instead asks: Who says this is good? What will it give me? Will this increase my diligence in Torah, my fear of Heaven, my proper use of time? - through this, "He has blessed your children within you"; you safeguard your children so that they remain blessed and holy. But if you usher in every technological novelty, do not be surprised if you later find them deteriorating.
הַשָּׂם גְּבוּלֵךְ שָׁלוֹם חֵלֶב חִטִּים יַשְׂבִּיעֵךְ׃ - "He Who makes your border peace, and sates you with the finest wheat."
Radak explains: you will be blessed both externally - with peace, and internally with the produce of the land - with the fat of the wheat. "*Chelev*" (fat) is an expression denoting the finest quality, as in "all the fat is for Hashem," and "the fat of wheat" means the finest of the wheat, just as it is written, "and all the best [fat] of the new wine and the grain."
The Malbim explains: "He Who makes your border peace" - that the enemy will not enter our gates; and corresponding to "He has blessed your children within you" - they will have blessing right here, for "He sates you with the finest wheat." Consequently, we will not need horses to pursue enemies, and we will also have our livelihood here without needing to travel far for it.
הַשֹּׁלֵחַ אִמְרָתוֹ אָרֶץ עַד מְהֵרָה יָרוּץ דְּבָרוֹ׃ - "He Who sends forth His command to the earth; His word runs swiftly."
"He Who sends forth His command to the earth" - this refers to rain, which comes by the command and word of the Holy One, blessed be He. Radak says: Hashem sends it swiftly, like a servant running to fulfill his master's will; "His command" (*imrato*) refers to His word, the will of the Creator, blessed be He. And why does the pasuk mention the matter of rain and snow here? Because it previously mentioned, "He sates you with the finest wheat," and in their time, when rains fell there was abundance, and when rain did not fall there was lack, famine, and illness. Everything stemmed from an abundance or scarcity of rain - unlike today, when water can be transported from place to place and desalination is available. Back then, everything depended on the rains falling in that exact location, and that alone determined whether it would be a year of drought or a year of blessing.
The Malbim explains "*imrato*" from the root of *amirah* (speech or decree): at times the Holy One, blessed be He, decrees an adverse decree, yet even so, the decree does not endure for long - "His word runs swiftly," for His spoken word quickly races to counter the harsh decree and annul it. As it were, there was an initial harsh decree, like a messenger sent to announce something negative, and afterward Hashem sends forth His word, another messenger, to rescind that declaration. And this is what Chazal said: *gezeirah avidah devatla* (a decree is destined to be nullified) - a harsh decree does not endure forever; it is destined to be overturned.
הַנֹּתֵן שֶׁלֶג כַּצָּמֶר כְּפוֹר כָּאֵפֶר יְפַזֵּר׃ - "He Who gives snow like wool; He scatters frost like ash."
Snow is white like white wool, as it is written, "they shall become like wool." On the surface, this is puzzling: which is whiter, snow or wool? Surely snow, for nothing is as intensely white as snow, whereas wool is not pure white. Radak resolves this by explaining that the Psalmist had nothing else to compare it to, since nothing is whiter than snow itself, and so he said, "He Who gives snow like wool." "He scatters frost like ash" - the frost that settles at dawn on cold days is compared to ash because it is scattered fine and wide. This is what we sometimes see on mountaintops, or over puddles when waking up in cold regions - a thin crust of ice. And because it is not pure white like snow, he compares it to ash, which has a grayish cast.
The Imrei Emes explains - and this is also based on the words of Rashi - the connection between snow and wool, and between frost and ashes, in a very famous explanation: Here we are shown the greatness of the mercy of the Holy One, blessed be He, that He does not bring upon a person a trial greater than he can bear. The Holy One, blessed be He, bestows upon him according to a person's ability to cope. How much snow does Hashem give? According to the measure of wool a person possesses - "He gives snow like wool." If you do not have enough wool to cover yourself, the Holy One, blessed be He, will not give you too large an amount of snow so that you become too cold. Likewise, "He scatters frost like ashes" - how much frost does Hashem send? According to the measure of the ashes, meaning according to what you have in the furnace to burn in order to warm yourself. The Holy One, blessed be He, gives things to the world at a level that the world can endure and handle, and every trial with which Hashem tests you is according to the measure of strength you possess to withstand it.
מַשְׁלִיךְ קַרְחוֹ כְפִתִּים לִפְנֵי קָרָתוֹ מִי יַעֲמֹד׃ - He casts forth His ice like morsels; before His cold, who can stand?
Rashi explains: The water congeals and forms morsel by morsel, pieces of ice like crumbs. And the Midrash Aggadah teaches: "Like morsels" - in small pieces, all according to the capacity of the creatures to bear; for the poor man, according to his lack of clothing, He eases the burden upon him. Behold, the very same principle we mentioned earlier is hinted at here in the Midrash Aggadah: "All according to the capacity of the creatures" - for the poor man, according to his lack of garments and the amount of wool in his possession, accordingly He casts upon him the flakes of ice and cold.
"Before His cold, who can stand?" - the cold of Hashem, blessed be He; when Hashem brings freezing cold, who can withstand it? So too Elihu said: "By the breath of God ice is given." And just as rain falls in mercy for the needs of the creatures, and at times rain comes as punishment for sins - a sweeping rain that breaks trees - so it is with snow and frost: generally they are for the benefit of seeds and trees, but when they are too severe, on the contrary, they kill plants and trees, coming in judgment to exact retribution from the people and the inhabitants of the land. A person must see how the Holy One, blessed be He, directs His world through all these conducts: bringing abundance on the one hand, and on the other hand bringing trouble, Heaven forbid, when people stray from the path.
The Malbim adds a wondrous explanation: He compares the decree that the Holy One, blessed be He, sent for adversity to the imagery of snow, frost, and ice, which come and freeze the water - so too the attribute of justice freezes the waters of chesed and halts the abundance flowing from the wells of salvation. "He sends forth His utterance earthward" is the harsh decree, and the allegory for this is the snow and frost that freeze the water; and water represents chesed, it represents mercy, and when the snow and frost arrive, as it were, the flowing of the waters of salvation is stopped and chesed does not flow. And even though Hashem sends snow like wool, scatters frost like ashes, and casts His ice like morsels, to the point that "before His cold, who can stand," and no one can withstand this distress - nevertheless, "His word runs very swiftly."
יִשְׁלַח דְּבָרוֹ וְיַמְסֵם יַשֵּׁב רוּחוֹ יִזְּלוּ מָיִם׃ - He sends forth His word and melts them; He causes His wind to blow, and the waters flow.
This is "His word runs very swiftly" - the word that cancels the harsh decree. And what is it? "He sends forth His word and melts them" - the heat of the sun or rain melts the ice and snow. "He causes His wind to blow, and the waters flow" - with the blowing of the wind, rain comes and melts everything; or the meaning is that He blows His wind upon them, "yashev" in the sense of causing the wind to blow, and when He blows His wind upon them, that ice and frost, which represent the harsh decree as it were, return to flowing as water - and water, as mentioned, is an aspect of chesed.
מַגִּיד דְּבָרָו לְיַעֲקֹב חֻקָּיו וּמִשְׁפָּטָיו לְיִשְׂרָאֵל׃ - He relates His words to Yaakov, His statutes and His judgments to Yisrael.
When you recount the mighty acts of God, recount that He revealed Himself to you in His glory and declared to you in advance His words, His statutes, and His judgments. This refers to what the people of Israel merited and no other nation in the world merited - the Giving of the Torah. Hashem declared the Divine speech, the Torah that was hidden with Him for 974 generations. "Did such a great thing ever happen, or was the like of it ever heard? Did a people ever hear the voice of God speaking out of the midst of the fire as you heard, and live?" - Hashem related His words to Yaakov alone, and no nation received the Torah from Hashem. Recount this, and see how close the Holy One, blessed be He, is to us.
And the Malbim connects this to what preceded: Hashem brings a harsh decree and afterward "He causes His wind to blow," "and the waters flow," and the Holy One, blessed be He, annuls the decree - and all of this He declares in advance through the prophets. When Hashem sends the prophet Yirmeyahu to announce that there will be exile, He informs in advance that trouble will come, and He also informs through the prophets when the salvation will arrive. And this is "He relates His words to Yaakov" - He informs them through the prophets of the decree He intends to decree, and when they repent, He saves them from that decree. "Yaakov" represents the lower level, from the word eikev (heel), the Jewish people at their lower plane; whereas "Yisrael" connotes nobility and mastery, the Jewish people at their higher plane. Therefore it continues, "His statutes and His judgments to Yisrael" - they are those who walk in the statutes of the Torah, and Hashem sees their deeds and thereby annuls the harsh decrees.
לֹא עָשָׂה כֵן לְכָל גּוֹי וּמִשְׁפָּטִים בַּל יְדָעוּם הַלְלוּ יָהּ׃ - He did not do so for any nation, and as for His judgments, they have not known them. Halleluyah!
As the Radak explains, this refers to the Divine revelation at the giving of the Torah: "Did ever a people hear the voice of God speaking out of the midst of the fire" - He did not do so for any nation; they did not merit this. "And as for His ordinances, they have not known them" - the ordinances that Hashem gave to the Jewish people are unknown to the other nations, as Hashem did not reveal them to them. "And what great nation is there that has statutes and ordinances as righteous as all this Torah" - this was not revealed to the nations, but to the Jewish people alone.
The Malbim explains according to his approach: "He did not do so for any nation" - in that He does not decree upon them and then annul it through His prophets; thus, they are subject to the celestial order, under the dominion of the constellations. If, according to the astrological alignment, a harsh decree is destined to occur, it will befall them, for they are governed by the laws of nature. Israel, by contrast, is not subject to the celestial order; they are above astrological influence. Moreover, not only did He not make His statutes known to them, but "as for His ordinances, they have not known them" - they did not even receive rational civil laws, and therefore they walk in statutes by which they cannot live; they do not know Hashem's ordinances and are not guided by Him.
From here, we must show gratitude and thank Hashem, blessed be He, reciting the blessing, "Blessed are You, Hashem... Who has not made me a gentile" with joy, knowing that Hashem chose me out of the seven billion people in His world. How many Jews are there? Fifteen million. And I have merited to be part of that minority whom the Holy One, blessed be He, chose, and upon whom everything that happens in the upper and lower worlds solely depends. A gentile has no effect on high; if he does good, he receives his reward, and there is a level of Gan Eden appropriate for a gentile who observes the seven Noahide commandments, but he cannot influence anything - not the world, not the coming of Mashiach, not the future, and not the present. Only Israel holds the keys to all the upper worlds.
The sefer Siach Yitzchak adds: Only among the Jewish people were there prophets who foretold both success and calamity in advance. But when calamities befall the nations, they attribute the matter to mere chance, and consequently they never arrive at the correct conclusion - what is wanted from us and what is being asked of us. The Jewish people, however, having prophets, understand the message and comprehend what the Holy One, blessed be He, asks of them.
Rabbeinu Bachya, in Kad HaKemach, notes a precise detail in the words "and as for ordinances, they have not known them (bal yeda'um)": The letters beis and lamed (spelling bal) are the beginning and the end of the Torah - "In the beginning (Bereishis) God created" begins with a beis, and "in the sight of all Israel (Yisrael)" ends with a lamed. The letters beis and lamed hint at the beginning of the Torah and its end, teaching that the entire Torah depends on justice and law (mishpat), and "He did not do so for any nation" - for they did not merit the Torah, which spans from beis to lamed.
In the sefer Divrei Yoel, by the Satmar Rebbe, it is recorded from his holy handwriting, on the eve of Wednesday, Parashas Lech Lecha, 5687 (1926), nearly a century ago: "I saw in my dream, and behold, it was the holy Sabbath eve of Parashas Mishpatim, and it occurred to me to explain the words of the Midrash." The Midrash on "Now these are the ordinances (mishpatim) that you shall set before them" states: This is what is written, "He relates His words to Jacob, His statutes (chukav) and His ordinances (umishpatav) to Israel. He did not do so for any nation, and as for ordinances, they have not known them."
And here he asks a fascinating question. At first the verse says, "His statutes and His ordinances to Israel" - we merited both the chok (suprarational statute) and the mishpat (rational ordinance). Afterward, when speaking of the nations, it says, "and as for ordinances, they have not known them." Yet a chok is a commandment without an apparent reason, while a mishpat is a law with a reason, whose logic is understandable. If we wanted to define what we have that the nations do not, we would say: chukim! Do the nations have the Red Heifer? Tefillin? Shatnez? Kilayim? All of their commandments are comprehensible: to establish courts of justice, not to steal, not to murder, not to commit adultery, not to worship idols, not to curse Hashem - it is all logical. If so, the verse should have said, "and as for statutes, they have not known them." Yet Scripture says the opposite: "and as for ordinances, they have not known them," implying that gentiles do not have ordinances, but they do have statutes! But the descendants of Noah are commanded specifically regarding civil laws (dinin), and He did not give them suprarational statutes!
He resolves this with a wonderful explanation: When the Holy One, blessed be He, gave the Torah from the mouth of the Almighty, the reasons for the commandments were not explained. The Torah was given as a chok, as a royal decree. However, any Torah scholar (talmid chacham) who engages in Torah scrutinizes it and discovers new reasons within it. Thus, what was originally a statute without an apparent reason, when studied and contemplated until deeper reasons and explanations are found, becomes intellectually comprehensible, taking on the dimension of a mishpat. Initially you accepted it as a decree, but later you comprehend the inherent logic and the wisdom of the Torah, and the statute transforms for you into a rational ordinance. Yet this is unique to Israel. Among the nations, the concept of deep Torah contemplation does not apply, nor can they innovate novel reasons in the Torah. A gentile does not innovate anything in Torah; he received all of his commandments as axioms, purely as decrees, without discovering any underlying rationale in them.
He adds that such a distinction exists not only between Israel and the nations, but even between a Torah scholar and a layman (ba'al habayis). The Sema writes in the name of the Responsa of the Mahariw that the rulings of Torah scholars and the rulings of laymen are polar opposites, as the popular saying goes: the perspective of laymen (da'as ba'alei batim) is the opposite of Torah perspective (da'as Torah). It is told that a well-known publicist, who regularly wrote opinion columns that always aligned with da'as Torah, was once asked how he managed to align with it so consistently. He replied: "I go out to the street, listen to what the masses are saying, and write the exact opposite." Now, if even laymen who do not engage deeply in Torah have a mindset contrary to Torah perspective, all the more so the nations of the world, whose perspective is contrary to Torah; they cannot possibly align with the true essence of Hashem's commandments, and it is not for them to innovate reasons in the Torah or provide explanations for it.
Thus, it turns out that even the ten commandments that the nations received remain for them in the category of a chok: it is not for them to delve deeply into them and discover reasons, but to fulfill them simply because Hashem said so, as a royal decree. Not so with the Jewish people, for even that which was given to us as a chok, we delve into and reflect upon, and it transforms into the realm of a mishpat. This is the meaning of "His statutes and His ordinances to Israel": everything was initially given as a chok, but within Israel that very chok became "His ordinances," for we study, understand, and delve deeply, until reason compels it upon reflection. "He did not do so for any nation" - the nations do not possess da'as Torah; "and as for ordinances, they have not known them" - for them, everything remains a chok, observed solely because Hashem commanded it, and they have no insight into the statutes to elucidate them. "The words of a wise man's mouth are gracious" - and this he innovated in his dream. What sweet insights in a dream!
In the sefer Ya'arot Devash, there is a fascinating explanation: Why must we thank and praise Hashem that the nations do not know His judgments? What would be so terrible if they did know? Rather, he explains: Praise Hashem, for Rosh Hashanah is the day of the Holy One, Blessed be He's judgment. Rav Yonatan Eybeschutz notes that this is not explicitly written in the Torah - nowhere in the Torah is it mentioned that Rosh Hashanah is the Day of Judgment; it is alluded to in Tehillim and mentioned elsewhere, but the Torah itself calls it "a day of blowing the shofar" and not "a day of judgment." Had it been written explicitly in the Torah, the nations would have believed it - and what would have happened? They would have repented. And what is wrong with that? When a gentile repents, it creates an accusation against Israel. This was the reason Yonah did not want to go and bring the people of Nineveh to repentance, lest it arouse an accusation against Israel. This is the meaning of "He did not do so for any nation, and as for judgments, they did not know them" - they do not know Hashem's judgments, meaning when the Day of Judgment and Justice occurs, which is Rosh Hashanah. And for this we proclaim "Halleluyah": Praise Hashem, because through this, no accusation is aroused against us.
The chapter teaches the ladder of trust and Divine providence: Hashem does not desire the strength of the horse or the power of man, but those who fear Him and await His kindness; human effort is an obligation, not the true cause of success. Jerusalem and Zion praise Hashem on two levels - general providence and miraculous providence - both of which are elevated far above the way the nations are guided. The blessing of strength is not walls born of fear, but an inner fortitude that deters the enemy; and strong bars reinforcing the walls of faith and education bring about "He has blessed your children within you." In nature, we see the attribute of strict justice freezing the waters of kindness, and immediately "He sends His word and melts them" - showing that the harsh decree is destined to be nullified, and every snowfall is measured like wool, and every frost like ashes. And finally, the greatest gift of all: "He declares His words to Yaakov" - the Torah and prophecy given solely to Israel, through which divine statutes become understood judgments through deep study. For this we conclude with thanksgiving and praise: Halleluyah.