In Psalm 37, King David continues to lay out before us the fundamental difference between one who trusts in Hashem and evildoers, between the righteous and the wicked. Up to this point, we have seen that evildoers wither quickly like grass; from here on, the chapter enumerates distinction after distinction: in longevity of days, in bequeathing an inheritance to children, in times of distress and famine, in their wealth and money, and in their steps and ways. Let us follow the order of the verses.
יוֹדֵעַ ה' יְמֵי תְמִימִם וְנַחֲלָתָם לְעוֹלָם תִּהְיֶה׃ (יח) - Hashem knows the days of the blameless, and their inheritance shall endure forever.
Here we are presented with another difference between one who trusts in Hashem and evildoers. The wicked, as we have seen, do not live out half their days; but the blameless - Hashem knows their days and safeguards them so that they are full and long, and they do not die before their time. There is yet another difference: the wicked man does not bequeath his good fortune to his children, as stated earlier, "Just a little while longer and the wicked will be no more; you will look closely at his place and he will not be there." But the blameless - "their inheritance shall endure forever" - they pass on their blessing and fortune to their descendants.
What does "forever" mean here? The Radak explains that this refers to the World to Come - they transmit the merit of the World to Come to their children. Ibn Ezra, as well as the Malbim, explains that this refers to this world: their inheritance is passed down to their children. This means they enjoy continuity and do not die prematurely like the wicked.
There is also another explanation cited in the name of the sefer Ahavat Dodim, quoting the Rama of Fano by way of homiletic insight: Yode'a can carry the meaning of striking, as in the verse, "and he thrashed (vayed'a) the men of Sukkot" - Gideon took thorns and struck the men of Sukkot with them. Accordingly, "Hashem knows the days of the blameless" means that the Holy One, blessed be He, strikes the blameless and afflicts them with suffering. If one asks why, the answer follows immediately: "and their inheritance shall endure forever." Hashem afflicts them in this world so that they will have an eternal inheritance in the next. In contrast, the wicked, as we will see below, are likened to "the fat of lambs" (ki'ykar karim) - like sheep being fattened in this world. And why? "They vanish; like smoke they vanish" - so that they will be utterly consumed in the World to Come. With the blameless, the Holy One, blessed be He, sends affliction in this world so that their inheritance will endure for all eternity, whereas with the wicked, the opposite is true.
לֹא יֵבֹשׁוּ בְּעֵת רָעָה וּבִימֵי רְעָבוֹן יִשְׂבָּעוּ׃ (יט) - They shall not be shamed in a time of trouble, and in days of famine they will be satisfied.
When an evil time arrives - during a plague or during war - evildoers find no shelter. But the blameless "shall not be shamed in a time of trouble," meaning they will have protection and safeguard. In times of famine, evildoers find no food, but the blameless "in days of famine they will be satisfied" - the Holy One, blessed be He, guides them and preserves them.
כִּי רְשָׁעִים יֹאבֵדוּ וְאֹיְבֵי ה' כִּיקַר כָּרִים כָּלוּ בֶעָשָׁן כָּלוּ׃ (כ) - For the wicked shall perish, and the enemies of Hashem are like the splendor of pastures; they vanish, like smoke they vanish.
"For the wicked shall perish" - the wicked are destined for destruction. And what does ki'ykar karim mean? This is an unusual and rare expression, and as generally observed with rare expressions, there are multiple interpretations, as commentators seek parallels in familiar biblical usages. Rashi explains it as "like the light of a morning cloud": yakar relates to light, as in "precious light" (or yekarot), and karim means a valley or meadow, as in an expansive pasture or grassy meadows. That is, like the light of a cloud hovering over a valley - morning mist that dissipates as soon as the wind blows and the sky clears slightly. It is a fleeting cloud with no permanence, and so too the wicked will perish.
Rashi brings another explanation: karim are sheep, as in "the pastures are clothed with sheep [karim]" (Tehillim 65:14), and "with the fat of lambs [karim], rams, and goats" (Devarim 32:14). "Like the glory of sheep" - like the honor shown to sheep: they are fed in abundance - and where are they being led? To the slaughter. So too, the enemies of Hashem have honor and glory like sheep; they are honored and fattened because very soon "they will vanish, like smoke they will vanish." The Ibn Ezra explains: "Like the glory of sheep" - like the most precious part of the sheep, which is the choice fat (chelev), the finest and most valuable part. And when this fat is placed on the fire, it immediately goes up in smoke and burns away quickly - "they will vanish, like smoke they will vanish." Others say that "like the glory of sheep" refers to the lush grass of the valleys (karim), which also burns away immediately at the touch of a little fire; and so it is with the wicked.
And why is there a repetition: "they vanish, like smoke they vanish" (kalu v'ashan kalu)? Rashi explains: the first kalu refers to that splendor - the fat of the sheep or the valley grass; and the second v'ashan kalu refers to the wicked, meaning that just as those perish, so too will they perish. And why do we read the first accented on the penult (mile'el) and the second on the ultima (milra)? Grammatically, the proper pronunciation is kalu with the stress on the final syllable (milra), and notice that the cantillation mark is at the end of the word. However, in the second kalu there is a meteg under the chaf - what is known as a ge'ya (or ja'ya among Yemenite Jews) - and this meteg indicates that it should be read with the stress retracted (mile'el), because it stands at the end of the verse.
The Malbim explains that this verse corresponds directly to the preceding two verses. Corresponding to "Hashem knows the days of the wholesome, and their inheritance will endure forever" - meaning that the wholesome will live long days and their heritage will stand - it says, "For the wicked will perish": they will not reach long life, nor will their heritage remain; they will perish and their inheritance will be lost. And corresponding to "They will not be shamed in a time of evil," it says, "and the enemies of Hashem are like the glory of sheep": the righteous person will not be shamed in a time of evil; even when there is hardship, things will be good for him. But the enemies of Hashem are like precious, fattened sheep. The reality is, says the Malbim, that in a time of famine, the open-pasture sheep manage to survive because they are accustomed to sparse eating; but the fattened sheep die within a short time, for they are used to being constantly fed, and in a famine they are struck first. So it is with the enemies of Hashem: when a time of calamity arrives, they are the first to be wiped out.
There was a vivid illustration of this contrast. On the very same day, the funeral of Rav Nissim Karelitz took place, and, to differentiate by thousands of separations between the impure and the pure, the funeral of Shamgar from the Supreme Court. Both passed away at the same age, around ninety-four, and were buried on the same day. At the funeral of Rav Nissim Karelitz, tens of thousands of people attended, if not hundreds of thousands - the entire street was black with people - while for Mr. Shamgar they could not even gather a minyan. To see this was truly instructive. A person who engaged in falsehood and vanity, who lived in delusions up in ivory towers - today he understands what foolishness and futility he spent his life on. And in contrast, a man who dedicated himself to the building of the world, Rav Nissim Karelitz, a righteous pillar of the world - one sees how true honor arrives in the end. And that is still nothing, because the real difference is Up Above: what merits and what spiritual power this remarkable tzaddik possesses! We will yet tell amazing stories about him; anyone who hears about his righteousness, modest conduct, and humility is filled with wonder.
לוֶה רָשָׁע וְלֹא יְשַׁלֵּם וְצַדִּיק חוֹנֵן וְנוֹתֵן׃ (כא) - "The wicked borrows and does not repay, but the Righteous One is gracious and gives." (21)
The wicked person takes a loan and does not repay it. And who is the "Righteous One" (Tzaddik)? Rashi explains: the Holy One, Blessed is He, Who is the Righteous One of the world, as it is written, "Hashem is righteous, for I have rebelled against His word" (Eichah 1:18), and "You are righteous in all that has come upon us" (Nechemyah 9:33). Here is something wonderful: the wicked man took a loan from Reuven and refuses to pay - will Reuven lose out? No. The Holy One, Blessed is He, repays him. Why? The Midrash Shmuel explains (as discussed in our shiurim on Mishnayos Maseches Avos): Who in the world lends money to someone without gaining anything from it? There is no such thing. Search the world for interest-free loan funds (gemachim), and you will not find them. Lenders exist, the black market exists, banks exist - but a person willing to give you ten thousand dollars, allowing you to pay back a hundred dollars a month over a hundred months - where do you find that? If a person gives an interest-free loan, it is solely because Hashem commanded it, because the Torah says, "If you lend money to My people" (Shemos 22:24). The Holy One, Blessed is He, says: "He relied on Me - will he lose out? You, wicked one, took money from him and did not repay - I Myself will repay him." "And the Righteous One is gracious and gives" - the Holy One, Blessed is He, acts graciously and gives the lender what the wicked borrower took from him.
This is what the Tanna in Avos means when stating, "One who borrows from man is like one who borrows from the Omnipresent, blessed be He" (Avos 2:9). Based on what we have explained, this is profound. Do not think, "I merely took a loan from a person; what is the big deal?" They say to you: Not at all! You have opened a front against the Holy One, Blessed is He, for you effectively borrowed from Hashem, since He is the One Who ultimately repays it. And if Hashem repaid it, your reckoning is no longer with the human lender, but with Hashem, may He be blessed.
The Malbim explains that here we find another proof of the difference between one who trusts in Hashem and one who does not. One who does not trust in Hashem has not been granted by Hashem the mastery to enjoy his wealth: not only is he not gracious to the poor and does not help others with his money, but "the wicked borrows and does not repay" - he borrows money and does not pay it back because he is terrified of spending money from his own pocket lest it run out. He takes a loan, but as for repaying, he never repays. In contrast, the righteous person not only repays any loans he takes, but he is gracious to others and lends to them; and not only that, he even gives to them as an outright gift. This is the inner meaning of the double expression: chonen ("is gracious") - he lends to others; v'noten ("and gives") - he also gives as a free gift.
The Alshich HaKadosh offers a wonderful explanation here. The righteous person is shrewd: he knows that if he approaches someone and says, "You are in a difficult situation, take a two-thousand-dollar grant," the person will feel ashamed, embarrassed, and uneasy, refusing to accept gifts of flesh and blood - there used to be such people, who felt uneasy even taking a loan. What does the wise tzaddik do? He says to him, "I see things are tight for you; take a two-thousand-dollar loan." His true intention is that it be a grant, but he gives him the feeling that it is merely a loan. And when the borrower asks, "Until when?", the tzaddik replies, "Until I ask for it; in the meantime, I do not need it." Thus the loan turns into a grant without shaming the recipient, who always assumes his friend's money is in his custody and that he will repay whenever asked - while in reality he received a gift and will never be asked to repay. This explains the phrasing: "the righteous one is gracious and gives" - at first he acts graciously (chonen, offering a loan) so that ultimately he is giving (noten). He presented it as a loan, but his goal was to give, all to spare the other person from shame.
The Midrash Shmuel notes a nuance in the verse: Why does it say loveh rasha v'lo yeshalem ("a wicked person borrows [present tense] and will not pay [future tense]")? Grammatically this seems inconsistent: it should either say yilveh rasha v'lo yeshalem (both in the future), or loveh rasha v'eino meshalem (both in the present), rather than mixing present and future. He explains beautifully: it refers to a wicked person who, at the very moment he is borrowing, already has no intention of repaying. It is not that he later fell into financial distress, became pressured, and could not pay; rather, from the very outset, when taking the loan, his mindset was not to repay. "I am taking a loan that will end up being a grant, a loan whose money you will never see again" - that is the meaning of "the wicked borrows and will not repay."
This calls to mind a story of someone who walked into an appliance store to buy a refrigerator. He asked, "How much is the refrigerator?" "Five thousand shekels." He began to haggle; he bargained it down to forty-seven hundred, forty-six hundred, and finally closed at forty-three hundred. "How are you paying?" "Checks." "Nu, you drove me crazy for an hour, and in the end you're paying with checks?" They spread it out into installments, and he took the refrigerator. The first check bounced; the second check bounced. The store owner called him: "What is going on with you?" The man replied, "My bank account has been restricted for ten years." "Are you serious? Your account is restricted and you came to buy?" "I'm sorry, sir, but I need a refrigerator. What do you want, that a person should live without a refrigerator?" "You wicked fellow, then why did you waste my time for an entire hour haggling me down from five thousand if from the beginning you intended to write checks from a frozen account?" He replied, "To tell you the truth, I felt bad for you. I wanted to minimize your damage! I didn't have the heart to make you lose five thousand, so now you've only lost forty-three hundred." That is "the wicked borrows and does not repay" - at the very moment he makes the deal, his intention is never to pay.
כִּי מְבֹרָכָיו יִירְשׁוּ אָרֶץ וּמְקֻלָּלָיו יִכָּרֵתוּ׃ (כב) - For those blessed by Him shall inherit the land, and those cursed by Him shall be cut off. (22)
The blessing of Hashem rests upon the righteous person, and "the blessing of Hashem makes rich, and He adds no sorrow with it" (Mishlei 10:22). Therefore, in the end, "they shall inherit the land." But upon the wicked rests the curse of God, "and those cursed by Him shall be cut off" - everything he possesses is not truly his, and ultimately it will be taken from him.
מֵה' מִצְעֲדֵי גֶבֶר כּוֹנָנוּ וְדַרְכּוֹ יֶחְפָּץ׃ (כג) - A man's steps are established by Hashem, and He desires his way. (23)
If you see that even a righteous person who trusts in Hashem sometimes experiences falls, stumbles, financial losses, and the like, know that this is from Hashem. "A man's steps are established by Hashem" - Hashem watches over a man's steps, and He is the One Who established his footsteps. The verse mentions both "steps" (mitza'adei) and "his way" (darko). The Malbim explains: "way" refers to the destination, where one needs to arrive, as we have explained previously, and Hashem chooses the path before him. Not only that, but also the step along the path - meaning the specific actions he must take to reach that destination. There too, Hashem guards his feet, guiding and leading him. Thus, both the ultimate objective, which is the path, and the journey toward that objective, which are the steps, are entirely from Hashem. Therefore, do not be surprised when you see a fall: it did not happen by chance, nor has Hashem abandoned him, but rather it was planned by Hashem.
כִּי יִפֹּל לֹא יוּטָל כִּי ה' סוֹמֵךְ יָדוֹ׃ (כד) - Though he fall, he shall not be cast down, for Hashem upholds his hand. (24)
The Radak says: If the righteous person stumbles and loses his wealth, he will not be completely cast down; he will not be thrown to the ground, for Hashem upholds his hand - the fall will not be total. And the Rif Hayun explains: "Though he fall, he shall not be cast down" - casting down (hatalah) is done with force, and when you cast something down forcefully, you shatter it, whereas a mere fall is not with force. Even if he falls, it will not be a forceful casting down where Hashem hurls him violently and breaks his bones. Moreover, regarding the troubles Hashem brings upon him, know that "whom Hashem loves He rebukes, as a father the son in whom he delights" (Mishlei 3:12). This is the difference between a righteous person and a wicked one: with the righteous, Hashem brings these things for the good, as a form of loving rebuke, and therefore the fall is not a decisive defeat, but a fall intended for rising and advancement - "for a righteous man falls seven times, and rises up again" (Mishlei 24:16). But for the wicked, there is no rising; his fall is meant for destruction, and of him it is said "in one" - a single fall, and he is finished.
And the Malbim explains: "Though he fall" - if you see that he falls and cannot walk on the path he wanted to take, know that "he shall not be cast down" - Hashem will not cast him down and abandon him on that corrupted path. The fall is for the good, and Hashem does not leave him there, but upholds his hand. That is to say: the obstacle and delay came from Hashem, and through Hashem he will return to the right path. Ultimately, the Holy One, blessed be He, will build up that righteous person, and this fall will not only fail to destroy him, but will even lift and elevate him.
The Radak cites the sage Rabbi Shlomo ibn Gabirol at the opening of the book Tikkun Middot HaNefesh, noting that the words "A man's steps are established by Hashem" could be misleading. A person might think: If so, do I have no free choice? People will ask him why he went to inappropriate places, such as the beach or the cinema, and he will reply, "A man's steps are established by Hashem"! Could a person truly say such a thing? Let it not enter a person's heart that the verse indicates predetermination, as if a person were compelled in his actions. Rather, it refers to reward and punishment: the Holy One, blessed be He, is the One Who will grant you a good reward, or, God forbid, the opposite. Where a man will ultimately end up - in Gan Eden or Gehinnom - that is determined by Hashem.
The first two stages - choice and decision - are placed entirely and completely in your hands. Do not say: Master of the Universe, if You want me to pray today, You will see to it. No, you must see to it. But after I have chosen, decided, and set out to pray, suddenly a family member locks the door and leaves me without a key; I go to start the car and it will not start; I arrive at the synagogue and find it closed for renovations. That is, I can make the decision, but I cannot determine the results. The results are in Hashem's hands, and regarding this one must trust in Hashem and pray: Master of the Universe, I want to pray; help me bring this to fruition. It is in the execution that one must trust in Hashem. According to this, we can explain "A man's steps are established by Hashem": Master of the Universe, I want to serve You; grant me the right steps, so that everything I wish to do will proceed smoothly and I will succeed in fulfilling the mitzvah.
And the same applies to sin: a person can choose to commit a sin, but on that very day he arrives and finds everything locked and shut, due to a strike, for instance. That is to say, a person might choose evil, yet there is no guarantee that he will be able to bring it to fruition; Heaven might not wish for him to carry out that evil, and will not provide him with the opportunity. Thus, "a man's steps are established by Hashem" still refers to the actual execution, but the choice is yours alone, and you must choose the good. And if a person should say: I wanted to choose the good, I came to pray, but I was prevented from doing so - where is the justice in that? The Holy One, blessed be He, says: I join a good thought to deed. One who intended to perform a mitzvah and was prevented by circumstances beyond his control receives reward as if he had performed it. Certainly, one must pray in private, but you will receive reward as if you prayed with a minyan; you will receive reward as if you fulfilled the mitzvah, because you came to fulfill it with complete willingness and sincere intent, and you are blameless, since Heaven prevented you from carrying out the action.
And this is the continuation, "and He delights in his way": Rabbi Shlomo ibn Gabirol explains that the Holy One, blessed be He, created the soul with an aspiration for good and with noble virtues - "A man's steps are established by Hashem" - and the moment you walk in His path, in the right path, in this Hashem delights in you and is pleased with you.
And in the sefer Osher Aharon, an explanation is cited in the name of the Chofetz Chaim: At birth, it is decreed upon a person how many steps he will take in his lifetime; he has an allotted quota. But where he will walk - that is neither decreed nor allotted. The quantity is fixed, but the destination is in your hands: you can use those steps to go to the beit midrash, or you can choose to use them for places you understand, for vanity and idleness. And this is what is written, "and He delights in his way" - Hashem indeed established a man's steps and gave him his allotted measure of strides, but Hashem desires that man choose His way, that he walk in the way of Hashem and utilize these steps for good and not for sin.
נַעַר הָיִיתִי גַּם זָקַנְתִּי וְלֹא רָאִיתִי צַדִּיק נֶעֱזָב וְזַרְעוֹ מְבַקֶּשׁ לָחֶם׃ (כה) - I was a youth, and now am old, yet I have not seen a righteous man forsaken, nor his offspring begging for bread. (25)
The Gemara in Yevamot (16b) asks: "Was David really so old?" David passed away at age seventy; what kind of extreme old age is this? The Gemara answers: This verse was uttered by the Prince of the World (Sar HaOlam). The angel who is the Prince of the World said it, and that angel is called na'ar (youth), hence "I was a youth, and now am old." Incidentally, we see from here that the concept of aging applies even to angels, as cited in the sefarim. The Malbim brings another explanation by way of homiletic wit: "I was a youth, and now am old" - who is considered an elder (zaken)? One who has acquired wisdom (zeh shekanah chochmah). King David says: I was a youth, yet I also grew old - I acquired wisdom; it does not refer to old age in years.
And what is the meaning of the verse? The Malbim explains: Even if his offspring begs for bread, I have not seen a righteous man forsaken by the fear of Hashem. That is, I have never seen a righteous person whose children beg for bread, and that tzaddik is forsaken by the fear of God and abandons the service of Hashem on account of this. Even if his offspring begs for bread, I have seen that the tzaddik remains steadfast in his fear of Hashem and in His service.
All these explanations come to resolve a difficulty: after all, we have seen and heard of reality where a righteous person suffers severe poverty, as the Gemara relates regarding Rabbi Elazar ben Pedat, who had nothing to eat but a clove of garlic after undergoing bloodletting. How then can one say, "yet I have not seen a righteous man forsaken, nor his offspring begging for bread"? Therefore they explain: "I have not seen a righteous man forsaken" - I have not seen a righteous person forsaken by his fear of Hashem, even if his offspring was begging for bread.
The Malbim further explains: "I was a youth, and now am old" - my long years led me to examine the course of history, and I have not seen that the tzaddik should be forsaken to such an extent that his offspring would also be begging for bread. That is, the verse comes to say that both things cannot occur together: that both the righteous man is forsaken and his children are begging for bread. If a situation arises where the tzaddik is forsaken, Hashem already sends salvation to his offspring, and the state of his children is good. If he did not prosper, at least his children prospered.
כׇּל הַיּוֹם חוֹנֵן וּמַלְוֶה וְזַרְעוֹ לִבְרָכָה׃ (כו) - All day long he is gracious and lends, and his offspring is a blessing. (26)
On the contrary, says the Malbim, I have seen that the tzaddik "is gracious and lends all day long, and his offspring is a blessing." This very conduct is what brought him to poverty, for whatever he has he immediately gives away to others, being gracious and lending all day. But do not say: Look, he gave graciously and lent, and lost out. Know that, as we said, there is no situation where both the righteous man and his offspring are forsaken; his offspring will be a blessing. "All day long he is gracious and lends" refers to the father, but the son will already merit blessing, for the father's righteousness will serve as a blessing for the children. Thus you learn that there is no situation where both the father and the sons are forsaken and begging for bread, for even if the father lacks bread, his offspring will be a blessing.
In these verses, King David enumerates the contrasts between one who trusts in Hashem and the wicked: The blameless person - Hashem knows and preserves his days, his inheritance endures forever, he is not ashamed in evil times, and is satisfied in days of famine; while the wicked will perish, and all their glory is like the fattening of lambs destined for slaughter and smoke. Regarding wealth: The wicked man borrows and does not repay, intending from the outset not to pay, while the righteous man not only repays, but is gracious and lends, and even gives gifts, and Hashem, the Righteous One of the world, compensates the lender for what he gave. And regarding a person's path: The way and the steps are from Hashem, so even when the tzaddik falls, it is not a cast-down ruin but a fall meant for rising, as "Hashem supports his hand." Free choice is in our hands while execution is in the hands of Heaven, and we must utilize the steps allotted to us for the path of Hashem. And from the testimony of the Prince of the World: We have never seen a righteous person forsaken by the fear of Hashem, nor have we seen a righteous person where both he and his offspring are begging for bread - for one who is gracious and lends all day long, his offspring will be a blessing.