This chapter, following the approach of the Malbim, continues the line of thought we have begun: King David wonders about the very nature of human existence - where did I come from, and where do I belong? Do I belong to the reality of this coarse, material world, or is my true essence the soul and spirit, a spiritual reality belonging to the realm of the angels? This is the fundamental question from which all the demands and reflections of the chapter stem.
הִנֵּה טְפָחוֹת נָתַתָּה יָמַי וְחֶלְדִּי כְאַיִן נֶגְדֶּךָ אַךְ כׇּל הֶבֶל כׇּל אָדָם נִצָּב סֶלָה׃ - Behold, You have made my days handbreadths, and my lifespan is as nothing before You; indeed, all vanity is every person standing firm, Selah.
On the one hand, David says: "Behold, You have made my days handbreadths." I see myself as resembling the inhabitants of this coarse, physical world - those bound by the constraints of space, time, and motion, like beasts and animals, strictly limited. Everything about them is measured and paced, like a handbreadth which has a defined measure.
On the other hand, I see myself as completely boundless. The faculties of the soul transcend time and space: at this very moment, a person can contemplate things on the other side of the world, unaffected by physical distance. He can meditate and ascend to Pardes, to spiritual realms and lofty chambers. The intellect is unlimited, a supreme spiritual reality, and the soul knows no bounds.
So too with human desires and yearnings: they are boundless because their source lies in the soul. You will never see an animal that needs rehabilitation - not from smoking, nor from anything else. Why? Because its soul is merely animalistic; it possesses no "portion of God from above." In man, by contrast, there is a portion of God from above, which is why his desires are endless and never truly cease.
And should you say: After all, a person eventually grows old. True, but only the nature of his desires changes. He may no longer crave physical pleasures, but cravings of another sort emerge, and the thirst for honor intensifies: "He did not invite me, he did not stand up for me, he did not honor me, he did not tell me." He may have white hair and a white beard, yet other passions constantly awaken within him. For desire has no limit - and since its source is in the portion of God from above, it is truly infinite.
If a person does not channel these desires toward spirituality and fulfilling the will of Hashem, they turn into destructive passions that ruin him completely. He squanders them on drugs, coarse physical indulgences, alcohol, and sinful behavior, and then needs someone to rehabilitate him and pull him out of it all. Where does this come from? The soul is crying out, yearning for spirituality, but instead of feeding it spirituality, you give it ice cream. That is why it can never satisfy or satiate it.
It is fascinating that in all those remote places - in Goa, in India - Israelis feature so prominently. Why? Because in a Jew, the soul is particularly restless; it seeks Godliness. Consequently, he turns to all sorts of substitutes where he senses something similar, something pseudo-spiritual, and is drawn to those places. Yet at the root of man's soul, these deep desires were meant to bring him to holiness.
One of the worst drives in a person is the drive of curiosity, and it leads a person to many severe sins: let us taste pork just once, let us try it just a little bit, let us gamble just once. And so it is with all desires. In truth, this drive was created in man to bring him to spirituality: a person finishes a tractate and wants to see the next tractate as well - it intrigues him, a tractate he has never learned before, and he truly wants to know. He learned a halachah and a doubt arose, and he begins delving into books. Where does this come from? From the drive of curiosity.
And if you do not channel this toward spirituality, you end up as a curious person who spends all day searching news channels to stay updated on every breaking report, wondering what exactly happened. But what does it really matter? After all, in the midnight broadcast you could hear everything that happened throughout the day. Not that one needs even that, but for someone who feels he must - is that a reason to burn the entire day on talk and chatter? Curiosity is a trait that, if directed toward the negative, is terrible; but if directed toward the positive, it is immensely constructive - because it stems from the soul, and it is a sublime quality that can be utilized for spirituality. An animal has no curiosity; it is never curious, and whatever you do does not interest it.
It turns out that David HaMelech sees two facets within himself: on the one hand, "Behold, You have made my days handbreadths" - I am similar to the finite inhabitants of the material world, where everything is measured; and on the other hand, I see within myself a spiritual soul, a portion of God from above, akin to the realm of the boundless angels, yearning with endless aspirations, and an intellect grasping boundless insights without limits of time and space. So who am I, really?
However, even when I wish to pursue spiritual aspirations, I see that nature and matter act like a lead weight pulling me down. I decide to sit and learn for four hours straight, and after two hours my stomach complains and demands its due. Even when I strive for spirituality, physical reality constantly pulls me downward.
Therefore, David says, "and my lifespan is as nothing before You": when I look at my physical reality, it is as nothing compared to the Infinite, compared to spirituality. And from here, "surely every person standing is total vanity" - every human being, as he stands here in this world, is essentially vanity. This is true both regarding the body, which is destined to decay in the earth, and regarding the soul, which cannot fully soar either, because the weight of the body pulls it down and desires and physical constraints drag it downward. Even when he strives for spirituality, he exists within a framework that does not allow that spirituality to break out and burst forth. Therefore, David is in doubt here as to what his true purpose is and what man really is - a spiritual reality or a material reality.
The Sforno follows the same line: tefachot (handbreadths) is a limited measurement, and cheldi (my lifespan) is the time allotted to me. However, he does not explain "as nothing before You" as meaning nothing compared to the eternal life of the Holy One, Blessed be He, but rather as nothing compared to the service I must perform for You: my time is very short and the work is vast - akin to what the Tanna states in Avot, "The day is short and the work is great." My lifespan is as nothing before You; You have granted me very little time to accomplish all the work I must do.
And if we understand what a person is meant to accomplish - which, in the words of the holy Ari, means fulfilling all 613 mitzvot - a person is truly operating within a very limited and constrained amount of time to fulfill them all. It is regarding this that the verse says, "surely every person standing is total vanity": see what man occupies himself with - vanity, the fleeting distractions of the times, satisfying his desires, material achievements, and physical affairs. If time is already too short to serve Hashem, seize every single moment! Yet despite all this, you see that man occupies himself with futile pursuits.
It is told that a relative of the Gra - a nephew or something similar - arrived in Vilna and dropped in to visit the Gra. The Gra asked him, "What brings you here to Vilna?" The man replied that in his home there had been a display cabinet with valuable silverware, and burglars broke in and stole everything; now he understood that in Vilna he could contact law enforcement authorities and search for the thieves, to see how to recover the stolen property. Hearing this, the Gra said: "I cannot believe my ears, that in my own family there is someone willing to travel and squander days of his life just to retrieve physical possessions that were stolen from him in this world."
The Gra experienced the reality of the world as it truly is: life is too short even to accomplish one's spiritual work, and so he could not fathom how someone could occupy himself with something physical, in the pursuit of material goods. And this is precisely what the Sforno is saying here: "surely every person standing is total vanity" - man occupies himself with the futilities of the world, even though his time is already far too pressed to accomplish what he is required to do spiritually. Certainly, these matters reflect lofty spiritual levels, and we brought this story merely as an example to illustrate how, on such spiritual planes, any preoccupation with physical matters is a source of astonishment, distress, and incomprehension.
The sefer Etz HaDa'as Tov explains "You have made my days handbreadths" in a wonderful way: Dovid HaMelech says, You gave me my days a handbreadth from here and a handbreadth from there. How so? Dovid's seventy years were assembled from years deducted from others. Five years from Avraham - Avraham lived 175 instead of 180, and five years were deducted from him prematurely so that he would not see his grandson Eisav turn to evil ways, and these five years were given to Dovid. Twenty-eight from Yaakov - Yaakov lived 147 instead of 175 (and when we say "instead of," the meaning is that he did not complete the years of his fathers, as a number of years were deducted from him due to heavenly reckonings and certain utterances, and we will not delve into that whole topic here). That gives us 33. And another 37 from Yosef - Yosef lived 110 instead of 147 like his father Yaakov, losing 37 years. Add them to 33, and you get seventy years.
Regarding this, Dovid says, "You have made my days handbreadths": You gave me my days a handbreadth from here and a handbreadth from there; You gathered handbreadths for me from here and from there until You built a full stature of life for me. And Dovid asks: Why did You give me a life of handbreadths, and why do I not have an inherent life of my own? This is similar to what the Zohar says Dovid HaMelech asked, except that there the Zohar speaks of the seventy years [given from Adam], whereas here we are asking about those years gathered and assembled from all those whose lives were cut short.
אַךְ בְּצֶלֶם יִתְהַלֶּךְ אִישׁ אַךְ הֶבֶל יֶהֱמָיוּן יִצְבֹּר וְלֹא יֵדַע מִי אֹסְפָם׃ - Surely in a shadow does man walk; surely for futility do they bustle; he heaps up and knows not who will gather them.
The Radak cites one interpretation that it means "in darkness," and this is also how Rashi explains it: man walks in darkness all his days. According to an additional explanation, the darkness is that he does not know the day of his death. Indeed, tzelem in Arabic means darkness - dhalam; there is an Arabic work titled Nur al-Dhalam, which means "the light of darkness." So too here, "surely in darkness does man walk" - man walks in darkness and does not know his time.
Dunash explains that this is related to tzalmavet (the shadow of death), which also carries the meaning of darkness. The Radak, however, does not accept this, because tzalmavet is a compound of two words - tzel (shadow) and mavet (death) - whereas here it is a single word, tzelem, which is not a combination of two.
Menachem, on the other hand, explained tzelem according to its literal meaning - the image and form of man, for "in the image of God He made man." Rashi remarks that this cannot be correct, but as we will see, the Malbim actually explains it in this very manner. The Radak explains how this applies: man changes from day to day, his image and form continuously pass away, like a river that rushes and flows while its reflection passes. To picture it more tangibly: photograph a person once a year and play the images back like a film - you will see how his image steadily shifts and fades, how he grows, slowly ages, and his face becomes lined. This is "in an image does man walk" - he continuously changes in his physical form.
And despite all this, even though his days pass so quickly, you see that man resembles futility and his days are like vanity, yet "they bustle" - he is constantly frantic and agitated, forever running to amass wealth. "He heaps up and knows not who will gather them": he amasses money and property, having no idea who will ultimately benefit from what he leaves behind after he is carried out of his home at the end of his days.
Rashi explains "he heaps up": he heaps up grain in the field throughout the harvest season, "and knows not who will gather them" in the gathering season, for he may die before the gathering ever arrives. It serves as a parable for a person who does not know what tomorrow will bring, yet is currently immersed in amassing wealth and running about - when he does not even know whether he will live to reap today's investments, and someone else coming after him may well harvest what he sows today.
The Malbim continues along this line: David seeks to understand the reality of God and of the soul - what am I? Is the essence the body or the soul? I see myself composed of both a physical and a spiritual reality, resembling angels on the one hand and beasts on the other. And what, ultimately, is my purpose, and what is required of me?
To this David says, "Only as an image does man walk about" (ach betzelem yithalech ish). The answer is that the understanding of why a spiritual soul was placed within the physical reality of a body stems from the fact that man was created in the image - in the image of God, as Menachem explains, in its literal sense. If a person reflects, he will see that the influence of his soul over his body parallels God's influence over His world. After all, man is a microcosm, a miniature world: just as the macrocosm, the great world, is subject to laws of nature, and within it Divinity is enclothed - with the Holy One, blessed be He, directing the world through higher laws that transcend the fixed laws of nature, parting the sea whenever He wills, raining down hail from heaven, or stopping the sun - so it is within man: his soul directs the physical frame, the spiritual element within us governs the body.
The body is the physical, material realm with its forces and laws: if it is hurt, it cries out; if it is treated well, it takes pleasure - these are the laws of nature. But through the power of the soul - "in an image does man walk about" - just as the Holy One, blessed be He, created man in the image of God, through the power of the soul, which is free and grants man free will, he can be a "walker" (mithalech): capable of changing his nature, transforming his physical reality and natural inclinations, and creating himself anew - like Eliyahu ascending in a whirlwind to heaven. He was not born an angel; he was born a human being, yet through his spiritual powers he transformed his physical existence into a divine, spiritual reality.
And just as the Holy One, blessed be He, is a spiritual Reality that governs the world and alters it according to His will, so too in man, the spiritual soul governs his body and directs it according to its will. If you ask, "Is there not a clash here, between the forces of the body and the forces of the soul?" - the answer is that while there is indeed a clash, you have been given the strength for the powers of the soul to triumph over the body, so that the soul will lead the body, withdraw from lusts and materialistic pursuits, and draw closer to God. This is "only as an image does man walk about": through that very image of God within man, he walks. And "walks" (yithalech) is like "and I will give you free access [mahalchim, 'walkers'] among these who stand by" - meaning constantly moving forward and advancing spiritually. A person must establish the dominion of his spirit over his body, and through this he will fulfill his ultimate purpose.
And what is the actual reality? David continues, "Only for vanity do they bustle" (ach hevel yehemayun). Man, driven by that deep soul-craving for closeness to God, instead of channeling it toward spirituality, bustles, agitates, and clamors after vanity, gathering illusory acquisitions that have no substance. Nor will they endure in his hand, for "he heaps up, but knows not who will gather them" (yitzbor velo yeida mi osfam). He amasses possessions and does not know for whom - or, in the phrasing of Chovot HaLevavot, he leaves it behind for his wife's next husband. Was it for this that you exerted yourself so much? Was it for this that you labored so hard?
For Hashem placed within us a soul that constantly churns inside, giving no rest. It is up to man to decide: will he interpret this inner restlessness as a pull toward spirituality, thereby immersing his entire essence in the fear of God and closeness to Him, or will he direct this restlessness toward trivialities and vanity - toward material, earthly matters - in which case he will never find peace?
Indeed, it is well known throughout the world that Jews have no rest. Jews are exceptionally active - economically and in every field, with drive and energy across the globe: bankers, university heads, lawyers, discoverers, innovators, Nobel laureates. Why? Because within a Jew lies a supreme spiritual power that gives him no rest. When one interprets this correctly, it serves as an immense engine for spiritual advancement; but when misconstrued, he is constantly searching - another degree, another invention - and he finds no peace. This inner quest originates from a pure source, yet he misinterprets it: the soul is yearning and famished, and he feeds it ice cream. He does not realize that this hunger is internal and spiritual, and instead preoccupies himself with "only for vanity do they bustle; he heaps up, but knows not who will gather them" - amassing wealth without knowing who will collect it after him, only for strangers to inherit it in the end.
And what is the difference between "to heap up" (litzbor) and "to gather" (le'esof)? The Malbim explains - as we have seen previously - that litzbor means piling things up in a particular place, making heap upon heap, stack upon stack; le'esof means bringing them inside the home, as in "he gathered his feet" (asaf raglav) - bringing them into oneself. If you make heaps out in the field, you have not "gathered" them, but merely "heaped" them; gathering refers to bringing them inside.
The Yerushalmi in Tractate Shekalim homiletically interprets "only as an image does man walk about": whoever cites a teaching in the name of the one who said it should envision the author of the teaching as though he were standing before him. There is a virtue of "and your eyes shall behold your teachers," and when a person relates a teaching in someone's name, he should picture in his mind's eye as though that teacher were standing opposite him. This helps him concentrate and assists him in conveying the teachings accurately. This is "in an image does man walk about" - that he should see, as it were, his image before him.
The Shelah quotes from the holy Zohar that the tzelem (the divine image) is the intermediary aspect connecting the body and the soul, and without the tzelem, this connection would be impossible. What binds the physical, corporeal body to the spiritual soul is the tzelem. In Kabbalah, as is well known, they elaborate extensively on the concept of the tzelem; we also learned in Pirkei Avot that "Beloved is man, for he was created in the [divine] image," and we learned at length about the concept of the tzelem in Nefesh HaChaim, which also explains the meaning of the tzelem in great detail in its opening section.
Relevant to our discussion here, the Zohar says, as quoted by the Shelah in its name: Know that as long as a person's tzelem has not departed from him - "Man walks only in an image" - the person walks about, the person is alive. But when his tzelem is gathered and departs, his time draws near, and you know he is about to pass away from this world. We saw this similarly with the spies: "Their shadow has departed from them," which the Zohar explains means that the guardian angel of the shadow has departed - and once this guardian departs, it is only a matter of time before they depart from the world.
It is likewise written that if a person wishes to know whether he will live long, he should go out at midnight on Hoshana Rabbah and see whether he can see his own image, his shadow. If he sees it, it is a sign that he will live; if he does not see it, it is a sign that he is decreed to die that year. However, it is written that in practice one should not do this, because the Gemara states that there will always be a shadow, which is called a bavu'ah; what we are speaking of here is a bavu'ah de-bavu'ah - a shadow of the shadow. And since we do not know its exact nature, the books state that one should not do this, lest he mistakenly think he has no shadow and become terrified, and through his panic he could, Heaven forbid, be harmed - "For the thing I feared has overtaken me," "and what I dreaded has come upon me." A situation could arise where putting himself into a state of panic actually brings about his death. Therefore, it is written that one should not occupy himself with this matter and should not go to check his shadow. Furthermore, in order to check this properly, one would have to stand without clothes in the moonlight, for otherwise one could say that the shadow is cast by the clothes, and as Chazal stated, the test was meant to be conducted without clothes. In any case, as stated, the books instruct that one must not do this. This is the manifestation of the tzelem as explained by the Zohar.
The Sforno interprets "Man walks only in an image" as an indictment: it would be fitting for man, having been created in the image of God, to walk solely in that divine image - to walk in the service of the Creator, blessed be He, and to serve Hashem alone. Yet man, despite all the tremendous spiritual powers of the tzelem, "bustles only in vanity" - rushing about in endless commotion, with all his pursuits amounting to nothing but vanity; he amasses possessions, without knowing who will gather them.
The Yerushalmi in Masechet Shabbat homiletically expounds, "He amasses and knows not who will gather them," and explains why the verse refers to the inhabitants of the world as yoshvei cheled: cheled is related to chuldah (a weasel). Just as a weasel drags and stores away food without knowing for whom it is storing it, so too all who enter the world drag and store away without knowing for whom they are storing it.
Whoever observes the world sees a reality that could be described as depressing: people are constantly engaged in perpetual hoarding, gathering and gathering and gathering - and for whom? And for what? For whom is he leaving it? He does not know for whom he leaves it. Open the weasel's burrow and you will find piles of stored food; why does it need all of that? It simply gathers and gathers. So too, man gathers and gathers and does not know for whom he leaves it. This is "Man walks only in an image... he amasses and knows not who will gather them" - he is like the hoarding weasel, giving no thought to what will ultimately become of all that he has gathered.
The Malbim explains by way of a witty homily that "bustle only in vanity" (ach hevel yehemayun) hints at Hevel (Abel) and Kayin (Cain). Over what did they "bustle," over what did they make an uproar, quarrel, wage war, and argue? Over the rights to the possessions of the world. You have an entire world between just two people - only you and him; do not quarrel, there is plenty for everyone! Yet despite all this, they entered into conflict and strife. Understand that such is man's condition in the world: "Hevel yehemayun" - he makes an uproar like Hevel going to quarrel with Kayin, over what? Over a world that is entirely yours, entirely yours together. Over this you are going to fight? They end up fighting quarrels like those of Hevel and Kayin.
In this chapter, King David poses the question of the essence of man: "You have made my days handbreadths" from the perspective of his limited, physical body, contrasted with an unlimited soul that harbors boundless aspirations from the perspective of his spirit - and therefore, "and my lifespan is as nothing before You; surely all vanity is every standing person." The answer is: "Surely man walks in the divine image." Man was created in the image of God, and just as the Holy One, blessed be He, is a spiritual reality that governs the world and alters it according to His will, so too, through the power of his soul, man can establish the dominion of his spirit over his body, transform his nature, and be one who "walks" and progresses, even reaching the level of Eliyahu. Yet the reality of the world is that "surely they bustle about in vain; he amasses and knows not who will gather them" - that very infinite yearning, which stems from the soul being a portion of God from Above, instead of being directed toward spirituality, is poured out into vanity: a person bustles, rushes, and hoards like a rodent that drags and stashes away, without knowing for whom he leaves it. The choice is in our hands: to interpret the soul's restlessness as a call for closeness to God, or to pursue vanities that will never satisfy it.