Magid d’varav l’Yaakov, chukav u’mishpatav l’Yisrael.
Lo asah chein l’chol goy, u’mishpatim bal y’da’um. Hallelukah.
- [And another reason to praise Hashem is] He told His word (the Torah) to klal Yisrael, His statutes and laws (and their secrets) to Yisrael (those on a higher level).
- He did not do so (to give the Torah) to any other nation, and they do not know (the laws of the Torah). [Therefore, klal Yisrael,] praise Hashem!
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Conclusion and Final Summary of This Mizmor
Before we conclude our explanation of the last two p’sukim, based on Siach Yitzchak, we will discuss this mizmor in a global sense as one unit.
Many Rishonim write that our mizmor was written in prophecy. Therefore, it speaks of the time of Mashiach, when we will sing praise and thanks to Hashem for:
- rebuilding Yerushalayim and gathering all of us there
- healing our broken hearts and bandaging the trauma of even the children who are now furthest from awareness of Hashem
- experiencing Hashem’s great mastery, weaving together limitless acts of His Divine Providence.
Through our recognition and praise, we will come to understand that it is not our abilities or efforts that produce anything. The grass grows on mountains without man’s efforts, and the animals, who are not taken care of by their mothers or man, still survive, because it is only Hashem Who provides.
Hashem desires those who live their lives with awareness of Him and anxiously await His kindness.
The inhabitants of Yerushalayim will praise and thank Hashem for His protection, blessing, peace, sustenance from the best crops, and all the miracles of the process of keeping the soil fertile. Finally, we will praise and thank Hashem most of all for His Torah and mitzvos, through which He demonstrated His unique relationship with us, and His special love for us.
In the last segment we presented the uplifting and encouraging explanation of the Siach Yitzchak in Siddur HaGra, which meshes beautifully with the overall theme expressed above for this mizmor.
We present here a translation of an excerpt of his words:
Even though he is taking a lot of time, nevertheless, do not give up hope at all. And the length of this long amount of time should not be for you a question and a wonder at all… For there was already such a wonder, that from the time that the world was created there wasn’t such: that the Revelation at Har Sinai was such an event that the world was created for it… And so this event, which was worthy to have taken place at the start of the Creation, took a lot of time [to come to pass] – it hadn’t taken place for more than 2,000 years – and then, all of a sudden, there was a great and awesome happening… Therefore, do not wonder about this great length of time [of the delay of the coming of Mashiach] either, for all of a sudden, our eyes will behold the king [Mashiach] in his beauty. Amen, let it be the Almighty’s will.
This mizmor, through prophecy, of the thanks and praise we will sing to Hashem, provides us a glimpse of the time we all anxiously await. The last series of p’sukim in particular raise our spirits as we recall that the greatest gift of Torah, which was the completion of creation, only came after 2,000 years. But when it came, it came swiftly, and powerfully and gave us the gift of a special connection to Hashem and the potential to earn blissful eternity. So, too, we will soon, b’ezras Hashem, experience the greatest event of history since the giving of the Torah, which will come swiftly and oh so powerfully, and ultimately grant us the gift of eternal bliss, basking in the radiance of Hashem’s Sh’chinah. May we merit to see that day with our own eyes speedily in our days.
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