Let's pick up from Posuk Daled again, my rabosai. ה' בוקר תשמע קולי, בוקר אערך לך ואצפה. Operating, as we discussed yesterday, within the framework that the yom hatefillah begins in the morning, so David Hamelech describes his hope, which is also often a reality, that Hakadosh Baruch Hu right away in the morning, meaning immediately, as soon as David Hamelech davens, Hakadosh Baruch Hu responds. תכף בבוקר תשמע קולי ועזרני, תכף בבוקר תשמע קולי ועזרני תכף בקראי.
Why is that? Because of what David Hamelech explains in the second half of the posuk, בוקר אערך לך ואצפה. Because I compare you to the morning, same way that the morning suddenly, dramatically puts an end to the distress of night, the sicknesses of night, it alleviates the sicknesses of night, it dispels the darkness of night. So in other words, what the Malbim uncovers here in this posuk is basically the same idea or parallel idea to what we were discussing Thursday from the Nefesh Hachaim, that the response to tefillah, when there is a makom for the tefillah to be answered, is commensurate to the emunah and understanding that a person has. Because boker erach lecha, because I compare you to the morning, that's why right away in the morning, again because I compare you to the morning in the sense of the sudden and dramatic change that morning ushers in, so because that's my emunah in you, so that is what allows for the result of boker tishma koli. The final word in the posuk: ה' בוקר תשמע קולי, בוקר אערך לך ואצפה. Va'atzape, I hope, כי יזרח אור ה' בישועתו. In the Be'urei Hamila, so the Malbim explains that va'atzape, when it's in the piel form, נקשר עם התקוה בכל מקום. It means hope. So there's something very, very beautiful here in the leshonos: in the kal form, when you have the same shoresh in the kal form, tzofeh means to look, but specifically, a tzofeh is a scout. Right, so it's someone who's looking into the distance. So that's what the word means in the kal. In the piel, hope is when a person is looking into the future with a certain hope. Hope means a certain vision for the future, and that's the connection between what the shoresh means in the kal and what it means in the piel. כי לא אל חפץ רשע אתה לא יגורך רע. You're not a God who desires evil, evil does not threaten you. The Malbim comments, לפעמים עובדי אלילים היו מיחסים אל האילים שלהם תעתועי רשע וכל המידות הרעות כנודע בהבלי המיתולוגיה,
mythology shelahem, כי בבואם שייחסו כל כח הנמצא בטבע על כח עליון שממנו יושפע הכח ההוא.
The idolatrous nations and the Malbim says this mentality, this mindset that he's about to explain to us has been reflected in mythology. Basically, they, whatever midos they saw amongst humanity, so they deified those midos. So they saw that there's love, so they had a god of love. But there's also a lot of evil amongst people. So whatever the way they abstracted, they didn't really abstract, or the way they extrapolated from the world to belief was they basically just deified what they saw in the world. So in the world there are kokhos hatov, so they had good gods. But in the world amongst people, they had נתון אשר נתנו לפני האדם את הטוב ואת המות והרע,
so not all people make the right choice all the time. There are also kokhos hara. It's the exact antithesis, right? The Torah tells us that we're created and have the potential to be tzelem elokim. The idolatrous mindset is that they depict their gods betzelem adam. Instead of having a hasagah of elokus and that a person needs to strive to genuinely be tzelem elokim, it's mamash the exact opposite. It's that they just deify, the gods are just very powerful people with all the whims and flaws that people have, just they put them on high. So that's what David Hamelekh is negating. כי לא אל חפץ רשע אתה, right? Contrary to this mindset of idolatrous religions, of mythology, so Rachmana litzlan, that's not who the Ribono shel Olam is. And what's more, given their multiple deities, so sometimes even the good gods, those whom they associated with a kokhos hatov in the world, were afraid of, they were intimidated by the evil gods. Lo yegurekha ra. So here there are many, whether it's in pesukim or maamarei chazal, we find that the pasuk is relating to something which is just so crude that you wonder why is that worthy of a response? So such a, this crude, again, mindset which just deifies human beings with all their, again, they created gods in the image of people. So David Hamelekh has to be misyaches to that? That's what the Kisvei Hakodesh are misyaches to? So the answer is that no matter how patently false and wrong and crude something is, if it becomes sufficiently widespread, it needs to be rebutted. People need the chizuk, the reinforcement of what's true and what's correct. When sheker is widespread enough, when it surrounds us, when it envelops us, it's easy Rachmana litzlan, we're susceptible Rachmana litzlan to allow that popularity to blur. The line between truth and falsehood. It's a very, very important yesod in chinuch. Sometimes there's a tendency to think that some things are devarim pshutim. And some of the things which are happening around us and are being said around us and some of the positions that are being espoused and some of the movements which are being championed are just so obviously, obviously and patently wrong and false and misdirected, there's no need to comment on it. No, Dovid HaMelech comments on it. Because if it's widespread enough, it sows confusion. People are susceptible. People are susceptible when falsehood becomes widespread enough, so people are susceptible. The truth of that phenomenon is one that we not only know from the Malbim's perush here in the pasuk, we know it empirically. We know it empirically. And it's a very, very important chinuch lesson. In the parentheses the Malbim mentions כנודע בהבלי המיתולוגיה שלהם. The word hevel or havlei is recurrent here, recurs within the next few lines at least four times here. Vegam hachofetz batov, two lines later at the end of the line if it's the same edition, vegam hachofetz batov, within the idolatrous scheme, even the good gods yagov veyifchad, they fear מן האל חפץ רשע. Ki yenatze'ach lifamim, because sometimes the evil deity has the upper hand. Kenoda again behavlei hayevanim veshireihem, in the hevel, the futile thoughts, beliefs of the Greeks and their poetry. Again in pasuk vav and zayin the word hevel will recur twice. The pshat is that hevel is used for something which doesn't have even a shemetz of emes to it. Ever since Adam HaRishon ate from the Etz HaDa'as, so tov va'ra, emes vasheker are often intermingled. There are lots of things in life which are wrong but they're not 100% wrong. The right and the wrong are intermixed and intermingled. When the Malbim wants to underscore that we're talking about something where there's not even a shemetz, there's not even a trace of emes, that's what hevel represents. The Rambam in Perek Aleph of Hilchos Avodah Zarah when he talks about the idolatrous ta'ut that טעו בני אדם בימי דור אנוש, so he quotes a pasuk in Yirmiyahu about מוסר הבלים עץ הוא. Hevel is a descriptive term used for avodah zarah. לא יתייצבו הוללים לנגד עיניך שנאת כל פועלי און. המלבי"ם
explains again the pasuk coming to dismiss to negate the distortions and the bilbulim of the avodah zarah mentality and belief. Since Hakadosh Baruch Hu is ach tov, so he doesn't give standing, he doesn't welcome holelim, achzarim, ba'alei retzach. If there are evil gods, so then the evil gods give place to people who are evil. But the Ribbono Shel Olam ach tov is לא יתייצבו הוללים לנגד עיניך and שנאת כל פועלי און. Ta'abeid doveirei chazav. You'll destroy those who disseminate falsehood. איש דמים ומרמה יתעב השם. Again continuing along the same line. When you have someone that's evil, so he supports evil in other people. According to the mythological belief of evil gods, so they support evil people. Evil supports evil, bishmo, bishmo. China supports Russia. Evil supports evil, bishmo. Not just because of geopolitical considerations, no, evil finds affinity with evil, bishmo. The same evil anarchistic impulse. Evil supports evil. Iran supports all the terrorist organizations who do their best, rachmana litzlan, le-hashmid le-harog u-le-abeid. Evil supports evil. So that's what it means, no, but hayos, so within the idolatrous scheme, evil people have their backers. But aliba de-emes obviously ta'abeid doveirei chazav איש דמים ומרמה יתעב השם. Sometimes we look and we see people, nations, evil nations, and you wonder, what do they gain from this? Often it's not davka that they gain anything. Evil supports evil. Not davka that they gain anything. Sometimes there is a geopolitical cheshbon. There is to have an alliance against the United States. Sometimes there is, but it doesn't have to be. Evil, מצא מין את מינו. The same way in chemistry, certain elements naturally bond, so in the moral universe, certain elements also naturally bond. Evil bonds with evil. ואני ברוב חסדך אבוא ביתך אשתחווה אל היכל קדשך ביראתך.
Rotzeh lomar, says the Malbim, יש הבדל גדול בין העובד השם המתפלל לאלוקיו ובין בן נכר המשתחווה לעצביו כי עובד האליל יעבדהו ויתפלל אליו מצד יראתו מן הרע ורצונו לרצותו בל ירע לו עד שיראתו מן הרע תכניסהו מקדש ההבל.
Again that recurrent depiction. ואני ברוב חסדך אבוא ביתך. So remember we had earlier where was it back in Kapital Beis that the Malbim commented that in Lashon Hakodesh the subject is discernible from the verb, right? So avo veisecha so we know the subject is ani. And when nevertheless the pasuk spells out the subject va'ani, there's an emphasis there and the Malbim explains that usually it's intended as a contrast. And that's how the Malbim knows what the pshat is here. That's how we know that this pasuk is suggesting a contrast between the mindset of a ma'amin b'Hashem when he comes to davven as opposed to the holelim or the doveir kezav when they engage in their idolatrous worship. What the Malbim here is reflecting, I think it's something that I think we've had occasions to discuss, is a yesod that you find already in the Ramban. The Ramban in Vayikra in the beginning of Parshas Kedoshim. So the hemshech hap'sukim אל תפנו אל האלילים ואלוהי מסכה לא תעשו לכם אני השם אלוקיכם.
The next pasuk is וכי תזבחו זבח שלמים להשם לרצונכם תזבחהו. Doesn't really seem to be any connection or any flow between the two p'sukim. Ramban comments as follows: אמר וכי תזבחו זבח שלמים כי אחרי שאסר הזביחה וכל עבודה לאלילים ולאלוהי מסכה וריקן כל העבודות כולם לשם המיוחד אמר כי כאשר תזבחו להשם לא תזבחו לו אלא לרצונכם שתהיה עבודתכם לרצון לפניו וירצה לכם כעבד יתרצה לאדוניו בעשותו כל אשר יצוהו כלשון ונרצה לו לכפר עליו ואור פניו כי רציתי. והטעם שלא תחשבו שיהיה בעבודת הצלמים שום תועלת ולא תעשו עבודת השם הנכבד על מנת לקבל פרס אלא לעשות רצונו כי רצונו הפשוט הוא הפועל והמחייב.
So somehow or other the Ramban sees in the pasuk וכי תזבחו זבח שלמים להשם לרצונכם תזבחהו that's the counterpoint to אל תפנו אל האלילים. And what the Ramban is telling us is as follows: Avoda zara of course obviously represents a terrible distortion in terms of whom they worship. But that's not the extent of the distortion of the bilbul of avoda zara. It's not only, and only in quotation marks, it's not only that they have the wrong address in terms of to whom or in their cases maybe to what they're directing their avoda, but the whole concept of what avoda of what worship means is distorted. Because, and right it's l'shitoso, right? The concept of avoda in avoda zara is basically to mollify and pacify to try to that the deity should then look favorably upon them. Meaning it's all very practical and pragmatic. The same way if you get to the elevator the same time the same time as the boss, the same time as the CEO, so you hold the elevator door open for him. Whether you like him or not, you hold the elevator door open for the CEO and hopefully that way you get your end of the year bonus and vechulu. Ma she'ein kein you let the elevator door close in his face, so then not only don't you get the end of the year bonus but maybe but maybe you won't have a job next year. So it's not because, not because the employee thinks that the CEO is any better of a person, it's not because he looks after the CEO's, but it's just very practical, he's being, he's being pragmatic. So that's what the whole notion of avodas zarah is, the whole notion of lo lishma. The whole thing is, it's it's a quid pro quo. It's a quid pro quo. So the Ramban explains אל תפנו אל האלילים ואלהי מסכה לא תעשו לכם means not only reject the belief of ovdei avodah zarah, but reject the approach to avodah. And and the the point and counterpoint is not only between the elilim and lehavdil lehavdil lehavdil infinite havdalos and and laHashem, but it's between the looking to just that it's something purely pragmatic as opposed to no, it should just be leratzon. I'm not looking to gain anything out of it. שלא על מנת לקבל פרס. That's what that's what our Malbim is also depicting, right? And that's the contrast. ואני ברוב חסדך אבוא ביתך. I come to Hakadosh Baruch Hu not not מצד יראה שמא ירע מן הרע ורוצה לרצותו בל ירע אליו.
I'm not I'm not it's not it's not a pragmatic impulse that I come to daven. עת אליך בית השם. לא היראה מן הרע תנחני שמה.
That's not what leads me there. אך החסד המתפשט אל המציאות בכללו. חסדי קל אשר על כל נמצא.
In the Ramban this is a a recurrent theme. The importance to try that avodah should be lishma. Avodas Hashem is is not shouldn't be again מתוך שלא לשמה בא לשמה. We need the shelo lishma. But as we as we operate with it, we should make sure we don't lose sight of the fact that it's supposed to be a building block to to a higher madreigah. Because avodas Hashem isn't supposed to mean what's in it for me. A person is oved Hakadosh Baruch Hu because Hakadosh Baruch Hu is is who He is. And and that's the darga to which we have to aspire. Okay, maybe we'll we'll stop.