Kavanot: Propaganda Piece

Last time we talked about בני קרח as the inheritors of their notorious ancestor and his radical but unquestionably true statement, (במדבר טז:ג)‎ כל העדה כלם קדשים ובתוכם ה׳. Shmuel also fought against unjust authority, for the right for every individual to serve ה׳. The first perek we will look at, however, seems to be advertising copy or pro-government propaganda.

Malbim says that we are misinterpreting the introductory psukim. It is true that the praise of Jerusalem is about its beauty and the greatness of the Israelite king, but those who praise it are missing the point.

בני קרח are saying that it’s not about the king, it’s about הקב״ה. The power of earthly kings, no matter how much they are מלך רב, is irrelevant compared to the greatness of הקב״ה.

It’s not clear if this מלכים נועדו, the assembly of kings, is meant to represent an actual event, a war against Jerusalem or an international conference. There is one event in תנ״ך that features אניות תרשיש as a fleet that was destroyed:

But that doesn’t fit the context here, of המלכים נועדו; עברו יחדו.

תרשיש is depicted as a distant port (that’s where Yonah tries to run to) but here I think it is a metaphor.

אניות תרשיש is a symbol of high technology, of man’s control of his world. That control is only an illusion. Jerusalem as קרית מלך רב is transitory: שח גבהות האדם ושפל רום אנשים. The only thing that matters is אלקים יכוננה עד עולם. And that is the message of בני קרח.

The second half of the perek explains what it means, to be the city of ה׳:

David understood that:

And בני קרח, as their שיר מזמור, invite everyone to celebrate Jerusalem. But realize that its appeal as a tourist attraction is that it is the source of משפט וצדקה:

עַל־מוּת literally means “until death”, but the Allepo Codex and other ancient sources have it as one word, which gives it three additional layers of meaning:

And all, of course, are true.

The next perek is a lament, as the psalmist pines for the lost Jerusalem.

Even the birds can find their place by the בית המקדש, but I am lost, yearning for that holy place. He doesn’t say where he is, or why he cannot get closer to מלכי ואלקי. All we know is אשרי יושבי ביתך: happy are those who are there.

Then he turns to a different kind of אשרי: those who struggle and suffer:

The psalmist says those who find their strength in ה׳, and find the path forward in their own hearts, are also happy. They are traveling through עמק הבכא, literally “the valley of weeping”, but they see it as a מעין, a life-giving spring, as though their מוֹרֶה, their Teacher and Guide, had enveloped it with ברכות.

But who is he addressing? Is this meant to be after the חורבן? Is the בית המקדש standing, but the psalmist is in exile?

This section implies that there is a מגן and a משיח, that there is a מלכות ישראל in power. So what is he complaining about?

This is בני קרח, looking at what purports to be the בית אלוקים but only seeing אהלי רשע. They are speaking truth to power. David himself complained about the corruption in Jerusalem:

And I think that is what בני קרח are yearning for here. They want to achieve the ideal בית המקדש, a place of משפט וצדקה.

The ultimate good will come to the הלכים בתמים, and there is a ray of hope at the end. There is a third person who is אשרי, not the one in ביתך, not the one who sees מסלות בלבבם, who is on the way, but just having faith is enough.

The next תהילה I want to look act actually comes earlier in the ספר,and composed of two different perakim but are clearly one whole (the second has no כותרת and has the same refrain as the first).

The refrain appears three times (with minor variations) is the psalmist talking to himself, telling his soul not to despair. It is sort of an answer to the previous perek.

The first stanza has the same theme as the previous perek: all I want is to be close to ה׳.

It’s very poignant, describing how he yearns for the בית המקדש, and how those around him mock him with איה אלקיך. Then he says אלה אזכרה…כי אעבר בסך. That could be read as remembering the past, when he would come to the בית המקדש with the crowds but כי אעבר is in the future tense, or the continuing present. “Even as I enter the סך, the shelter, among the המון חוגג, I hear the mocking איה אלקיך.”

As we said about the previous perek, he is describing a situation where the בית המקדש exists, but it is meaningless. It is like he is in some kind of internal exile, like גלות יון and the story behind חנוכה

The mockers who say איה אלקיך are Jews; The בית המקדש exists but has a statue of Zeus, as it were. בני קרח are just like Shmuel protesting the corruption of the משכן; they yearn for what the בית המקדש once was. And just like the victory over the מתיוונים resulted in Chanukah, the holiday להודות ולהלל; here בני קרח promise that the opportunity להודות will return: עוד אודנו ישועות פניו.

The second stanza is the psalmist’s complaint to ה׳:

He calls out to ה׳ from וחרמונים מהר מצער, which is a merism meaning “from North and South” (הר חרמון is in the Golan, and צוער is on the southern tip of the Dead Sea). It is the equivalent of a more common phrase:

But the difference is that this expression uses isolated locations rather than population centers to express “all of Israel”. It’s similar to the idea of the internal exile of the previous stanza. The psalmist is saying, I am here in Israel but I don’t belong.

And then he says תהום אל תהום קורא לקול צנוריך, ”Deep calls to deep with the sound of Your waterways“. It’s a very mysterious pasuk. Aviva Zornberg titled one of her books The Murmuring Deep, based on this pasuk. She connects it to the primordial תהום:

And sees תהום as a portmanteau of תהו, chaos, and המהום, murmur.

The image is one of trying to hear ה׳'s voice but being overwhelmed by chaos. He started in the previous stanza with צמאה נפשי לאלקים, seeking the א־ל חי, the “Living G-d” but all he can feel now is א־ל חַיָּי, ”G-d of my life“. I am alive, but I don’t feel that ה׳ is. He started yearning for ה׳ like איל תערג על אפיקי מים, but now the water becomes a symbol of what he cannot attain. The roar of the world drowns out the connection to ה׳ that he seeks.

He complains that his תפלה is “יומם יצוה ה׳ חסדו”, and he sings ה׳'s praises. He is davening all the right words, but still “למה שכחתני”? He asks, לָמָּה קֹדֵר אֵלֵךְ, “Why do I walk in darkness”; קֹדֵר is a metaphor for not seeing ה׳:

And the climax is the hopeful return to the בית המקדש:

The reason I am drowning in the murmuring deep is איש מרמה ועולה.‎ לשון הרע destroys civilization, as we discussed in שיר המעלות. But there is hope; עוד אודנו ישועת פני ואלקי.