Chanuka. Mizmor Shir Chanukas HaBayis- מזמור שיר חנוכת הבית לדוד

Delivered at a Mesiba in December 2014 for the Kollel Boker of the Adas Bnei Yisrael.  The comments are mostly from earlier versions of this post and most of them were incorporated herein.

Many of us say Tehillim 30, מזמור שיר חנוכת בית לדוד, after davening on Chanuka.  The relevance to Chanuka is obvious- this chapter celebrates the dedication of the Beis Hamikdash, which is the essence of Chanuka.  The Gaon says that it was the Shir shel Yom for the duration of Chanuka, and replaced the regular Shir shel Yom.

One would naturally assume that it was the Shir shel Yom only toward the end of the time of the second Beis HaMikdash, after the Chashmonayim.  I don't think that is correct.  I believe that Mizmor Shir was the shir shel yom on the twenty fifth of Kislev throughout the era of the second Beis HaMikdash.  I also believe that was also true even in the first Beis HaMikdash period.

The Pesikta Rabbsa (brought by the Tur in the beginning of Hilchos Chanuka, and ילקוט שמעוני מלכים א קפ"ד and Bamidbar Rabba 13:2)  says that we were told to build the Mishkan after Yom Kippur.  We built it very swiftly, and it was ready either on the twenty fourth or fifth of Kislev.  It could have been erected on the twenty fifth, but Hashem told us to put it into storage until Nissan.  To repay the twenty fifth for its lost opportunity, Hashgacha arranged that for the Chashmonayim to rededicate the Mikdash on that date.

Similarly, the Yaavetz in the Mor Uketziah on OC 470 is the first to point out that in Chaggai, the bechina of the Kohanim about the laws of Tumah was stated to have taken place on the twenty fourth of Kislev, referred to in that passuk as " before a stone was placed on a stone in building the Mikdash."  So the Mikdash Sheni was begun on the twenty fifth of Kislev.

It is absolutely clear that the twenty fifth of Kislev was Chanuka long before Chanuka, long before the Chashmonayim were born.  It is a day of inherent segula for building the Beis HaMikdash.  Reb Eli showed me that in Megillas Antiochus it says that the Hellenists profaned the Mikdash on that date as well- which implies that they chose that date in order to emphasize their victory over our mesora,

I believe, but I accept that my proof requires some assumptions, that the first Bayis was begun on that date as well, as I will explain.





Reading Mizmor Shir, we have several questions.  First, David HaMelech never saw a Beis HaMikdash.  He saw Nov and Givon   So what chanukas habayis was he celebrating?  Another question is that although the first sentence tells us that this chapter was written to celebrate the inauguration of the Bayis, not one word thereafter mentions or even hints to anything having to do with the Beis Hamikdash.  It is a general song of salvation and praise.  Why is there nothing in it about the Bayis?

• The Radak says that Dovid Hamelech looked forward to the day when the Chanukas Habayis would prove that Hashem had forgiven him for the sin of Bas Sheva.  Shlomo was the living embodiment of the relationship between Dovid and Bas Sheva.  If Shlomo succeeded his father as king, and if he built the Beis HaMikdash, and if the Shechina rested upon it, it would be absolute proof that Dovid had been forgiven.  So when Nassan HaNavi told him that his son would succeed him and build the Beis HaMikdash, he wrote Mizmor Shir to celebrate his redemption, and that through the Chanukas HaBayis Hashem was going to make that mechila absolutely clear- the great joy of the חנוכת הבית לדוד was  כי דיליתני ולא שימחת אויבי לי.

Eilu v'eilu, and עפר אני תחת כפות רגליו, but according to the Radak, the joy for the Chanukas HaBayis was as a siman, not a sibah.  David Hamelech was not celebrating the dedication of the Beis HaMikdash!  He was celebrating the mechila and ritzui, and the Chanukas HaBayis was proof and public declaration of the mechila and ritzui.

• I would like to point out that the Radak's pshat could be made much more interesting and germane to Chanuka with the addition of one little point.

The Radak said that David Hamelech wrote the Mizmor looking forward to the time that Shlomo's dedication and hashra'as hashechina in the Mikdash would prove that Hashem had forgiven him.  My problem with that pshat was that it takes away the focus from the Mikdash, and places it on David's relationship with the Ribono shel Olam and his reputation in Klal Yisrael, while the pashtus of the chapter is that it focuses on the celebration of having a Beis HaMikdash.  According to the Radak, the Mikdash is only a siman, a proof of David's rehabilitation and restoration, not the focus of the Mizmor.

The answer is that the reason we would celebrate having a Beis HaMikdash is because it would prove that Hashem loves us.  Yes, having the Mikdash is an inherent boon.  But the greater the value the Beis HaMikdash has, the greater its value is as a siman that Hashem loves us and desires our Avodah.  So even though in that particular case it was a siman for David Hamelech's restoration to Hashem's love, it always serves that purpose for Klal Yisrael as a whole.

This approach echoes that of the Pnei Yehoshua in Shabbos 21b.
The Pnei Yehoshua says that the nes of finding the oil that was tahor was not necessary.  If there was no oil that was tahor, the rule of Tumah BeTzibur would have allowed us to use whatever oil we had.  The miracle happened to present to the world a public testimony that the Shechina rested on Klal Yisrael, and that once again it was an Eis Ratzon, that a loving relationship had been renewed between Hashem and Klal Yisrael.   That is indeed worthy of a great celebration.  We see that the Pnei Yehoshua looks at the nes shemen as a siman of something more important.  Our approach, that having a Beis HaMikdash is a siman of an Eis Ratzon, both for David HaMelech and for the Chashmona'im, follows the same logic.

But even with this addition to the Radak, I find this less than fully satisfying; it's connection to Chanuka is still tangential.,   So let us move on to the achronim.

• Harav Isser Zalmen Meltzer (in his introduction to the second of the volumes of the Even Ha'Ezel on Kodshim,) brings the Malbim's pshat, and then says his own pshat.

נתעוררתי בדברי דהע"ה בתהילים כ"ט שמתחיל מזמור שיר חנוכת הבית לדוד וראוי היה שתיכף יבואו דברי שבח ותודה לד' על שזיכנו בבנין ביהמ"ק, והנה אנו רואים מזמור תהילים אומרים אותו בתפלה להתפלל על החולה

ומצאתי שעמד בה המלבי"ם בפירושו, וחידש לפרש שכל המזמור מיוסד על שהי' חולה ונתרפא מחליו והמליץ ע"ז חנוכת הבית.  ובודאי זה דרך דרוש ורחוק מפשוטו של מקרא.  ובפשוטו הוא כפירש"י דאמר המזמור כשיהי' חנוכת ביהמ"ק

 אך באמת לימד אתנו דהע"ה דרך בהנהגתו.  כי במנהגו של עולם אם יהי' אדם בצער בפרנסתו ואח"כ יעשה חולה לא ידאג כבר לפרנסתו כי אם לבריאותו ויתפלל לה' שישלח לו רפואתו. וכשנענה ונתרפא מתפלל לפרנסתו שלא תהי' בדוחק.  אח"כ עזרו ד' עוד ביותר שהגיע לחיי הרחבה וכמאמה"כ מן המצר קראתי -- ענני במרחב -- והנה נתעשר ובנה בית גדול, בעשותו חנוכת הבית ובא להודות לד' על עשרו ואשר עזרו לבנות הבית הנהדר, כבר שכח ימי עניו ומצוקו וגם חליו אשר חלה ונתרפא ומביע תודתו רק על עשרו ואשרו. ולימד אותנו דהמע"ה כי בימי עשרו ואשרו עליו לא לשכוח את ימי עניו ומצוקו ואשר נתרפא מחליו.   אף אם גם בשעתו הביע תודה עד החלצו צרותיו, אבל עתה בעת אשרו צריך הוא לזכור עוד ולהביע תודתו אשר הושיעו מצרותו ואח"כ לזכור בתודתו את אשרו ושמחתו, וזהו שסיים במזמור פתחת שקי פתחת שקי ותאזרני שמחה למען יזמרך וגו' לעולם אודך.

 in English- 

• The Malbim says it has nothing to do with the Beis Hamikdash.  When Dovid says חנוכת הבית, he means his body.  He is praising Hashem for healing his body and restoring his health and his strength.  The expression Beis HaMikdash is a metaphor- the body as a temple.

• Reb Isser Zalmen prefers to understand it as Rashi there does, that Dovid wrote the chapter so that it would be sung when the Mikdash would be inaugurated by Shlomo.  Dovid Hamelech felt that when a person celebrates a great gift from Hashem, he should remember all that he went through before that moment.  Dovid remembered the many times he faced imminent danger of illness and mortal enemy, and although the inauguration of the Beis Hamikdash certainly would be an occasion for thanks and celebration, any celebration of that great gift must be predicated by an expression of gratitude for simply allowing him to live and to overcome the many threats to his existence.

As Reb Isser Zalman says, the Malbim's pshat is difficult to accept because it takes away any shaychus to the Beis Hamikdash.  Furthermore, it is entirely inconsistent with our Minhag and with the Gaon.  If he's talking about his body, it has nothing to do with Chanuka.

Reb Isser Zalman's pshat is a little tzarich iyun because Dovid Hamelech knew that he would be long gone before the Chanukas HaBayis.  Yes, he wrote this in preparation for the future, but what would those people who would be singing it care about Dovid Hamelech's life experience?  Bishlema if he himself said it, fine, he was thanking Hashem for bringing him to that point.  But for others, Dovid Hamelech's life experience had nothing to do with the Binyan Hamikdash and would be a distraction from the main simcha of the day.  The truth is that Reb Isser Zalman's pshat would work better with the Ibn Ezra, who says that the Bayis is not the Beis HaMikdash, it's just Dovid Hamelech's palace, the Beis Arazim.  But Reb Isser Zalman says he wants to say like Rashi, that it refers to the Beis HaMikdash.

• The Brisker Rov (in the newer thin black book) says pshat as follows.  He brings a Medrash that the blueprints, the 'הכל בכתב מיד ה עלי השכיל, were given by the Ribono shel Olam to Moshe with Hashem "standing,", and Moshe to Yehoshua with Moshe standing, etcetra down the line, and so it is clear that there's a din that the ksav had to handed over by one who is standing, that the מסירה requires עמידה.  When Dovid Hamelech was sick, he was afraid that because he couldn't stand on his won, he wouldn't be able to give the ksav to Shlomo, and Shlomo would not be able to build the Mikdash.  When he was healed, he celebrated his ability to stand up, because that made it possible for him to give the ksav to Shlomo Hamelech which enabled Shlomo Hamelech to build the Beis HaMikdash.

(It is clear in the pesukim in Divrei Hayamim I (28:11-19) that Dovid gave the hakol biksav plans to Shlomo:

 ויתן דויד לשלמה בנו את תבנית האולם ואת בתיו וגנזכיו ועליתיו וחדריו הפנימים ובית הכפרת:  ותבנית כל אשר היה ברוח עמו לחצרות בית ה' ולכל הלשכות סביב לאצרות בית האלהים ולאצרות הקדשים:  ולמחלקות הכהנים והלוים ולכל מלאכת עבודת בית ה' ולכל כלי עבודת בית ה':  לזהב במשקל לזהב לכל כלי עבודה ועבודה לכל כלי הכסף במשקל לכל כלי עבודה  ....  הכל בכתב מיד ה' עלי השכיל כל מלאכות התבנית)

I don't have to tell you that this pshat, diamond-like in its beauty and brilliance, also contains about as much moisture as a diamond.  If you're used to the Brisker derech, this is perfectly fine.  For the rest of us, it might not be entirely satisfying.

(Parenthetically, the Rov does not even address why the mesira would require amida.  If you ask me, I would say that it is because it has a din of eidus, but then he is not going with the Rashbam in Bava Basra's pshat in the requirement that eidim stand..)

• I saw an answer from Rav Shlomo Wahrman, a great American Talmid Chacham who was nifter this year, printed in Hamaor in 1984.  (Thank you, SC, for directing us to Rav Wahrman's sefer in which he reprinted this pshat under a different title.)  His vort lends itself to numbering, as follows:

1.  Rashi (Zevachim 24a) says that David Hamelech was mekadesh the floor of the Azara after buying the property from Aravna.
2.  Tosfos there brings the Yerushalmi that the Kiddush required the same procedure as needed to be mekadesh the Azara, namely, a king (Dovid), a prophet (Gad), the Urim ve'Tumim, and the 71 member Sanhedrin.
3.  The Gemara (Sanhedrin 107a) notes a contradiction in the number of years given for the length of David's reign, showing a difference of six months.  The Gemara answers that he was a Metzora for six months, during which he did not have the status of king.
4.  Additionally, the Yerushalmi  (Rosh Hashanna 1:1 and Horyos 3:3) says that during those six months that he was running from Avshalom he did not have the status of king.
          A.    The Radak, and the Meiri brought by the Chida, say that to have the status of king, you need the actuality of a loyal population.  During those six months, the people followed Avshalom.
          B.    This is also brought in the Avnei Nezer YD 312:15-

מלך גופי׳ אף לאחר שהמליכוהו אם מרדו בו רוב ישראל אין עליו דין מלך. כמבואר בירושלמי פ"ק דר״ה ובהוריות דכל ששה חדשים שהי׳ דוד נרדף מאבשלום ה״ מתכפר בשעירה כהדיוט. דקרא בקרב ישראל קאי על המלך עצמו ג"כ. וקרא כתיב הוא ובניו בקרב ישראל. וכשמחלוקת בישראל היינו שאין רוב ישראל מרוצים בו לא הוא ולא בניו מלכים

5.  Thus, we see two reasons that for those six months he did not have the Halachic status of "king": his tzara'as and the Avshalom rebellion.
6.  So David said that it was only because he was cured of Tzara'as and the rebellion quelled that he regained the status of king which enabled him to be mekadesh the Ritzpah.  This is what it means when it says
ארומימך ה׳ כי דיליתני ולא שמחת אויבי לי- that he overcame Avshalom.
ה׳ אלקי שועתי אליך ותרפאני- that he was cured from his Tzara'as.
7.  A Metzora has to act like an aveil- he dresses like an aveil and covers his head like an aveil.  This is what it means when it says
הפכת מספדי למחול לי פתחת שקי- that he was released from his aveilus.
8.  When he was no longer a metzora, and he was no longer an aveil, and was restored to his throne, and he was in a matzav of simcha- then ותאזרני שמחה- he was able to be mechaneich the floor of the Beis Hamikdash.
9.  Being mekadesh the floor of the Beis Hamikdash was the essence of the creation of the Hashra'as HaShechina that made the Beis HaMikdash meaningful.  It was the essence of the Chanukas Habayis, the Bayis that would only be visible many years later when Shlomo built it.  When he was mekadesh the Ritzpah, he was truly being mechaneich the Bayis.  And that is why he sang the Mizmor מזמור שיר חנוכת הבית לדוד.
10.  (This little addition is mine, not Rav Wahrman's.) This Kedusha of Dovid Hamelech was not limited to the time when Shlom's Mikdash stood.  The kedusha is eternal.  As Shlomo Hamelech said (Melachim I:8, בנה בניתי בית זבול לך מכון לשבתך עולמים.    And it will forever be through there that tefillos forever rise to Hashem, as Shlomo said ושמעת אל תחינת עבדך ועמך ישראל אשר יתפללו אל המקום הזה ואתה תשמע אל מקום שבתך אל השמים ושמעת וסלחת.  This is what it means when it says למען יזמרך כבוד ולא ידום ה' אלוקי לעולם אודך.

Rav Wahrman's pshat is truly excellent, and although it's a lomdisheh approach, it definitely has more feeling than the Brisker Rov's pshat.

• An anonymous comment that was sent in to my other website directs us to an excellent pshat based on the Medrash Tehillim:  

In the events described in Shmuel II Perek 24, because of a sin, ultimately 70,000 Jews died. Medrash Shochar Tov on Mizmor 17 says the sin was Klal Yisrael's delaying the building of the Bais HaMikdash. Indeed, the conclusion of the chapter is Dovid buying the makom haMikdash from Aravna and being makriv karbanos there to finally remove the charon af. While this was happening, Dovid davened "I am the one who sinned, what did the sheep do? Please strike me and my family instead." Immediately after, he was told by the navi Gad to buy the makom Hamikdash from Aravna.  So it was Hashem granting Dovid the inspiration to do his chanukas habayis (the consecration of the makom haMikdash) that saved him from hesped and death etc.

With Rav Wahrman's pshat and the Medrash Shocher Tov in mind, let us look at the pesukim in Shmuel II.  David told Yoav to go do the census.  Yoav was very upset; he felt, correctly, that it was wrong to do the census.  The passuk says that he delayed finishing as much as he could, and it took nine months and twenty days to finish the job.  Upon his return and his report, Gad HaNavi came to David and told him he was going to punished, and that he should choose which punishment will take place.  David chose the plague.  The plague took three days.  The next day, Gad told David to be makriv on the Har HaBayis.

If we assume, and I know this is an assumption, that Yoav began his job in the early spring, namely, Rosh Chodesh Adar, then he came back nine months and twenty days later, the twentieth of Kislev.  On the twenty first, Gad told David to choose his punishment.  The plague occurred on the twenty second, third and fourth.  On the twenty fourth, Gad told David to bring korbanos on the threshing floor of Aravnah.  On the twenty fifth of Kislev, David purchased the Goren, and he was makadeish the ground of the Har HaBayis.  The chanukas Bayis Rishon was, then, on the twenty fifth of Kislev.

Why would I think Yoav left Rosh Chodesh Adar?  First, and most honestly, because it would fit so nicely.  We did establish that the kiddush of the Ritzpah took place on a date that was nine months and twenty five days.  Isn't it tempting to think that it was on the twenty fifth of Kislev?  Second, because it might have been potentially the beginning of Nissan, unless they made that year a thirteen month year.  It is not unreasonable to assume that a count of months begins from Nissan, even if that year Nissan turned out to be Adar Sheini.  And who knows?  Maybe he did like Chizkiyahu, and עיבר ניסן בניסן.

From Rav Yehuda Oppenheimer:

1) Re: "Why would I think Yoav left Rosh Chodesh Adar? First, and most honestly, because it would fit so nicely..." Maybe the severity of dovid's sin was that he instructed yoav to count the people directly ON THE VERY DAY associated with the mitzva to do so through shekalim. 

Also from Rav Yehuda Oppenheimer:

2.) Based on the gemara in A"Z 8a together with the rambam kiddush hachodesh 9:3 it seems that Adam harishon may have already celebrated and brought korbanos in the makom hamikdash on chanuka. 

But there is one question that we still need to address.  Given that David was mekadeish the Ritzpah, and in a sense he was mechaneich the Bayis Rishon, why does he not talk about the Beis HaMikdash at all?  Talk about the Shechina, about korbanos, about the Menorah.  There's nothing there.  Why?

I asked the people at my kiddush this question, and I learned something from the answer I got.  If you want to understand Tehillim, sometimes the person to ask is not necessarily the gadol batorah.    You need to ask someone who is a maamin, a baal bitachon who has experienced the struggle, one who has experienced the heights and the depths, good times and bad, comfort and pain.  David HaMelech was loved, and he was hated.  He was a king, and he was a despised refugee hunted by his own son and cursed by the people he asked for help when he was hungry.  He did not have an easy life.  He struggled every day with himself, with his family, with his friends, and it is the tears and the song of that life that came to us as his Sefer Tehillim.  Reb Yakov Feigenbaum said the following, and I think it is the best pshat I ever heard in this mizmor, and karov l'emes.

He said that David HaMelech was teaching us why we should care about having a Beis HaMikdash. Every man experiences many things in his life.  He is sick, and he is cured.  He is pursued by enemies, and Hashem offers him a refuge.  He is threatened with death, and he survives.  Through it all, he knows that it is hashgacha pratis, and that it is chesed from the Ribono shel Olam.  He has seen the רגע באפו, and he has faith that חיים ברצונו.  It is vitally important that he should have a place where he can come face to face with the Ribono shel Olam, a place that is dedicated to tefilla and avoda, where he can publicly proclaim "Ribono shel Olam, I see You, I thank you, I know that everything is in Your hands and everything comes from Your hands."  When David said Shira about the Chanukas HaBayis, he taught us why the Bayis matters.  He didn't need to talk about exactly how we do the avoda.  The soul of the avoda is recognizing that we were created by the Ribono shel Olam and to say Hallel ve'Hodaah- but this Hodaah, the Hodaah of Mizmor Shir is a combination of Hoda'ah "recognition" and Hoda'ah "gratitude.

You can see this in the Ramban says in Parshas Bo,  There's no point in highlighting any one sentence here- every word is important.

וכוונת כל המצות שנאמין באלהינו ונודה אליו שהוא בראנו והיא כוונת היצירה שאין לנו טעם אחר ביצירה הראשונה ואין אל עליון חפץ בתחתונים מלבד שידע האדם ויודה לאלהיו שבראו וכוונת רוממות הקול בתפלות וכוונת בתי הכנסיות וזכות תפלת הרבים זהו שיהיה לבני אדם מקום יתקבצו ויודו לאל שבראם והמציאם ויפרסמו זה ויאמרו לפניו בריותיך אנחנו וזו כוונתם במה שאמרו ז"ל (ירושלמי תענית פ"ב ה"א) ויקראו אל אלהים בחזקה (יונה ג ח) מכאן אתה למד שתפלה צריכה קול

To have a place that is dedicated to tefilla, the public proclamation of our awareness of God, for הודאה in both senses of recognition and gratitude, there is nothing more precious and vital than that.  As the Gemara in Megilla 18a says,  עבודה והודאה חדא מילתא היא.

I think the same pshat applies to the other Mizmor Shir- Mizmor Shir LeYom HaShabbos.  There's nothing in there about Shabbos, but every word of that Mizmor tells us what Shabbos is all about, the kedusha and spiritual growth, the reflection on the past and hope for the coming days, that is the essence of Shabbos.  It doesn't have to mention Kiddush, or issur melacha.  It shows us what we are supposed to gain from the Kedusha of Shabbos, and once you know that, then Shabbos can have a roshem on you.