Kedushas Levi
“A psalm by Assaf: G-d, the nations have entered Your inheritance.” (Tehillim 79:1)
The Kedushas Levi cites Chazal (Eicha Rabba 4:14): “The verse should not have called this a psalm, but rather a dirge or lamentation of crying by Assaf; why then is it called a psalm or mizmor?
This can be understood through a parable: A king made a wedding hall for his son; he whitewashed it and had it repaired. Then his son went off the derech. The king went immediately to the chuppa, ripped it and smashed the staves that held it up. The son’s tutor picked up the broken sticks while singing. They asked him, ‘How can you sing at a time like this when the king has destroyed his son’s wedding canopy?’ He answered them, ‘I am singing that he let out his anger on his son’s chuppa and not on his son!’ This is what they said to Assaf: ‘The Almighty is destroying His temple and sanctuary and you are sitting and singing?!’ He answered them, ‘I am singing because the Almighty poured out His wrath on sticks and stones and not on the Jewish people themselves.’” (See also Rashi and Tosafos commentaries to Kiddushin 31b, s.v. Istaya Milsei.)
The Berditchever elucidates this idea with the following moshol: The king’s son sullied the palace that the king had once built for him. The king did not wish to destroy the palace himself, causing anguish and pain to his son. What did the king do? He removed his watchful eyes and protection from it, allowing enemies to destroy it. By not destroying it himself, the king demonstrated his love for his son.
However, regarding the destruction that the nations wrought, it is written (Yeshaya 63:3): “I have trodden on a winepress Myself”. The Holy One Himself will stamp on them as one treads on a winepress, to destroy the nations. This is why it says: “Mizmor Le’Assaf – a psalm by Assaf: G-d, the nations have entered Your inheritance,” (they did it instead of Him directly).
