Writes in Moreh Nevuchim that David HaMelech came to explain the reason for this great protection. The answer is כִּי בִי חָשַׁק וַאֲפַלְטֵהוּ כִּי יָדַע שְׁמִי – Because he has set his love upon Me, therefore I will deliver him; I will set him on high, because he knows My name. The reason you merit that a thousand may fall at your side and ten thousand at your right hand, but it shall not come near you, is because you have set your love upon Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Says Hakadosh Baruch Hu, “I will deliver him; I will set him on high, because he knows My name.”
The Magen Avraham writes that we begin it with וִיהִי נֹעַם and then repeat אֹרֶךְ יָמִים אַשְׂבִּיעֵהוּ וְאַרְאֵהוּ בִּישׁוּעָתִי at the end so that the total number of words be 130, which is the numerical value of הַכֹּהֲנִים. Why? Because the sons of the Chashmonaim recited this chapter of Tehillim when they went out to war and were victorious, and it is through them that the Pasuk was fulfilled: כִּי בִי חָשַׁק וַאֲפַלְטֵהוּ. How was it possible that twelve Chashmonaim went out to fight tens of thousands and were victorious? It is because כִּי בִי חָשַׁק וַאֲפַלְטֵהוּ כִּי יָדַע שְׁמִי.
Rabbotai, in this week's Haftarah, the Navi Hosea says:
א ַ שׁ ּ ו ּ ר לֹא יוֹשִׁיעֵנוּ עַל סוּס לֹא נִ רְ כּ ָ ב וְ לֹא נֹאמַ ר עוֹד אֱ -לֹהֵ ינוּ לְ מַ עֲשֵׂ ה יָ דֵ ינוּ אֲשׁ ֶר בְּך יְ רֻ חַ ם יָתוֹם׃
Assyria shall not save us, no more will we ride on steeds; Nor ever again will we call our handiwork our god, since in You alone orphans find mercy!
We also read this Haftarah on Shabbat Shuva. Chazal tell us that the secret of salvation is found in this Haftarah: If you trust in Assyria – i.e., in your own strength, in your money – Hakadosh Baruch Hu does not come to your aid. When do you receive salvation? When you do not trust in Assyria; and when you declare, "We will not ride upon horses; and we will no longer say 'our god' to the work of our hands." It is then that you receive the mercy of an orphan.
What exactly is the mercy of an orphan? Does a person have to be an orphan to receive mercy? The Torah says:
כׇּל־אַלְמָנָה וְיָתוֹם לֹא תְעַנּוּן׃ אִם־עַנֵּה תְעַנֶּה אֹתוֹ כִּי אִם־צָעֹק יִצְעַק אֵלַי שׁ ָמֹעַ אֶשְׁמַע צַעֲקָתוֹ׃
You must not mistreat any widow or orphan. If you do mistreat him, when he cries out to Me, I will indeed hear his cry.
The question is raised: is this only about orphans and widows? What happens with a private individual who, Baruch Hashem, is neither an orphan nor a widow – would it be permitted to cause him suffering? Rashi says the same law applies to every person, except that the Pasuk speaks of them, in the present tense, because they are weak and it is common to oppress the weak.
Usually, people cause suffering to the weak, but what is written here? אִם צָעֹק יִצְעַק אֵלַי שָׁמֹעַ אֶשְׁמַע צַעֲקָתוֹ – If he cries out to Me, I will surely hear his cry. Why is the orphan answered? The Ramban gives a very simple answer. The orphan is answered because he has no one to turn to except Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Usually when a person is in trouble, he calls his father: "Dad, can I come up and have coffee at your place?" "Why, what happened?" "My situation is a mess." Suddenly he remembers that he has a father who can save him. But the orphan, says the Ramban, goes straight to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, because he has no one else to turn to! This is what is written here. His cry is surely heard because his appeal is the appeal of an orphan – he turns only to Hakadosh Baruch Hu!
A person who turns solely to Hakadosh Baruch Hu is a person who merits salvation.
We brought all this as an introduction to the words of the Alsheich Hakadosh. The Alsheich says: Know this, Rachel Imeinu went and placed her hopes for childbirth on the dudaim.
תְּנִי נָא לִי מִדּוּדָאֵי בְּנֵך
– Please give me some of your mandrakes. Give me some of the dudaim; perhaps through them I will conceive. Hakadosh Baruch Hu demanded an accounting from Rachel Imeinu, just as He demanded from Yosef HaTzaddik: "What do you mean, you're turning to sorcerers?! Rachel, you need salvation, and you're turning to mandrakes?! Why didn't you turn to Me? You should have turned to Me and asked, ‘Father, I want children’!”
Yaakov Avinu replied:
הֲתַחַת אֱ-לֹהִים אָנֹכִי אֲשֶׁר מָנַע מִמֵּךְ פְּרִי בָטֶן
– Am I in the place of G-d, who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb? “Why are you coming to me with complaints?! Turn to Hakadosh Baruch Hu!”
The Alsheich says: Come and see how long Rachel Imeinu waited until she gave birth. Yissachar was born, Zevulun was born, Dinah was born, and only then was Yosef born. How long did she wait? Rachel waited two years to give birth! (It is written in Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer (36) that each of the matriarchs gave birth after seven months.) Why did she wait two years? Hakadosh Baruch Hu wanted to show her that one does not become pregnant from dudaim. She waited so that she wouldn't think for a moment that she ate these mandrakes and became pregnant through them! Rather, she receives the pregnancy because Hakadosh Baruch Hu heard her Tefillot and remembered her good deeds, namely, that she gave the simanim to her sister. Hakadosh Baruch Hu wanted to teach us: Tefillah is the foundation of all salvations!
The Alsheich says, because she asked for and ate dudaim, she lost two tribes and the birthright. Why?! You should have put your trust and faith in Hakadosh Baruch Hu, not on dudaim! And it was specifically Leah, who said "I don't need dudaim," who merited to give birth to Yissachar, and through this completed the three crowns! Until now she had the Keter Kehuna (crown of priesthood – Levi), the Keter Malchut (crown of kingship – Yehuda), and now she completed the triple crown, the Keter Torah, through the tribe of Yissachar.
According to the Alsheich Hakadosh, we can now understand very well. Had Rachel acquired the dudaim from Leah, and Yaakov had instead come home to Rachel's tent, Rachel would have given birth to Yissachar, and her second son would then be Zevulun, and her third son would be Yosef, and her fourth would be Binyamin. If so, she would have given birth to four sons, but only because she asked for the dudaim and hung her trust on them. Hakadosh Baruch Hu delayed her birth by two years; thus, she lost two tribes and also lost the birthright, which Leah merited.
וַיִּשְׁכַּב עִמָּהּ בַּלַּיְלָה הוּא
– And he (Yaakov) lay with her that night. Hakadosh Baruch Hu had to intervene here personally. Why personally? What makes this particular case different from all other cases? Look at the interpretation of Targum Yonatan ben Uziel:
וְאָזַל רְאוּבֵן בְּיוֹמֵי סִיוָן בִּזְמַן חֲצַד חִיטִין
– And Reuven went in the days of Sivan, at the time of the wheat harvest. The night Reuven came home, during the wheat harvest, was in the month of Sivan. Know that this day was the fifth of Sivan – the night of Shavuot. On the night of Shavuot, Leah wanted to be visited by the Pillar of Torah, through the conception of Yissachar who was destined to come into the world, so that the three crowns would be in her hands. Therefore, in order to transfer the Keter Torah from the hands of Rachel to the hands of Leah, the intervention of Hakadosh Baruch Hu was necessary, as it says: וַיִּשְׁכַּב עִמָּהּ בַּלַּיְלָה הוּא. Hakadosh Baruch Hu intervenes to transfer the Keter Torah from our Rachel Imeinu to Leah Imeinu. These are the words of the Alsheich.
It follows that Yissachar's mother conceived on the night of Shavuot. The Bnei Yissaschar references these words of the Alsheich and says: If Leah conceived on the night of Shavuot, and if it is written in Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer that the Imahot gave birth after seven months, then count seven months from Sivan and you’ll arrive at Kislev. The Bnei Yissaschar says: “My heart tells me that she gave birth on the twenty-fifth of Kislev. Chazal say that the oil of the menorah symbolizes the holy Torah, as it says: כִּי נֵר מִצְוָה וְתוֹרָה אוֹר – For a Mitzvah is a lamp and Torah is light; the light of Torah was on the first day of Chanukah, when Yissachar was born.”
If his heart tells him it was on the first candle of Chanukah, and the Alsheich Hakadosh writes that the conception was on the night of Shavuot, here is a beautiful addendum. The Midrash Talpiot comes and says something wonderful. It is written in the Rema that we have the custom to decorate the synagogue with flowers on Shavuot. Why? Everyone says it is because Har Sinai was in full bloom for Matan Torah. The Midrash Talpiyot says this is not the case, however. It is because Leah conceived Yissachar on the night of Shavuot through the dudaim; and as a remembrance of the dudaim, we have the custom to decorate the shul with roses, to remind us that Yissachar came into the world through the dudaim that Reuven brought to his mother!
If so, we can close the loop with our opening words:
הַדּוּדָאִים נָתְנוּ רֵיחַ וְעַל פְּתָחֵינוּ כָּל מְגָדִים חֲדָשִׁים גַם יְשָׁנִים דּוֹדִי צָפַנְתִּי לָך
The mandrakes give forth fragrance, and over our doors are all manner of precious fruits, new and old, which I have kept for you, my beloved. הַדּוּדָאִים נָתְנוּ רֵיחַ refers to Reuven; וְעַל פְּתָחֵינוּ כָּל מְגָדִים refers to Chanukah. We asked, what is the connection between one and the other? According to this explanation, it is quite simple. The dudaim gave forth fragrance at Shavuot, when Reuven brought his mother the dudaim, and she gave them to Rachel, from which Yissachar was born.
Therefore, the Midrash Talpiot specifically tells us to adorn the shul. וְעַל פְּתָחֵינוּ כָּל מְגָדִים is Chanukah, for that is when Yissachar was born. The beginning of the dudaim was at Shavuot, when they give forth fragrance, and their conclusion is at Chanukah, at our doors all manner of precious things.
If so, after all this, we can say one more thing, and with that conclude. We find ourselves after a week of conflict, and Baruch Hashem, it is now behind us. Many attribute the great miracle to something called both iron (barzel) and a dome (kippa) [in reference to the Iron Dome]. So, if it is a kippa, I understand that the kippa is helpful; and the iron, I’m not sure of the exact role iron plays, as we all know that unless Hashem guards the city, in vain does the watchman keep watch – Hakadosh Baruch Hu is the one who guards us. Over 1500 missiles fell on Israel, and oh the damage that could have been caused! Everyone says that in Bnei Brak no missiles fell because there are no open areas here for them to land safely in. But the great miracle is that after so many missiles, they all came down with minimal harm. Rachmana litzlan, there were casualties and wounded, and one cannot minimize that, but on the other hand, we must see the miracles in the Chasdei Hashem, in the mercy of Hakadosh Baruch Hu.
I thought perhaps in the way of homiletics, the כיפה (dome) certainly is helpful; and ברזל (iron), as written in the commentaries, is an acrostic of the four matriarchs: Bilhah, Rachel, Zilpah, Leah. If you want to know in the merit of what we were saved – it is both because of the כיפה and because of the ברזל – it is the merit of our holy Imahot that protected us in this war.
May Hakadosh Baruch Hu merit us to place our trust in the Boreh Olam and may He merit us to see the coming of Mashiach Tzidkeinu speedily in our days, Amen v’Amen!
