Psalms · Psalm 133

"Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brothers also to dwell together" — When the Holy One, blessed be He, will dwell in the Temple with Israel, who are called brothers and friends, and He too will be together with them.

"A Song of Ascents" — Behold, in the psalm above he mentioned "I have caused a horn to sprout for David," and the meaning here is the House of David: he mentions that they will become one united group in the days of Solomon, together with his brothers. And the word "thing" (davar) is omitted, so that it reads as if it said: "Behold, how good a thing and how pleasant a thing," for "good" and "pleasant" are adjectives whose noun is left out. And the meaning also alludes to the priests — or, more correctly, it refers to brothers in fellowship with the priests. And the meaning also applies to the High Priest.

'Behold, how good and how pleasant' — this speaks of the Messiah-King and the High Priest who will be in his days, for both of them are great ones of Israel and rulers over them: the king, who sits on the throne of judgment and kingship to command Israel as he sees fit, and the priest, who teaches the Torah and the commandments. And they are brothers in greatness, and they will not envy one another; each of them will sit upon a throne of greatness, and how good and how pleasant their dwelling will be. And it says, 'together as one' — for just as they will be brothers in greatness, so they will be brothers in their garb, and they will be together in one accord; neither of them will envy his fellow.

"Behold, how good" — How very good and how very pleasant it is when the whole house of Israel, who are called brothers because of the great brotherhood between them, dwell upon their land. "Together as one" — And they shall be together as one, in a single kingdom, and no longer be divided into two kingdoms.

"Pleasant" — an expression of sweetness and pleasantness.

"A Song of Ascents" — this song was founded upon the two well-known brothers, namely Issachar and Zebulun, who joined together until they were like a single body and soul, one of whom walks the path of perfection for the sake of his companion — as it says, "Rejoice, Zebulun, in your going out, and Issachar, in your tents," for Issachar occupied himself with Torah and perfected the soul, while Zebulun occupied himself with commerce for the perfection of the body and of possessions. And through the combination of the two together, both the good and the pleasantness were achieved — the true good being matters of the World to Come, and the pleasantness being in temporal life. This is the meaning of, behold, "how good and how pleasant" — and this comes by means of "brethren dwelling together as one," for besides their dwelling in peace, they were together like a single body. Now he will explain the matter.

"As the good oil" — with which Aaron the priest was anointed. "which runs down" — from his head to his beard, to the mouth of his tunic, for the beard rests on the mouth of the tunic. So is the dew of Hermon, which is high, pleasant on the mountains of Zion. Just as the anointing oil is for greatness, so is the dew of Zion for glory and distinction for Israel. Just as the good oil is so, so is the dew of Hermon. Like this, so is that, like (Isa. 24:2): “as with the people, so with the priest.” Our Rabbis explained “for brothers to dwell” as concerning Moses and Aaron, regarding unlawful use of the anointment oil, in tractate Horioth (12a) the entire psalm. But [there is], in words of Torah and post- Mosaic Scriptures, an allegory and a figure, and [in the] words of the wise and their riddles, but the primary meaning of the song of ascents is that it was said regarding the Temple.

"Like the oil" — this is the anointing oil; therefore he made its meaning known explicitly, and therefore it is stated with the definite article, for it is the well-known oil, for it is holy, and whoever is anointed with it is holy. "And he mentions Aaron" — because he was the chief of those anointed.

'Like the oil' [ka-shemen] — with a patach under the kaf, to indicate the definite article on the well-known oil, namely the anointing oil. He says: so will the dwelling of brothers be good and pleasant, just as the anointing of the priest was good and pleasant on the day he was appointed High Priest. And he mentions the anointing of the priest and not the anointing of King David, for two reasons. The first: because the anointing of Aaron came first, and it was the time when the glory came to dwell in Israel, when the Tabernacle was erected; so too in the future, when the Temple will be built and the Messiah-King and the High Priest will arise, the glory will dwell there. And another reason: the anointing of Aaron was in the sight of all Israel, while the anointing of David was in secret, before Jesse and his sons and the elders of Bethlehem; but in the future, the matter will take place openly, in the sight of all Israel and in the sight of the nations. 'Upon the head' — when Moses poured it upon Aaron's head, it ran down onto his beard and onto the opening of his garments. First he clothed him in the priestly garments, and afterward he poured the oil upon his head and anointed him with the oil, also between his eyelids, in the shape of the Greek letter chi. And the oil that he poured upon his head ran down onto his beard and onto the opening of his measured garments, beneath the beard. And the meaning of 'the garment' is the collar. And the oil was a compounded perfume, good and pleasant. 'His garments' [middotav] — his garments, similar to [the phrase] 'his linen vestment' [middo vad].

"Like the precious oil" — The matter is comparable to the anointing oil poured upon the head in great abundance, until it flows down from there onto the beard — that is, the beard of Aaron, who was the first to be anointed with the anointing oil. "That comes down" — Which flowed down further, onto the opening of his garments at the neck. That is to say: just as the anointing oil, although it was poured only on the head, nevertheless spread from there to other places, because they are joined one to another — so too, if the whole house of Israel is one and has a single head, then the abundance will be divided to all of them by means of the king, who receives the abundance first.

"His garments" — his clothes, as in "his linen garment" (Leviticus 6).

"Like the oil" — behold, the divine influence sometimes descends upon that which is prepared for it without an intermediary; but it descends in such great abundance that even that which is not prepared for it comes to overflow from it. This is [illustrated] by the parable of "the precious oil" of the anointing oil, the primary [flow] of which "comes down upon the head" — for there they would anoint with the sacred anointing oil, since that is the place prepared for this, inasmuch as there resides the seat of the brain and the organs of intellect and thought, the oil signifying providence. And nevertheless it "comes down" incidentally also "upon the beard, the beard of Aaron" — even though the beard is long — "that it comes down according to its proportions." And in the parable's application, the influence of wisdom came upon Issachar, who corresponds to the head, for he was prepared to receive wisdom and received from it a great share and abundant flow, until the oil of wisdom flowed from him even onto the tribe of Zebulun as well, for they too received from that same abundance — "oil poured forth."

"Like the dew" — Rabbi Moshe said: what connection does Mount Hermon have to Mount Zion?! And he explained it thus: "like the dew of Hermon," which is fitting for it to descend upon the mountains of Zion. But the correct view in my eyes is that "like the dew" serves another clause as well, so that it means: "like the dew of Hermon" — like dew that descends — and behold, he has mentioned two things [with one comparison], in the manner of "it pacifies anger" (Proverbs 21:14) and many verses like it. For when the blessing is in the dew, then the produce increases, since human life depends upon it.

'Like the dew' — [this word] stands in place of two, as if it said: 'like the dew of Hermon, [and] like the dew that comes down upon the mountains of Zion.' And he mentions Hermon, which is one of the great mountains in the Land of Israel. And he mentions 'the mountains of Zion,' for there the kingship will be. And he says 'mountains' in the plural, as it says, 'Jerusalem, mountains are round about her.' And the parable of the oil is a parable for the High Priest, and now he mentions the dew as a parable for the king, as it is written of kings: 'the king's wrath is like the roaring of a lion, but his favor is like dew upon the grass.' And furthermore, redemption is likened to dew, as it says, 'like dew from Hashem.' And he mentions dew upon the mountains, for it is for them a blessing, and they need it more than the valleys and the plain land. 'For there' — on the mountains of Zion. 'Hashem commanded the blessing' — and He commanded them there. 'Forever' [ad olam] — a long time; or its meaning may be 'until the world [to come],' referring to the World to Come.

"Like the dew of Hermon" — Just as the dew that comes down from Mount Hermon onto the mountains of Zion, which are lower than it, so does abundance come by means of the king to the rest of the people. "For there" — In Zion Hashem commanded the blessing and life forever, meaning that in Zion abundance comes and first rests upon the king who reigns there, and from him it is bestowed upon the people; therefore it is good for them to be united.

"Like the dew of Hermon" — and sometimes the abundance reaches that which is prepared for it through an intermediary, in such a way that it first arrives at a place not intended for it in its essence and primarily, in order that it may then pour out upon the place that deserves it — like the dew of Hermon, which is not intended for the sake of Mount Hermon itself, but rather [in order] "that it comes down upon the mountains of Zion, for there Hashem commanded the blessing" — for the essence of the blessing descends for the sake of Mount Zion and travels by way of Mount Hermon. For the dew that brings life to Mount Hermon does not bring life that endures forever, nor eternal life; but the life that is upon Mount Zion is eternal life, forever. So too, the flow of wealth and possessions that reached Zebulun reached him only for the sake of Issachar, that he might find sufficient means to occupy himself with Torah and thereby acquire eternal life through them; and it reached Issachar by means of Zebulun. In this way Zebulun was like Mount Hermon, which receives the dew for the sake of Mount Zion.