Im echkashechh Yerushalaim

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"On the banks of the rivers of Babylon", there we sat down,

and we wept at the memory of Zion.

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Tradition attributes most of the Psalms to David..."Gd showed him the destruction of the first temple..." Babylonian Talmud, Gitin Treatise, page 17, page 2.

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אִם אֶשְׁכָּחֵךְ

יְרוּשָׁלִָם =

976 =

a psalm of David.

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The first "On the banks of the rivers of Babylon" designates in my opinion the Jewish diaspora (he) Tefutzah, the "dispersed" in Galut, his "physical exile". It tells us about the dispersion of the Jewish people throughout the world.

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“If I ever forget you, Jerusalem, may my right hand refuse me its service!”

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Metsudat David completes as follows:

"If I forget you, Jerusalem, then my right will forget its strength and its movement". King David realizes that if he does not make Jerusalem the beginning of his joy, Hashem will deprive him of the opportunity to play the harp with his right hand, and forbid his tongue to sing the songs of Zion.

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This teaches us that music is strength and movement for the people of Israel. The one that leads to his joy and his attachment to the divine, even in galout.

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Joy in particular is the world of freedom, as it is written, "for joy shall you come out of." Through this joy we become free and come out of exile

(Likut Moharan II Torah 10).

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This psalm speaks to us of the music of our soul,

The one that leads to our joy and our attachment to the divine,

even in galut (exile).

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Isaiah 51, 16:

I put my words in your mouth 

– I put words of Torah in your mouth for you to say.

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I sheltered you in the shade of my hand

– I have always defended you against the enemy by the merit of the Torah.

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To plant the heavens

– To plant the people of Israel on their land, about whom it is written: “Look at the sky and count the stars (…), so will your descendants be” (Genesis 15,5).

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And refound the earth

– So that those who are compared to the stars are also implanted in the reality of the ground (in the “dust of the earth”), as it is said: “I will make your descendants like the dust of the earth” (Genesis 13, 16).

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To say to Zion: you are my people

 All the nations shall call the sons of Zion my people, for an abundance of blessings shall be seen among them.

– commentary by Metsudat David.

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King Mashiah will gather the exiles of Israel and rebuild the Temple. May music return to Beth Hamikdash in Jerusalem today. Amen ve amen.

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This psalm is the ninth of the ten psalms of the Tikun Haklali of Rabbi Nah'man of Breslev z'l.

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