Tehillim 119:19
גֵּר אָנֹכִי בָאָרֶץ אַל-תַּסְתֵּר מִמֶּנִּי מִצְוֹתֶיךָ
ger anochi vaaretz al-taster mimeni mitzvoteicha
I am a stranger on the earth; do not hide Your commandments from me.
The main obstacle to achievement is the brevity of human life. For no man can accomplish enough in his short span to encompass all necessary knowledge in every part of the Torah. Hence the King David pleads that at least he should understand the practical mitzvot.
"I am a stranger on the earth," so
"do not hide Your commandments from me." As the Scripture indeed says elsewhere,
"and keep His commandments, for that is the entire man" (Kohelet 12:13).
"I am a stranger on the earth" and my days are few, so
"do not hide Your commandments from me." Let them not stay hidden so that I may implement them. If I fail to keep them now, when
shall I keep them?
"I am a stranger on the earth," and do not know the day of my departure. So,
"do not hide Your commandments from me." I am like a passing stranger who requires that provisions for the road be at hand in case he must depart suddenly.
King David felt that since a man's stay in this world is only temporary, he must equip himself with Torah learning and the observance of mitzvot.
The story is told about a certain province in India where the inhabitants would elect a king to rule over them for one year. Once, they crowned a fool who was unaware of this time limitation to his reign, and he built palaces for himself. At the conclusion of his year-long reign, he was separated from all his wealth. He was succeeded to the throne by a sage, who soon found out that his reign would last only a year. He then invested much effort to amass a great deal of money, which he deposited in another country. At the end of the year he had everything, and he rejoiced in both places.
"I am a stranger "
גר" (
ger)
on the earth." The Midrash says, "Was, then, David a stranger? He said, rather, just as one who today becomes a convert (ger) is ignorant of Torah, so a man's eyes are open and yet he may be unable to distinguish between his right hand and his left hand in Torah knowledge. If David, who composed all these songs and psalms, said, 'I am a stranger on the earth' and know nothing, it is assuredly true of us that we know nothing!"
We are both strangers and settlers
(cf. v. 39:13), like all our forefathers
(cf. Bereishit 23:4).
"For our days on earth are a shadow" (Iyov 8:9). Just as this shadow passes, so the human being passes away. However, our days are like a shadow only when we do not study and apply the Torah.
Thus our Sages teach, "The day is short, the work is abundant, and the workers are lazy; the reward is ample and the master urges."
Accordingly, it says,
"I am a stranger on the earth; do not hide Your commandments from me."
I ask,
"Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things from Your Torah" (v119:18). Profound secrets are not revealed to those not sufficiently deserving, but I am a stranger here on earth. My soul is carved from on high.
"I am a stranger on the earth; do not hide Your commandments from me." King David is telling us that his entire existence in this world is like that of an alien in a strange land. He is here only for one purpose: to collect Torah and mitzvot to bring to the World to Come. Therefore he beseeches Hashem:
"Do not hide Your mitzvot from me." Indeed, every Jew should try to emulate the behavior of King David. A person should strive to make Torah his primary occupation.
The Chofetz Chaim related an excellent parable to illustrate this idea:
When a person wants to build a house, he doesn't plan it himself. Rather, he hires a professional architect to draw up a blueprint of his future home. This blueprint provides the builder with an exact model, showing the size and location of each room.
A wealthy man hired a prominent architect, and told him, "I have a certain piece of property, and I want to build the most spectacular mansion in town on it. I hear you do superb work, and I'd like to hire you to draw up a blueprint. Put special emphasis on making a large and luxurious living room. However, don't scrimp on the foyer either, because I want my guests to have a good impression as soon as they enter the house."
The architect's first step was to measure the size of the property. Realizing that there was a major problem, he immediately returned to the owner to report back.
"Listen, I measured your property down to the inch. Unfortunately, there just isn't enough room for both a spacious living room and a large foyer. If you want a luxurious living room, you'll have to make the foyer smaller, because whatever you add to the one will detract from the other. I'll do whatever you wish, but if you want my advice, I think you should choose a small entrance-way and a luxurious and spacious living room. Besides, this is the normal way people build houses. They put the accent on the beauty and comfort of the living room, and make the foyer secondary. If you do the opposite, you'll be the laughing-stock of the whole community. People will say to themselves, 'Look at that fool! He sits his guests in a cramped salon and puts their jackets in a luxurious coatroom!'"
The Chofetz Chaim concludes: The purpose of our time in this world is to build a mansion for ourselves in the World to Come. Yet what do we do? We invest most of our efforts in enlarging and decorating the foyer! We don't realize that this only makes our real, eternal home that much smaller. What foolishness!
