The sugya is the phrase in Tehillim, keh...

The sugya is the phrase in Tehillim, keh...

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The sugya is the phrase in Tehillim, kehimmes dong mipnei esh yovedu reshaim mipnei Elokim. As wax melts before fire, the wicked are lost before God.

The first point is that the pasuq isn't speaking about wax as an aesthetic image. It's speaking about enemies. The pasuq itself says yovedu reshaim, the wicked will be lost. The mashal is only the mechanism. The subject is the collapse of reshaim before Hashem.

The full pasuq in Tehillim 68 says, kehindof ashan tindof, kehimmes dong mipnei esh yovedu reshaim mipnei Elokim. As smoke is driven away, You drive them away. As wax melts before fire, the wicked are lost before God.

Rashi reads the phrase mipnei Elokim in its local context. He connects it to the aron in the days of Moshe. That matters. The pasuq isn't only saying that wicked people eventually fail. It's saying that when the presence of Hashem is carried into the camp of Israel, the enemy's standing is removed. This is why the pasuq sits naturally near the language of vayhi binsoa ha'aron, when the aron traveled, Moshe said, quma Hashem veyafutsu oyvekha veyanusu mesanekha mipanekha. Arise, Hashem, and let Your enemies scatter, and let those who hate You flee before You.

That's the first geder. The pasuq is not private revenge language. It's war-language around the enemies of Hashem and the enemies of Israel when Israel stands under the shekhina.

The enemy is not defined by personal irritation. The enemy is defined by opposition to the revealed order of Hashem, or by active hostility toward the people carrying that order.

The mefarshim on the pasuq sharpen this. Ibn Ezra explains that the comparison works because smoke is driven by wind, and wax loses its form before fire. He reads the pasuq as a prayer that Hashem should drive away the enemies.

Radak also reads it as a request that Hashem should scatter the enemy like smoke and make them melt before Him like wax before fire. The point is direct. The pasuq is a tefilla for the removal of reshaim. It isn't a meditation on fragility.

Malbim adds an important historical frame. On Tehillim 68 he connects the image to Gog uMagog. That means the wax language is not only about one local enemy in Dovid's time. It also becomes language for the final confrontation, where organized arrogance against Hashem and Israel loses its standing. On Tehillim 97, the pasuq says, harim kadong namasu milifnei Hashem, milifnei Adon kol ha'aretz.

Mountains melted like wax before Hashem, before the Master of all the earth. The mefarshim there explain that mountains can mean kings, rulers, or the great powers of the nations. The image is the same. Power that looks immovable loses form before Hashem.

That gives the source spine. Tehillim 68 speaks about reshaim. Tehillim 97 speaks about mountains, and the mefarshim read the mountains as the kings and powers of the nations.

The shared lashon is dong, wax. The shared mechanism is mipnei Hashem, before Hashem. The shared output is collapse.

Now the question is what halakhic category controls how this pasuq may be used. There are three possible categories, and they can't be mixed.

The first category is personal enemy. That means someone who wronged me, embarrassed me, competed with me, cost me money, or stands in my way. For that category, this pasuq is dangerous. The Torah doesn't give a man permission to turn every personal grievance into yovedu reshaim. Mishlei says, binfol oyivkha al tismach, when your enemy falls, don't rejoice. Pirkei Avot brings that pasuq as the teaching of Shmuel haQatan. The basic middah is restraint. A person doesn't convert private anger into a religious script.

The second category is sinner. That means a person who is doing wrong, but he's not presently threatening life, Torah, or the public standing of Israel. Here Berakhot 10a is the control source. Rabbi Meir had violent neighborhood troublemakers and wanted to pray that they should die. Berurya corrected him from the pasuq, yitamu chataim min ha'aretz.

She reads chataim as sins, not chotim as sinners. Rabbi Meir prayed for mercy, and they did teshuva. The rule is not sentimental. It's textual. Where the problem can be framed as sin without necessary destruction of the sinner, the better tefilla is that the sin should end.

The third category is rodef or public enemy. That means an enemy who is actively pursuing life, attacking Israel, empowering murder, or carrying a war against Hashem's people. Here the halakha changes. Rambam in Hilkhot Rotseach writes that when a person pursues another person with a mortal threat, the nirdaf is saved even by the life of the rodef if there's no lesser way.

This isn't vengeance. It's rescue. Once the category is rodef, the death or collapse of the pursuer can become a required outcome when no lesser measure saves the victim.

This is the central hiluq for the shiur. Tehillim 68:3 may not be used as a personal curse formula. It may be used as tefilla against reshaim who are acting as enemies of Hashem, enemies of Israel, or pursuers of innocent blood. The pasuq itself restricts the category by saying reshaim and by placing the collapse mipnei Elokim. It's not my enemy before my ego. It's the wicked before God.

Now we have to bring in another source, because this sugya is not simple. Sanhedrin 39b says that when the Egyptians were drowning at the sea, the ministering angels wanted to sing. HaQadosh Barukh Hu said, maaseh yadai tov'in bayam ve'atem omrim shira lefanai. My handiwork is drowning in the sea, and you're saying shira before Me. That source blocks a crude reading.

The collapse of enemies isn't supposed to produce bloodlust. The Egyptians were real enemies. They enslaved Israel. They pursued Israel. They were drowning because Hashem saved Israel. Still, the angels are rebuked for singing.

But the same Torah contains Shirat HaYam. Moshe and Israel did sing. That means the problem isn't gratitude for salvation. The problem is rejoicing in destruction as destruction. Israel can sing over being saved.

Angels, who weren't rescued from Egypt and weren't pursued into the sea, don't get to convert the drowning itself into shira. That distinction is essential for pesaq.

The correct kavvana when saying kehimmes dong mipnei esh is not, I want to enjoy the enemy's ruin. The correct kavvana is, Hashem should remove the force that threatens His people and His order. If that removal can happen through teshuva, surrender, neutralization, or loss of power, good. If the enemy is a rodef and the only way to save life is his destruction, then his destruction is included in the tefilla. The kavvana remains hatzala and qiddush Hashem, not appetite for blood.

This also explains why Berurya's source doesn't erase Tehillim 68. Berurya is dealing with biryonim in Rabbi Meir's neighborhood. The text as transmitted in Berakhot doesn't classify them as a military enemy of Israel or as an active mortal rodef at that moment. So she pushes the tefilla toward the end of sin, not the death of sinners. But Tehillim 68 speaks about reshaim in the frame of Hashem rising and enemies scattering. Those aren't the same case.

Megillah 16a adds another control. Haman tells Mordekhai, isn't it written, binfol oyivkha al tismach. Mordekhai answers that this rule applies to a Jewish enemy, but regarding Haman there's a different pasuq, ve'ata al bamotekha tidrokh, you'll tread on their heights. The sugya doesn't turn every non-Jew into an object of hatred. That would be a false reading.

Haman is Amalek. Haman is a genocidal enemy. The point is that Mishlei's restraint doesn't cancel the Torah category of an enemy who stands against Israel's existence.

Now we can build the halakhic maskana.

First, one may say Tehillim 68:3 and intend it against active enemies of Israel, against terrorists, against armies attacking Jews, against leaders ordering murder, against organizations whose program is bloodshed against Israel, and against powers that function as reshaim in the public sense. In that case, the pasuq is not only permitted. It's part of the normal language of Tanakh and tefilla. Dovid haMelekh gave this language to Israel.

Second, one shouldn't say this pasuq as a private curse against a personal opponent. That includes business rivals, neighbors, family enemies, local political opponents, or people who insulted him. A personal enemy doesn't become a rasha in the sense of Tehillim 68 just because I feel wronged. For that case, the better tefilla is that Hashem should remove the conflict, correct the wrongdoing, protect the innocent party, and bring din emet without corrupting the heart of the person praying.

Third, where the opponent is a Jew doing aveirot but he isn't a rodef and he isn't waging public war against Torah or Israel, Berurya's rule is the controlling rule. Pray for the sin to end. Pray for teshuva. Pray for the person to stop harming others. Don't jump to yovedu reshaim as a death-wish.

Fourth, where the enemy is a rodef, the tefilla may be sharper. If a man is attacking Jews, supporting murder, directing murder, or materially enabling murder, the prayer that he should melt like wax before Hashem is legitimate. The halakhic reason is that rodef is not a grievance category. It's a rescue category. The collapse of the rodef is part of the protection of the nirdaf.

Fifth, even in the rodef category, the kavvana should remain disciplined. The tefilla is that the enemy's capacity to harm should end. If Hashem ends it through confusion, surrender, fear, loss of command, exposure, arrest, defeat, or death, the judgment belongs to Hashem. The person saying the pasuq doesn't need to specify the form unless there's a concrete danger requiring direct action.

Now the pasuq itself has to be read carefully.

Kehindof ashan tindof. Smoke doesn't have stable standing. Once wind takes it, it disperses. Kehimmes dong mipnei esh.

Wax keeps its shape while it remains outside the heat. Once the heat reaches it, the shape can't continue. Yovedu reshaim mipnei Elokim. The reshaim lose their standing before Hashem.

The pasuq doesn't say that Israel's enemies are imaginary. It doesn't say they have no force. Smoke can fill space. Wax can hold form. Mountains can dominate a horizon. The pasuq says their form is conditional. They stand only while Hashem allows that condition to continue.

That's the emuna structure. It isn't a denial of military reality. It isn't a claim that enemies can be ignored. Tanakh never says that.

Dovid fights. Moshe fights Amalek through Yehoshua. Shaul is commanded to fight Amalek. The Torah recognizes enemies as real actors. The point is that their strength isn't ultimate. Their power is derivative. When Hashem removes the sustaining condition, the collapse can happen faster than ordinary political or military analysis would predict.

This is why the phrase mipnei Elokim is the controlling phrase. The wicked are lost before God. Not before my temper. Not before my faction. Not before a fantasy of dominance. Before God. The pasuq is safe only when it remains under that phrase.

There's another layer from Tehillim 97. Harim kadong namasu milifnei Hashem, milifnei Adon kol ha'aretz. The mountains melt before Hashem, before the Master of the whole earth. The mefarshim say the mountains are the kings and great ones of the nations.

That means the pasuq is not merely psychological. It's political-theological. The largest powers have no independent existence against the Adon kol ha'aretz.

But again, the pasuq doesn't authorize stupidity. It doesn't say that a person should stop guarding himself because the mountains can melt. Halakha doesn't work that way.

The same Torah that says Hashem saves also commands hishtadlut. The rodef must be stopped. The city must be guarded. The soldier must fight. The doctor must heal.

The pasuq gives the metaphysical truth under the action. It doesn't replace the action.

Now comes the pesaq din.

Pesaq din. It's mutar to use the pasuq kehimmes dong mipnei esh yovedu reshaim mipnei Elokim as a tefilla against active enemies of Israel and against reshaim who function as rodefim or as public enemies of Hashem's people. It's appropriate to use it when the kavvana is that Hashem should remove their power to harm, scatter their force, and save the nirdafim. It's not proper to use it as a private curse against an ordinary personal enemy. It's not proper to use it as emotional revenge language.

When the enemy is merely a sinner and not a rodef, the preferred tefilla follows Berurya's reading in Berakhot 10a: yitamu chataim, the sins should end. When the enemy is an actual rodef, the collapse of the rodef is within legitimate tefilla, and if no lesser means works, it's within the halakhic duty of rescue.

There's also a pesaq about simha. One may give thanks to Hashem for salvation when enemies fall. That's Shirat HaYam. One shouldn't cultivate joy in the mere fact of human destruction. That's the warning from Sanhedrin 39b. The clean formulation is this. We rejoice in yeshuat Yisrael. We don't train the soul to enjoy death as an independent object.

This distinction matters in practice.

A person may say, Ribono shel olam, let those who rise against Your people melt like wax before fire. Let their plans fail. Let their strength lose form. Let the innocent be saved. Let Your name be sanctified.

That's a proper use.

A person shouldn't say, this person embarrassed me, so let him melt like wax. That's not Tehillim 68. That's personal anger using a pasuq as a weapon.

The pasuq's own language prevents that abuse. It says reshaim. It says mipnei Elokim. It doesn't say, my irritants should disappear before me.

Now we should add the Rambam frame, because pesaq has to land in halakha and not only in Tanakh language. Rambam in Hilkhot Rotseach gives the operational rule of rodef. A pursuer who threatens life must be stopped. If the pursuer can be stopped by damaging a limb, one may not kill him. If he can't be stopped that way, the victim is saved even by killing the pursuer. That's the disciplined version of enemy-collapse in halakha. The goal is rescue. The measure is controlled by necessity. The permission isn't hate. It's pikuach nefesh and din rodef.

This also controls tefilla. Tefilla should ask for the enemy's harmful force to end. It doesn't need to indulge imagination about the form of that end. If the case is actual war or actual rodef, the tefilla may include the enemy's destruction, because that may be the only form in which rescue occurs. But the baseline kavvana remains protection and qiddush Hashem.

Now one might ask whether the word reshaim means all wicked people, including ordinary sinners. In peshat, the word can be broad. In halakhic use, the application has to be controlled. A pasuq in Tehillim can speak broadly as tefilla. A person applying it in practice must classify the target. Without classification, the person may be using Torah language to sanctify his own anger.

The classification is simple. If the target is harming life or enabling mortal harm, the rodef frame applies. If the target is a public enemy of Israel, the enemy-of-Israel frame applies. If the target is doing aveirot but can return, Berurya's frame applies. If the target is just personally unpleasant, the pasuq should not be used against him.

This also explains why the pasuq says yovedu reshaim, not yovedu oyvai. It doesn't say my enemies. It says the wicked. Dovid is not giving every person a tool to declare his own opponents wicked. The pesuqim demand moral classification before application.

There's a second danger. The phrase can become fantasy. A person can say, they'll melt like wax, and then avoid responsibility.

That's also wrong. In Torah, emuna doesn't cancel obligation. If there's a rodef, he must be stopped. If there's danger, precautions must be taken. If there's a war, one fights with the tools of war. The pasuq teaches that the final stability of the enemy is conditional before Hashem. It doesn't exempt the Jew from acting within halakha.

Now the final conceptual line.

Wax keeps shape under one condition. It must remain outside the heat. The rasha also has a condition. His power stands only while Hashem lets that power stand.

When Hashem reveals the truth of the matter, the form can't continue. That is the mashal.

Smoke fills a space while the air allows it. Wind can scatter it. Wax holds a shape while the heat hasn't reached it. Fire changes that. The wicked can appear organized, confident, and durable. Before Hashem, that organization isn't ultimate.

The practical avoda is therefore not panic and not revenge. It's disciplined tefilla, disciplined classification, and disciplined action. Against personal enemies, don't use the pasuq as a curse. Against sinners who can return, pray that sin should end.

Against active enemies of Israel and rodefim, the pasuq is valid tefilla. Ask Hashem to make their power lose form and to save the innocent.

That's the pesaq.

The phrase kehimmes dong mipnei esh may be said against reshaim who are actual public enemies or rodefim. It shouldn't be applied to private opponents. It shouldn't be used to cultivate cruelty. Its proper kavvana is that Hashem should remove the enemy's power to harm and bring yeshuat Yisrael. When the enemy is actively pursuing Jewish blood, that removal may include destruction of the enemy.

In that case, the tefilla is not revenge. It is tefilla for hatzala, din, and qiddush Hashem.

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