Today we study the song of the Taninim, the whales. תַּנִּינִים אוֹמְרִיםThe Whales say,
הַלְלוּ אֶת יי מִן הָאָרֶץ תַּנִּינִים וְכָל
תְּהֹמוֹת: (תהילים קמח ז)
Praise Hashem from the earth, Taninim/the whales and
everything in the depths.
The Mabit says that whales,
that are in the depths of the ocean, call out to the land creatures saying, "You
too should sing out Hashem, and we'll join you as well together to praise
Hashem."
This is a pasuk from Tehilim 148 which starts with
the praises of the angels. It says, הַ֥לְלוּ־יָ֨הּ ׀ הַֽלְל֣וּ
אֶת־יְ֭הֹוָה מִן־הַשָּׁמַ֑יִם הַֽ֝לְל֗וּהוּ בַּמְּרוֹמִֽים׃
Praise Him from Shamayim, praise Him the heights. Then it goes on through the
angels and His legions and the sun and the moon and the stars and the highest
heavens, and the water above the heavens. Then it says, let all praise the
name of Hashem, for He commanded
and they were created. And then it
goes on to הַֽלְל֣וּ אֶת־יְ֭הֹוָה
מִן־הָאָ֑רֶץ
We come down to the earth with the Taninim/the large whales,
and all the depths, and it goes on to the fire and hail, and concludes, they're
all going to praise Hashem because His
name is the only One that's lofty.
There is a beautiful midrash Tehilim on this pasuk
that explains the sequence of this perek with a mashal of a king
in his court: The king expects all his subjects to praise him, but he expects
his close attendants to praise him first. Similarly, Hashem awaits the praise
of the entire universe, but He expects the celestial bodies and luminaries to
praise Him first. After all, they're the closest to
Him, and His presence. So, the first half of this Mizmor talks about the
higher creatures. Then Hashem turns to lower creatures and says, as our pasuk
states, הַלְלוּ אֶת יי מִן הָאָרֶץ תַּנִּינִים וְכָל
תְּהֹמוֹת
But why do we start with the whales (which is actually the song of
the whales) when discussing the earth?
David Hamelech mentions the sea first because it was created before the dry land. And the whales, the
sea giants, which originated in the waters, were
created before land animals.
We always go in order, so the one that was created
first praises first. As such, the whale is the first of the earthly
creatures to praise Hashem, and it calls out to the rest of the earth.
The Sefer Yismach Yehuda points out an interesting mussar
lesson: Although the whales and land creatures really have nothing to do with
each other, as they're in two different
worlds or atmospheres, the whale appreciates that some thing different from itself can also praise Hashem,
similar to the 12 tribes that encamped around the Mishkan, in that
everyone has something else to offer. You serve Hashem your way and I'll serve
Hashem my way. That's the calling of the whales. The Sefer Lekutei
Amarim says an interesting thought-
that the song of the whale is that he's not caught in the nets of man. They
sing when they survive. Obviously, it was built into the whale- that they're are
hunted animals, and endangered species.
They're hunted down and desired for whatever they have to offer. So this large
creature sings its song when it survives.
The Sefer Shem MiShimon says something remarkable: In the
entire Perek Shira, by and large, it's just animals singing. Very
few fish are singing, and definitely not fish that are not
named specifically, with one or two exceptions. One of these exceptions is
the Tanninim. Why is that? He
quotes a Gemara in Bava Batra 47B that says that the whale is compared
to a very large land animal called a Re'em, which is not on the list of Perek
Shira.
For some reason, by and
large, the Perek Shira songs come from the land animals. But since the land animal the Re'em does not have a song, it's
corresponding sea creature is what sings the song.
This is an important point that we spoke about at the beginning of
this series, in the overview- that what energizes all of creation is the song
that they sing or that their angels sings, or what we appreciate from them.
Since, by and large, all of the sea creatures are under underwater,
we don't really know about them and
therefore they're not in our world. However, the whale comes up and appears above water.
We're fascinated with whales, and, as we said, with whale hunting. The whale is
one of those sea creatures that does have a song, because it is part of our world,
in a way.
So the song of Creation is how they interact with man. There are wonderful fish that we'll never know about.
They keep finding new species of fish underwater, but that's a different zone.
That's a different world. It's not our world. That's why, we say about Yosef HaSadik, they'll be like fish meaning
they're undercover. The Ayin Hara does not affect fish because
no one sees fish. They're not in our world. The
whale, however, is one of those sea creatures that is in our world, and therefore,
it has a song.
הַלְלוּ אֶת יי מִן הָאָרֶץ תַּנִּינִים וְכָל
תְּהֹמוֹת: (תהילים קמח ז)
That's the song of the whale.
