TEHILLIM LIGHT

Commentaries

Mizmor 008, Verse 006

וַתְּחַסְּרֵ֣הוּ מְּ֭עַט מֵאֱלֹהִ֑ים וְכָב֖וֹד וְהָדָ֣ר תְּעַטְּרֵֽהוּ

vattechassereyhu mmeʿat meyʾelohiym vechovod vehodor teʿattereyhu

Yet You have withheld from him but little of the Devine, and You have crowned him with glory and majesty.

MIDRASH TEHILLIM

1.....(8.7)
A.
In saying that You make him less only than God, they (angels, see 8:5) were referring to Yaakov, who commanded the flocks to bring forth streaked, speckled, and spotted young, as is said - And thus the flocks conceived at the sight of the rods, and brought forth streaked, speckled, and spotted (Bereshit - Genesis 30:39), thereby proving that Yaakov was less than God only in that he had not the power to put the breath of live into them.
B.
In saying And crowned him with glory and honor, they were referring to Moshe, of whom it is said - Moshe knew not that the skin of his face sent forth beams by reason of His speaking with him (Shemot - Exodus 34:29)

RASHI

1.
Yet You have made him slightly less than the angels, ...

Heb. מאלהים, which is an expression of angels, for You gave power to Joshua to still the sun and to dry up the Jordan, and to Moses to split the waters of the Sea of Reeds and to ascend to the heavens, and to Elijah to resurrect the dead.

RADAK

1.
For You have made him but little lower than Elohim:
that is, the angels - in that the spirit of man is of the (same) quality as that of the angels, which is incorporeal just as they are incorporeal; and the inferiority consists in the fact of its {i.e. man's spirit) being (lodged) in a body.
2.
And crowned him with glory and honor.
by the higher spirit which You have placed in him.

Rabbi HIRSCH

1.
To what awesome heights—unique in all creation, has God raised man by making him conscious of the fact that he is an “Adam”. This status of “Adam”, however, does not set him apart from the other creatures that must also serve God; he has merely been placed at their head as the first servant of God. Man is the only creature called upon consciously to do his duty, morally free, the only being so endowed besides God — that One and absolute free Force. How much higher, then, is the pure man than the stars, since he is a free, thinking servant at God's throne. He has been raised almost to Divine heights as a morally free person, aware of himself, and he has been crowned with “honor and dignity” (which can be attributed only to a moral person).

WORDS