Thanking God and King Cyrus for Allowing Judeans to Return to Jerusalem
Thanking God for the greatness of His salvation,
praising Him for having made great the United States, is not
the reason why on weekdays Jews say “magdil” when we bless
God for the food that we have eaten, and not what
we say a little differently when choosing to express
our thanks to Him by blessing Him on Shabbat and fest-
ivals by saying not magdil but “migdol,” a variation that denotes a Tower,
to God most grateful on the days we do not work but rest,
dependent for salvation less on all our personal actions than His Power.
Expressing our thanks to God
quite differently on festivals and Sabbaths than on weekdays,
we demonstrate awareness
that without God’s help
Jews would be insecure not just on secularly weak days.
Perhaps another reason why
we on weekdays say magdil, make bigger,
not migdol, tower like that of Babel,
is since we remember with regret that Isaiah
attributed a level higher
than Babel’s Tower to King Cyrus,
whom the Bible has most clearly demonstrated
was a failed messiah.
Though Cyrus allowed the Jews in Babel
to return to Israel and build a Temple in Jerusalem,
we do not wish, on festivals and Sabbaths,
to be reminded of King Cyrus’s messianic offer,
which too many Jews in his day— as sadly nowadays as well—
chose to condemn.
Psalm 18:51 states:
מַגְדִּל֮ יְשׁוּע֢וֹת מַ֫לְכּ֥וֹ וְעֹ֤שֶׂה חֶ֨סֶד ׀ לִמְשִׁיח֗וֹ לְדָוִ֥ד וּלְזַרְע֗וֹ עַד־עוֹלָֽם׃ {פ}
Magdil, He magnifies, the salvation of His king, who deals graciously with His anointed, with David and his offspring forever.
2 Sam. 22:51 states:
(מגדיל) [מִגְדּ֖וֹל] יְשׁוּע֣וֹת מַלְכּ֑וֹ וְעֹֽשֶׂה־חֶ֧סֶד לִמְשִׁיח֛וֹ לְדָוִ֥ד וּלְזַרְע֖וֹ עַד־עוֹלָֽם׃ 0
Migdol¸ a Tower of salvation of His king, who deals graciously with His anointed, with David and his offspring forever.
Qimhi’s comment to 2 Sam. 22:51:
Migdol. Magdil is the ketiv (“written” tradition of the Masoretic Text), and the qeri (“recited” tradition of the Masoretic Text) is with a vav, like in Psalms [18:51] in the qeri! So too, the qeri is migdol with a cholam [i.e., a vowel creating an ‘o’ sound like in the name “Jo”], and it is a descriptor, and the idea is [all] one.
Psalm 107:30 alludes, in Aramaic—Cyrus’s language!– by bilingual, Aramaic wordplay to Jerusalem:
וַיִּשְׂמְחוּ כִי-יִשְׁתֹּקוּ; וַיַּנְחֵם, אֶל-מְחוֹז חֶפְצָם. Then were they glad because they were quiet, and He led them unto their mehoz hephtsam, desired haven.
Isaiah 48:28, calls Jerusalem חֶפְצִי, My pleasure, a description of God’s temple in Jerusalem, referring to the ְהֵיכָל, temple, mentioned in the verse’s penultimate word:
כח הָאֹמֵר לְכוֹרֶשׁ רֹעִי, וְכָל-חֶפְצִי יַשְׁלִם; וְלֵאמֹר לִירוּשָׁלִַם תִּבָּנֶה, וְהֵיכָל תִּוָּסֵד. 28 That saith of Cyrus: ‘He is My shepherd, and shall perform all My pleasure’; even saying of Jerusalem: ‘She shall be built’; and to the temple: ‘My foundation shall be laid.’
