Tehillim 69 – the name of David Ha-Melech’s mother – a segula for finding one’s soulmate
Tehillim 69:9«Muzar hayiti le-echai ve-nokhri livnei imi» - (I have become estranged from my brothers and a stranger to the sons of my mother).
Our Sages, may their memory be a blessing, taught that Yishai, David’s father, who avoided any contact with sin, began in his old age to question the legitimacy of his lineage. He began to wonder whether his great-grandfather Boaz and the Torah court of his time had correctly interpreted the law. For if an error had been made, then he, Yishai, was not fully Jewish! How, then, could he live as a husband with a woman who was unquestionably Jewish? He might, according to Jewish law, be a Moabite! By the time Yishai began having these doubts, he already had six sons and two daughters. Could he change the past? Of course not. Yet the righteous relate to sin differently from sinners. From that moment on, Yishai ceased marital relations with his wife and withdrew from her. His sons knew what had caused this. Yet Yishai was a righteous man, and he knew that the Almighty had created the world not to remain desolate, but to be inhabited; therefore, a man should not live without a wife. What did he do? After several years of living alone, he chose one of the non-Jewish maidservants who lived in his home and said to her: "I am freeing you on the following condition: if I am fully Jewish, then your emancipation is complete as well, and I will marry you in accordance with the laws of the Torah given to us through Moshe. But if I am not, then you are not emancipated and remain in your former status, and thus you are permitted to marry even a Moabite". Yishai’s wife was a righteous woman and was distressed that her husband had abandoned her, because she wanted to bear children by him. The maidservant saw that her mistress was distraught and said to her: "Let us do as Leah did with her sister Rachel (taking her place at night in Yaakov’s tent)". And so they did: Yishai’s wife took her maidservant’s place that night. She fervently pleaded with the Almighty for help, and He blessed her with pregnancy. After that night, Yishai no longer had marital relations either with her or with the maidservant. By the will of the Almighty, Yishai never discovered the substitution. When, three months later, his sons saw that their mother was pregnant, they said to Yishai: "Without a doubt, she became pregnant through adultery. We have decided to kill her and the child she is carrying". Yishai was overcome by tremendous sorrow. He replied to his sons: "Let her give birth, and do not publicize this matter, which would bring disgrace upon us all. The child she bears will become the most despised of your slaves". In this way—by turning the child into a slave—Yishai sought to prevent him from being accepted into the Jewish community without revealing his lineage. David was the child born of this pregnancy. This is why David said: "I have become a stranger to my brothers (who considered him a mamzer—one born of a forbidden relationship involving a married woman), and not kin to the sons of my mother (who suspected her of adultery)."(Chassidus.ru; Sefer HaToda’ah, 3:110–111; Otzar Ishei HaTanach, David).
The Name of David Ha-Melech’s Mother – A Segula for Finding One’s SoulmateOne should recite the name of David Ha-Melech’s mother 17 times: Nitzevet bat Adael before any prayer—before reciting Tehillim, or other prayers. (Bava Batra, 81a)
(Yeshiva "Kise Rachamim"; Pachad Yitzchak, Rav Yitzchak Hutner)
