[Avodah] tehillin

[Zev Sero]

On 23/07/2012 4:51 PM, Arie Folger wrote:
> Good point. ... Except that some would say that Mizmorei Tehillim were
> at times edited by later generations of Ba'alei Tehillim.
>
> Radak says exactly that about the psalms attributed to Moshe: they
> were originally written by Moshe, and David edited them.

I just learned the Malbim on the beginning of Devarim, where he addresses
the question of the nature of Sefer Devarim: it's written in the first
person, and Chazal refer to it as Moshe's words, and yet it's part of
the Torah, which means it's heresy to claim that Moshe made up even one
word in it, and it contains many mitzvos that were not even hinted at in
the first four Sefarim, so it must be from Hashem.  He explains that the
answer is in the first five pesukim, which serve as an introduction to
the whole Sefer: These are the mussar sermons that Moshe had spoken to
Yisrael (the whole nation considered as a single person) on eleven previous
occasions ("achad asar yom"); those eleven drashos were his own words,
spoken in his capacity as their leader, and had he written them down they
would not have been Torah but one of the Ketuvim.  Now in the 40th year
on the 1st day of the 11th month, Hashem edited those 11 sermons into one,
and commanded Moshe to deliver this one long sermon to Benei Yisrael
(i.e. to each individual, as all Hashem's words are directed), and also
to explain to them the remaining mitzvos that he had been given at Sinai
but had not yet relayed to the people.

So Moshe is the author of Devarim, but Hashem is the editor.  That sounds
similar to what you just quoted about Tehillim.


-- 
Zev Sero        "Natural resources are not finite in any meaningful
zev at sero.name    economic sense, mind-boggling though this assertion
                  may be. The stocks of them are not fixed but rather
		 are expanding through human ingenuity."
		                            - Julian Simon