A Psalm for the Season

^{Yamim Noraim 2018/5779}

Rabbanit Bracha Jaffe

Class of 2017

From the first day in Elul and through Hoshana Rabbah we add Psalm 27 (Le-David Hashem Ori Ve-Yishi) to our daily prayers twice a day. For those who like counting - that is exactly 100 times! What is it about this Psalm that connects with this period in the Jewish calendar? Or perhaps that connects us with this period?

Drawing a line from the first day of Elul, through Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur and on to Hoshana Rabbah brings us directly to teshuva return, repentance and forgiveness. From the first sound of the shofar blast in Elul, we know that the High Holidays are soon to follow and our thoughts turn to our actions and deeds over the past year. Although we often think of Yom Kippur as “sealing our fate”, there is actually an automatic extension and God's Heavenly gates are left open all the way through Hoshana Rabbah. We are even permitted to recite the tashlich prayer (generally recited on Rosh Hashanah over a body of water, symbolizing our intent to cast away our sins) all the way up to Hoshana Rabbah!

From a purely surface reading, Psalm 27 contains several words and references that connect to the yamim noraim. The Midrash in VaYikra Rabbah 21 connects the phrase ה' אורי וישעי ("God is my light and salvation”) in verse 1 of the Psalm with the season -- “my light” is a reference to Rosh Hashanah and “salvation” is a reference to Yom Kippur. It adds these connections as well:

• כי יצפנני בסכה: He will hide me in his hut (v. 5). The word for “hut”, sukkah, is the same word as used in the name of the festival of Sukkot

• God's name appears 13 times in the Psalm, corresponding to the 13 Attributes of Mercy which we repeat many times when saying selichot and particularly on Yom Kippur

• לולא (in verse 13 of the Psalm) is composed of the same letters as אלול - the month of Elul.

The structure of the Psalm also reflects this period of the year. Rav Amnon Bazaq suggests an internal architecture that mirrors the seesaw of feelings that we may feel in our own relationship with God:

• Section 1 (v. 1-6): Feeling secure in God's protection
• Section 2 (v. 7-13): Feeling fearful of one's enemies and of being forsaken
• Section 3 (v. 14): A summary/guideline/conclusion

Section 1: Feeling Secure

This section is addressed to God in the third person. The author is praising God poetically for saving him and keeping him safe. He feels no fear, regardless of the danger outside; he is secure in God's love and protection. Even in a sukkah, a hut which is a flimsy structure, he feels safe and sheltered. No matter the danger, the poet knows that God will be there for him and his world is filled with light and joy.

​​​​​​​Section 2: Feeling Fear

This section is a 180 degree turn from the previous section. The author is fearful and calls out to God in anguish, this time in the second person. The Malbim (19th Century Europe) suggests that the first part of the Psalm is an introduction to this section. He sees the first section as the poet's hope and aspiration to always be with God; here he prays to God to remove anything that may keep him from this goal.

Another way of looking at this section is as a reflection of the poet experiencing the exact opposite emotions as he experienced in the first part. In the first section, God is the poet's light and salvation -- the poet feels enveloped in God's presence; in the second section the poet begs God "Do not hide Your face from me."

In verse 13 the sentence trails off as if the author is too afraid to finish it. The reader must fill in what is missing with his or her own thoughts.

Section 3: Summary

Rav Avi Baumol presents an alternative way of looking at the structure of the Psalm. He divides the Psalm into sections as follows:

• Verses 1-3 reflect a feeling of security, confidence, and complete trust in God.
• Verses 4-6 reflect the beginnings of concern and creeping doubt. Life is full of changes, which can lead to anxiety about how long God's protection will last. The certainty of feeling God's protection has morphed into a statement of hope that God will continue to provide the protection which was taken as a given in the previous verses.
• Verses 7-14 reflect feelings of fear and despair. Here the poet pleads with God not to reject him or forsake him. Yet even in the midst of these fears, the poet acknowledges the need to hope for God's salvation.

Under both of these ways of thinking about the structure of the Psalm, the Psalm reflects the reality of the human condition. Sometimes man is secure and at other times man looks for God and seeks God out. Sometimes we are fearful, other times we have complete trust in God, and in other times we are someplace in between -- we basically feel that God will protect us, but still seek reassurance. We are complex beings and our relationship with God is similarly nuanced and complex. The Psalm acknowledges this and gives us permission to have a relationship with God that has ups and downs.

The order of this Psalm is particularly resonant with the yamim noraim (High Holidays). We generally expect a psalm to start with the poet's feeling of danger and move to feelings of thanks and trust in God after the poet has been saved. Here the typical order is reversed -- the Psalm starts with a feeling of total security and trust and moves to a plea for God's help. For most of the year we go about our daily lives and take God's protection for granted. When Elul comes, we begin to focus on the upcoming Day of Judgement and begin to question our complacency. Have we lived our lives in the best way possible? Will God continue to protect us? By the time we reach Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur we may be experiencing the feelings of fear reflected at the end of the Psalm.

But it always comes back to