{"id":81794,"date":"2020-10-20T15:47:31","date_gmt":"2020-10-20T12:47:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=81794"},"modified":"2020-10-20T15:47:31","modified_gmt":"2020-10-20T12:47:31","slug":"psalm-27-and-the-period-of-repentance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/psalm-27-and-the-period-of-repentance\/","title":{"rendered":"Psalm 27 And The Period Of Repentance\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[],"acf":{"old_id":"81794","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":81795,"related_cahpter":"594","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"What makes it the text of the times? How can it help us persevere?\r\n\r\n","content":"

My initial impression of Psalm 27 is that its very mixed psychological bag\u2014feelings of hatred, fear, encirclement by enemies, coupled with doubt with respect to divine succor\u2014 should logically disqualify it as the poetic refrain for Elul, that time of year when we are trying to repent and to gird ourselves with the virtues of piety and faith. And yet, it may be that the frank, emotional vacillations in the poem are precisely the point. It is no small task to keep up the two-month period of prayer that one enters into with the beginning of Elul.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The honest admissions of uncertainty and fear that punctuate this psalm may be exactly the kind of liturgical pressure release-valve necessary to sustain the effort of prolonged prayer.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Prayer may begin with unbridled confidence, but the more it continues, the more this confidence may flag. The process of flagging spirits in the psalm is especially evident in the movement between verses 7 to 10, where the poet begs God to answer him (\u02bf<\/span>aneini<\/span><\/i>) and seeks God\u2019s face, but noting the lack of an answer to his plea, he then begs God not to hide God\u2019s face from him, especially since his own parents have abandoned him.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Psalm gives vent to a sense of ambivalence about the efficacy of prayer and the theological uncertainties that plague anyone who takes the time to look deeply into the relationship between what we assert in prayer and what we actually see in the world. This is fundamental to the experience of prayer; people are occasionally going to sag in their convictions and are going to need to shore themselves up if nothing else by reciting a mantra or motto, in the same way that Moses repeats the words \u201c<\/span>chazak ve\u2019emetz<\/span><\/em>\u201d (“be strong and of good courage”) several times to Joshua (Deut. 31) and the people as they prepare themselves to transition to new leadership and enter the land. Not accidentally, this same motto appears here in verse 14.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Even if you are doubtful that you can\u2019t finish the sentence of faith, as in the incomplete utterance of verse 13, you can always say \u201c<\/span>kaveh el Hashem<\/span><\/em>\u201d “Look to\/Hope in the LORD.” And if you don\u2019t believe it the first time, repeat it to convince yourself. So teaches <\/span>Rabbi \u1e24ama, son of Rabbi \u1e24anina at the end of a Talmudic debate (Berachot 32b) over the relative benefits and\/or detriments of prolonged prayer:\u00a0 A person who prayed and saw that he was not answered, should pray again, as it is stated: \u201cLook to\/ Hope in the Lord, strengthen yourself, let your heart take courage, and hope in the Lord\u201d (Psalms 27:14). One should turn to God with hope, and if necessary turn to God again with hope. <\/span>The psychological realism of the psalm, especially given the prolonged nature of the teshuvah project, extended over so many weeks, seems more than anything to recommend it as the text of the times.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":79032,"id":79032,"title":"hag2-hope","filename":"hag2-hope.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/hag2-hope.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/time-for-a-little-hope-and-goodness\/hag2-hope\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"hag2-hope","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":79031,"date":"2020-08-19 13:09:10","modified":"2020-10-20 12:47:26","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":6000,"height":3511,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/hag2-hope-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/hag2-hope-300x176.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":176,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/hag2-hope-768x449.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":449,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/hag2-hope-1024x599.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":599,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/hag2-hope.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":899,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/hag2-hope.jpg","2048x2048-width":2048,"2048x2048-height":1198,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/hag2-hope-1200x702.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":702,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/hag2-hope-718x420.jpg","home_baner-width":718,"home_baner-height":420}},"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"Psalm 27 And The Period Of Repentance\u00a0","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"What makes it the text of the times? 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