{"id":81871,"date":"2020-10-21T15:03:52","date_gmt":"2020-10-21T12:03:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=81871"},"modified":"2020-10-21T15:06:17","modified_gmt":"2020-10-21T12:06:17","slug":"its-better-than-counting-sheep","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/its-better-than-counting-sheep\/","title":{"rendered":"It\u2019s Better Than Counting Sheep"},"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":"81871","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":34243,"related_cahpter":"595","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"The curious career of a mnemonic verse\r\n\r\n","content":"

The concluding verse of our chapter reads: \u201cDeliver and bless Your very own people; tend them and sustain them forever\u201d (9). In and of itself, the verse is straightforward; following upon its predecessor, \u201cThe LORD is their strength; He is a stronghold for the deliverance of His anointed\u201d (8), it calls upon God to see to the deliverance of the Jewish people from danger and to their permanent sustenance and maintenance.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the context of public prayer, however, it has a significance <\/span>sui generis<\/span><\/em>\u2014specific to itself. As recorded by Rabbi Shlomo Danzig in his <\/span>Kitzur<\/span><\/em> (abbreviated) <\/span>Shulchan Arukh<\/span><\/em>:<\/span><\/p>\n

Care must be exercised not to count the people for a ritual quorum (<\/span>minyan<\/span><\/em>) per capita (<\/span>le-gulgelotam<\/span><\/em>) because it is prohibited to count Israel this way even for a mitzvah purpose, as stated: \u201cSaul summoned the people and counted them with lambs\u201d (1 Samuel 15:4). It is customary to count them by reciting the verse \u201cDeliver and bless Your people,\u201d which has ten words.** (Orach Chayim 15:3) (<\/span>Note<\/span><\/em>: With a slight adjustment, the English translation, too, could have ten words: \u201cDeliver and bless Your people; tend and sustain them forever\u201d).<\/span><\/p>\n

While the sentiment it expresses is admirable, there are innumerable ten-word verses in the Hebrew Bible, so why this one for this purpose? In fact, an alternate tradition, reported on the authority of Rabbi Yitzchak Yosef, utilizes: \u201cBut I, through Your abundant love, enter Your house; I bow down in awe at Your holy temple” (Ps. 5:8), which is a more obvious choice for a ritual quorum since it relates, specifically, to God\u2019s house\u2014arguably, a synagogue, and to bowing\u2014a method of prayer.<\/span><\/p>\n

Personally, I have a rather idiosyncratic practice of my own. I count a quorum by reciting the blessing over bread, which also has ten words. I am celiac and eat \u201cbread\u201d only once a year (the first night of Pesach!), so this way I get to practice it occasionally during the year, so I won\u2019t forget it.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","image":false,"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"It\u2019s Better Than Counting Sheep","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"The curious career of a mnemonic verse","preview_embedded":"","preview_image":{"ID":81873,"id":81873,"title":"ps28-minyan","filename":"ps28-minyan.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/ps28-minyan.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/its-better-than-counting-sheep\/ps28-minyan\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"ps28-minyan","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":81871,"date":"2020-10-21 12:05:44","modified":"2020-10-21 12:06:13","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":12840,"height":6266,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/ps28-minyan-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/ps28-minyan-300x146.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":146,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/ps28-minyan-768x375.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":375,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/ps28-minyan-1024x500.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":500,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/ps28-minyan.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":750,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/ps28-minyan.jpg","2048x2048-width":2048,"2048x2048-height":999,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/ps28-minyan-1200x586.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":586,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/ps28-minyan-861x420.jpg","home_baner-width":861,"home_baner-height":420}},"preview_video":"","external_link":"","link_for_pay":false,"tile_gallery_items":false,"credits":""},"alternate_tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"","hide_media":false},"tile_group":{"preview_image_url":false,"main_caption":"","sub_caption":"","":null,"popup_package_extra_content":"","read_time":""},"home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo":{"seo_title":"","seo_description":"","seo_default_title":"","seo_default_description":""},"links":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81871"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81871"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81871\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":81874,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81871\/revisions\/81874"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}