Yom Kippur 2021 speech

 

We are here on Yom Kippur about to say Yizkor. This is a time when the attention is right to receive a message; the antenna is extended.

We are more receptive, in part, because we are about to do something strange, We are going to remember people with whom we can no longer interact in the usual way, people who will not answer us, who will never again give us a sign in the rational world.  But we will think about them and, perhaps imagine they are looking down at us. 

The Yizkor service has a formula.   In our current Machzor, the pledge of a Tzedakah donation, in the name of the deceased, is preceded by some verses, almost all  from Psalms, followed by the complete psalm 91.

 

The last time I spoke before Yizkor, I did a brief analysis of the first 4 verses that are printed in the machzor. I was invited back, so this time I would like to look at some of Psalm 91.

Psalm 91 has a very timely designation. In the gemarrah, in Shavuoth 15b it is called the song of plagues (nega’im) because the tenth verse says:

 

 וְ֝נֶ֗גַע לֹא־יִקְרַ֥ב בְּאׇהֳלֶֽךָ׃ No plague will come near your dwelling

 

It begins:

יֹ֭שֵׁב בְּסֵ֣תֶר עֶלְי֑וֹן בְּצֵ֥ל שַׁ֝דַּ֗י יִתְלוֹנָֽן׃

One who sits  in the shelter of the Most High
in the shadow  of Shakai ( the Almighty)—

The first word generates a question. Who is sitting?  Is it the people we are remembering?  Is it we, who are sitting here now? Is it those who are deserving of the shelter?

Rashi and others say this is a general statement about One who sits in the shelter, it is one who has chosen the behaviors that merit such an abode.  It could be any of the above.

 

Radak ,on the basis of several midrashim  attributes authorship of this psalm to Moshe. Thus, we can justify connecting it with other poetry recited by Moshe, the poem that is the bulk of this week’s parsha.

That brings us to the second word:  בְּסֵ֣תֶר   translated here as “in the shelter”,  The outside world is threatening  and the shadow  of the Shakai aspect of Gd, affords a place to rest.

 

 The word סֵ֣תֶר means to hide or conceal   It is used in the frightening verse we read in this week’s parsha

וַיֹּ֗אמֶר אַסְתִּ֤ירָה פָנַי֙ מֵהֶ֔ם אֶרְאֶ֖ה מָ֣ה אַחֲרִיתָ֑ם

He said:
I will hide My countenance from them,
And see how they fare in the end.

 

One could translate  seither as inaccessible.

  When it makes a person unavailable to harm, it can have a positive meaning.

but it is  negative when it conceals the ultimate source of rescue.

When these facts are concealed from knowledge, they are a secret (nistar)

 whose revelation facilitates repentance and comfort.

For me, the hiding evokes what my parents did during the Holocaust. They hid, buried in the ground by day, from an overwhelming level of danger. They were sought by the very effective and systematic Nazis. My father, who was part of the Treblinka uprising, was a hunted man.  Turning in Jews was rewarded; failing to report them could be punished by the death of one’s entire family.

The herding and systematic slaughter of the Jews was a manifestation of a verse from Ha’azinu:

 

אֵיכָ֞ה יִרְדֹּ֤ף אֶחָד֙ אֶ֔לֶף וּשְׁנַ֖יִם יָנִ֣יסוּ רְבָבָ֑ה

“How could one have routed a thousand, 
Or two put ten thousand to flight, 
 

It is Echoed in verse 7 of Psalm 91, the psalm we are looking at, the psalm we say before Yizkor:

 

ז  יִפֹּל מִצִּדְּךָ, אֶלֶף--וּרְבָבָה מִימִינֶךָ:    אֵלֶיךָ, לֹא יִגָּשׁ.

 

A thousand may fall at your side,
ten thousand at your right,
but it will not come near you.

 

This is how it turned out for my parents. They hid in the shadow of the Almighty until Gd’s countenance was, once more, as promised, revealed.

My parents’ esperience was vey dramatic, but I think people have this experience of rescue from situations that seem overwhelming many times in their lives. Our success, an sometimes our lives, depend upon improbable, unexpectedly good outcomes.   

 

The second verse then is an acknowledgment:

 

אֹמַ֗ר לַ֭יֹ מַחְסִ֣י וּמְצוּדָתִ֑י אֱ֝לַ אֶבְטַח־בּֽוֹ׃

 

I say of the LORD, my refuge and stronghold,
my God in whom I trust,

 

 The refugee can recognize the miracle of her survival, all the unlikely events that had to align, Divine intervention was needed.

The survivor (and we are all survivors)  is in a position to anticipate the need for miracles in the future and by declaring the  conviction  that these interventions come from GD,  we might  expedite their availability, increase our worthiness

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כִּ֤י ה֣וּא יַ֭צִּילְךָ מִפַּ֥ח יָק֗וּשׁ מִדֶּ֥בֶר הַוּֽוֹת׃

that He will save you from the fowler’s snare,
from the deadly pestilence.

מִפַּ֥ח יָק֗וּשׁ

 

The bird is a symbol of freedom, and it is the bird trap that the believer is saved from. 

We live in a country and a culture that treasures freedom.

  We live in a time when that word is being redefined.

Accepting our tradition, accepting the yoke of heavenly authority, is considered a free choice in this society

But that choice severe limits acceptable options, and, in that sense, it limits freedom

 At some point, free spills over into harmful and dangerous.

 Belief relinquishes some freedom,

 but Surrendering some freedom affords safety from its trap of  indulging in unbridled temptation.

מִדֶּ֥בֶר הַוּֽוֹת

the deadly pestilence

Scientifically, It is clearly not the vaccine alone that protects from the plague.

I do not want to identify these words with the COVID pandemic.

 But it is striking to see the juxtaposition with the fowler’s snare, the trap of freedom (Although there may be disagreement about the nature of the trap).  The interactions between faith in Gd’s protection and the need to take other actions for survival is very complex.

There are trite jokes about a person who so firmly believes that rescue  will come through Divine intervention that  he sends away the car, the boat, and the helicopter sent by the state. She dies and  comes to heaven where he is asked: why didn’t you use the things we sent you? To win the lottery you must buy a ticket. Human action can be part of Gd’s plan.

 

 

The gemarrah in Shavuoth says:Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi would recite these verses (psalm 91)  and fall asleep.  The Gemara asks: How could he do that?

 But doesn’t Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi himself say: One is prohibited from healing himself with words of Torah? The Rabbi certainly trusted in Gd

But he also knew that he had to act on his own behalf.

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In our tradition, this is not a confrontation between science and a strict literal nterpretation   of the textm In  the Talmud,  These verses are interpreted as figurative.

And Rav Ḥisda says that Rabbi Yirmeya bar Abba says:

 What is the meaning of that which is written:

“No evil shall befall you, nor shall any plague come near your tent” (Psalms 91:10)?

“No evil shall befall you” means that

the evil inclination shall not dominate them (Sanhedrin 103a) Or

This means that you will be frightened neither by bad dreams nor by evil thoughts. (Berchoth 55b)

 

In other places in the talmud, this section of the psalm is imagined as a blessing from David and Bathsheva  to their son Shlomo .  I think that our parents had no trouble reaching for the sky in their blessings.  I accept them with gratitude and pass them on to my children.

 

The psalm ends with a more realistic reward:

 

טו  יִקְרָאֵנִי, וְאֶעֱנֵהוּ--עִמּוֹ-אָנֹכִי בְצָרָה;    אֲחַלְּצֵהוּ, וַאֲכַבְּדֵהוּ.	15 He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will rescue him, and bring him to honour.
טז  אֹרֶךְ יָמִים, אַשְׂבִּיעֵהוּ;    וְאַרְאֵהוּ, בִּישׁוּעָתִי.	16 With long life will I satisfy him, and make him to behold My salvation.' {P}

 

 

We must live with less than perfect protection and compensate with our own actions. According to the Radak and ibn Ezra,The ultimate salvation mentioned hereIs the world to come. It is enjoyed by those we remember now

 

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The midrash Tanchuma relates this psalm to the construction of the Mishkan ( Vayakel and Nasso).  .According to Bamidbar Rabba (12;3)   Moshe composed these words on the day the Mishkan was completed.

 The support of the human made sanctuary, the sanctuary of the community,  is part of the partnership that brings the shelter of the most high.