Prayer #13:
Ushering Shabbat Out
with Another Song of Praise
for the Divine
R. Yaakov Bieler
Yomim Noraim 5770
If Tehilla 92, “Mizmor
Shir LeYom HaShabbat,”[1] is the Psalm that is most
fundamentally associated with the bringing in of Shabbat at the apogee
of the Kaballat Shabbat service on Friday night,[2] its
“bookend” at the conclusion of Shabbat, specifically during Seuda
Shlishit,[3]
is Tehilla 23, “Mizmor LeDavid HaShem Ro’ee Lo Echsar.”[4]
Some even have the practice to
recite/sing this Psalm three consecutive times at the Third Meal.[5] Yet, just as in the case of Tehilla
92, aside from the opening line, “A Psalm: A song for the Shabbat
day,” there is no obvious link between the words and Shabbat, this
is even more so the case with respect to Psalm 23 where even a comparable
introductory verse is lacking, let alone a particularly Shabbat’dic
theme in the Biblical poem’s body. Rabbi Zvi Elimelech Shapiro of
Dynov (1783?-1841), in
his Chassidic
commentary Benai Yissachar,[6]
perhaps due to this obvious ambiguity in the actual words of the text, resorts
to numerical symbolism in order to justify the importance of Mizmor LeDavid
on Shabbat afternoon:
The
number of letters within Psalm 23 adds up to the equivalent sum of “Beracha”
(Blessing.)[7]
By reciting the Tehilla three times, we are invoking a “Beracha
Meshuleshet” (a “tripled” blessing.)
You should also know that the number of words in the Tehilla is
57 which is the equivalent of “Dagim” (pl. for fish, a Seuda Shlishit
staple.)[8]
But it is also to symbolize our hopes that the abundant food from Shabbat
will carry over into the weekdays. There is also hinted in this Psalm (v. 2) “BiNeot
Desheh Yarbitzaini” (In grass meadows He Makes me lie down)—Dalet;
Shin; Alef can be viewed as an acrostic representing Dagim (fish); Shabbat,
and Adam (man) (once again drawing attention to how man should
celebrate by eating particular foods on Shabbat.)
But if we emphasize the rational
aspects of Psalm 23 rather than its mystical dimensions, it seems to some
commentators that ample justification can be discovered for why this Tehilla
has played such a central role in the rituals that accompany the ending of Shabbat
each week. Calling this Tehilla “one of the most sublime passages in all
religious literature: a poetic masterpiece… of trust in God’s gentle Care,”[9]
R. Jonathan Sacks suggests the following understanding of Psalm 23’s placement
in our “informal”[10]
liturgy:
Said here, towards
the end of Shabbat, the Psalm has particular force. Often Jews were all
too conscious of the dangers that lay ahead as they left the refuge of Shabbat
and prepared to reengage with the world outside. With them, however, they took
the courage born of faith that (v. 4) “I will fear no evil, for You are with
me.”
R.Sacks’ insight
calls to mind what is considered Y.L. Peretz’ greatest Yiddish play, Die
Goldene Keit (The Golden Chain.)[11] One of the premises of the play
is that the patriarch of a Chassidic dynasty, despite the fact that the entire
community awaits his making Havdala and thereby signaling the end of Shabbat,
refuses to do so. He thinks that by his forcing the community to keep Shabbat
eternally, never declaring it concluded, he would thereby help the people maintain
the high spiritual level that they, in his opinion, are able to reach only on Shabbat.
Peretz demonstrates how this is an impossibility and a flight from the stark
realities facing us within the framework of the everyday, secular world. While
Peretz is well-known to have an anti-traditional bias, R. Sacks would simply
argue that even if one acknowledges that it cannot remain Shabbat
forever, one can nevertheless be fortified by Shabbat observance and
experience with the type of faith that will allow him to persevere and retain
his religious observance no matter how un-Shabbat’dic one’s environment
proves to be subsequently. Such a sentiment would even imbue the famous bon mot
of Asher Hirsch Ginsberg, known as Achad HaAm, “It is not so
much that Jews have kept Shabbat as that Shabbat has kept the Jews,” with deep spiritual significance.
Although R. Adin Steinsaltz in his
commentary to Psalm 23 within a compendium of Shabbat prayers and songs,[12] does not directly refer to a
tie-in between this Tehilla and Shabbat, from his overall
comments on these verses, an additional dimension that compliments R. Sacks’
approach can be gleaned. R. Steinsaltz notes that the imagery within the Psalm
moves back and forth from the perspective of a sheep vis-à-vis its shepherd (v.
1, 2, 4), and a person who is in relationship with his God (v. 3, 5, 6).
Although we usually conceptualize a human being’s understanding and belief as
being on a more complex and sophisticated level when contrasted to those of an animal, at
least in certain contexts, a simpler faith and trust is to be preferred and is
more effective for protecting the individual from adversity, or at least
maintaining his/her state of tranquility and equanimity. Furthermore, the
black-and-white understandings of animals are exemplary with respect to
maintaining a sense of proper gratitude and loyalty, as is suggested in the
following verse, which contrasts farm animals to the sinning Jewish people:
Yeshayahu 1:3
The ox
knows/recognizes/acknowledges its master;
the donkey
(appreciates) the food trough (provided) by its owner.
Since one of the
themes of Shabbat is that by means of the Tora prohibition
against engaging in Melacha (creative physical activity) we are
relegated to the role of mere creatures rather than the creators so many of us
are doing the work week, upon reflection we come to understand how dependent we
actually are upon God and how important our continual faith and trust in Him must
be in order to cope with the vagaries of life. This would then also be part of
the message that R. Sacks asserts Shabbat in general, and Tehilla
23 in particular, are intending to impart to us.
Could singing Psalm 23 three consecutive
times, in addition to the mystical explanations listed above, be an attempt to
help us overcome our natural resistance to understanding this difficult and
sometimes even uncomfortable concept, i.e., that we have to acknowledge God’s
Shepherd status, with all that such a role connotes, with respect to ourselves?
[1] The Complete ArtScroll Siddur, p. 320-2.
[2] See “Reflections on Prayer #12: Psalm 92--“A Psalm of Song for the Day of Shabbat” in Kol Mevaser, June 2009.
[3] The Third Meal is unique to Shabbat from the perspective that in Talmudic times, people customarily ate only twice a day, once in the morning and then again at night. In order for there to be another Shabbat meal during which Shabbat could be celebrated yet again through food and drink as well as commemorated in the Grace after meals (the addition of the paragraph “Retzeh VeHachalitzeinu”), a meal was added and optimally takes place at the tail end of Shabbat, before the Ma’ariv prayer, marking the official end of Shabbat, is recited.
[4]The Complete ArtScroll Siddur, p.590.
[5] See the
commentary Chekel Yitzchak by R. Yitzchak Isaac of Spinka, in Shabbat
Shabbaton: Zemirot Shabbat Kodesh, Machon Zara Hih,
[6] Quoted in Ta’amei HaMinhagim U’Mekorai HaDinim by R. Avraham Sperling, Eshkol, Yerushalayim, p. 143.
[7] Beit (2) + Reish (200) + Chaf (20) + Heh (5) = 227. (I counted 219; 7 “Chaserim” with respect to Cholam’s = 226. Gematria’s are allowed a margin of error of 1 [see RaMA, Orech Chayim 583:2—“Chet” and “Egoz” are 1 off) so the numbers basically match up.)
[8] Dalet (4) + Gimel (3) + Yud (10) + Mem (40) = 57.
[9] The
Koren Siddur, Koren Pub.,
[10] Whereas one does not have a choice with regard to reciting Ma’ariv, Shacharit, Mussaf and Mincha on Shabbat, even if one deliberately eats Seuda Shlishit, there is no hard and fast rule regarding which songs to sing/recite, let alone whether to sing/recite these songs altogether. There may be a Kiyum Mitzva when the Seuda is enhanced by song; however which songs and how many to sing is far from mandated in a formal fashion.
[12] The
Miracle of the Seventh Day, Jossey-Bass,