"In G-d We Trust, a Jewish Interpretation of Psalm 91" - Rabbi Shana's drash for 5.23.20

shabbat shalom numbers numbers everywhere certainly seems like that as we begin the book of numbers lists and censuses and numbers of fighting men and the calling of the clans it is as rabbi rubin has shared with us a rather repetitive parsha if one is not really a math person or fascinated by the arrangements of troops we might be tempted to look ahead but numbers of course are everywhere in this time in which we live we hear daily about numbers of new cases hospitalizations passings goals for flattening the curve numbers numbers everywhere but there was a number that i saw with andy a couple of weeks ago that has been stuck in my mind and i would like to share a little bit with you today about that we took a long walk one of our quarantine walks and discovered a new neighborhood down here in los angeles wonderful homes and on the lawn of one home was a number 91. it was clear from the way the sign was configured that this was a reference to something religious and so we ran to the nearest encyclopedia that we were holding in our hands and looked up 91. we were right it's a psalm and though we know 92 very well the psalm for shabbat the one right before it not as familiar i'd like to share it with you today and let's see what we make of it it's a psalm that has risen to the top in this time of the coronavirus for many o you who dwell in the shelter of the most high and abide in the protection of shaddai i say of the lord my refuge and stronghold my god in whom i trust that he will save you from the fowler's trap from the destructive plague he will cover you with his opinions you will find refuge under his wings his fidelity is an encircling shield you need not fear the terror by night or the arrow that flies by day the plague that stalks in the darkness or the scourge that ravages at noon a thousand may fall at your left side ten thousand at your right but it shall not reach you you will see it with your eyes you will witness the punishment of the wicked because you took the lord my refuge the most high as your haven no harm will befall you no disease touch your tent for he will order his angels to guard you wherever you go they will carry you in their hands lest you hurt your foot on a stone you will tread on cubs and vipers you will trample lions and asps because he is devoted to me i will deliver him i will keep him safe for he knows my name when he calls on me i will answer him i will be with him in distress i will rescue him and make him honored i will let him live to a ripe old age and show him my salvation maybe after hearing that psalm it doesn't come as a surprise to some of us that in this time there are masks printed with parts of psalm 19 on them there are blankets there are signs t-shirts psalm 91 is suddenly in vogue there are even people that look to that number 91 as an auspicious particular one because it is of course the reversal of 19 a number that we hear so much these days and so perhaps by invoking psalm 91 we can turn around the effects of covet 19. it's reaching but it's powerful for many many people now there's something about that psalm and it's a good translation that might strike us as a little unusual it's an expression of faith that in some ways maybe doesn't feel quite as jewish as we're used to it of course should come as no surprise that psalm 91 is largely being invoked by non-jewish communities largely by christian communities who embrace the psalms very closely but there's something about that statement of faith that no disease can touch our tent or thousands may fall around us but i will be free and spared of such pain there's something that falls on some of our ears i'm guessing that doesn't feel quite as jewish as we may be comfortable with it might not come as a surprise either that i found almost no particularly jewish commentary about psalm 91 kind of goes against the grain of that notion of israel of the struggling with god here it's not as much a struggle with god as it is facing the struggle with god at our side of course it's quintessentially jewish and it goes to the heart of a concept that we study in our musa work called bitahon where we are in our studies of musar together on our saturday evenings we're not quite at bitahon yet it's chapter 22 and for those seeing this or hearing this psalm this sermon in real time we're not quite there yet so if you'll be a little bit patient as our musar group we will come to bitachon in a few weeks but bitachon is the meda the sole trait that has become the most central to me and i hope to share it with some of you betachon like all of our soul traits is hard to translate but it is on absolute display in this extraordinary psalm which by the way uses very ancient language for god unusual the shaddai and the god on most high these are very old names of god so this is coming from a very ancient place the best translation i can come up with is surety or as we have in our musa work trust you might have noticed flying by that notion of in god we trust it's from psalm 91 that we get that incredible phrase that appears on our money in god we trust what does it mean to trust in god the mossar teachers will tell us that that kind of trust is not a blind trust it is not the kind of trust that says i will sit here in the middle of the street and nothing will befall me that's not a jewish approach to life the jewish approach when you have trust and a sense of faith and centeredness and calm is the kind of faith that says whatever befalls me whatever i encounter in my life i will meet it with as much equanimity as much resourcefulness as much acceptance as possible and i will act to better the situation i have trust and faith in the god that created me in the spirit or the force or however we define that ineffable energy that put us here i have enough trust in that presence in my life that for all the days of my life i will walk forward even as we know from psalm 23 through the valley of the shadow of death and i will fear no evil that is bitachon that is the kind of faith that says i will harness the power within me the power that our musar teachers call the eternal adonai god in whatever name you choose to give me strength when my will falters to give me strength when there is chaos and destruction and despair and disease around me that whatever i receive in my life i will do everything i can to lean on faith to lean on god to lean on a sense of trust in myself and my creator to face what lies ahead that's the kind of faith the kind of surety the kind of bitarchon that psalm 91 embodies and why in this moment of fear and panic it has become for so many a piece of prayer to which they can hold now there wasn't a lot of jewish commentary but there was some extraordinary commentary from other traditions i'm just going to share a few words from a gentleman named pastor jim lewis who writes beautifully about the metaphysics of each psalm he writes the psalmist did not think that faith or trust in god necessarily eliminated all challenges some human beings think that if god does not immediately remove all obstacles illnesses or bless them with abundant prosperity that somehow god does not like them or that god is being evil or worse that there is no god at all the psalmist knew that his faith and trust in god would see him through all challenges his god was like a shadow it did not remove the sun and its intense heat but it was a protection from it there are things happening in our lives many would like to change everybody or change the world they cry out that if god loved them he would remove their enemies or the problems that they must deal with but the psalmist instead affirmed i will say of adonai he is my refuge and my fortress my god in god i trust this sense of trust of bitahon is so crucial at this and all times the strength and comfort of a religious community is so beneficial so helpful i hope that you're all finding that in this time because even though we may not agree on every aspect of our faith we may not embrace every single ritual and tradition but we know that we are better armed against the flood tides of the world when we have this kind of beetahon we're less likely to snap far more likely to feel those roots deep down in the earth that hold us even as we have to bend and sway with the winds of change and uncertainty let us be strong let us be rooted in that kind of flexibility and trust that beautiful sense of betachon that surety and strength that has sustained our people through unimaginable hardship for century after century after century may continue to be so shabbat shalom

Channel: Ner Tamid SF

Views: 829

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords:

Id: a43iPpGnOA8

Length: 12min 24sec (744 seconds)

Published: Wed May 27 2020