Explanations of the Prayers - Halleluyah, Ki Tov - Part 3

00:02 We have the custom of saying the chapter “Of David: Hashem is my light and my salvation.” We begin on Rosh Chodesh Elul and continue until the eve of Shemini Atzeres—through Hoshana Rabbah, inclusive. So today we’ll talk a little about the meaning of some of the words in this chapter according to Chassidus. This chapter is very fundamental to our avodah during these days. The Rebbe writes that we can see this from the very fact that we begin saying it at the start of Elul, on the first day of Rosh Chodesh Elul—even before we begin blowing the shofar. And we say it twice a day. We also continue saying it throughout all these periods: Elul, Rosh Hashanah, the Ten Days of Teshuvah, Yom Kippur, and Sukkos, through Hoshana Rabbah, inclusive. In other words, throughout all the days associated with judgment. That shows that this is an overarching chapter, encompassing all the themes of this period. Which of its verses is the most relevant to these days? There are a number of explanations and themes. Many maamarim, sichos, and explanations discuss the first verse, “Of David: Hashem is my light and my salvation.” Many maamarim and explanations discuss the verse “One thing I have asked,” and many maamarim discuss the verse “On Your behalf my heart says.” The great majority of the maamarim focus on one of these three verses. These three verses emphasize the main point relevant to this period, the months of Elul and Tishrei. All right, we’ll start with the first verse. What does Chassidus explain about the chapter’s opening verse? We begin by saying: “Of David: Hashem is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?”

02:34 This chapter is connected with King David, as all of Tehillim is. Incidentally, that is not a side point. David is central to the avodah of this period, because King David is associated with the sefirah of malchus. During this period, all our avodah is connected with malchus: building malchus, which is the avodah of Rosh Hashanah, the Ten Days of Teshuvah, and this month of Elul; and accepting the yoke of kingship, accepting Hashem’s kingship. The same applies to the avodah of teshuvah. The main emphasis is on teshuvah tata’ah, the lower hei, which corresponds to the sefirah of malchus. That is why David is mentioned. We see this on Rosh Hashanah as well, when David is mentioned several times, because he is connected with the sefirah of malchus and the building of malchus. So it says, “Of David.” What does King David say? “Hashem is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? Hashem is the strength of my life; whom shall I dread?” Hakadosh Boruch Hu is my light and my salvation. Hakadosh Boruch Hu is my light; Hakadosh Boruch Hu is my salvation, and therefore I have no one to fear. I don’t fear anyone. It’s a question of fear. Why? Because Hakadosh Boruch Hu illuminates my way; He is my light and my salvation. Then he continues, “Hashem is the strength of my life.” Hakadosh Boruch Hu is the strength, the fortitude, the reinforcement of my life, and therefore I have nothing to dread. When we learn the verse according to its plain meaning, it seems to repeat the same thought in different words. As the Metzudas Dovid says, it means the same thing. The verse simply repeats itself, as verses in Tehillim often do, in a different style

04:34 So it’s the same idea: Hakadosh Boruch Hu is my light and my salvation; Hakadosh Boruch Hu is the strength of my life. What’s the difference? It’s the same thing. But according to Chassidus, we know that there’s no such thing as merely saying the same thing again. Every detail has depth, so there must be two distinct ideas here. The verse says Hashem’s name twice: “Hashem is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? Hashem is the strength of my life; whom shall I dread?” Twice. That means it’s speaking about two levels, two ideas. Otherwise, it would have mentioned Hashem’s name only once; His name is not repeated for no reason. Its repetition shows that two ideas are being discussed. Besides, in the first part it says “fear,” while in the second it says “dread.” We need to understand that difference too. In the first part of the verse, where it says “my light and my salvation,” it says, “Whom shall I fear?” In the second, where it says “the strength of my life,” it says, “Whom shall I dread?” One explanation of the verse as a whole appears in a general letter the Rebbe wrote on 25 Elul 5730. The Rebbe would write a general letter every year, and in many years he wrote two. Incidentally—or perhaps it isn’t incidental—everyone should study at least one of those general letters in preparation for Rosh Hashanah. The Rebbe made a practice of sending such a letter every year. Baruch Hashem, there are many letters, so we should choose at least one from among the years and study it. In those letters, the Rebbe gives us an inner point to contemplate in the avodah of these days. In any case, in the letter the Rebbe sent on 25 Elul 5730 for Rosh Hashanah 5730, the Rebbe explained the words of

06:36 the verse. There the Rebbe explains the three things mentioned here: “my light,” “my salvation,” and “the strength of my life.” These are three distinct things. It’s a general letter, and the Rebbe expresses these ideas in terms that everyone can understand. He brings them down and explains them in simple terms of serving Hashem. The Rebbe explained it this way: First, when a Jew comes to the month of Elul, he needs to take stock of the entire year—how he conducted himself, what went well and what didn’t, what needs correcting, what needs improving, and what calls for teshuvah. A person needs to take stock in every area and prepare for the coming year, so that he’ll make good use of his time and his abilities. But the first thing a person feels is that he is in a world of darkness and confusion. He doesn’t know what he needs to do or how to do it, what is good and what is bad, or how he should conduct himself—both in assessing the past year and in deciding how to conduct himself in the year ahead. So the first thing we tell him is: “Hashem is my light.” Hakadosh Boruch Hu gives me light. That means He illuminates our way through Torah—Torah in general, and the inner dimension of Torah in particular. Hakadosh Boruch Hu gave us the Torah, the light of Torah, and He illuminates every Jew’s path through life. That is the first thing we need to know when the days of Elul and Tishrei arrive, with their avodah and soul-searching: first, we need to know that Hashem will illuminate our way. Hakadosh Boruch Hu illuminates our

08:29 the way and shows us what to do and how to do it. The Torah gives us clear instructions in the laws of everyday life: “Turn away from evil and do good.” But then comes the question of the person himself. Let’s say he already has the light. He has the light that shows him how and what to do. But there are still challenges. A person says: “True, I study a maamar of Chassidus and I study a sicha, and they tell me what my avodah should be and how to go about it. But in practice, I also have a yetzer hara. And the yetzer hara grows stronger against a person every day and seeks to destroy him.” The yetzer hara constantly puts challenges in our way, interferes with our avodah, confuses us, and makes the path of serving Hashem harder. So the verse adds: besides “my light,” there is also “my salvation.” Hashem does not only... Sometimes a person is walking through a desert, a place with wild animals, snakes and scorpions—a dangerous place. If he is walking in the dark, he does not even know where he is going. So he has a lamp, and the lamp shows him the way. But a lamp only shows him the way; it does not save him when he reaches a dangerous spot. What we are saying here is that Hashem is not only the lamp, “my light.” Hashem illuminates our way and shows us where and how to go. Hashem also saves us. He gives us the strength and the help to keep going, to overcome the challenges, confusion, and desires, so that we can serve Hashem with joy and gladness of heart. That is the meaning of “my light”

10:26 “and my salvation.” Then there is “the stronghold of my life.” As the Rebbe explains in the letter, “the stronghold of my life” means going from strength to strength. In serving Hashem, we need to correct what is not good, do what Hashem wants, and conduct ourselves as we should. That is “Hashem is my light and my salvation”: Hashem shows us the way and also helps us, saving us from confusion. But Hashem expects a person not to remain in the same state, at the same level. We are expected to go from strength to strength: every year, a person must rise to a higher level and go further than he did the year before. So a person says: “All right, Hashem helps me in serving Him—to turn away from evil and do good, to do what needs to be done and not do what should not be done. But where do I get the strength to make the coming year a step from strength to strength within holiness itself, to rise to a higher level?” To this we say: “Hashem is the stronghold of my life.” It is not only that Hashem saves me. Hashem also gives me the drive, the strength, and the resolve not merely to do what is necessary—to turn away from evil and do good—but to rise to an even higher level, so that my avodah in the coming year will be incomparably greater than it was the year before. That, in brief, is the point of the explanation the Rebbe gave in the letter. But around that same time, at the Chai Elul farbrengen, the Rebbe added an explanation that also answers the questions we asked: Why does it say “shall I fear” here, and “shall I dread” there? The Rebbe explained it a little differently at the farbrengen. The Rebbe gave a truly wonderful explanation. It

12:22 was also printed in Likkutei Sichos. Anyone who wants to can look it up; it is in volume 9. The Rebbe explained as follows. He explained that the two mentions of Hashem here correspond to the two mentions of Hashem in the Thirteen Attributes of Mercy. The Thirteen Attributes begin, “Hashem, Hashem, compassionate and gracious G-d.” Rashi asks: Why is Hashem said twice? Rashi says that one refers to Hashem before a person sins, and the other to Hashem after a person sins and repents. In other words, the first mention of Hashem relates to the ordinary course of avodah. Even there, a person needs the Thirteen Attributes of Mercy to help him serve Hashem in the ordinary way. The second mention of Hashem is after a person has sinned, when much greater mercy is needed. We spoke about this here in the Tanya classes too: greater mercy is needed. That is the second mention of Hashem: Hashem gives a person the strength, even after he has sinned, not only to conduct himself properly from then on, but also to transform his deliberate sins into merits and reach a much higher level in serving Hashem. That is the difference between the first and second mentions of Hashem. The first speaks of the ordinary course of avodah. About this we say, “Hashem is my light”: Hashem illuminates the way for us, as we said earlier, so that we can walk the path of serving Him. Not only does He illuminate the way; Hashem also helps us overcome the difficulties that arise in serving Him, as we said, so that a person can overcome challenges and concealments. About this it says, “Whom shall I fear?” What does “fear” mean here? Rashi says: What is the difference between fear and dread? Fear concerns something at a distance; dread concerns something close at hand. Fear is more a matter of the mind, something more distant.

14:24 Dread is more immediate. In Tanya, too, we find the expression “fear in his mind and dread in his heart” several times. Dread is something more tangible. Fear concerns something further off, where no danger is in sight. Dread is when there is a tangible danger. So the Rebbe explains that the first part of the verse speaks about the ordinary course of avodah. There we speak of “my light and my salvation,” so that a person will not be hindered in serving Hashem by concealments and challenges. But then the yetzer hara comes to a person and says, “Why are you starting to serve Hashem? Suddenly you’re going to devote yourself to serving Hashem, to studying and davening? Think of the sins you committed in the past, the sins you committed over the course of the year. You have such serious sins behind you. How can you even think of starting to serve Hashem? You can’t repair all the sins you’ve committed. They are very great, very serious sins.” And this makes a person’s work of teshuvah difficult. This is not just a matter of fear; it is dread. It is dread of something close at hand, because he knows himself. He knows that yesterday his conduct was not right and that he actually committed sins. So how can I—“Who may ascend the mountain of Hashem?”—how can he ascend the mountain of Hashem and serve Him when he has all those concealments, all those things, all the sins he committed before and has not yet repaired? To this we say, “Hashem is the stronghold of my life.” This is the Hashem of “after a person sins and repents.” According to the explanation in the sicha, this is the power of teshuvah, which can transform deliberate sins into merits. Not only can you conduct yourself properly from now on; there is also “Hashem is the stronghold of my life.”

16:11 The second “Hashem” refers to after a person has sinned and done teshuvah: Hashem gives him the strength to cleanse himself of everything in his past. And not only to cleanse it, but for the deliberate sins themselves to become merits. As the Alter Rebbe writes in Tanya, when deliberate sins become merits, they are far greater merits, on a much higher level than ordinary merits. So that is the general explanation of the verse as well. According to this, we understand why “Hashem” appears twice, and why with the first “Hashem” it says “whom shall I fear,” while with the second it says “of whom shall I be afraid.” They refer to two aspects of serving Hashem, of the work of teshuvah associated with Elul and Tishrei. The first part follows the normal, orderly path of avodah. The second part of the verse applies when greater strength is needed: according to the first explanation, so that the coming year’s avodah will rest on a firm, lasting foundation; or, according to the second explanation, so that teshuvah will affect not only the future, but also turn the deliberate sins of the previous year into merits. There is also another point of explanation concerning the words “my light and my salvation.” The Midrash gives one of the foundations for this on the revealed level of Torah. Why do we say this chapter of Tehillim during these days? The Midrash says, “Hashem is my light and my salvation”—“my light” refers to Rosh Hashanah, and “my salvation” to Yom Kippur. That is what the Midrash says. But what is the connection? Why is “my light” Rosh Hashanah, and “my salvation” Yom Kippur? People read this Midrash quickly without noticing that, in those very words, it explains the fundamental difference between the teshuvah of Rosh Hashanah and that of Yom Kippur. If we understand what it means that “my light” is Rosh Hashanah and “my salvation” is

18:16 Yom Kippur, we gain a deeper understanding of the difference between the work of teshuvah on Rosh Hashanah and on Yom Kippur. By way of introduction, the Rebbe asks in one of his general letters: At first glance, why do we not mention all the themes of Rosh Hashanah on Rosh Hashanah? One of them is teshuvah. The Rambam writes that one of the central aspects of Rosh Hashanah is blowing the shofar, which is about teshuvah. The shofar carries this message: “Awaken, sleepers, from your sleep; rouse yourselves from your slumber; return in teshuvah.” Why, then, do we not mention teshuvah on Rosh Hashanah? On Rosh Hashanah we do not mention sins at all. We must not say Al Chet, or even speak of sin. The Shulchan Aruch gives a straightforward explanation for why we do not say Al Chet or Ashamnu, and why we do not mention sins at all on Rosh Hashanah. It goes so far that once, on Rosh Hashanah, people began singing a niggun before the Rebbe that included the words “we have sinned,” and the Rebbe immediately stopped them, because it must not be sung on Rosh Hashanah. Another time, people wanted to begin singing “Return, return from your ways,” a niggun of the Rebbe Maharash, and the Rebbe stopped them then too. It must not be sung on Rosh Hashanah. They were very careful not to sing niggunim that mention sins. We do not dwell on them in the prayers, either. But seemingly, Rosh Hashanah is a time for teshuvah. Why are sins not mentioned? The Rebbe gives a wonderful explanation. The Rebbe explains that the difference between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur is that Rosh Hashanah is the core of teshuvah. What is the core of teshuvah? It is what we learned in Tanya and also explained: kabbolas ol malchus Shamayim, accepting the yoke of the kingdom of Heaven. That is the foundation. The first thing

20:09 in the work of teshuvah, before you begin speaking about transgressions and details, is to give yourself over like a servant to a king. That is the first point. Once a person gives himself over like a servant to a king, and that is what occupies him, he stands before the King. At that moment, only the King exists for him. His entire being is permeated with accepting His kingship. When that is your state, you do not begin saying Al Chet—“I have sinned, I have transgressed.” Not now. Al Chet has no place now. We do not speak about it now. While you are standing before the King, before a living King, you cannot begin thinking about everything you did wrong that you need to correct. At that moment, your entire being is permeated with one single point: accepting His kingship. When you stand in that state, only His kingship exists; nothing else does. After a person has made that commitment to accept His kingship, Hakadosh Boruch Hu becomes King—his King—and he becomes His servant. Then the person needs to take stock of what was wrong with his conduct before, what he needs to correct, and how he can make a new start in the coming year. That, in general, is the difference between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Rosh Hashanah is the core of teshuvah, the point of accepting His kingship. When you are at that point, nothing exists apart from accepting His kingship. So a person does not think about himself, his sins, his past, or the details. He thinks about the overarching point. After a person has dealt with that, he comes to the details: how to correct matters in which he fell short in accepting the King’s authority,

21:54 and how to make the coming year one in which he can draw closer to the King, and so on. The Rebbe says that this also explains “Hashem is my light” on Rosh Hashanah and “my salvation” on Yom Kippur. Rosh Hashanah belongs to the category of light. What is light? Light is revelation; it is something revealed from above to below. The avodah of Rosh Hashanah is “my light.” On Rosh Hashanah, a person needs to feel the light of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. Accepting His kingship is a matter of “my light”; you are connected with light. This is not yet the time to think about “my salvation,” about the details—how to correct each of the particular things that need correcting. The main avodah of Rosh Hashanah is overarching: the avodah of light. A person needs to contemplate the kingship of Hakadosh Boruch Hu, to contemplate how He is King over all and everyone is subject to Him, and to give himself over as a servant to Hakadosh Boruch Hu. That is the meaning of “my light” on Rosh Hashanah. Afterward comes “my salvation.” That is when he notices various things that were not right during the year, things that interfere with his connection to the King. So he begins to ask: “For the sin that we committed before You under the influence of the evil inclination; for the sin that we committed before You through food and drink; for the sin that we committed before You” in this way and that. All the Al Chet confessions said there concern the particular matters for which a person needs salvation: he needs Hakadosh Boruch Hu to lift him out of the countless details that were not right, so he can correct them. According to this, we understand what the Midrash means when it says, “Hashem is my light” on Rosh Hashanah. Rosh Hashanah is the overarching avodah of accepting His kingship. After that comes “my salvation,” the work on the details. This is the teaching of the Baal Shem

23:40 Tov. The Baal Shem Tov says about the verse, “For had we not delayed, by now we would have returned twice.” The Rebbe cites this teaching in Tehillim, at the end of Tehillim, in the name of the Baal Shem Tov. What does “For had we not delayed, by now we would have returned twice” mean? “Had we not,” lulei, alludes to Elul. “Delayed” refers to the soul-searching a person needs to do throughout Elul. “By now we would have returned twice” refers to two kinds of teshuvah: the general teshuvah of Rosh Hashanah and the particular teshuvah of Yom Kippur. This is a teaching of the Baal Shem Tov. In light of this explanation, we understand what general teshuvah on Rosh Hashanah means: it is the core of teshuvah, accepting His kingship. The particular teshuvah of Yom Kippur is to carry that into every detail and into all the matters that need correction.