Close To Torah

One who reads the book of psalms may assume that David was a frequent sinner. So many of his psalms discuss the advent of repentance and forgiveness from the Gracious and Loving God. In fact, the rabbis even teach us (Midrash Socher Tov 4:4), that one who wishes to learn about true teshuvah, repentance, should study the life and deeds of David. We know that David was an extremely righteous man, why is it that his songs are so steeped in the theme of repentance?

Some Questions

A famous question is: Why do we need to say selach lanu, please forgive us, God, in the first Maariv prayed after Yom Kippur? We have just spent the entire day repenting, fasting and doing what is right, we are pure and forgiven, so why are we asking for God’s forgiveness again?

Some like to answer that we are repenting for the fact that we are wishing to run out of shul and go home to eat! This may be humorous, but it really does not answer the question as having human drives is something that we are entitled and expected to possess. Another question that can be asked along the same lines is why we celebrate Rosh Hashanah every year to make Hashem King over ourselves, would it not be sufficient to celebrate this once in a lifetime or less frequently than every year?

Deeper Understanding

The answer was provided by Rabbi Saadia Goan (882- 942 CE) in a fascinating story that seems to have occurred, although others attribute the story to alternate rabbis. In the days of Rabbi Saadia Goan when a great rabbi traveled, most people may have recognized his name but they would not necessarily know what he even looked like. Social media and instant pictures did not exist and thus if you traveled, you would send notice weeks in advance and then you arrived, the townsfolk would have to figure out who you were. Rabbi Saadia traveled to a far away city and came into the local shul. Someone noticed that he was new to the community not having a clue as to who he was and invited him in offering him a place to stay. Rabbi Saadia accepted and the man gave him a simple bed, elementary food and tried to make sure that his guest was comfortable.

After a few days, the townspeople found out that the stranger visiting them was none other than the leader of the generation, the great Rabbi Saadia Goan. They marched to the host’s house and made a warm welcome for the tzaddik, righteous person, who visited the city. The town was filled with joy and elation; everyone was proud to have this great man in their midst. The host realized that his simple guest was a world-renounced tzaddik and he began to cry. “Please rabbi, forgive me for my mistreatment of such a noble rabbi.” Rabbi Saadia reassured the host that he had been treated with proper respect and was most grateful to have stayed with him. The host replied, “Had I known who you were I would have treated you with infinite more respect.” To this Rabbi Saadia came to tears. What was wrong, was the rabbi okay? Rabbi Saadia explained that as we get to know someone respectable we wish to honor him even more, so too, as we learn to appreciate Hashem, we recognize how much more honor He deserves.

Daily Recognitions

In this psalm and throughout the entire book David mentions his frequent repentance. Every day David had a deeper understanding of Hashem and wished to so-to-speak repent for his lack of respect in the past. When we finish an inspirational Yom Kippur, we recite selach lanu, please forgive, with a new understand and cognizance of Hashem’s greatness. Every year Rosh Hashanah brings us deeper understanding. We are happy with our accomplishments, we take pride and joy for our hard work, but like any successful businessman always looking to expand, we take our spiritual responsibilities most seriously.

 Print

Categories: Uncategorized Tags: