“RABBI’S MUSINGS (& AMUSINGS)”
Erev Shabbos Kodesh parshas Vaeschanan – Shabbos
Nachamu
10 Menachem Av 5783/July 28, 2023
STILL MORE
For the last few years, I have been working on producing and publishing a
new Siddur. It’s been a long, arduous and fulfilling process. The Siddur is
being thoroughly edited and will hopefully be available in the coming months.
The Siddur was written
with the contemporary teenager in mind, with the hope that it can be
appreciated by adults as well. In one word, the goal of the siddur is to
inspire.
The gemara (Berachos 6b) states that prayer “stands at the height of the
world but people disparage it”. Most people fail to recognize the incredible
poignancy and greatness of prayer. Part of the challenge of prayer is that the
words are unfamiliar.
The Siddur I am working on has a new translation written in a more
familiar vernacular. Whenever I had the choice between using a literal translation
or being more general so as to emphasize the point being expressed, I chose the
latter.
The Siddur also includes a commentary with insights, anecdotes and
contemporary perspectives to help its reader connect with the prayers.
One of the phrases that I had a hard time translating were the words
recited in the second Hallelukah, “azamrah lElokai b’odi”.
The Artscroll Siddur translates those words as, “I will sing to Hashem while I
am still alive”, while the Metsudah Siddur translates it as, “I will sing to
Hashem while I exist”.
I felt that there was a
nuance lacking in both of those translations. However, I couldn’t think of how
to better express what I felt was lacking. (In general, it is virtually
impossible to truly capture a full translation of any verses or prayers written
in lashon hakodesh. There are so many hidden nuances and meanings that
cannot be captured in any translation.)
Recently, I thought of the following idea:
It’s well known that during his final days, the Vilna Gaon was crying.
When asked what was particularly troubling him, the Gaon explained that he was
sad to leave a world where for a small amount of money one can purchase a pair
of tzitzis. The merit of wearing tzitzis is akin to performing all the other
mitzvos in the Torah (see Nedarim 25a). In this world, with a relatively small
investment one can purchase eternity. In the world of truth, however, one
doesn’t have such an opportunity. The Gaon was crying that he was imminently
leaving a world of so much opportunity.
At the beginning of Ashrei we state, “עוד יהללוך סלה - we will continue to praise you forever.” The word עוד means more.
Great people live their lives always seeking personal growth. They view
every day as providing added opportunities to accrue merits by doing mitzvos,
studying Torah and performing acts of chesed for others.
Perhaps that is what Dovid Hamelech was referring to when he said “azamrah
lElokai b’odi”. I will sing to Hashem as long as I am blessed
with עוד, the
opportunity do and accomplish more.
This is a particularly poignant message after Tisha b’Av.
In his incredible memoir, Out of The Depths, Rabbi Yisroel Meir Lau
recounts:
“At the beginning of the 1980s, Ed Koch, mayor of New York City, invited
me to his office. He is a warm Jew, sensitive and emotional, a great lover of
Israel and the Jewish people.
“At our first meeting, he introduced himself to me and declared that he
was also a Holocaust survivor. Out of politeness, I refrained from asking him
what exactly he survived and where he had been during the Second World War. I
wanted to give him a chance to tell his story himself. He said that he had been
born in the Bronx and had lived his whole life in New York, but insisted that
he was a real survivor. Smiling, I dared to ask how that could be- and Ed Koch
began to explain.
“Years earlier, he had traveled to Germany for an educational trip. At
one of the stops, the guide showed the group the globe that had sat on Hitler’s
desk. “It reminded me of Charlie Chaplain’s movie about the great dictator. But
unlike the one in Chaplain’s movie,” Koch recounted, “that big globe had lots
of numbers written on it in black marker. When the guide spun the globe, Europe
blackened with numbers. Other continents had far fewer black marks. The guide
explained that when World War II broke out, Hitler recorded the Jewish
population of each country. After all, they represented his life’s goal.
Albania, for example, bore the number “1” for the single Jew living there. Our
enemy decided that he would not rest as long as that one Jew from Albania, a
total stranger to him, remained alive. The territory of the United States bore
the number six million. [The population statistics are slightly inaccurate]
“That includes me,” said Ed Koch with undisguised anger. “So I am also a
Holocaust survivor-if the Allies hadn’t stopped the Nazi beast, no doubt I
would have been destroyed.”
“I shook his hand warmly and said, “Today I have learned an important
lesson from you, and I will carry it home with me to Israel. I’ve heard that
not all Jewish communities feel a connection to Holocaust Day. From now on,
I’ll tell them about the Jew born in New York who lived all his life in an
American city, but who feels like a Holocaust survivor…””
My rebbe, Rabbi Berel Wein, expresses a similar sentiment. He notes that
he was of age during the Holocaust and Hitler wanted to kill him too. Just
because he was in Chicago and not in Europe didn’t make him any less of a
target for Hitler. But if he wasn’t one of the six-million victims then he was
preserved by G-d for a reason. That is why, Rabbi Wein adds, he feels an
ongoing sense of mission and responsibility to the Jewish People.
On Tisha B’Av we read and recount the endless travails and anguish that
have beset our people throughout the exile. Yet, despite it all we are still
here. In that sense every Jew is a survivor, preserved by G-d with a mission to
spread G-dliness.
We all have reason to live our lives with an attitude of בעודי, always
seeking to accomplish more. When one views his life with that perspective, he
sees every day as a gift with unique opportunities for growth. Despite all the
staggering losses of the past, we take comfort in knowing that every day we are
בעודי and can
accomplish great things and become greater people.
That is undoubtedly a source of comfort and strength.
Nachamu Nachamu Ami!
Shabbat Shalom
& Good Shabbos,
R’ Dani
and Chani Staum
