Song of the Day: Thursday

An extra letter in Yosef's name

Verse 6 spells Yosef's name with an extra letter: Yehosef. It is the hei from God's four-letter Name, and no other verse in the Tanach spells it this way. The Gemara (the rabbis' long discussion of the Mishnah) gives two reasons. He earned it by honoring God's name in private, while his brother Yehuda did so in public and was named entirely after God's Name. Or it was added so he could learn seventy languages and answer Pharaoh. Ibn Ezra (Spain, 1100s) says it honors the Name, and Yosef stands for all Israel.

When Thursday was also Rosh Hashanah

In the Temple, the extra offering of Rosh Hashanah had its own song: this same psalm. So what happened when Rosh Hashanah fell on a Thursday? The Gemara says that in the morning they did not sing it, so as not to repeat the chapter. They sang "I took the load off his shoulder" (verse 7) instead. Rashi (the classic commentator, France, died 1105) says this fit the day: Yosef left prison on Rosh Hashanah. If the witnesses who saw the new moon came only after the morning offering, they sang it twice.

Renew and improve

The Midrash (an old collection of rabbinic teachings) plays on the words of verse 4, "Blow the shofar at the new moon, at the covered time." The Hebrew words for new moon, shofar and covered sound like the words for renew, improve and cover. So the rabbis hear: renew your deeds, improve your deeds, and I will cover over your sins. The same passage adds that a shofar takes breath in at one end and sends it out the other, so God hears every accusation against us from one side and sends it out the other.

A happy song that ends with "if only"

The first half is a party: drums, harp, shofar. Then God speaks and the mood changes: "My people did not listen to My voice." Radak (Rabbi David Kimchi, Provence, around 1200) says this covers the wilderness, the time of the judges, and the kings after David and Shlomo, until the Temple was destroyed. Verse 14 opens with the word lu, "if only." Rashi adds: even now, if they would still want to return and listen to Me. The last verse, honey and the best wheat, is read as what God would have given.

A language I did not know

Verse 6 ends: "a language I did not know, I heard." Who is speaking? Rashi points to the story about Yosef and the seventy languages (see the first card). Radak reads it as Israel: they heard the Egyptians speak a language that was not theirs, one they would never have known if they had not been enslaved. Or, he says, most of the people never understood it, because they spoke Hebrew among themselves. Ibn Ezra also says Israel in Egypt had to learn Egyptian, which their ancestors never knew.

Why "God of Yaakov" and not Avraham?

Verses 2 and 5 both say "God of Yaakov," not Avraham or Yitzchak. Midrash Tehillim says Avraham had Yishmael among his children and Yitzchak had Esav, but all of Yaakov's children were holy, the twelve tribes. Radak gives a plainer reason: Yaakov went down to Egypt with his sons, and it was his family who became slaves, and this psalm is about their rescue.

Do not let it become a fixed rule

The verse says tik'u bachodesh shofar: "blow, on the new moon, a shofar." The order is odd. The Baal Shem Tov (the founder of Chassidut, who died in 1760) asks why it does not simply say "blow a shofar on the new moon." He answers through the word chodesh, "month," which comes from chadash, "new." A person should always see to it that what he does stays new, so that it does not turn into a fixed rule (a chok kavua). Now read the verse again.

תקעו בחודש שופר והקשה דהל"ל תקעו שופר בחדש... לחדש מעש"ט שלא יהיה כמו חק קבוע

Do not let God become a stranger

The verse says: "Let there be no strange god within you." The plain meaning is a warning against worshipping other gods. A teaching passed on in the name of the Baal Shem Tov reads the word zar (strange) another way: let God not become a stranger to you. Instead, really live by "I have set Hashem before me always" (Tehillim 16:8). The same teaching calls a person fortunate if, when his mind drifts away from thinking of God, he counts that in his own eyes as a sin.

לא יהיה בך אל זר... שלא יהיה אל... זר בעיני האדם, רק שיקיים תמיד באמת שויתי ה' לנגדי תמיד

A bird and a fish, one song

Birds belong to the sky and fish belong to the sea. They are about as different as two creatures can be. The Gemara (the rabbis' long discussion of Jewish teaching) says that on this day God made both to praise His name. The Sod Yesharim (by Rabbi Gershon Henoch Leiner of Radzin, a Chassidic rebbe in Poland in the 1800s) says that when opposites join in one act of praise, you can see that God is one. He ties this to the verse's ending: Yaakov's way was to bring together things that seem to pull apart.

עופות ודגים הם שני הפכים וכשמתאחדים ביחד ע"י זה ניכר מהם אחדותו ית'

What the Levites' song stands for

Rebbe Nachman of Breslov (a Chassidic master in Ukraine who died in 1810) quotes a line of the Zohar (the central book of Kabbalah) about "the joy of the Levites' song." The Levites were the singers in the Temple. He says the song stands for honest business, and for being happy with your share instead of rushing to get rich. He points to this psalm: "Take up a song and give a drum." The Hebrew for doing business, masa umatan, comes from the same two words, "lift" and "give."

נִגּוּנָא דְּלֵיוָאֵי זֶה בְּחִינַת מַשָּׂא וּמַתָּן בֶּאֱמוּנָה, שֶׁשָּׂמֵחַ בְּחֶלְקוֹ וְאֵינוֹ אָץ לְהַעֲשִׁיר... כִּי הַנְּגִינָה זֶה הַמַּשָּׂא וּמַתָּן, כְּמוֹ שֶׁכָּתוּב: שְׂאוּ זִמְרָה וּתְנוּ תֹף

This psalm says to blow the shofar. Do people actually do that in Elul?

Ashkenazim do. The Rema (Rabbi Moshe Isserles, who added Ashkenazi practice to the Shulchan Aruch, the main code of Jewish law) writes that from Rosh Chodesh Elul they start blowing the shofar after Shacharit. The Mishnah Berurah (a central commentary on daily Jewish law, written around 1900) says to blow every morning, and that some start on the first day of Rosh Chodesh and some on the second. The Shulchan Aruch itself records a different custom: getting up early for Selichot (prayers asking forgiveness).

What if I follow the Shulchan Aruch's custom, not the Ashkenazi one?

The Kaf HaChaim (a Sephardic law commentary from the early 1900s) explains that the Shulchan Aruch speaks of waking early for Selichot from Rosh Chodesh Elul, while the Ashkenazi custom is the shofar, and the Rema's note is based on the Rosh and the Tur (earlier law authorities). He adds that some who follow the Shulchan Aruch also blow shofar during Selichot, at the Thirteen Attributes of God's mercy and before the closing Kaddish, so as to satisfy all the opinions.

Can I blow it the day before Rosh Hashanah, or at night?

Not the day before Rosh Hashanah. The Arukh HaShulchan (a code of law by Rabbi Yechiel Michel Epstein, from around 1900) rules that no shofar is blown on that day, to separate the optional blasts from the required ones on Rosh Hashanah itself. Practicing at home is allowed. At night, he says, not even to practice, because night is not a time to stir up heavenly mercy. The Rema notes that some places did blow at Maariv, the evening service.

Does a shofar have to be a ram's horn?

Ideally, yes, and curved. The Shulchan Aruch rules that a Rosh Hashanah shofar should be from a ram and bent, but if one is not available, any shofar is valid, straight or bent, and bent is better. A cow's horn is invalid in every case. The Mishnah Berurah says the ram recalls the binding of Yitzchak, and the bend is a sign that we should bend our hearts to God.

Is there anything special to have in mind on Thursday?

The Kaf HaChaim, citing the Arizal (Rabbi Yitzchak Luria, a Kabbalist in Safed in the 1500s) and the prayer book of the Rashash (Rabbi Shalom Sharabi, a Kabbalist in Jerusalem who died in 1777), says counting the weekdays from Shabbat shows that each one draws from Shabbat. Sunday to Tuesday hold on to the last Shabbat. Wednesday to Friday reach toward the next one, and on Thursday you reach toward its ruach, a level of the soul.