Psalm 30:  A Psalm, a song for the Dedication of the House.  For David

Psalm 30 is associated with Hanukkah for the obvious reason of its heading:

“A Psalm, a song for the Dedication of the House.  For David.”

Yet, at least at first glance, there seems to be no obvious connection between its contents and this commemorative occasion.  Nor is the connection between David and the dedication of the House (Temple) at all clear.  After all, it was Solomon who built and dedicated the Temple—and who in fact uttered a lengthy prayer, or rather series of praises and prayer, on that occasion (see I Kings 8:12-61).  The Bible also contains prayers related to the rebuilding of the Temple in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah.

Psalm 30 presents a puzzle in other ways as well;  in the traditional liturgy it is recited every day as a kind of introduction to Pesukei de-Zimra.  The questions is: what is a psalm of prayer and petition doing at that particular point in the liturgy, immediately prior to a series of songs of praise and lauding and extolling of God?  I find this psalm to be interesting for its portrayal of a certain psychological transition undergone by its author.  It begins by describing a certain crisis in his life:  he was deathly ill, he cried out to God, and was “lifted up from Sheol.”  He then recalls how he used to feel, before the crisis:  he enjoyed an exaggerated sense of trust and security, ”I said in my contentment, I shall never be moved” (v. 7).  But suddenly, troubles came along and swept him away;  he realizes that God has hidden His face from him, and he discovers the need for prayer, and that he has no alternative but to turn to God in his time of distress.  He thus moves from a stage of exaggerated self-confidence, in which he had ignored man’s ultimate dependence upon God;  through a period of hester panim, of distress, of fear, of knowing his own helplessness, related to distance from God;  and finally, to the knowledge, by contrast, of God’s redeeming help.  The psalm ends in dance and song, when the author is convinced that true joy is to be found in God.

I suggested that this psalm may be read as an introduction, not only to Pesukei de-Zimra, but to the entire process of prayer.  It serves as a reminder that, prior to the stage of service of love, expressed in ecstatic psalms of praise to God, each one of us begins from a stage of anxiety, angst, of discovering man’s essential dependence, need and creatureliness.

Moreover, it seemed to me that the contrast here between self-confidence and serendipity, and dependence on God and gratefulness for His salvation, speaks in a unique way to contemporary culture.  The modern milieu seems to have lost the tragic sense of life.  People today talk about “having it all”—of enjoying material wealth, professional success, health, good “personal relationships”—and somehow feel cheated when things don’t quite work out they way think they have a right to expect.  Not infrequently, one encounters people who seem to have been spared serious troubles through much of their life—whether because they were born with the proverbial silver spoon in their mouth, or whether, through a combination of innate talent and intelligence, charm, good looks, and old-fashioned hard work and discipline, have enjoyed success in school and in their profession, coming to feel that the world is their oyster.  When such people suddenly encounter a situation they cannot control or master, they find themselves at a total loss as to where to turn.

What has all this to do with Hanukkah?  As Amos Hakham notes, the various “personal” psalms only rarely specify the precise nature of the trouble and needs because of which the author is beseeching God.  This fact makes them far more universal, and suitable for use by any person in distress, who can think of his particular problem while praying them.  Moreover, even a psalm phrased in the first-person singular can in fact be used or understood as being uttered by or about the Jewish people as a whole.  Thus, Psalm 30 can be read, among other things, as referring to the distress of the Jewish people during the period of Seleucid suppression of  Jewish observance that triggered the Hasmonean rebellion—a theme thoroughly appropriate to Hanukkah.  True, there is no reference in this psalm to the element of human initiative that was so central to the Hanukkah story (and which, by the way,  lends itself to a secular, nationalist interpretation), but one might argue that this is seen by the author as self-evident and understood.  The important thing was that, in tandem with the human effort, the Hasmoneans saw themselves as dependent upon God, and as renewing the ritual in His Temple with His help, so to speak.

To this, it seems to me, one may add two things:  First, that the phrase, “sing unto the Lord his pious ones” (v. 5) is appropriate to Hanukkah, because the term hasidim was specifically used to refer to the Hasmonean as against the Hellenizers.   Second, and more important:  Hanukkah is, so to speak, the last holiday of the biblical period and the first of Rabbinic Judaism.  The entire complex of attitudes described above:  of faith and trust in God;  of devotion to His service;  of waging a war, not for material interests, but to protect and restore such religious values as Shabbat, circumcision, the autonomy of the Jewish calendar, and the purity of the Temple service—are in concert with the attitude of devotion to God, understanding and acceptance of the radical insecurity of human life, and the role of avodah in the life of the individual that this implies.

Recent Articles by Rabbi Jonathan Chipman

• Re'e: Human Rights and Spiritual Revival from Within. - August 28th, 2008
• Vayhi: The End was Hidden from Him - December 21st, 2007
• Ki Tisa: Love, Justice and Righteousness - March 9th, 2007
• Mishpatim: Jury and Beit Din - February 16th, 2007
• Chanukah: Protecting and restoring religious values - December 22nd, 2006
• Noah: The Nature of Evil - October 27th, 2006

Categories: Chanukah, Holidays and Commemorations
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