For the last 2 weeks, we’ve been including Psalm 27, the Psalm for the Season of Repentance, into our daily prayers. It speaks about our connection to God, our reliance on God, and a desire to feel God’s presence. In our morning minyan, I’ve been thinking about one line in particular from this psalm. אַחַת שָׁאַלְתִּי מֵאֵת יְהֹוָה אוֹתָהּ אֲבַקֵּשׁ שִׁבְתִּי בְּבֵית יְהֹוָה כָּל יְמֵי חַיַּי לַחֲזוֹת בְּנֹעַם יְהֹוָה וּלְבַקֵּר בְּהֵיכָלוֹ One thing I ask of Adonai, for this I yearn, to dwell in the house of Adonai all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of Adonai, to frequent God’s Temple. -Psalm 27:4
In the past, this line has spoken to the privileges and opportunities I’ve felt being in special places and feeling God’s presence. When I have been in houses of worship filled with warm bodies swaying to their personal prayers. When I have heard the voices of people fill a cavernous sanctuary and give it life. When I have been in natural settings of profound beauty. When I have walked the streets of Jerusalem, imagining the psalmist speaking of this same location as God’s Hosue.
But the past 2 weeks, as I’ve davened from my living room in the mornings on Zoom, toddler often screaming in the background and the floor covered with toys already by 7:12 a.m., these words have given me new meaning. This prayer isn’t actually about being in special places - being in sanctuaries or on a mountain top or even in the Temple in Jerusalem as the Psalmist probably imagines.
Rabbi Jonathan Wittenberg, a colleague of mine in London, teaches that when we say achat sha’alti, usually translated as ‘one thing I ask,’ maybe, instead, we are asking for Oneness. Maybe we are asking God to help us feel that wherever we are, we can be in a house of God. Maybe all along we thought we needed to create God’s house, to go there, but now we are learning that we can be in a house of God anywhere. If I am in a house of mourning, or even a Zoom shiva room, I can find’s God’s presence there. Or when I listen to the sorrow in a friend’s voice, I hope to hear Your voice and Your comfort in that conversation.
Being in God’s house is not as much about locating ourselves in a physical place, but about finding ourselves and God in the place where we already are. Even when we are in a place of challenge or conflict or anger, we can hope to not just react, but to hear, to listen, to think, and to find God in that place, because there’s nowhere where God isn’t. This Psalm measures out the days as we approach the holidays, and we are reminded, especially this year, that finding God’s presence isn’t about going anywhere. To perceive the beauty of God’s presence and visit God’s Temple is the ability to cultivate our own sense of presence as we realize that the whole world is God’s Temple. This is a prayer to seek God out inside of our lives in the present. Not where we wish we could be, not where we were 6 months ago, or God-willing soon, but today. To seek You, to find You, and to listen to wherever Your voice may be.
Shabbat Shalom, Rabbi Sarit
Please click here for the Youtube playlist with davening and teaching I’ve prepared for this Shabbat (it will be uploaded before Shabbat).
Please check out our website for some Shabbat-related learning resources.
