17 Elul 5786 – 30 August 2026
One of the customs our tradition offers during this preparatory month of Elul is the twice-a-day reading of Psalm 27. Going out on a limb, I am guessing that many of us are not experiencing Psalm 27 with that kind of regularity. With that in mind, here is a musing on an aspect of this ancient and sacred text of ours that is speaking to me …
More God-Intoxicated Rhetoric
In the translation of the very first verse of Psalm 27, I think I may understand at least one of the reasons why many of us progressive Jews don’t read it twice a day during this month.
God is my light and my help; whom should I fear? God is the stronghold of my life, whom should I dread? (Psalm 27:1)
In my 3+ decades of serving the progressive Jewish community, I very rarely hear — or even myself speak — this kind of God-intoxicated rhetoric. I say this in the spirit of observation, not judgment. The reading of the Psalm is part of this time of year because it asserts and aligns the reader with a fundamental theological theme of this season: Teshuvah. Teshuvah can be quite literally understood as a return to God. The psalm is all about reminding the reader of how powerfully God takes us in and lifts us up.
I dare say that most of us progressive Jews do not think about divinity in this way. There’s a good chunk — I’d love to get some actual numbers on this one — who are unsure of the existence of God or the nature of the divine. Even amongst the progressive Jews who have more confidence about the existence and nature of divinity, most would not speak about their relation to it in this manner.
And yet, even though I would still categorize myself in this manner … I also feel this pull of Return. I crave the sense or feeling of being held in this way by a broader, mysterious force. I wonder if it’s not even important as to the nature of this being or entity to which we return. What if the importance lies in our openness and willingness to admit or submit that there is something more than what we think we know or understand or experience? Teshuvah may not be a litmus test of belief that assesses the depth and veracity of our faith. What the act of Teshuvah may be is a jarring and even unsettling ejection from our continued residence in our heads and egos … to dwell in a landscape beyond the borders and assumptions of what we think we know and control. We strive to move from a focus and reliance on self to an awareness and awe of Self.
When we make this move … we encounter whatever it is we try to name when we speak of returning to “God.” Godspeed as we all endeavor to return, once again, this coming year.
