18 February, 2024 08:34
I have been reading Tenach. I started with the Book of Yehoshua and now am all the way to Tehillam. In the Tenach I have, Tehillam is set up – not in the order of the day … in other words, it starts and goes chapter by chapter. The Tenach editors of the version I have, well, one was Lord Rabbi Jonathan Saks. He died about 2 years ago. Many? Some saw him as a torah gadol, so I guess the edition I am using might fall into the dati camp. But of course the Internet and others might say otherwise. Do you own research. But this is not about him specifically. I was just mentioning al a gav, who one of the editors was of the version I am using. Anyway, the Tehillam are not set up in "day" order as many who read Tehillam are used to. The first line of the first Tehillam .. was quite instructive and honestly I think I needed to "hear" the opening lines at that specific moment. So I am going to share here.
Since "some" / many prefer Chabad over Lord Jonathan Saks, here is how Chabad writes the opening line.
The version I read started out with the word "Happy is the man…"
First, my initial reaction was that happiness is, according to this tehillam not hanging out with 3 distinct types / groups. Wicked. Sinners. and Scoffers / cynics. What is the difference between a wicked person and a sinner? Wicked people do not generally care about the harm they do. We might call them Psychopaths. Or perhaps the most evil of the evil and that list is quite long. So who would hang out with them??? Ever noticed that the worst of the worst … rarely are solo? And then there are sinners. Sinners are all of us. No one is perfect ; but I think this would be someone who sins and then feels bad / knows it was bad, but does not know how to stop or repent. So do not hang around consistent sinners.
Funny enough my entire vort was on the wording of the version I read, and along comes Chabad and "just" a "bit" puts a different twist on the first lines
Anyway,.. if one accepts that the opening line is "happy is the man", who does not sit with the wicked, sinners and the cynical"… which was the basic of what the version I read.. here is what I want to say on the matter.
The last of the 3, as in the cynics / scoffers. Orit, sad that one could also translate the word as "clowns", meaning people who do not take life seriously. I suppose. Anyway, cynicism… sometimes and especially in a world with 3 billion online and easy ways of sending ones thoughts out to the world with a few clicks, is perhaps very hard to avoid. The entire news media is about cycnical. if it bleeds it leads. we all stop to see the car wreck … and then post about it, and re-tweet. We all take part in a very very very cynical world view of Ain mah la asot and that is just how it is. And it is what it is etc etc. truly, happy is a person who is not cynical (or hangs around cynics). But WAIT, ya know the 1st Amendment says we (in the USA) have a right among other things to say our complaints !! Silence is complaint (i.e. agreeing). if I do not post — then people will say "hey, I did not hear so and so stand up". As if their entire view on the matter is confirmed when a hidden team of writers and the popular person on TV says the thing! Did you see?? he (or she) she said it!!! so very very brave. Anyway, see I am just being cynical myself. It is very very hard to escape cynical worldview. TRULY, b"emt, Happy is that person!! This is dedicated to my dear sister and new (again) mom, Shirra.
