We are now in pesukim of Perek Shira (Tehilim 19,2)
י֣וֹם לְ֭יוֹם יַבִּ֣יעַֽ אֹ֑מֶר וְלַ֥יְלָה לְּ֝לַ֗יְלָה יְחַוֶּה־דָּֽעַת׃ / Day to day expresses statements, night to night expresses wisdom.
This is the song of the day. The day sings a song. What does it mean? Rashi tells us that creation is renewed every day. Every day the sun sets, every day the sun rises, and from this change and renewal of day and night, creation expresses its praise to Hashem, to thank Him and glorify Him for the day. Sunrise, sunset-that's a miracle. The cycle of day and night causes us to sing a song. That's the song of the day.
As we've discussed before, there is always the question of how to understand Perek Shira -is the day singing, or is the day causing us to sing? Here, Rashi tells us it's the cycle of day and night that causes us to constantly praise Hashem. According to Rashi, Yom l'yom means every day, and Lilah means every night.
But the Radak says that day to day gives a statement means that today is going to tell me about tomorrow. The cycle is so exact and precise that I know-from today- what tomorrow is going to look like, and I know from tonight what the next night is going to look like. Because of the constant perfection and precision of the solar and the lunar cycles, each day tells about the next since the days don't change.
These are the wonders of the solar system,
Malbim asks, Why does it say Yom L'Yom Yabiya Omer/during the day we speak and the night Yehaveh Da'at/ expresses wisdom? He explains that during the day, while you can see the wonders of creations, and you're watching them happen, that's when you speak about the praise that you're seeing. Things are constantly happening during the day. But when we get to the nighttime, we don't have the constant refreshing messages. We are at home at night. We're not watching and seeing creation. Then what's our job? Yehaveh Da'at- we have to think about it. We have to contemplate. At the end, we have to look back and say, "What wonders did I see today? What did I sing about today?"
The song of the night, so to say, is the contemplation of what you saw during the day.
The Hovot Halevavot has a whole unit, or Shaar/gate, dedicated to delving into Hashem and creation, called Shaar Bechina. In chapter 6, he says the job of a person is to constantly pay attention to these signs of the wisdom of God in creation, and never stop thinking and analyzing anything that comes to your senses or intellect. He says, a day should not go by that you don't see something new in creation. Unbelievable. Notice the leaves of the evergreen tree! Notice, notice, notice. Rabbi Miller style. And he cites our pasuk as his source:Yom L'Yom Yabia Omer. Every single day,
He's not going with the first or second explanation, that every day and night give us their message. He is not saying the day tells us about the day, and the night tells about the night. Rather, he says, Every single day you should find something new, and every single night you should continue to contemplate.
The next pasuk (which isn't in Perek Shira) says, En Omer V'En Devarim. Simply, this means, the sun and the moon sing their song without words, without speech, just from what they do. But the Chatam Sofer in Bereshit 37,1 and the Bina L'Ittim, in his Darush to Hol Hamoed Pesach, says, En Omer v'En Devarim means the sun and the moon sing their song, but nobody hears their message. We don't pay attention to it. Why not? Says the Bina L'Ittim, because Yom L'Yom/because it happens every day and happens every night, we don't pay attention. We pay attention to things that are new and exceptional. We don't pay attention to the norm.
That's another reason why the Hovot Halevavot says, we don't appreciate creation- because we're like that child who was raised from a young age by his parents, who takes everything for granted, because he's already used to and habituated to it. That's us.
Everything is normal to us.. Of course, there's a sun and a moon. But imagine, he says, if somebody who was destitute was brought into a man's home at age 20. He's going to say thank you for every little thing because it's not taken for granted.
The reason we don't hear the song of the day is because we're habituated to everything.
Therefore, we must use our minds to analyze and overcome that habituation.