We are now in Perek Shira. The song of the night is a
pasuk from Tehilim 92,3 לְהַגִּ֣יד בַּבֹּ֣קֶר חַסְדֶּ֑ךָ וֶ֝אֱמ֥וּנָתְךָ֗
בַּלֵּילֽוֹת /In the morning, we speak of God's kindness and Your trustworthiness
and loyalty in the night.
Rashi says לְהַגִּ֣יד
בַּבֹּ֣קֶר חַסְדֶּ֑ךָ/In the morning, we
speak of God's kindness refers to the time of the Geula/redemption.
When Mashiach comes we're going to talk all
about Hashem's Hessed, but now we're in the difficulties of Galut/exile,
we have to trust that He will keep His
guarantee to us. That's what we're supposed to be doing. Tov L'Hodot
L'Hashem/It's a good idea to thank Hashem.
So the song of the night is the song of Galut. We're in a
long, dark night, and we're singing the song of Emunah that we're going
to get out of this one day. This is built into our prayers. The Gemara in Berachot
12A says, if you don't say Emet V'Yatziv in the morning and Emet Emuna at
night, you do not fulfill your obligation, based on our pasuk לְהַגִּ֣יד
בַּבֹּ֣קֶר חַסְדֶּ֑ךָ…
In the morning we say, Emet V'Yatziv/God is true and solid,
or stationery. As the Gaon of Vilna says in his commentary Kol Eliyahu
on the Gemara in Berachot, Yatziv refers to something that is steadfast,
that happened already. In the morning, we talk about Yetziat Mitzrayim, which
happened already.
Emunah talks about the future, what we're
hoping for, that God will keep his promise. That is the reason we use that
terminology. Rabbenu Yonah on Berachot adds that we're not necessarily
talking about Boker and Lilah
in a metaphor of redemption and exile. Rather, every night we go to sleep and
we trust God. B'Yadecha Afkid Ruchi/I put my soul into Your hands. I'm
giving You my soul as a deposit, and I'm trusting You that I'm going to get it
back in the morning. Moreover, the commentaries say we owe God a lot.
When a person owes somebody money and then gives him a bracelet to watch,
technically, the person can say, "You gave me your gold bracelet to watch,
and since you owe me $10,000. I'll keep the gold bracelet."
So too, God really could say, "You owe me a lot. You have a lot
of sins. I gave you a lot of good things. You owe me. I'm not giving your soul
back."
But no. We trusted God and gave Him our soul to watch. But just
like I trust the man to watch my gold bracelet, although legally he could keep
it, it would be a lack of loyalty. It would be deceptive. And therefore, God
gives our soul back. That's why every morning, when
we say Modeh Ani, we end with the words, Rabba Emunatecha/ You
are very loyal and trustworthy. You gave me back my soul. And that's what
it means לְהַגִּ֣יד בַּבֹּ֣קֶר
חַסְדֶּ֑ךָ/in the morning, I
speak of God's kindness.
The kindness is that He he
gave me back my soul. I trusted and He
gave back my soul. So every single morning we have that constant reminder of God's kindness and
loyalty. That's the song of the night. I trust Hashem. I'm going to give Him
my soul. I know He's going to give it back to me. I have no doubts of God's
loyalty.
The pasuk in Eicha that Modeh Ani comes from says, חֲדָשִׁים֙ לַבְּקָרִ֔ים רַבָּ֖ה אֱמוּנָתֶֽךָ׃We are refreshed anew in the morning, great is your trustworthiness.
There are two aspects to this. The loyalty is, He gives me back
my soul. But when I gave my soul in,it was tired. Back to our Mashal-I gave my gold bracelet to somebody to watch,
and I owe him $10,000. The fact that he gave me the bracelet back, that's
loyalty, that's trustworthiness. But what's more, imagine if the gold bracelet
was all dingy and grimy when I gave it to him, and the man polished it and gave
it back to me new. So too, Rabbenu Yonah
says, When I go to sleep at night,
I'm tired. I have no energy. But God gives me back my soul refreshed. That
is the chesed. That's the song of the night.
לְהַגִּ֣יד בַּבֹּ֣קֶר חַסְדֶּ֑ךָ וֶ֝אֱמ֥וּנָתְךָ֗
בַּלֵּילֽוֹת
We have to understand and appreciate what happens every night as
God rejuvenates our soul. We trust Him. We trust God in Galut. It's a
song of loyalty and trustworthiness, the song of the night.
