Reciting LeDovid Hashem Ohri (Click For Link To Audio Shiur)

The following talk of Rabbi Dr. Shnayer Leiman was listened to and adapted into writing in memory of my dear mother Freida Maryam bat Binyamin Maneleh.

The Mishnah Berurah (TK”PA) writes that (in his part of Europe) it’s a minhag to say LeDovid Hashem Ohri (Psalm 27) from Rosh Chodesh Ellul through Sukkos. It is not in any Talmudic source and not in the Shulchan Aruch. The Mishnah Berurah does not give a reason for this custom, and the reason is not immediately evident. The Mateh Efrayim (first half of nineteenth century), a banker from Brody, a baal habayit who learned Torah day and night, and was considered a Rebbe Muvhak of the Chasam Sofer stated what the Mishneh Brurah says. He quotes Medrash Shocher Tov (the first words of the Medrash on Tehillim) that says that Ohri is R”H and Yishi is Yom Kippur and he himself adds that the mention of Sukkot hints to the holiday Sukkot. Therefore, the Mateh Efrayim says that we say this chapter from Rosh HaShanah through Sukkot. It is actually only one possibility of about ten offered meanings in the Medrash regarding the meaning of Ohri and Yishi (and Sukkos is his chiddush) and it doesn’t say based on this to recite this mizmor at this time. And yet, despite this seemingly weak hint of a reason the minhag has become an established one. It seems (because even though the medrash has become well known, it is actually obscure and only one of many possible homiletical explanations of the chapter and thus not a strong basis for a custom) that there should be a better reason to be found for this practice.

Ma’aseh Rav HaShalem on the minhagim of the G"RA says that the Vilna Gaon did not say LeDovid from Rosh Chodesh Ellul till Yom Kippur (clearly not holding of the till Sukkot minhag even in theory). Nitei Gavriel says that some gedolim don’t say it, including the Apter Chassidim, Ropschitz, Sanz, and more. Otzar Chayim on minhagei Sanz says that Rav Chayim of Sanz didn’t say LeDovid (explained in a more recently written commentary) because there’s a sefer that lists the Arizal’s minhagei tefillah and it’s not recorded there.

It is claimed that the first mention of this custom is in Chemdat Yamim, a kabbalistic, mussar filled sefer of controversial and ambiguous origin. There’s a picture in one edition of Natan (died in 1680) the main follower of Shabtai Tzvi. There’s a page in it with an acrostic poem that spells Ani Binyamin Natan ben Elisha Chaim, the follower of Shabtai Tzvi. It’s included in this book, but it’s known that he was not really the author of the sefer (it's a rumor that developed due to the appearance of the poem in the book). The author of the sefer states that it was his minhag to say LeDovid during Ellul.

The rare Sefer Shem Tov Katan was the first ever to mention it (published in Zalzbach, Germany in 1706 by Rav Binyamin Beinish– who also wrote the kabbalistic work Am Tachas Binyamin - (with approbations by Rav Dovid Oppenheim and Rav Avraham Broder and other rabbinic leaders of his time and lauded by Rav Yonasan Eibschitz as his greatest Rebbe) . He writes that saying this from Ellul till Simchat Torah is a protective segulah for even the worst gezeirah made against you. He says that because the Shem Hashem appears 13 times in this perek of Tehillim and that parallels the yud gimel midot of Hashem it is a minhag to recite this at this time.

Sefer Zechirah, by Reb Zecharya, published in 1709 in Hamburg says it’s a sod gadol to say this morning and night during these days and that one is thus guaranteed to pass all his days in goodness and have all bad decrees against him removed.

The Rebbes who had doubts about the custom did not have these earlier works. Today it’s clear that it’s not actually based on the medrash that people commonly think it's based on, but is a kabalistic custom.

Neizar HaKadosh is a work which presents the minhagim of Ropschitz (who did say LeDovid). He records a story about Rav Avraham Shimon of Zelichoff (the mashgiach of Yeshivat Chachmei Lublin, a chassid who died al kiddush Hashem). He visited the Beis Medrash of Rav Aryeh Leibush of Tzanz (a grandson of Rav Chaim - the Divrei Chayim - of Tzanz). He asked the Chasidim why the Rebbe, Rav Aryeh, didn’t say it, but Rav Yechezkel of Shinov, the son of Rav Chayim did say it. He told them that he knew the answer and would explain it through a story. Rav Avraham said that in Chelm, in Poland, in the time of Rav Eliyahu Bal Shem in the 1500s, the non-Jewish ruler did not have children and asked Jews to pray for him and said if they did not they’d be expelled from the land. The Bal Shem told him he’d have a son in twelve months - guaranteed, and so it was. Generations later, the more famous Bal Shem Tov (it means that one knows how to wield the name of G-d) would tell over this story, saying that one shouldn't think this act came easily to Reb Eliyahu. First he went the route of kedushah (via names, melachim, etc.) and was told no. Then he went the route of tumah - evil forces, and that route also didn't work. Finally he spoke to the Sitrah Achrah himself and made a deal. The Besht concluded that Rav Eliyahu was punished for what he did in that he would be wiped out from this world and the next, losing his own ruach, nefesh, and neshamah, due to the action he took to save Klal Yisrael. The good forces in Heaven, however, said that he would not be destroyed, instead two takanot of his would be undone: one was to undo his custom to say LeDovid and the other was to undo saying Kegavna. Rav Shimon MiZelichov, after telling the story said that it was well known that Rav Elimelech of Lizensk never said Kegavna and that the Apter Rav never said LeDovid. In other words, to keep the gezeirah some chasidim say Kegavnah and some don't, and some say LeDovid, while others don't.

And now you know the rest of the story.