PSALM 123

During the winter months, there is a Jewish tradition of studying a special set of psalms - "tehilim" - on Shabbat afternoons. These psalms, #120-#134, are known as the Shir HaMaalot/Songs of Ascent psalms, as that is the first phrase in each psalm.  Each week, one of these psalms will be presented here.  We have so far covered Psalm 104, the Psalm for the New Month, and Psalms 120-122. This week, we look at Psalm 123, which we can find at https://www.sefaria.org/Psalms.123.2?lang=bi

In this short work, even as we are physically climbing up the stairs to the Temple in Jerusalem, we are also, metaphysically, looking up to G-d in Heaven for help.

The following is the text of the psalm (in bold) as presented in Sefaria, along with commentary by Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz (of beloved memory).

A Song of Ascents.

To you, enthroned in heaven, I turn my eyes.

(I, so distant from heaven, having reached the lowest point, raise my eyes in prayer and supplication to You.)

As the eyes of slaves follow their master’s hand, as the eyes of a slave-girl follow the hand of her mistress, so our eyes are toward the Lord our G-d, awaiting his favor.

(A slave girl is in the most dependent and submission status. A ‘master’s hand’ is the source of giving and succor as well as punishment, and the slave has no recourse other than the master’s goodwill. Similarly, our position vis-à-vis G-d is that of utter dependency and submission, and we thus wholeheartedly beseech his aid, in the knowledge that only G-d can help us.)

(And this is our prayer,)

Show us favor, O Lord, show us favor! We have had more than enough of contempt.

(Beyond our other suffering, we have been subjected to a full measure of degradation.)

Long enough have we endure the scorn of the complacent, the contempt of the haughty.

(We are sated with the mockery of the complacent, the abuse of the arrogant.)