Searching for Tevye
February 8, 2022
Refugee Shabbat
February 10, 2022
Understanding The Tanach
Tuesdays at 11 AM on Krasnow Zoom
https://us04web.zoom.us/j/2580409807
Faith Krasnow, facilitator
Psalm 1
The Moral Individual
The Immoral Society
A Religion of Happiness
Psalm 1 can hardly be termed "devotional" for it features no outpouring of the soul. One looks in vain for any invocation of God. Neither praise not petition is present, neither lamentation nor jubilation. It is the human being not God who is the focus of attention. Nevertheless Psalm 1 has pride of place. Why was this composition chosen to head the Book of Psalms?
The major theme of Psalm 1 is the centrality of God's Teaching, the Torah, in the life of the individual and it's indispensible role in the attainment of righteousness.
The Torah and the Psalms complement each other: the Torah represents the divine outreach to humankind. Worship, the Psalms, epitomizes the human striving for contact with God. The rabbis of the Talmudic age drew analogies between Deeds (Torah) and Words (Psalms).
