Number our Days

The Rabbi’s Study - Temple Israel of Dover, NH Kesher Newsletter July, 2009
Number our Days
Psalm 90:12
• Teach us to count our days rightly, that we may obtain a wise heart. (The Writings,Jewish Publication Society, 1982)
• Teach us to use all of our days, that we may attain a heart of wisdom. (The
• Book of Psalms, Gershon Hadas, 1964)
• So teach us to number our days, that we may get us a heart of wisdom. (Healing Psalms, Rabbi Joshua O. Haberman, 2003)
• Make known to us the best way to count our days so that we may develop hearts of wisdom. (Our Haven and Our Strength: The Book of Psalms, translation by Martin Samuel Cohen, 2004)
• To count our days rightly, instruct, that we may get a heart of wisdom. (The Book of Psalms, Robert Alter, 2007)
• Teach us how short our time is; let us know it in the depthsof our souls. (A Book of Psalms, Stephen Mitchell,1993).
It may be that one translation would have been enough to make the point of this often-quoted verse from Psalm 90. I wonder, however, if we sometimes forget its message. There have been many events in recent days that remind us of life’s fragility and finality. It didn’t take the death of Farah Fawcett, Michael Jackson, or the victims of recent accidents in the air to remind us that our lives can potentially go on for many years, but that there is a point when our time comes to an end. The Psalm itself, in the declarations leading up to verse 12, speaks of how everything comes into being and then passes, and that much of what we do is all too focused on excessive pride, choices we make that we might eventually regret, and disappointments that we have experienced or may yet see in our lives. What I believe this Psalm is telling us is to savor every moment and to consider the GOOD that we can do every day, to take our focus off of ourselves, and to consider the divine perspective which takes all of humanity and all of creation into account. Martin Samuel Cohen, in his commentary on Psalm 90, suggests that this Psalm intentionally juxtaposes the short span of ourlives with God’s timelessness. Yet, we can taste what is timeless in any moment when we do something godly. Share a kind word or a special moment in your life in a generous way. Consider someone else’s feelings. As my mom would tell me when I was not feeling well (and I hear her voice now a week after surgery), “Stop thinking about yourself—think about someone else.” At Temple Israel, we have many challenges to face together, and we will be able to do our best at meeting those challenges if we think about someone else—in this case, about each other, about how we can work together. Let’s begin
now, today, to count our days as members of a community so that we will share
in a heart of wisdom!