{"id":62250,"date":"2019-08-20T12:13:39","date_gmt":"2019-08-20T17:13:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/?p=62250"},"modified":"2019-08-20T12:23:14","modified_gmt":"2019-08-20T17:23:14","slug":"naar-hayisi-gam-zakanti","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/inspiration\/naar-hayisi-gam-zakanti\/","title":{"rendered":"“Naar Hayisi Gam Zakanti”"},"content":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s a verse from Tehillim that (with the exception of the Chabad minhag) is recited at the end of bentching<\/em> (birkas hamazon<\/em>\/grace after meals) and is sung as a beautiful niggun<\/em>. It goes:<\/p>\n

Naar hayisi gam zakanti v\u2019lo ra\u2019isi tzaddik neezav v\u2019zaro m\u2019vakesh lachem.<\/em><\/p>\n

I was young and I became old but I never saw a righteous person forsaken and his children searching for bread. (Psalms 37:25)<\/p>\n

As beautiful as this sentiment may be, this is historically a very troublesome verse. After all, we have seen righteous people in poverty and their children searching for sustenance. We can\u2019t say that the Bible is \u201cwrong\u201d (God forbid), so how are we to understand this verse?<\/p>\n

The commentators offer a number of explanations but I favor the one expressed in Vayikra Rabbah (35:2):<\/p>\n

Even though his children may have to search for food, I haven\u2019t seen a righteous father forsake his faith in God.<\/p>\n

According to this understanding, the verse isn\u2019t saying that God doesn\u2019t permit righteous people to become needy \u2013 because, clearly, He\u00a0sometimes does \u2013 but that the righteous don\u2019t give up on God even when times are hard.<\/p>\n

My purpose here, however, is not to discuss why bad things happen to good people; this is a complex topic that is addressed in The God Papers<\/strong><\/a>.\u00a0Here, I wish to discuss what this verse from Tehillim says to me, personally.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was young and now I\u2019m old,\u201d King David says, \u201cand I never saw a righteous person forsaken.\u201d Whether you understand this verse as meaning that God doesn\u2019t let the righteous go without (as is the simple reading of the text) or that the righteous don\u2019t give up on God regardless of circumstances (as per Vayikra Rabbah), one thing remains true: it\u2019s about consistency. Some things may change but others remain the same.<\/p>\n

I really relate to the sentiment \u201cnaar hayisi gam zakanti<\/em>\u201d and not just because I once was young and now I\u2019m somewhat older. This idea is true in many others ways: I\u2019ve been the student and I\u2019ve been the teacher. I\u2019ve been the child and I\u2019ve been the parent. I\u2019ve been an athlete and I\u2019ve been disabled. Fill in your own examples. The reality is that our circumstances are perpetually changing in one way or another. This is the nature of life.<\/p>\n

And yet, \u201cv\u2019lo ra\u2019isi tzaddik neezav<\/em>\u201d \u2013 I\u2019ve never seen the righteous forsaken. Some things are always<\/em> true, no matter how much other things may change. This isn\u2019t only true of external circumstances (such as how God treats the righteous), it\u2019s also true of internal things (like how the righteous treat God). Our personalities and inclinations are hardcoded into us.<\/p>\n

I was involved with NCSY<\/strong><\/a>, the Orthodox Union\u2019s youth movement, for three decades, the last of which as an employee in the National Office. To this day, I recall the very first phone call I received in that capacity. A woman called me up very concerned about her son. She had raised him in a Conservative home but he was becoming Orthodox, which she felt was changing him. In the course of our conversation, she mentioned that she had been raised in a Reform household and, when she started becoming Conservative, her mother was concerned about how she was changing. She said that she had to explain to her mother that she was still the same person, she was just doing a few things differently in line with her conscience. I pointed out that this was exactly the same with her son: he\u2019s still the same person, he just feels the need to do some things differently. This, she had to concede, was a fair observation.<\/p>\n

This works in the opposite direction as well. Let\u2019s say that someone\u2019s friend, student or child goes \u201coff the derech\u201d (a phrase I don\u2019t particularly care for but grudgingly use because it\u2019s easily understood within the frum community). We may not like it when someone leaves the fold. It may pain us because we believe the Torah to be true and we don\u2019t like to see our loved ones doing things we think are detrimental. But we shouldn\u2019t shun them. Even if they\u2019re doing something different, they\u2019re still the ones we loved last week, last month and last year. Some things change (what people do), while others don\u2019t (who people are).<\/p>\n

Earlier, I said that our personalities and inclinations are hardcoded into us. This is true. Consider the midrash cited by Rashi on Genesis 25:22. When Rivka was pregnant, she felt the twins struggle within her. This was because when she passed the yeshiva of Sheim and Eiver, Yaakov would strive to get out, but when she passed a temple of idolatry, it was Eisav who would try to escape the womb. Each twin came pre-programmed with certain inclinations.<\/p>\n

This doesn\u2019t mean that one was predetermined to be good while the other was condemned to be evil. Every person has the ability to choose. In the Book of Kings, we see leaders who started out good but who later went astray, such as Yehoash who lost his way after his mentor died<\/strong><\/a>. Conversely, there were monarchs who didn\u2019t start out strong but who turned themselves around, like Yoshiyahu, whom we are told performed an unprecedented teshuvah<\/strong><\/a> (repentance).<\/p>\n

Despite our inclinations, each of us has the ability to choose good or evil. In the opening verses of parshas Re\u2019eh, Moshe tells us, \u201cBehold, I set before you today a blessing and a curse. The blessing will be if you heed the commandments of Hashem your God, which I command you today. The curse will be if you do not heed the commandments of Hashem your God, turning aside from the way that I command you today…\u201d (Deut. 11:26-28). Similarly, the Talmud tells us everything in life is up to God except for one thing: whether or not we listen to Him (Brachos 33b).<\/p>\n

Naar hayisi gam zakanti<\/em>\u2026. some things change, others stay the same. Who we are? That doesn\u2019t change. What we do? That\u2019s completely up to us.<\/p>\n

\n

Rabbi Jack Abramowitz is Torah Content Editor at the Orthodox Union. He is the author of six books, including\u00a0The Tzniyus Book<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0The Taryag Companion<\/a>. His latest work,\u00a0The God Book<\/a>, is available from\u00a0OU Press<\/a>\u00a0as well as on\u00a0Amazon<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s a verse from Tehillim that (with the exception of the Chabad minhag) is recited at the end of bentching (birkas hamazon\/grace after meals) and is sung as a beautiful niggun. It goes: Naar hayisi gam zakanti v\u2019lo ra\u2019isi tzaddik neezav v\u2019zaro m\u2019vakesh lachem. I was young and I became old but I never saw<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":384,"featured_media":62251,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_cloudinary_featured_overwrite":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[85],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-62250","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-inspiration"],"yoast_head":"\n"Naar Hayisi Gam Zakanti" - OU Life<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ou.org\/life\/inspiration\/naar-hayisi-gam-zakanti\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\""Naar Hayisi Gam Zakanti" - OU Life\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"There\u2019s a verse from Tehillim that (with the exception of the Chabad minhag) is recited at the end of bentching (birkas hamazon\/grace after meals) and is sung as a beautiful niggun. 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