[Jewish] [Mindful Torah] 5/26/2010 12:55:00 AM

[Rabbi Steven Nathan]

 I apologize for the absence of psalm commentaries for the last two
days (I am not writing them on Shabbat). As I wrote at the begin, I
will try to write these on a daily basis, but there are simply times
when this is not possible. Thank you for understanding. SPN
עמך יהוה ידכאו ונחלתך יענו God, they may crush your people; they may
oppress your inheritance.
As in my commentaries on the two preceding verses, "they" refers to the
ego and its forces that try to separate us from the Oneness of the
universe.
This verse is profound in its very simplicity. It is these forces of
the ego that try to get us to think that the I, which is merely an
illusion, is more important than the One, which is the true reality.
These forces, through their manipulations, can ultimately bring about
destruction.
However, it is important to remember that the two verbs, translated
here as forms of "crush" and "oppress," are not the future tense as we
understand it. In Biblical Hebrew there is no future tense. There is
only the imperfect form, which implies that an action MAY take place at
a future time, but is in no way stating that it will. Therefore, I have
translated the verses to clearly read that the actions MAY occur and
not that they WILL.