This week’s parshah, VaYeishev, this second Tefillah Meanings post for the week as well. Today’s topic: The closing pasuq of Mizmor shir leYom haShabbos.

Many pesuqim in Tehillim say nearly the same thing but in different words. And the differences in connotation between the wordings can invite both comparison and contrast. Something to keep in mind when davening something from Tehillim or a tefillah with a similar poetic structure. Like in the previous post, I highlighted the difference and progression implied by the use of Melekh and Mosheil in the two halves of “,מַֽלְכוּתְךָ֗ מַלְכ֥וּת כׇּל־עֹלָמִ֑ים, וּ֝מֶֽמְשַׁלְתְּךָ֗ בְּכׇל־דּ֥וֹר וָדֹֽר׃ – Your kingdom is a kingdom over all the worlds, and Your rule is throughout each and every generation.”

Not I want to discuss a thought I use during davening that I don’t think is actually peshat, but it is something I want to say to the Creator. (Aside from the fact that Tehillim is the product of Ruach haQodesh and so any of these alternative readings could have been part of the Divine “Thought” that inspired it, so the thought could be more discovered than invented.)

Mizmor Shir leYom haShabbos (Tehillim) closes (v. 92:13):

צַ֭דִּיק כַּתָּמָ֣ר יִפְרָ֑ח

כְּאֶ֖רֶז בַּלְּבָנֹ֣ון יִשְׂגֶּֽה׃

A righteous person blooms like a date-palm,
he thrives lie a cedar in Lebanon.

The first contrast one can draw between the two halves is “יִפְרָח / blooms” and “יִשְׂגֶּה / thrives”. Logically enough, we talk about the start first, and then about the person blooms in being a tzadiq.

What about “כַּתָּמָר / date-palm” vs. “אֶרֶז בַּלְּבָנוֹן / cedar in Lebanon”?

Cedar is often portrayed as representing pride — whether the pride is appropriate or being vain. It often appears bound to eizov, hyssop. One tall and mighty, the other among the smallest herbs indigenous to Israel. This bundle is burnt with the Parah Adumah (Bamidbar 19:6) to purify someone who had contact with a dead body, and someone who has metzorah is purified by being sprinkled via a bundle of cedar and hyssop. (VaYiqra 14:6)

(Why Lebanon? It was known for its cedars. Shelomo haMelekh imports cedar from their for the first Beis haMiqdash.)

Perhaps we can understand the use of tamar for the first budding tzaddiq in contrast to the cedar of the thriving one by looking at the actions of the woman Tamar in this week’s parashah.

Tamar is a sort-of yibum situation, supported by Yehudah’s family while waiting to wed Shilah, Yehudah’s third son. She realizes this marriage is being perpetually delayed, and instead tricks Yehudah into fufilling this quasi-yibum by sleeping with her. She dresses as a prostitute, charges him money knowing he doesn’t have any, and thus is able to collect as security his seal, cord and staff.

Three months later Yehudah hears the rumors that she is pregnant despite being a quasi-yavamah. He tries her and sentences her to death for adultery. But Tamar doesn’t embarrass Yehudah in public. Instead, she takes the personal items and defends herself in a way only Yehudah would understand, “לְאִישׁ אֲשֶׁר־אֵלֶּה לּוֹ אָנֹכִי הָרָה — By the man who these belong to that I am pregnant.” (Berieshis 38:25)

So to me, while davening, this verse means to me (and again, I am not claiming this is the author intended):

A tzadiq blossoms like a tamar – a tall tree but like Tamar the tzadiq puts the other one first. His focus is not on his own greatness, but on others.

He thrives like a cedar in Lebanon – only once the tzadiq defines oneself by their place in connection to others, can one thrive strong and proud like a cedar.

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I know. I still owe y’all the overall view of Birkhas shehaKol, as well as a return to Shemoneh Esrei. Please be patient, and in the meantime — Gutt Shabbos to the Ashkenazim, Sabado Dulce i Bueno (a sweet and good Shabbos) to the Ashkenazim:, and Shabbos Shalom!