High Holidays · Elul

Which Tehillim is said in Elul?

The psalm of the season

Among all one hundred and fifty, one psalm belongs to these days: Tehillim (Psalm) 27, which opens לְדָוִד, יְהוָה אוֹרִי וְיִשְׁעִי, LeDavid, Hashem ori veyish'i — "Of David: Hashem is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear?" It is not a psalm of terror before judgment but of trust inside it: even as the year is weighed, the one thing David asks for is to dwell in Hashem's house and to see His closeness.

When and how it is said

The custom is to add Psalm 27 twice each day — at the morning prayers and again later in the day — from Rosh Chodesh Elul until Hoshana Rabbah, the last day of Sukkot; some hold it until Shemini Atzeret. Those weeks are exactly the stretch of return and judgment, from the ramp of Elul, through Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, to the sealing at the end of Sukkot. The psalm accompanies the whole passage.

What to do

Take up Psalm 27 as your companion for the season: once in the morning and once as the day turns. If saying it twice is more than today allows, let it be once, and let it be unhurried — a single line, אַחַת שָׁאַלְתִּי ("one thing I ask"), is already the whole prayer in miniature. The point is not the count but the turning of the heart it works in you.

Source: Psalm 27 ("LeDavid, Hashem ori"); the Elul custom of saying it twice daily from Rosh Chodesh Elul through Hoshana Rabbah..