Adar 5782 | February 2022
Sefer Tehillim
Rabbanit Michal Kohane
Class of 2020
It is my study all day long.
If I translated this verse, it would read: O how I love Your Torah! It is my chatter all day long!
The word “sichati” is well-known from the famous brief discussion between Beruria and Rabbi Yosei the Galilean. When he ran into her on the road and asked her for directions, she responded with, “Foolish Galilean, didn’t the sages already say, ‘engage not in too much conversation with women’? You should have said [your question more succinctly]: ‘which way to Lod?’” (Eruvin 53:b).
Beruria quotes from Pirkei Avot (1:5): “Yose ben Yochanan (a man) of Jerusalem used to say: Let thy house be wide open, and let the poor be members of thy household. Engage not in too much conversation with women.” The word for “conversation” here is sicha. If the sages wanted husbands and wife not to talk with each other, they could have said, “al tedabru”, but they used a very careful phrase, literally saying, “do not have too much chatter”… That is, not that you should not have any of it at all, just not too much.
Sicha is considered a “low” kind of conversation, possibly gossip, maybe disrespectful babble, which, while can be playful and close, but also can be harmful and belittling, and therefore should be avoided. But here, maybe the psalmist uses this word on purpose; maybe he wants to davka emphasize that the Torah should be whatever is buzzing around in my mind all day long. Like someone in love who can’t think about anything else, even the unimportant “chatter”, should all be Torah.
