RH 5785 Learn and Sing

(1) A song of ascents. From the depths I call to You, Lord. (2) Lord, listen to my voice; let Your ears be attentive to the sound of supplications.

Why does it say "from the depth"? Because Israel was in exile, in poverty, thinness and lowness.

A song of ascents. A prayer for forgiveness of iniquity. From the depths I call to you, Lord. The notion of depth will expound upon the actual depth, inverted from a high place. Like the impoverished one, or the weak one, or the exiled, etc...And it also speaks of a spiritual depth. One who, in one's sin, has distanced from God, who is higher than all heights. And this one's soul stands in depression and lowness. Therefore he says "I call out to you from two depths in which I am: the depth and lowness of the body, along with the depth and lowness of the spirit."

From the depths...From the depth of distress I call out to you, God.

A song of ascents. Out of the depths From the distress of being in a low place. Or, from the innermost sanctums of the heart I call out to you.

Rabbi Zerika said to Rav Safra: Come and see the difference between the powerful men of Eretz Yisrael and the pious men of Babylonia. The pious men of Babylonia are Rav Huna and Rav Ḥisda. When the world is in need of rain, they say: Let us assemble together and pray for mercy, and perhaps the Holy One, Blessed be He, will be appeased and bring rain.

The powerful men of Eretz Yisrael, such as Rabbi Yona, the father of Rabbi Mani...When the world was in need of rain, he entered his house and says to them: Give me my sack and I will go and buy myself a zuz of grain. When he went outside, he went and stood in a low place, as it is written: “Out of the depths I have called You, O Lord.” And he would stand in a secluded place, and cover himself with sackcloth, and pray for mercy, and rain would come. When he would come home, they would say to him: Did the Master bring grain? He said to them: I said to myself, since rain has come, now there is relief in the world.

(6) We have sinned like our ancestors; we have gone astray, done evil. (7) Our ancestors in Egypt did not perceive Your wonders; they did not remember Your abundant love, but rebelled at the sea, at the Sea of Reeds. (8) Yet God saved them, as befits God's name, to make known God's might.

And they rebelled at the sea They were of little faith; they said, “Just as we ascend from here, from this side, the Egyptians also are ascending from another side, and they will come after us,” until the Holy One, blessed be He, hinted to the sea, and it vomited them out onto the dry land. Then (Exod. 14:30) “Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore.” Therefore (ibid. verse 31) “they believed in the Lord,” but in the beginning, they did not believe. (I found this.)

Mar Zutra said: We said that only when he did not say. "But we have sinned." However, if he said, "But we have sinned, he does not need anything further. As Bar Hamdudei said: I was standing before Shmuel and he was sitting; and when the prayer leader reached. "But we have sinned," he stood. He said: Learn from here that this is the main part of the confession.