There is something special that we do every single day of the month of Elul that we do not do any other month of the year, and that is that the minhag is that we add to our tefillot of the month of Elul twice a day the kapitel Tehillim that starts with the words לדוד ה׳ אורי וישעי. And since this is done every single day of the month, obviously this shows that this is the inyan of that month. And with this this is different even than the month of Tishrei, because many days of the month of Tishrei we also add the קאפיטל לדוד ה׳ אורי וישעי. But since we do not do it the whole month, because we only do it up to Hoshana Rabbah and not later, obviously this is not the inyan of the month. But concerning the month of Elul, being that we do this every single day of the month, from the first day till the last day, this shows that this is the inyan of this month. Just like it says in sefarim concerning the inyan of Sefirat HaOmer, that the month of Iyar is considered the month of Sefirat HaOmer. Even though we start counting Sefirat HaOmer in middle of the month of Nisan, we also count Sefirat HaOmer some days in the month of Sivan, but being that we do not do it the whole month, not the whole month of Nisan, not the whole month of Sivan, so obviously this is not the inyan of the month. But the inyan of the month of Iyar, being that we do this every single day of the month, this is the inyan of that month. And the same is concerning this kapitel Tehillim that we add, לדוד ה׳ אורי וישעי, that being this is said twice a day every single day of the month of Elul, this must be the inyan of the month of Elul. So in order to understand what is the inyan of the month of Elul, we have to first look into what is the meaning of this kapitel Tehillim. And since we know that the beginning of something is always the yesod, the foundation of the thing, the same is concerning the kapitel Tehillim, at the beginning of the kapitel gives out the whole meaning of the kapitel, and this is the most important part. So therefore we have to look into what is the meaning of the beginning of this kapitel Tehillim, and we will understand what is the main point of this kapitel, and there we'll understand what is the main point of the month of Elul.

The kapitel starts לדוד, this is something that David said, ה׳ אורי וישעי ממי אירא, ה׳ is my light and my help, from whom shall I be afraid? ה׳ מעוז חיי ממי אפחד, ה׳ is the strength of my life, from whom do I fear? And obviously this is the beginning of everything. Even though later on in the kapitel it says אחת שאלתי מאת ה׳ אותה אבקש, there's one thing I'm asking from Hashem, that's what I'm asking for, is that שבתי בבית ה׳ כל ימי חיי, I should be I'd be able to sit in the house of Hashem all the days of my life, לחזות בנועם ה׳, to look into the the pleasure of ה׳, ולבקר בהיכלו, and to be able to visit His היכל, and then he goes on with more details. And it says in the Midrash, in Midrash Tehillim and Yalkut on this pasuk, that the question that's asked is, בתחילה אתה אומר אחת שאלתי שבתי בבית ה׳. First you're saying there's one thing I'm asking of you, Hashem, and that is to sit in the house of Hashem. ואחר כך אתה שואל כמה שאלות. Later you ask many questions, many requests: לחזות בנועם ה׳, to look into the pleasure of ה׳, ולבקר בהיכלו, and to visit His היכל, etc., etc. So lichorah he's contradicting himself. First he said, \"I ask you only for one thing,\" and then he mentions many things. And the answer that comes out in the Midrash is that when he says שבתי בבית ה׳, that \"I want to sit in the house of Hashem,\" which is one thing, only thing I'm asking of you, is the klal. That is the general idea. Later he goes into the details. So it comes out that the פסוק אחת שאלתי is the klal, the general rule, the general thing that he's asking for before the details that come later. Nevertheless, being that the פסוק ה׳ אורי וישעי ממי אירא ה׳ מעוז חיי ממי אפחד comes even before אחת שאלתי מאת ה׳, obviously that is even a greater klal. Which means that the first klal is, which means the very general thing he wants, that a Yid should want, and David Hamelech said this in the name of all the Yidden, is to sit in the house of Hashem. But in order to even to even to want even to want that, first there has to be this concept of ה׳ אורי וישעי and ה׳ מעוז חיי. And the reason for that is because it's possible for a person, because we live in a world the way we live, so it's possible that a person will be in a level of שוכחין את האמת, as the Rambam says concerning the mitzvah of shofar in הלכות תשובה פרק ג׳ הלכה ד׳ that there are people who forget the emet. Which means a person could forget about Hashem, because what is the אמת? The emet is Hashem. As the pasuk says: אמת השם לעולם, that the truth of Hashem is in the world. So what is the real truth? That אמת Hashem. It's possible for a person to be שוכח את האמת, to forget the truth. And if you get forget the truth, then mimela, a person doesn't do anything that should show the difference between him and other nations, then he doesn't act like a Yid. Therefore, when it comes to the month of Elul, the first thing it has to be, a Yid has to recognize that Hashem is the truth. The only thing that we have is Hashem, and therefore the first thing to recognize is השם אורי וישעי and השם מעוז חיי. Hashem is my light and my help, Hashem is the strength of my life, that is the first thing. Before you even come to ask Hashem for אחת שאלתי, is one thing I ask which is the klal, and then this comes into details, but in order even to ask Hashem for anything, you have to first recognize that the emet is that there is nothing but Hashem. So that's why before even the klal of אחת שאלתי, as the Midrash says that this is the klal, before that, you have to have the hakara, the recognition, that השם אורי וישעי and השם מעוז חיי, which means you have to have the hakara in the emet of Hashem. But this is just the general explanation in the beginning of this kapitel, that השם אורי וישעי ממי אירא השם מעוז חיי ממי אפחד, which means that you have the general recognition in the truth of Hashem. But we have to also go into the details of the meaning of these few words here, that השם אורי וישעי ממי אירא, השם מעוז חיי ממי אפחד.

So first of all, we see here that we use the name of Hashem twice. It doesn't say: השם אורי וישעי ממי אירא, מעוז חיי ממי אפחד. It repeats the name of Hashem twice. First it says השם אורי וישעי ממי אירא, and it repeats again השם מעוז חיי ממי אפחד. Why does it mention the name of Hashem twice? So we find in a different place where we also mention the name of Hashem twice. We know that the י״ג מדות הרחמים, the 13 attributes of mercy of Hashem, start off with Hashem's name twice. It's השם השם, קל רחום וחנון, etc., etc. So the י״ג מדות הרחמים start off with the name of Hashem twice, and the truth is this kapitel has a close connection to the 13 מדות הרחמים. Because it says in the siddur of Rav Shabtai Raskover, which is called the siddur of Arizal, in the סדר כוונות ראש חודש אלול, and also in the Panim Yafot פרשת אחרי, that in this kapitel you have 13 times the name הוי״ה כנגד the 13 מדות הרחמים. So we see that this kapitel Tehillim has a special connection to the י״ג מדות הרחמים. So in the י״ג מדות הרחמים, we see that the name of Hashem, the name הוי״ה, is mentioned twice: השם השם, קל רחום וחנון, etc., etc. What is the reason? Why takeh do we have in י״ג מדות הרחמים the name of Hashem twice? So Rashi says in פרשת כי תשא, קפיטל ל״ד פסוק ו, and Tosafot says the same thing in מסכת ראש השנה דף י״ז עמוד ב, that one of the שמות הוי״ה is קודם שיחטא, one is נוגע a time before a Yid sins, which means if a Yid doesn't sin, then he has a connection to Hashem, and the other time it says הוי״ה is לאחר שיחטא וישוב, that's if a Yid does an aveirah and he does teshuvah, he's also connected to הוי״ה. And the pshat in this, why we need two separate names of הוי״ה לגבי these two different people, is very simple. When a person does everything correctly and he doesn't do any aveirot, he's connected to Hashem obviously. When a person does an aveirah and does teshuvah, his connection to Hashem is even greater. And the explanation is very simple: the regular connection that he has to Hashem, that was ruined through his aveirot. So therefore, in order to fix his mistake and to reconnect himself to Hashem, you have to reach to a deeper level in Hashem, in a place where the aveirah he did before did not affect, and reconnect himself through there. So therefore, you have to have a deeper level within Hashem. And that's why it says in Kabbalah that the two names of Havayah is called הוי״ה דלתתא and הוי״ה דלעילא, the lower level of Havayah and the higher level of Havayah. The lower level of Havayah is connected to every single Yid, and the higher level is connected to a baal teshuvah. Because a baal teshuvah, in order to be connected to Hashem, must reach into a deeper level, and when he does teshuvah, he takeh reaches into that deeper level. That's why it says: במקום שבעלי תשובה עומדים צדיקים גמורים אינם יכולים לעמוד שם, that even צדיקים can't stand in the level of a baal teshuvah, because a baal teshuvah reaches into the level of Hashem deeper than even a tzadik. And that's the reason we have two separate names of Hashem, two separate שמות הוי״ה: one concerning קודם שיחטא, a person doesn't do an aveirah, and one is לאחר שיחטא, when it's after he does an aveirah and he does teshuvah. Since in this kapitel it also says twice the שם הוי׳, and we know this קאפיטל תהלים is also connected to the י״ג מדות הרחמים, so likh'orah it seems that the two times it mentions Hashem in this פסוק, השם אורי וישעי ממי אירא, and again השם מעוז חיי ממי אפחד, also is the same thing. That one Havayah is concerning a person who didn't do any aveirah, and the second Havayah is concerning a person who already did the aveirah, and it is concerning this person doing teshuvah. And the peshat is as follows: bichlal an aveirah can come for one of the two reasons: or the yetzer hara convinces a person that the aveirah is not really an aveirah, and sometimes even more, he shows him how the aveirah is really a mitzvah. That's one way. A second way that could be is that the Yid knows that the aveirah is an aveirah, but still he can't overcome his yetzer hara. As the Gemara says in Sukkah דף נ״ב עמוד ב׳, יצרו של אדם מתגבר עליו בכל יום ומבקש להמיתו. The yetzer hara of a person strengthens himself every day and wants to kill the person. ואלמלא הקדוש ברוך הוא שעוזרו אינו יכול לו. If Hashem wouldn't help the person, he wouldn't be able to overcome him. So it's another reason why a person does an aveirah, not because he doesn't know it's an aveirah, he knows, he just can't overcome his yetzer hara.

And that's the meaning of the two expressions the first part of the pasuk: השם אורי וישעי. This refers to Havayah, to Hashem, the way He is before a person does an aveirah, and this holds back a person from doing an aveirah. That means השם אורי, Hashem is my light. What the pshat is my light? Hashem shows the person the right thing. When it's light, you see what is good and what is bad. If you don't see what is good and what is bad, that means it's dark to you. You don't see the truth. So since one of the ways a person is able to do an aveirah is because he thinks the aveirah is not an aveirah or is even a mitzvah, so in order not that that should not happen, the first thing that happens is you have to have light. You have to see that the aveirah is an aveirah. Then there's a second thing, that even if you know the aveirah is an aveirah, but you can't overcome your yetzer hara, so for that you need a special help from Hashem, as we said before, ואלמלא הקדוש ברוך הוא שעוזרו אינו יכול לו, that if Hashem doesn't help, you can't overcome the yetzer hara, so you need Hashem's help. So that's the second thing, that Hashem will help you. So this is the pshat in the first part of the pasuk: השם אורי וישעי, Hashem is my light that makes me see what's an aveirah and what's not an aveirah, so therefore I won't do it. And then even after I know, I might not have the strength to overcome my yetzer hara, so Hashem is ישעי, Hashem helps me, He helps me overcome the yetzer hara. And these two expressions, אורי וישעי, are all concerning a person before he did an aveirah in order for him not to do the aveirah. So that's the first Hashem in this pasuk, the first word Hashem, refers to a person who does not do an aveirah, and this shows how Hashem helps him, keeps him from not doing an aveirah. He first becomes his light, shows him what is right and what is wrong, what's an aveirah and what's not, and then He helps him overcome the yetzer hara. But what could happen that a person did not overcome his yetzer hara, and he did do the aveirah, so there comes the second Hashem, as we said before, the second Shem Havayah is if a person did an aveirah, so in order to do teshuvah, you have a second Shem Havayah, a higher one, that's the second part of the pasuk: השם מעוז חיי, השם is the strength of my life, which means that Hashem gives a Yid a koach to do teshuvah, and if he does teshuvah, he connects himself to the higher level of Havayah, and what happens then? Then he gets the strength of his life. סתם תורה ומצות is called life, as the pasuk says in פרשה אחרי, קפיטל י״ח פסוק ה׳, that mitzvot are וחי בהם, you live with them. So Torah ומצות is life. But when a person does teshuvah, and you reach a deeper level, that's not סתם חיות, life, but that's מעוז חיי, that's the strength of your life, that's life even stronger. As it says in the Midrash concerning teshuvah that you get כפלים לתושיה, you get double, you get a stronger koach. So the inyan of teshuvah is מעוז חיי, the strength of my life. And that's the second part of the pasuk: השם מעוז חיי, השם is the strength of my life, which means Hashem gives a Yid the koach to do teshuvah. And that's the peshat in this pasuk. It says twice Havayah. The first Havayah, the first name of Hashem in the pasuk is concerning a yid before he does an aveirah, that he realizes that Hashem is the ikar, and therefore what happens? Hashem holds him back from doing an aveirah through both ways. First of all, He becomes ori, his light, that he sees what's an aveirah, what's not, and even if then he can't overcome his yetzer hara, still vish'i, Hashem becomes his help, and helps him overcome the yetzer hara, and therefore mimi ira, there's nothing to be afraid of. But even if a person did do an aveirah, the pasuk says Hashem, there is a deeper level of Hashem which becomes מעוז חיי, the strength of my life, which means He gives him a koach to do teshuvah, and reach deeper than Torah u'mitzvot to become the strength of his life, that's why ממי אפחד, there's nothing to be afraid of.

And therefore, when it comes to the month of Elul, and a yid reminds of himself that he is connected to Hashem, and the yetzer hara comes to the person and starts taina'ing with him, he says to him like this: the truth is you are connected to Hashem, but nevertheless you are still in this physical world, in a bad world, and remember you have a yetzer hara, and the yetzer hara is an uman, the yetzer hara is an expert in his work, as the Gemara Gemara says in שבת דף ק״ה עמוד ב׳, כך אומנותו של יצר הרע. This is the umanut of the yetzer hara. So obviously the yetzer hara is called an expert. So if he's an expert, he will convince you to do aveirot anyway. So comes the yetzer hara to the person, he says, \"Since you know yourself you have a yetzer hara and you won't be able to overcome him, so then forget about it. Forget about trying. Give in to the yetzer hara לכתחילה.\" So therefore, the pasuk says, and we say this in the month of Elul, \"Don't think that way. השם אורי וישעי.\" Don't think you will be overcome by your yetzer hara. Hashem is my light and my help. Hashem will show me what's right and what's wrong, and Hashem will help me overcome the yetzer hara. But then the yetzer hara comes to a person, and he says to him, \"You know, if that would be so, it's true. But this is only concerning a person before he did any aveirot. Then you could rely on Hashem that He will help you not do any aveirot. But you know you did aveirot during the year. So you're already into it. So for you, it's too late already. So you might as well forget about it, give in to the yetzer hara, and do whatever your heart desires.\" On that comes the second half of the pasuk and he says that even if a person did aveirot already, nevertheless השם מעוז חיי ממי אפחד, that you have the other level of Hashem who will give you the strength of your life, which means that gives you the koach to do teshuvah as we said before, and therefore, again, you have nothing to be afraid of, you have nothing to fear because even if you did aveirot, you still have a koach of teshuvah, and therefore don't listen to the yetzer hara who says that it's too late and might as well do what your heart desires. And if a person really goes along with what these few words of the first pasuk of לדוד השם אורי וישעי mean, then a person is guaranteed that during the month of Elul he will do his proper avodah. Because then he will not listen to the yetzer hara and he will not get pulled into doing aveirot. And this is the reason why during the month of Elul we say this kapitel twice a day to remind us that we have to remember that Hashem is אורי וישעי and gives us the light and the strength not to fall into the hands of the yetzer hara and do aveirot. And even if a person did, השם מעוז חיי, השם is the strength of our life, gives us the koach to do teshuvah, and therefore ממי אירא וממי אפחד, of whom do we have to