L’Dovid Ori

[Hat tip Benson]

This is from here.

Starting from Rosh Chodesh Ellul till Shmini Atzeres , there is a Minhag to say twice a day

”Ledovid Hashem Ori”.

This Minhag is not mentioned in Shas, Shulchan Aruch, Kisvi Ha’ari Zal or in the original Machzorim.

One of the first Poskim who brings this Minhag, is the Mateh Efrayim. (R. Efrayim Zalmen Margulios).

There were Chasidic dynasties who didn’t follow this Minhag. (Choze Milublin , Zidichoiv, Apte, Sanz & Ropshitz.

The Ma’ase Rav writes that the Vilna Gaon didn’t say it. Today almost all Yeshivishe and
Chasidishe Minyonim, do say it. The one exception is, Chasidim from the Sanzer dynasty.
(Bobov, Klausebburg etc.)

There are different reasons given for not saying it. The true reason is, because
The first mention of this Minhag, is brought down in a Sefer called “ Chemdas Yomim”.
The Chemdas Yomim was probably the one who started this Minhag.
The Sefer Chemdas Yomim has no name of the Mechaber (Author) on the Shar Blatt.
The Yavetz and many Chassidic Rebbes, claimed that the Mechaber was Nosson Hoazosi

(Nathan from Gaza). Nosson Hoazosi was Shabsai Zvi’s Novi Sheker and right hand man.

Author: pitputim

I've enjoyed being a computer science professor in Melbourne, Australia, as well as band leader/singer for the Schnapps Band over many years. My high schooling was in Chabad and I continued at Yeshivat Kerem B'Yavneh in Israel and later in life at Machon L'Hora'ah, Yeshivas Halichos Olam.

4 thoughts on “L’Dovid Ori”

    1. Indeed. I knew I had heard a great Shiur on it, but couldn’t remember where 🙂

      Someone should bring Prof Leiman to Melbourne for a week. I love his stuff.

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  2. This is rather garbled.

    First of all, nobody claims that Nathan of Gaz (shr”y) was the author of Chemdas Yomim; rather, CY is a collection of various material by different authors, and at least some of that material has been identified as having been written by said Nathan. This implies either that the compiler was a follower of Nathan and regarded him as a legitimate authority, or else that he was indiscriminate and we can’t rely on anything he brings unless we know its true source. Therefore the status of the sefer is very controversial.

    However, while CY is one of the earliest published sources to mention this minhag, it is not true that it is “the first mention”. There is at least one earlier source. If you search you will find it. There is some scholarly arguing about exact publication dates, and which authors might have seen which other manuscripts before publication, but the bottom line is that the CY did not make it up and was not the first to publish it, though he may well have been instrumental in publicising it before people realised that not everything in that sefer is kosher.

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