Baltimore, MD - Oct. 19, 2023  -The most commonly recited chapter of Tehillim said at times of trouble or danger, as we are in now, is Psalm 130, Shir Hama’alos, mima’amakim …, Out of the depths I called you, Hashem. 

Why is mima’amkim used?  It could have been shafel, lowly.  Or it could have used ‘min hamaitzar’, from the straits, as it says in Hallel.

Rav Samson Raphael Hirsch provides four meanings for amok, the root of ma’amakim. The first is deepening, as in the tzara’as being deep relative to the skin. The second is being profound, as in me’od amku machshevosecha, exceedingly profound are Your thoughts, in Mizmor Shir l’Yom HaShabbos. This is also the derivation for the name of the Netziv’s commentary, Ha’amek Davar, or amkus, depth or profundity in learning.  The third is the depths, as in our Psalm.  The fourth is emek, a valley.

There is something interesting about these definitions.  All but mima’amakim (in our Psalm) convey meanings of depth, with no negative connotation.  This is unlike shafel or maitzar, mentioned above, which carry with them a negative or degraded connotation.  In addition, when one is shafel (low) or in maitzar (the straits), there is no obvious way to get out of that status.  When one is in an emek, a valley, there is generally a hill one can climb without excessive difficulty to emerge from the lowly state.

So amok is a state with profundity and meaning to it.  When Yaakov sends Yosef to check on his brothers (leading to Yosef being thrown in the pit and becoming a slave in Egypt), it says that Yaakov sent Yosef ‘mei’emek Chevron’.  Rashi on Beraishis 37:14, quoting Beraishis Rabba, asks why it is called the valley of Chevron, when Chevron is on a hill.  Rather, it was from an aitza amuka, from the deep counsel of Avraham who was buried in Chevron, and was subject to the Bris Bein Habesarim, stating that Bnei Yisrael would become slaves outside the land.

There is a profound purpose why we are put in a state of ma’amakim, a purpose that we cannot understand.  We must do our best, by doing teshuva, praying and saying  Tehillim, giving tzedakah, learning more; these must be our responses to being in this situation, with the hope that, if we respond to being in the depths, it will lead us to emerge from the depths with peace, goodness in the world, and with ourselves becoming better and deeper.

The remaining question is why ma’amakim is in the plural, the depths. The commentaries (Malbim, Ibn Ezra, and others)  say this refers to our situation in galus, with has both physical and spiritual degradation.  My niece suggested that it may reflect that we all, as individuals are in the depths with all of Klal Yisrael.

It is a time to recognize that we are in the depths, that this may be unfathomable to (too deep for) us, but that it is a time to use in ways that will lead to rising to a new height.