Raising Up What Is Already Infinite

Good morning everyone. Welcome back to Learn to Daven - Day 59.

As we come toward the end of Hodu, the section gathers up a handful of verses pulled from the book of Tehillim and stitches them together as a kind of closing crescendo. Today's verse comes from Tehillim, chapter 99: "Romemu Hashem Elokeinu - exalt the Lord our God - v'hishtachavu lahadom raglav - and bow down at His footstool - kadosh hu - He is holy."

I want to start with one word, because it has always puzzled me. Romemu. It means "exalt" - but more literally, "raise up." Lift Him higher. Elevate Him.

And the obvious question is: how? How do you raise up God? He's infinite. He fills all worlds. There's nothing above Him to lift Him to. You can't make the Infinite more infinite. So what could it possibly mean to "exalt" a God who is already, by definition, as high as high goes?

Here's the answer the Chassidic masters give, and it changes the whole verse. When we say romemu - when we "raise up" God - we are not adding anything to Him. We're raising something in ourselves. The elevation doesn't happen up there. It happens in here. We lift our own perception. We raise our own consciousness of how great He really is.

God doesn't get bigger. We see more. That's the avodah. The word for this in Chassidus is hisromemus - an elevation, a being-raised-up - and it describes what happens inside a person when they let themselves truly grasp Who they're standing before. Davening, in this reading, isn't about informing God of His greatness. He knows. It's about raising the dial on our own awareness until His greatness actually lands.

And now watch what the verse does next, because this is the beautiful part. In the very same breath that we're told to exalt Him - romemu, raise Him high - we're told: v'hishtachavu, bow down. Prostrate yourself. Get low. At His footstool.

Hold those two together for a second. Raise Him up - and bow yourself down. Lift the awareness of His greatness as high as it can go - and in the exact same motion, lower yourself to the ground. These aren't two separate instructions. They're one movement.

Because the truer it is that He is great, the smaller I become in front of it. The higher my perception of Him climbs, the lower I bow. Exalting Him and nullifying myself are the same act seen from two ends. This is the idea of bittul in Chassidus - self-nullification - and the Tanya teaches that real bittul isn't depression or feeling worthless. It's what naturally happens when you stand before something infinitely greater than yourself and finally see it. You don't have to manufacture humility. Raise your awareness of Him high enough, and the bowing takes care of itself.

That's why the two halves of the verse fit so perfectly. Romemu - raise up your sense of His greatness. V'hishtachavu - and you will find yourself bowing. One is the cause, the other is the effect, and they're the same heartbeat.

And then the verse ends with two words that hold it all: kadosh hu. He is holy. Kadosh - holy - means separate, set apart, completely beyond. He is utterly other. And that "otherness" is exactly what makes both halves true at once: the more I sense how far beyond me He is, the higher I exalt Him and the lower I bow. The distance is the very thing that lifts the praise and bends the knee.

So this morning, when you say Romemu Hashem Elokeinu, don't picture lifting God. Picture lifting yourself - your awareness, your perception - until His greatness is so real in front of you that bowing is the only honest response.

Tomorrow: V'Hu Rachum - "and He is merciful" - and the verse that opens the next movement of the davening.