Relying on ‘zos!’

My dad once told me the following vort that he heard; i think it’s originally from the Kotzker Rav…
For a good month and ten days from rosh chodesh elul until yom kippur we add ‘ledavid HaShem ori’ into our daily prayers twice a day. In it we say the words “bezos ani boteach” (in this I trust). What does bezos mean – in what are we trusting?

‘Zos’ has a gamatria of 408. On rosh hashanah we scream out the famous line ‘uteshva utefillah utzedakka maavirin es roah hagzeirah’ – teshuva, tefillah, and tzedakah remove the evil decree. Above the words Teshuva, tefillah, and tzedakka in the machzor, there appear 3 smaller words; Tzom (fasting) Kol (voice) and Mamon (money) respectively. Each of these 3 has a gematria of 136, and all the 3 add up to…408 (the gamatria of zos)!

Thus, in answer to the above question, on ledovid HaShem ori we are saying that we trust in ‘zos,’ ie the power of teshuva tefillah and tzeddakah that we have been promised will do away with bad decrees.

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