From the beginning of the month of Elul through the holiday of Sukkot, we add a prayer to every morning and evening service: Psalm 27.

The midrash (Vayikra Raba 21:4) tells us that the fall holidays are alluded to in the prayer. It begins with the words, “The Lord is my light and my salvation”—“my light” refers to Rosh Hashanah, we are told, and “my salvation” refers to Yom Kippur.

A little further on in the psalm, it states “G-d will keep me safe in His pavilion [in Hebrew, His sukkah.]

Over and above these specific references, though, the psalm contains many thematic elements that fit perfectly with this holiday season. Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are the holidays when we seek a reconciliation with G-d, atonement/at-one-ment after having drifted away from G-d in the year that passed. How fitting, then, these sentiments: “Lord, hear my voice when I call. Be gracious to me and answer me. …Your face, Lord, will I seek. Do not hide your face from me. Do not turn Your servant away in anger.” One rather jarring note in this psalm are the repeated references to “enemies and foes…enemies who surround me…false witnesses have risen against me, breathing violence.” Who are these enemies? The rabbis linked these verses to the concept of “hasatan,” who in the Hebrew bible is not the devil-like “Satan,” but rather the angelic prosecutor, whose job it is to report our wrongdoing to Hashem. The High Holidays, from this perspective, is the opportunity for us to offer a rebuttal in our defense.

It is also a time to consider the lives that have been lost (think Yizkor), but also to find comfort in the continuing Presence of G-d. In the psalm: “My father and mother may leave me, but the Lord would take me in.”

Sukkot, on the other hand, is the great thanksgiving, when we sit in the Presence of G-d and enjoy the fruit of our labor. Hence, “One thing I ask of the Lord, only this do I seek: to live in the House of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the Lord and worship in His Temple. For G-d will keep me safe in His pavilion…”