Tefilos Shabbes – Psukei DeZimro 2

Shiur 14 – Psukei deZimro 2

הַלְלוּ אֶת שֵׁם יְ-יָ, הַלְלוּ עַבְדֵי יְ-יָ׃

Praise the name of Hashem, praise Him, servants of Hashem etc.

We are mehallel Hashem from a place of hashroas hashechinah, namely the Beis Hamikdash.

כֹּל אֲשֶׁר חָפֵץ יְ-יָ עָשָׂה

All that Hashem desires, He does

Chefetz means something that we want essentially from ourselves. Ratzon, whilst it is something that we want, is not something we want from within our inner selves. It could be that somebody needs our help to hammer in some nails for them, and we want to help them, so we do so despite not essentially wanting to hammer in nails. We have a chefetz to help them but only a ratzon to hammer in the nails.

When we stand in the Beis Hamikdash, we recognise that everything is really Hashem’s essential wanting, His chefetz, as we see: מַעֲלֶה נְשִׂאִים מִקְצֵה הָאָרֶץ, בְּרָקִים לַמָּטָר עָשָׂה, מוֹצֵא רוּחַ מֵאוֹצְרוֹתָיו׃ שֶׁהִכָּה בְּכוֹרֵי מִצְרָים

He raises princes from the extremities of the land, He makes lightning for the rain.. He hit the firstborns of mitzrayim

There is no difference between the biggest thing, such as makkas bechoros and the smallest thing, such as the rain-everything is equally chefetz Hashem.

יְ-יָ שִׁמְךָ לְעוֹלָם, יְ-יָ זִכְרְךָ לְדֹר וָדֹר

Hashem is Your name forever, Hashem is Your remembrance for every generation

When Hashem came to Moshe Rabbeinu at the sneh, He revealed Himself to him with His ‘shem’ and His ‘zichri ledor vodor.’ On Shabbos we are like Moshe Rabbeinu and we see this revelation.

אַף אֵין יֶשׁ רוּחַ בְּפִיהֶם

There isn’t ruach in their mouth.

We don’t just say that there isn’t ruach in the mouths of avodah zorah. Instead, we say, ‘There isn’t ‘yesh’ ruach in their mouths’.

We are saying that what seems like something is really nothing.

The Vatican is replete with stolen Jewish seforim and keilim from the Beis Hamikdash. Once all these items are taken back from them, the Vatican will not just have lost a large part of its character, but the Vatican will cease to exist. Kedushah is what makes things exist. 

I have read physics books and learned the second law of quantum mechanics. I have learned about atoms with all their protons, electrons, and thermodynamic reactions, which should mean that things made up of atoms shouldn’t just disappear. Nevertheless, once the kedushah leaves the Vatican, no existence will be left.

Similarly, the computerised AI offers many things. It seems so incredible. However, it’s only artificial intelligence- there is no human mind there, and it’s very dangerous. There’s no kedushah of a human mind there. If it can produce a doctorate for you, it shows you that a doctorate has no real value!! 

בָּרוּךְ יְ-יָ מִצִּיּוֹן, שֹׁכֵן יְרוּשָׁלָ͏ִם, הַלְלוּקהּ

Blessed is Hashem from Tziyon, Who dwells in Yerushalayim

This is the only mizmor where we speak about the shechinah. The reason is because we say this mizmor on Shabbos when we exist in a place of the Shechinah.

הוֹדוּ לַי-יָ כִּי טוֹב כִּי לְעוֹלָם חַסְדּוֹ

We say 26 verses. Chazal tell us that they correspond to the 26 generations to whom Hashem gave life before Matan Torah.

After Matan Torah, the world is run based on hashgacha pratis. When we do mitzvos, we get sechar. When chas veshalom we do aveiros we get punished, like the Ramban at the end of parshas Bo says. On the other hand, before Matan Torah, Hashem interacted with us based on His personal cheshbonos, regardless of our actions. This was a great chessed since it came from Hashem, without dependency on us.

Despite our now being after Matan Torah, on Shabbos, we experience this chessed whereby Hashem runs things based solely on His own cheshbonos. For this, we say ‘ki leolam chasdo’.

רַנְּנוּ צַדִּיקִים בַּי-יָ, לַיְשָׁרִים נָאוָה תְהִלָּה

Tzaddikim sing to (in) Hashem

‘Bahashem’ instead of ‘lahashem’ means that we are actually with Hashem. The gemorah in Baba Basra says that in the world to come, tzaddikim will be called with the shem of Hashem. This is what we are saying here.

 בְּנֵבֶל עָשׂוֹר זַמְּרוּ לוֹ

With the 10 stringed nevel ..

The gemorah in Erechin says that the nevel in olam hazeh has seven strings; in yemos hamoshiach, it will have eight strings; in techiyas hamesim, it will have 10 strings.

In the Shabbos morning davening, we are in a world like the world of techiyas hamesim.

כִּי יָשָׁר דְּבַר יְ-יָ, וְכָל מַעֲשֵׂהוּ בֶּאֱמוּנָה

The word of Hashem is straight

It will be revealed that everything is straight.

חֶסֶד יְיָ מָלְאָה הָאָרֶץ

The kindness of Hashem fills the world

In leosid lovo everything will be the chessed of Hashem.

יְ-יָ הֵפִיר עֲצַת גּוֹיִם, הֵנִיא מַחְשְׁבוֹת עַמִּים

Hashem annuls the counsel of the nations 

Hashem will get rid of all the political plans and all the machashovos of the umos ho’olam.

עֲצַת יְ-יָ לְעוֹלָם תַּעֲמֹד, מַחְשְׁבוֹת לִבּוֹ לְדֹר וָדֹר

The counsel of Hashem will stand forever

All the plans of the world will count for nothing. The only thing that will matter will be Hashem’s plan.

הַיֹּצֵר יַחַד לִבָּם, הַמֵּבִין אֶל כָּל מַעֲשֵׂיהֶם

Who creates their hearts together

It will become revealed that Hashem knows where your actions will reach.

אֵין הַמֶּלֶךְ נוֹשָׁע בְּרָב חָיִל, גִּבּוֹר לֹא יִנָּצֵל בְּרָב כֹּחַ

A king is not saved by a great army, nor is a hero saved by great strength

Hashem’s agenda is not to display great strength etc. Rather, the only thing that Hashem wants from all the world is yirah and for them to hope for Hashem’s chessed.

יְהִי חַסְדְּךָ יְ-יָ עָלֵינוּ, כַּאֲשֶׁר יִחַלְנוּ לָךְ

May the kindness of Hashem be upon us, just as we awaited You

In leosid lovo the chessed of Hashem will be according to our hope- not according to our actions.

מִזְמוֹר שִׁיר לְיוֹם הַשַּׁבָּת

On leil Shabbos, this is the 7th mizmor in the order of which we say them in kabbalos Shabbos. This is because leil Shabbos is the penimius of olam hazeh. On Shabbos morning, this mizmor is the 8th one to be said. Why? Because on Shabbos morning, we are in the world of olam habo and techiyas hamesim, and 8 is the number which is always lemaaleh min hatevah.

אַשְׁרֵי יוֹשְׁבֵי בֵיתֶךָ עוֹד יְהַלְלוּךָ סֶּלָה

Fortunate are those who sit in Your house, may they always praise You

In Alei Shor, the mashgiach writes that ashrei is very deep, and he doesn’t explain it. In addition, he personally told me that ashrei is very difficult to understand what it is about.

Now, I am going to attempt to explain it. Not that I think I know what the mashgiach wasn’t prepared to write about, but after all, I say it three times a day, and I need to be able to measure up to it.

Chazal say that somebody who says ashrei 3 times is a ben olam habo. This means that in order to be a ben olam habo, we need to say it in a way of olam habo.

Chazal say that Dovid Hamelech said ashrei 20 times. They also contrast this with the fact that Yeshaya Hanovi said ‘hoy’ (‘oy, what will be?’) 20 times.

Ashrei means that we are content, and we emanate it. The contrast of ‘hoy’ means that we groan and say that what we experience should not be. This is opposed to Ashrei, where we are glowing with ruchniyus from Hashem and say that this is what should be.

Ashrei is one big mizmor where we are glowing with ruchniyus. This is olam habo, meaning the whole world will shine with Borei Olam.

דּוֹר לְדוֹר יְשַׁבַּח מַעֲשֶׂיךָ, וּגְבוּרֹתֶיךָ יַגִּידוּ

Each and every generation will praise Your actions

Everyone will praise you.

הֲדַר כְּבוֹד הוֹדֶךָ, וְדִבְרֵי נִפְלְאוֹתֶיךָ אָשִׂיחָה

The splendrous glory of Your power, and Your wondrous deeds I will discuss

We speak out Hashem’s wonders. We are emanating it to the world.

The whole of Ashrei is like putting a metal stick into electricity (you need to know how to do it correctly!)., and it gradually gets hotter and hotter until it begins to glow, becoming red and white, and light emerges. So, too, Ashrei is like putting ourselves into a ruchniyus socket, and then everything begins to come out and emanate from us.

פּוֹתֵחַ אֶת יָדֶךָ, וּמַשְׂבִּיעַ לְכָל חַי רָצוֹן

The Ramban is troubled how it is possible to satisfy a ratzon-the ratzon always wants more and more?

The Rishonim say that poseach es yodecha can be read as poseach es yudecha, meaning two ‘yuds’. The letter yud is machshovoh (Rashi in oz yoshir).

If so, we are referring to 2 machshavos of Hashem. One is Hashem’s original plan, and the other is His machshavah for what currently happens in the world. When Hashem makes it so that both machshavos are in line with each other, then we will not feel the need to run for something else and then something else, never feeling that we are doing what Hashem wants from us at any moment. Instead, when what Hashem wants currently and what He originally wanted are aligned, we will not desire something else as we will know that we are doing exactly what He wants from us.

When this happens, the ratzon is masbia and does not desire anything else.

תְּהִלַּת יְ-יָ יְדַבֶּר פִּי, וִיבָרֵךְ כָּל בָּשָׂר שֵׁם קָדְשׁוֹ לְעוֹלָם וָעֶד

My mouth will speak the praise of Hashem and all flesh will bless His holy name forever

The praise of Hashem is coming out from us.

When you say ashrei like this three times a day, you will be zocheh to olam habo since Olam Habo is about the world revealing the presence of Hashem.

הַלְלוּיקהּ, הַלְלִי נַפְשִׁי אֶת יְ-יָ׃ אֲהַלְלָה יְ-יָ בְּחַיָּי, אֲזַמְּרָה לֵאלֹקי בְּעוֹדִי׃

My soul will praise Hashem.I will praise Hashem in my life. I will sing to Hashem while I exist

We speak about the nefesh of the human being and how it gets so much good from Hashem.

הַלְלוּקהּ, כִּי טוֹב זַמְּרָה אֱלֹקינוּ, כִּי נָעִים נָאוָה תְהִלָּה׃

Praise Hashem. It is good to make music to Hashem

We speak about all the history of the world that has a purpose, that the world should reach a binyan Yerushalayim.

הַלְלוּקהּ, הַלְלוּ אֶת יְ-יָ מִן הַשָּׁמַיִם

הַלְלוּ אֶת יְ-יָ מִן הָאָרֶץ

We are mehalel the whole creation.

הַלְלוּקהּ, שִׁירוּ לַי-יָ שִׁיר חָדָשׁ

We are mehalel Hashem about the geulah.

כֹּל הַנְּשָׁמָה תְּהַלֵּל יָ-הּ, הַלְלוּיָ-הּ

Let all souls praise Hashem

We praise Hashem from the penimius. Since it’s so deep, we cannot express it with words but with musical instruments. In the end, we say that the neshamah will express it.

After all these mizmorim, we finish pesukei dezimrah with the shiras hayom. Similarly, at the end of birchas kriyas shema, we mention kriyas yam suf (‘mi chomocha bo’ Hashem). Kriyas Yam Suf was the revelation of a new world. In our world, water is fluid, and there is no way of standing on dry land where there is supposed to be water. We, therefore, end pesukei dezimrah by leaving our world and entering this other world of kriyas yam suf.

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Written by Rabbi Rapport