## Rabbi Sacks on Siddur, Weekdays, Conclusion of the Service

###### Rabbi Sacks on Siddur, Weekdays, Conclusion of the Service 1
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**English Edition; Koren Publishers Jerusalem, 2017:**
CONCLUSION OF THE SERVICE
The final section of the prayers now begins. It interweaves two distinct elements: one is a formal conclusion to the morning service, including Aleinu and the Daily Psalm, with an emphasis on the theme of Redemption; and the other is study. It was the custom in ancient times, and in many places today, to devote time after prayer to Torah learning. This originally included texts from the prophetic books. The close of a study session was marked by a series of prayers beginning “You are the Holy One.” The Kaddish had its origin in such sessions.
The link between these two ideas – redemption and Torah study – is created in an inspired fashion, by reading two consecutive verses from Isaiah, the first of which speaks of redemption (“A redeemer will come to Zion”), and the second of which talks of Torah study (“My words I have placed in your mouth will not depart from your mouth, or from the mouth of your children”). Thus are joined study, the *internalization* of God’s word, and redemption, the *externalization* of God’s word as we prepare to enter the world of work, striving to live by the Torah’s commandments.


###### Rabbi Sacks on Siddur, Weekdays, Conclusion of the Service 2
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**English Edition; Koren Publishers Jerusalem, 2017:**
אַשְׁרֵי *Happy are those*: Just as we say *Ashrei* *before* the Shema and the Amida, so do we say it *after*, following the custom of “the pious of old” who devoted time before prayer in preparation, and afterward in meditation. According to the Talmud, the practice was based on the first line of *Ashrei* itself: “Happy are those who dwell in Your House.”


###### Rabbi Sacks on Siddur, Weekdays, Conclusion of the Service 6
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**English Edition; Koren Publishers Jerusalem, 2017:**
לַמְנַצֵּֽחַ *Psalm 20*: A prayer for protection from harm. As prayer reaches its close, and we prepare to reenter the outside world with its hazards and dangers, we ask God to keep us from harm. Because of the solemnity of its mood, this psalm is omitted on festivals or in a house of mourning, so as not to subtract from the joy of the former, or add to the grief of the latter.


###### Rabbi Sacks on Siddur, Weekdays, Conclusion of the Service 8
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**English Edition; Koren Publishers Jerusalem, 2017:**
וּבָא לְצִיּוֹן גּוֹאֵל *A redeemer will come to Zion*: These two verses (from Isaiah), are all that remain of the ancient custom of studying prophetic texts after prayer.


###### Rabbi Sacks on Siddur, Weekdays, Conclusion of the Service 10
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**English Edition; Koren Publishers Jerusalem, 2017:**
וְאַתָּה קָדוֹש *You are the Holy One:* the third and final *Kedusha* of the morning service, known as *Kedusha deSidra.* Here, it is incorporated into an act of study. Hence the verses of the *Kedusha* are followed by their Aramaic translations and expansions (Aramaic was for a long time the language of study).


###### Rabbi Sacks on Siddur, Weekdays, Conclusion of the Service 17
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**English Edition; Koren Publishers Jerusalem, 2017:**
בָּרוּךְ הוּא אֱלֹהֵֽינוּ *Blessed is He, our God:* There now follow a concluding blessing and a prayer. The blessing marks the end of a Torah study session (the counterpart of the two opening benedictions in the Blessings over the Torah). The prayer, by contrast, looks forward to the future, personal and collective: personal – may God help us to keep His commandments, and collective – may we see the coming of the Messianic Age.


###### Rabbi Sacks on Siddur, Weekdays, Conclusion of the Service 31
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**English Edition; Koren Publishers Jerusalem, 2017:**
עָלֵֽינוּ *It is our duty:* Since the twelth or thirteenth century, it has become the custom to bring all services to a close with the magnificent prayer known as Aleinu, a construct of two paragraphs, which together make a striking statement of the particularity of Jewish faith and its universal aspiration for humanity.
The first paragraph, was originally used (and still is) as an introduction to the Blessing of Kingship in the Musaf of Rosh HaShana. Less a prayer than a declaration of faith, it speaks of the singular vocation of the Jewish people as bearers of the message of monotheism. Twice, the prayer uses the expression, “There is no other,” forcefully expressed in Hebrew by two monosyllabic words, ein od.
The second paragraph turns to God and to the future, to a time when all humanity will acknowledge the One God, a vision eloquently spoken of by the prophet Zechariah, from whose book thefinal verse is taken. It contains a phrase – “to perfect the world under the sovereignty of God” – which became a leading theme of Lurianic mysticism in the sixteenth century (tikkun olam).
 No prayer more eloquently expresses the dual nature of the Jewish people: its singular history as the nation chosen to be God’s witnesses on earth, and its universal aspiration for the time when all the inhabitants of earth will recognize the God in whose image we are formed.