BAREKHI NAFSHI / SHABBAT AFTERNOON PSALMS Between afternoon and evening services, customs varied. Some communities recited Ethics of the Fathers throughout the year; others between Pesaḥ and Shavuot. Our custom is to do so between Pesaḥ and the Shabbat before Rosh HaShana. Between Shabbat Bereshit and the week before Pesaḥ we recite Psalm 104 and the fifteen psalms known as “Songs of Ascents.” The connection between Shabbat Bereshit and Psalm 104 is that both are about creation. In general, the saying of these psalms during the winter months accords with the tradition that creation took place in the month of Tishrei, while the exodus took place in Nisan (Rosh HaShana 10b). The winter months therefore correspond to the period through which God was known through creation rather than redemption (the exodus) and revelation (the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai).

Psalm 104: Together with the first chapter of Genesis and chapters 38–41 of the book of Job, this psalm is one of the supreme celebrations of creation in Tanakh. Note the profound difference between these religious texts and scientific cosmologies. They speak in poetry, not prose; they express wonder rather than causal explanation; and they testify to the goodness of the world and its Creator rather than to blind, indifferent forces. The account in Psalm 104 is consistent with that of Genesis 1, though it is structured differently because the Psalmist wishes to emphasize the beauty and grandeur of creation rather than the order in which it emerged. What emerges above all – signaled by both beginning and end, “Bless the LORD, my soul” – is the sense of the Psalmist that despite the vastness of the universe and the infinity of its Creator, He is close. He hears prayer. He attends to the human voice. This is the song of one at home in the world, awed by its beauty, trusting in the graciousness of existence as God’s gift.

Psalms 120–134: A sequence of fifteen psalms, all bearing the heading “A song of ascents.” The meaning of this phrase is debated. Some relate it to the fifteen steps in the Temple between the men’s and women’s courtyards, on which the Levites would stand and sing. Others suggest that they were songs sung by the exiles returning from Babylon to Israel (ascending to the holy land). Radak argues that they were said by pilgrims on the three Pilgrimage festivals on their ascent to Jerusalem. Meiri argues that it is a musical direction, meaning a song begun softly and continued with ever-increasing volume. Others speculate that it may be a reference to the particular poetical style in which these psalms are written, in which a repeated phrase serves as a rung on which the poem ascends toward its final theme. Psalm 120: Meshekh: Descendants of Noah’s son Japhet (Gen. 10:2) who lived near the Caspian Sea. Kedar: descendants of Ishmael (Gen. 25:12–13; I Chr. 1:29), a generic term for Arab tribes in the north of the Arabian peninsula. Though both were remote from Israel, they figure in the psalm as examples of warlike peoples.

Psalm 121: One of the great expressions of trust in God’s protection, often recited in times of trouble. The Hebrew root sh-m-r, “guard, protect,” appears six times in this short psalm.

Psalm 122: A song sung by pilgrims on the way to Jerusalem. The Hebrew is awash with alliterations on the sh sound – as in sha’alu shelom Yerushalayim yishlayu – echoing the sound of the second half of the name “Jerusalem,” shalayim, related to shalom, “peace.” Here, literary style mirrors substance: the gentle, soothing sounds evoke Jerusalem at peace.

Psalm 124: A psalm of thanksgiving for deliverance, using – as often in Psalms – a rapid succession of different images: the people have been in danger of being swallowed, swept away as if in a flood, a prey to the enemy’s teeth, captured in a hunter’s trap. The images do not coalesce into a single metaphor. Rather, they combine to express a mood; in this case, the sense of sudden release from danger.

Psalm 125: A prayer expressing trust in God, likening divine protection to the hills that surround Jerusalem. The final phrase, “Peace be on Israel,” became popular in later times and is found as part of the mosaic in the Byzantine synagogue of Jericho (sixth century CE).

Psalm 126: The psalm sung as the song preceding Birkat HaMazon on Shabbat and festivals. Its interpretation is difficult because of the change of tenses from past (verses 1–3) to future (4–6). It may be entirely future-oriented, anticipating the ingathering of exiles and the restoration of national sovereignty, or it may be that the Psalmist prays for the future return of Jews to Zion by recalling events in the past. The current state of the people is compared in the last two verses to grain before the spring: though now it seems buried in the earth, it will eventually grow and yield a rich harvest.

Psalm 130: A penitential psalm, recited during the Ten Days of Repentance. מִמַּעֲמַקִּים From the depths: a graphic phrase, signaling closeness to despair or death, used in only one other psalm (Ps. 69). כִּי־עִמְּךָ הַסְּלִיחָה With You there is forgiveness: the Psalmist makes the powerful, paradoxical point that God is to be held in awe not because He punishes but because He forgives.

Psalm 132: A psalm about the Temple and its priests. The first five verses describe David’s determination to build a House for God: “Here I am living in a house of cedar, while the Ark of the LORD is housed in a tent” (II Sam. 7:2). Verses 10–12 describe God’s promise to David that the monarchy would be an eternal gift to his descendants: “Your family and your kingdom will be established for ever in My sight; your throne will endure for all time” (II Sam. 7:16).

Psalm 133: A short poem on the blessing of harmony between brothers – possibly a reference to the divided kingdom, Israel in the north, Judah in the south, with a hope for their reunification. When Aaron was ordained as High Priest, anointing oil was poured over his head (Ex. 29:7). Mount Hermon, in the north, was the highest mountain in Israel. Both images, of oil on the priest’s head and dew on the mountain, are metaphors of plenitude.

Psalm 134: The last of the Psalms of Ascents brings the sequence to a close by calling on the people to bless God, and God to bless the people. The juxtaposition in the last verse, of “heaven and earth” and Zion, encapsulates the two dimensions of Judaism – the universal and the particular. God is everywhere, but it is in Zion that His Presence is most apparent.