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The Prayer Podcast is an attempt to make prayer meaningful, elevating and real in our day-to-day lives for every individual regardless of background.
This Podcast Series is Generously Underwritten by Dr. Leonard & June Goldberg
You're listening to Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe of Torch in Houston, Texas. This is The Prayer Podcast.
All right, welcome back everybody. Welcome back to The Prayer Podcast. We are now beginning Psuke De Zimra.
Psuke De Zimra, as we've spoken about previously, we gave the introduction to Psuke De Zimra, to the verses of song, the verses of praise. Now in the Wasserman edition, we are going to read the introductory psalm, Psalm 30, that introduces us to Psuke De Zimra. So I'm going to read it first in Hebrew and then in English. For those of you who are watching online, those of you who are listening in the podcast, in the description, we have a link to the folder where you can download, print, and enjoy our text with us. Mizmor shir chanukas habayis ledovid.
Aru mimcho Adonai kidi lisoni v'loi simachto oivai li. Adonai Eloihai, shiv'ati eylecho v'tirpoeni, Adonai ha'alise men'shoel nafshi, chisani miyordi v'or. Zamru l'Adonai chasido v'hoidu l'zeicher kod'shoi, ki rega be'apoi, chayim b'irtsoynoi, be'erev yolin, bechi velaboi kerino. Va'ani omarti b'shalvi ba'alamoit lo'ilom. Adonai b'irtsoynoi ha'emarato le'hareri oiz.
Histar to'ponecho, hoyisi ne'vol. Eylecho Adonai ekro v'al Adonai ezchanon. Ma'betza b'domi beriditi el'shochas, ha'yodcho ofor ha'yagida mitecho. Sh'ma Adonai v'choneini, Adonai heyei oizer li, hofakhto misbidi l'mocher li, pitakhto saki v'taazreini simcho, l'man yizamercho chavoid v'lo'yidoyim, Adonai Eloihai, lo'ilom oideko. And now in English, my dear friends.
A Song for the Dedication of the Temple by David. Hashem, I will exalt you. And for you, for you have raised me up and not allowed my enemies to rejoice over me. Hashem, my God, I cried out to you and you healed me. Hashem, you lifted my soul out of the grave.
You kept me alive from descending to the pit. Sing out to Hashem, O His devout ones, and give thanks for the memory of His holiness, for His anger lasts but a moment, whereas His true desire is life. In the evening one retires weeping, the morning will bring joyous song. At the height of my success, I thought I would never falter. But Hashem, through your favor, you supported my ascent to power.
You hid your face, I was terrified. To you, Hashem, I cry out. To you alone, my Lord, I plead. What benefit is there in my silence, in my descent to the grave? Can dust confess to you?
Can it proclaim your truth? Hashem, hear me and be gracious to me. Hashem, be my support. Only you can transform my mourning into dancing. Only you can untie my sackcloth and gird me with joy.
So that the glory could sing to you forever and ever and never be silent. Hashem, my God, I will thank you forever. And this is Psalm 30 written by King David. So what in the world are we saying here? And why is this the introductory prayer for Sukkah Dezimra?
So the first thing is we need to know is that it is only about 400 years since this was added to our prayer books. The Arizal discusses the importance of this being in our prayers. But if you look at all of the ancient Sidurim, the ancient prayer books, they do not have this mizmar there. They do not have it in part of the prayer. But it's included because this is talking about the temple.
If you notice the first verse that we mentioned here, a song for the dedication of the temple by David. Our synagogues are a mikdash me'at. It is a micro temple. When we walk into synagogue, we're walking into the temple. Perhaps the reason our sages brought this little psalm into our prayers as the introductory prayer is to make the synagogue experience a little bit more serious in front of our eyes.
So that we realize it's not just that we're coming to meet friends. We're coming to talk to the creator of heaven and earth. If we had a temple, we'd be bringing an offering now. But we don't have a temple, sadly. Instead of that temple, we have a mikdash me'at.
We have our micro temple. And it's an opportunity for us to connect in the highest way, in the greatest way possible with the Almighty to make shul a little bit more serious. King David wrote this psalm, but he never dedicated the temple. King Solomon built the temple. So why is King David...
It's almost written as if a song for the dedication of the temple by David. Yeah, it's me. I'm dedicating the temple. And we know that's not the case. Our sages tell us that King David invested his whole life into the temple. Even though he didn't merit to build the temple because it's called the Sukkot Shalom.
It's a house, a tent of peace. And because he had blood on his hands, King David, he was involved with war. He was involved with weaponry. He did not merit to build the temple. His son did.
Shlomo. Shlomo is the word of peace. Shalom or shalom. But King David hid into this first five words of this mizmar. If you look at the first letters of the first two and the last two words, you come with the name Shlomo.
The shin, the lamed, the mem, and the hey of the first verse of this mizmar refer to Shlomo, where King David embeds a secret. You know who's going to dedicate, who's going to do the Chanukah, who's going to do the dedication of the temple? My son, Shlomo. And that's embedded into this. Also, our sages teach us, and we know this from our prophets, that King Salmon wanted to bring the ark into the temple, and the doors were closed.
He couldn't open it. He couldn't open the doors. So what did King Salmon say? King Salmon says, Hashem, remember my father David. In his merit, open the doors.
And indeed, the doors were opened in the merit of David. So in a way, some of our sages tell us, Mizmarshir Chanukah Sabaes L'David. It was in the merit of David that we are able to sing the song of the temple. The dedication of the temple was in the merit of King David. And it's a very important mizmar, a very important song that we recite right before Baruch HaShamar as an introduction to the Pesuket HaZimra, that even though it is written in a singular term, King David himself is talking about his own experience, but King David had in mind for each and every one of the Jewish people that we should know this is our personal prayer collectively to talk to Hashem.
And we should have in mind, he had us in mind, and we should have everyone else in mind who is not in synagogue. Anyone else who does not know how to pray, we should include them in these prayers. Additionally, our sages tell us that a person should have the Ten Commandments be recited every single day, not randomly, in this mizmar, in this psalm, Psalm 30, where it says the name of Hashem ten times. Our sages tell us that this is parallel to the Ten Commandments. And like this, with one reciting this psalm, they are fulfilling that decree that one should read the Ten Commandments every day.
Now, since Pesuket HaZimra, the verses of song, the verses of praise, are mostly from King David's psalms, the introduction to all of those is also from King David, displaying King David's greatness. And it was used to inaugurate the temple, this psalm, and it serves as well to inaugurate our prayers every day. So now, our sages ask us, you know, there's a difference. We say by, many of our prayers start with praise, and then they go into song. Here we have song, and then we go into praise.
It starts off mizmarshir, first starting with the song, then he goes into the prayer. He goes into the giving praise to Hashem. This whole chapter that is introductory to our Pesuket HaZimra is putting our priorities in the right place. We're aligning our proper perspective about life. King David wanted to inaugurate the temple.
King David wanted to be the one to open the doors for the temple. Our sages tell us because he so much wanted to, he merited that he did. How? Through a song. Through a song. Now, usually it goes praise and then to song.
First you sing the praise of somebody, you say the praise of someone, and then you're overwhelmed with joy and you go into a dance. First is we started our prayers with giving thanks to Hashem, with all of the morning blessings. Then we brought the offerings, and now we're already in a state of joy and song. We're already in song. We see that King David prayed to be cured from his illness, to be healed after his sin, with Bathsheba.
For what? What did he want to be healed for? Because he wanted to show King Solomon, his son, how to build the temple. And he wanted this song to be sung by the Levites. This song was eventually sung by the Levites at the dedication of the temple.
So just a very interesting thing, today we're in the middle of the second day of the holiday of Hanukkah, the festival of Hanukkah. And do you know what psalm is added to our prayer at the end of our prayer as the psalm of the day for all the eight days of Hanukkah? None other than this. Because you know what else happened on this 25th of Kislev? Do you know what else happened many, many, many, many years ago?
After the Jewish people were forgiven for their sin of the golden calf, on Yom Kippur? The next day, Moses says, fundraiser, matching campaign, right? And the Jewish people give, give, give gold and silver and copper and they give everything that they, all of the linens that were needed, everything that was needed. Moshe has to call an end to the campaign. He says, enough, enough, enough.
We got way too much. Enough. So they started putting together all of the vessels. They started putting together the ark. They started putting together the altar. They started putting together all of the different components of the temple.
And that was right after Yom Kippur. And on the 25th day of the month of Kislev, everything was done. Everything was ready. But it wasn't yet time for the service to begin, which we know was only the beginning of Nisan. The offerings only began in Nisan.
But since everything was ready, it was dedicated, it was ready to go. On the first night of Hanukkah, which according to many, is the sign that in the Torah already there was a hint to this holiday of Hanukkah, which was only going to be later instituted by our sages as a decree. It's one of the seven laws that were instituted by our sages. Hanukkah is one of them. Purim is another one.
These are rabbinic holidays. It's not a biblical holiday. It has great power because there's a hint to it already in the Torah. Where the Torah already tells us that on the 25th day of Kislev, everything was ready. And that's our Hanukkah.
So Mizmor Shir Hanukkah Saba Yisrael David, a song for the dedication of the temple by David. And I'm telling you, I was overwhelmed last night when I was preparing by the beauty of this Mizmor. And I've said this thousands of times. Never realized the power. And I probably still don't even realize the power of this Mizmor.
This psalm that King David writes here. I will exalt you. For you have raised me up. What is King David saying here? It's very easy for someone when they succeed to feel, look at me.
They pound their chest. Look at what I've done. What is King David saying? No, no, no. You have raised me up. And you did not allow my enemies to rejoice over me.
Mark, remember what we spoke about before? The Yetzirah? That's our enemy. When we succeed, that means we have overcome our enemy. Who's that enemy?
The Yetzirah who says, Nah, you can't do it. Nah, you'll never be successful. Nah, you can keep trying. You're never going to be able to overcome that. You're never going to be able to change that bad habit.
You're never going to be able to be a person who's not angry. That's our Yetzirah overtaking us. I will not allow. Hashem does not allow our enemies to rejoice over us. Our Yetzirah.
Hashem lifts him up, King David and us, each and every one of us. Hashem, Elokai, shivati elecha v'tipraeni. Hashem, my God, I cried out to you and you healed me. What does healing mean, our sages tell us? When we see the word of healing, it's referring to forgiveness.
Where a person sins, it says the term of healing, when Hashem forgives them. Because sin is an ailment. Forgiveness is a healing. We thank Hashem for healing us. And Rashi here discloses that healing here is referring to healing of sin.
Hashem, you lifted my soul out of the grave. You kept me alive. Excuse me. You kept me alive from descending to the pit. This is referring to death, spiritual death. You lifted my soul out of the grave. You saved my life.
You took me out of purgatory, out of hell, where if I live with my mistakes, if I live with my sin, I'm destined to a no good place. What did you do, Hashem? You kept me alive. You kept me alive. You removed my sin. You have forgiven me and therefore you've pulled me out of the pit.
Sing out to Hashem, oh devout ones. Those who are devout. Those who are close to Hashem. Sing it out. Don't just say it. You sing it.
Make it into a song. And give thanks for the memory of His holiness. You remember. It's not easy to always remember how holy Hashem is. How Hashem is always there. It's not always easy. But when you do remember, sing it out. You see a glimpse of Hashem's kindness.
Sing it out. You wake up in the morning. You know, we wake up every morning. It's a new day. It's a new beginning. But sometimes you wake up and you're like, I can't believe it. I'm alive. I get to drink my delicious coffee.
I get to have the most incredible life. I get to learn Torah. I get to teach Torah. What an amazing gift. When you have that experience, sing out to Hashem, oh devout ones. And give thanks for the memory of His holiness. And this is to us all. We should sing to Hashem for everything that we have. And why sing before thanks?
We say, First you give thanks to Hashem and then you sing. And here we see it's the opposite. We start off with mizmor shir. We start with a song. Because the righteous, the chassidim, the devout ones, are always giving thanks. We should always be saying thank you Hashem, thank you Hashem, thank you Hashem for everything that we see.
Thank you Hashem. Your car started in the morning. Thank you Hashem. Do you ever have a car, you try to start the car and it doesn't start? Right? If we say thank you every single day, we will never be miserable. If we say thank you every time we go to the restroom, we will never be miserable.
If we use the opportunities that we have in front of us every single day to say thank you, we'll never be miserable. For Hashem's anger lasts for a moment, whereas His true desire is eternal life. Because right now, a person can make a mistake, Hashem waits. Hashem waits. Why does Hashem wait?
Because Hashem doesn't want to hurt us. Hashem wants to do good for us. But we create barriers. We create barriers. Hashem wants us close. Hashem desires not that we die and get punished.
Hashem wants us to be close and happy. And thankful. And this, our sages tell us, is referring to Olam HaZeh and Olam HaBa. It's not about this moment alone. It's about the eternal life.
If it's only about this moment now when we make a mistake, you're gone. You're done. But if it's for the eternal life, it's for our Olam HaBa for the world to come and to receive a great reward for it, Hashem says, you know what? One day He'll do Tshuva. We're looking at the long view here. Hashem is looking at the big picture.
You know, you remember when we talked about the parasha of Bilaam. Bilaam was a wicked prophet who tried to curse the Jewish people. What was he looking for? Ki rega be'apo. He was looking for that moment of Hashem's anger so that he can slip in his curse there.
So he can get it in right there. Ki rega be'apo. Just one moment. How long does it take? We learned this Talmud.
How long does it take for Hashem's anger? Rega. As long as it takes to say the word rega, that's how long it takes for Hashem's anger to pass. Why? Because Hashem is constantly reminded and reminding us that it's about the big picture. Don't get caught up in the momentary fleeting.
Don't get caught up in the fleeting world of pleasures. It comes now, it goes in a minute. It comes now, it's gone in a week. That joy. That freshness.
You know, you buy that new car and it's like, ah, I'm going to keep this car clean forever. I'm going to always feel like it's a new car. No, and we know that it lasts a week or two, a month or two, a year or two, and that's it. Then it has the napkins all over, the tissues all over, it has the crumbs all over, it has this, all the garbage all over, the soda can, the coffee cups. It loses its freshness.
A person has to preserve their relationship with Hashem. Be'erev Yom Hanbechi v'la Bokerino In the evening one retires weeping, the morning will bring joyous song. The evening is referring to death. That's weeping. But the morning will bring joyous song. What's the morning? The life. The life that we have brings great song every day.
You know, we get sad when someone dies. Why do we get sad? They're in a better place. We're sad because we miss them. We miss them. On a human level. But there's another thing. They no longer have opportunity.
They no longer have opportunity. Now on a very, very basic level, very, very basic level, how many times do we go to sleep at night worried, concerned, afraid, sad? We wake up in the morning and it's like, what happened yesterday? Don't recall. Don't recall what happened yesterday. That's a special gift. Va'ani yomarti b'shalvi. And at the height of my success, when all is peaceful, balimot l'olam, I thought I would never falter.
When things go well, we think that it will be forever. I'm successful in my business, it'll never go down. I have so much money, I'll never be out of money. I have so much fame, I'll never be not famous. I'll never be forgotten.
I can tell you a hundred people who were the most famous people a hundred years ago, you don't even know who they are. But they have books written about them! You still don't know who they are. That's cheating. The only impact we want is the impact on our soul that's eternal.
And how do we impact that soul? With our good deeds. Va'ani yomarti b'shalvi. If one would say when they are at the height of their success, balimot l'olam, I thought I would never falter. And this applies to both physical and spiritual.
We think physically we'll never lose it. We'll never lose the house. We'll never lose our possessions. We'll never lose that car. Just for it to be repossessed. Just for you to default on a loan and take away this or that. But spiritually as well.
Spiritually we have to realize that our spiritual connection with Hashem isn't forever if we don't maintain it. We think, oh, I've attained greatness, I learned Torah and I'm good to go. No. A person has to realize that everything is in the hand of Hashem and everything we have. But Hashem, through your favor, you supported my ascent to power. That means physically and spiritually all success I have is from you, Hashem. If you were to hide your face, I'd be terrified.
Lahari is also a mountain. If you create a mountain in front of me, a big challenge, suddenly I'm petrified. How am I going to overcome this challenge? Hashem, the beginning of that verse is Hashem, through your favor, you supported my ascent to power. Anything that I wanted to accomplish, anything that I wanted to achieve, I can only achieve because you, Hashem, are the one who gives it to me. You are the one who gives me my abilities. Every single test that we have is that mountain that's placed in front of us. By who?
By Hashem. Hashem's will for us to be elevated over that challenge, to face our fears and to persevere and to push forward. It's only Hashem's will. When we have a challenge that seems so insurmountable, how in the world am I going to solve this problem? It's too big for me. We have to remember Hashem, I realize it's your will. And I need to dedicate myself every day, not to my will, to your will, Hashem. I need to dedicate myself to your will.
And this, of course, requires us to pray. We need prayer. We need prayer so that we align ourselves with the will of Hashem. What is your, Hashem? What is your will? Hashem, when I pray, I humble myself. I realize I need you. Everything is from you. I can do nothing without you.
I can't be healed from an illness, from any ailment. You know it's an amazing thing. Mark, if you got a dent on your car, you have a fancy car I know. You got a dent in your car. You go to sleep at night, you wake up in the morning, the dent is gone. What happened? You're like, Rabbi, that doesn't happen. It doesn't just disappear. The dents don't just disappear from cars. But you know what does happen?
You can be, you can get a scratch on your arm, it's bleeding, and a few days later it's healed. How does that happen? Self-healing mechanism. You break your arm, give it a few weeks and it's healed. How does that work? Hashem, it's your will. We have to realize the amazing world that we're living in.
The world of Hashem. Eylecho Hashem eikro vel Hashem eschanon. To you, Hashem, I cry out. And to you alone, my Lord, I plead. It's not my own power. It's not my own ability. I realize, Hashem, I relinquish it all to you. And perhaps for this reason alone, for this reason alone, for this verse alone, we recite this before the Pesach de Zimra. Eylecho Hashem eikro.
To you, Hashem, I cry out. To you alone, Hashem, I plead. Vel Hashem eschanon. Mabetzah bedami beridati yoshochas. What benefit is there in my silence, in my descent to the grave? Hayotcha ofer hayagida mitecho? Can dust confess to you? Can it proclaim your truth? What good am I when I'm dead?
We're trying to plead here, Hashem. Give me more opportunity. You believe in me, right? Give me another day. Give me another opportunity.
Hayotcha ofer hayagida mitecho? What good am I if I'm dead? Can the dust confess? Can it bring your truth to the world? Life is for your service, Hashem. Our sages bring that Chana. Chana said to Hashem, Hashem, give me a child.
Give me a child. She knew she was barren. She wasn't able to have a child. So she twisted God's arm. She said, Hashem, everything that you created was for a purpose. You've given me the ability to feed a child with my breasts. Does that mean you created something for no reason? You've given me this ability for no reason?
You didn't give me a child? Hashem gave her a child. That convinced God. I don't understand. Can't every woman who's facing a challenge with becoming pregnant, with having children, can't they come with the same complaint? Our sages say, what did Chana do? Every area of her life she dedicated to God for the purpose of service of Hashem.
So now, because her hands were used for the right purpose, her legs were used for the right purpose, her mind was used for the right purpose, she says there's one part of me that doesn't have a purpose because everything else does. To that, Hashem needed to answer. That means she was dedicated in every area of her service to Hashem. So now she has an argument now. David did the same. Every area of his life was dedicated to Hashem.
There's nothing that needs to be explained in that verse. We're asking Hashem, listen to my prayer. Hashem, listen to my plea. Be gracious with me. Be my support. Only you can transform my mourning into dancing. Mourning to dancing.
What's someone who's mourning? Someone who's really sad. Dancing, someone who's really happy. Hashem can flip it on its head. You can untie my sackcloth and gird me with joy. I'm reminded from this verse of the dual emotions that we were experiencing when our hostages were being released. Some were being released in body bags and some were being released on their two feet. On one hand, you have this unbelievable joy. They're released.
On the other hand, you have this terrible, terrible sadness and Hashem is spinning us around. On one side, we have terrible mourning. On the other side, we have terrible dancing. Awesome dancing. Incredible, elated joy. Only you can untie my sackcloth and gird me with joy.
This reminds us of what we said about Joseph earlier. That Joseph, because he asked thee, the butler of Pharaoh, remember me when he was in prison? Tell Pharaoh that I'm in prison because he put a little bit of trust and hope in this person. He stayed another two years. Only Hashem can untie my sackcloth and gird me with joy. Hashem, you listened.
I rejoiced. Hashem, you listened. I rejoiced. So that the glory could sing to you forever. What is the glory? Whenever we see the word kavod, our sages tell us it's referring to our neshama.
So our neshama could sing to you forever and never be silent. Hashem, my God, I will thank you forever. This is our introduction to prayer. This is our introduction. We're about to walk into the gates, into the hallway. We mentioned that Pesuket Ezimra is the hallway guiding us into the inner sanctuary of God. Pesuket Ezimra is a song where we sing to Hashem, where we realize that we only have goodness in our lives.
We only have blessings in our lives. Such an incredible gift. My dear friends, Hashem should bless us, Hashem should accept our prayers, and we should rejoice appropriately by seeing how Hashem hears every word that we ask. King David asked and was answered. Hannah asked and was answered.
All of our matriarchs and patriarchs and our parents and our ancestors, they all asked and their prayers were heard. Hashem should listen, Hashem should hear, and Hashem should accept all of our prayers. Amen.
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