Draft. This siddur is waiting for a rav's review. For a halachic question, ask your rav.
Hebrew, then English. Open "What it means" under any line for the explanation.
Six more verses of the Levites' prayer in Nechemiah (9:6 to 11):
אַתָּה הוּא יְיָ לְבַדֶּךָ, אַתָּה עָשִׂיתָ אֶת הַשָּׁמַיִם שְׁמֵי הַשָּׁמַיִם וְכָל צְבָאָם,
You alone are Hashem. You made the heavens, the heavens above the heavens and all their armies,
Metzudat David (a classic commentary on the Bible from the 1700s) explains: "the heavens of the heavens" are the upper heavens, above the sky we can see. "All their armies" are the stars and the constellations.
Metzudat David on Nechemiah 9:6הָאָרֶץ וְכָל אֲשֶׁר עָלֶיהָ הַיַּמִּים וְכָל אֲשֶׁר בָּהֶם, וְאַתָּה מְחַיֶּה אֶת כֻּלָּם וּצְבָא הַשָּׁמַיִם לְךָ מִשְׁתַּחֲוִים.
the earth and everything on it, the seas and everything in them. You give life to them all, and the armies of the heavens bow down to You.
If you have been standing since Vayevarech David, sit after the first four words.
אַתָּה הוּא יְיָ הָאֱלֹהִים אֲשֶׁר בָּחַרְתָּ בְּאַבְרָם וְהוֹצֵאתוֹ מֵאוּר כַּשְׂדִּים וְשַׂמְתָּ שְׁמוֹ אַבְרָהָם. וּמָצָאתָ אֶת לְבָבוֹ נֶאֱמָן לְפָנֶיךָ
You are Hashem, the God who chose Avram and took him out of Ur Kasdim and made his name Avraham. You found his heart faithful to You
You are Hashem, the God who chose Avram, took him out of Ur Kasdim and made his name Avraham. You found his heart faithful to You,
On a day with a brit milah in shul, the mohel often sings from here to Yishtabach.
וְכָרוֹת עִמּוֹ הַבְּרִית לָתֵת אֶת אֶרֶץ הַכְּנַעֲנִי הַחִתִּי הָאֱמֹרִי וְהַפְּרִזִּי וְהַיְבוּסִי וְהַגִּרְגָּשִׁי לָתֵת לְזַרְעוֹ וַתָּקֶם אֶת דְּבָרֶיךָ כִּי צַדִּיק אָתָּה.
and made the covenant with him to give the land of the Canaanite, Hittite, Amorite, Perizzite, Jebusite and Girgashite, to give it to his descendants. And You kept Your word, for You are righteous.
and made the covenant with him, to give the land of the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Amorite, the Perizzite, the Jebusite and the Girgashite, to give it to his descendants. And You kept Your word, for You are righteous.
וַתֵּרֶא אֶת עֳנִי אֲבֹתֵינוּ בְּמִצְרָיִם וְאֶת זַעֲקָתָם שָׁמַעְתָּ עַל יַם סוּף.
You saw the suffering of our ancestors in Egypt, and You heard their cry at the Sea of Reeds.
The Malbim (a Bible commentator of the 1800s) shows that the parts of these verses pair up. You saw their suffering in Egypt, so You sent signs and wonders against Pharaoh. You heard their cry at the sea, so You split the sea in front of them.
Malbim on Nechemiah 9:9וַתִּתֵּן אֹתֹת וּמֹפְתִים בְּפַרְעֹה וּבְכָל עֲבָדָיו וּבְכָל עַם אַרְצוֹ כִּי יָדַעְתָּ כִּי הֵזִידוּ עֲלֵיהֶם וַתַּעַשׂ לְךָ שֵׁם כְּהַיּוֹם הַזֶּה.
You sent signs and wonders against Pharaoh, against all his servants and all the people of his land, because You knew they had acted with malice against them. You made a name for Yourself that lasts to this day.
You sent signs and wonders against Pharaoh, against all his servants and all the people of his land, because You knew they had acted with malice against them. And You made a name for Yourself that lasts to this day.
וְהַיָּם בָּקַעְתָּ לִפְנֵיהֶם וַיַּעַבְרוּ בְתוֹךְ הַיָּם בַּיַּבָּשָׁה וְאֶת רֹדְפֵיהֶם הִשְׁלַכְתָּ בִמְצוֹלֹת כְּמוֹ אֶבֶן בְּמַיִם עַזִּים.
You split the sea in front of them, and they crossed through the sea on dry land. And their pursuers You threw into the depths, like a stone into mighty waters.
You split the sea in front of them, and they crossed through the middle of the sea on dry land. And their pursuers You threw into the depths, like a stone into mighty waters.
Az Yashir, the song at the sea that comes next, uses the same picture: "like a stone." Rashi (the classic commentator, France, died 1105) there, from the Mekhilta (an early midrash on Shemot), lines up the song's images: the most wicked were tossed like straw, the middle ones sank like a stone, the least wicked sank at once, like lead.
Shemot 15:5 with RashiMany stand from Vayevarech David through the four words "Atah hu Hashem ha'Elokim" at the start of the third line, then sit.
Kaf HaChaim, Orach Chaim 51:43; Mishnah Berurah 51:19The Gemara (the rabbis' discussions built on the Mishnah) says that once God renamed him, calling Avraham by his old name, Avram, breaks a commandment, because God told him, "Your name will be Avraham." Then a rabbi points to this prayer: "who chose Avram." The answer: here a prophet is listing God's praises in order, so he tells it as it was at the start.
Berakhot 13a; Bereishit 17:5A new paragraph starts at "and You made the covenant with him," halfway through a verse. The reason: a note in Siddur Sefard says at a brit milah in shul, the mohel and the congregation say these verses one by one. The Magen Avraham (a commentary on the Shulchan Aruch, the main code of Jewish law, 1600s) was puzzled, since the Gemara says we do not divide a passage where Moshe did not. He offered a reason for the Song at the Sea, which Moshe and the people sang line by line, but said the custom still needs study.
Siddur Sefard, Shabbat Pesukei Dezimra; Magen Avraham 51:9; Berakhot 12b; Sotah 30bThese words have an old link to circumcision. Bereishit Rabbah (an early midrash on Bereishit) reads them as Avraham's own brit. He had to do it himself. He took the knife but was old and afraid, so God put out His hand and held on with him, and Avraham cut. The proof is one word: God made the covenant not "to him" but "with him." At a brit, the blessing over the wine ends "who makes the covenant," and Abudarham (a classic commentary on the prayers, Spain, 1300s) says that phrase comes from this verse.
Bereishit Rabbah 49:2; Abudarham, Blessings on Mitzvot, CircumcisionThe Mishnah reads "love God with all your heart" as: with both your drives, the good one and the bad one. The Talmud Yerushalmi (the Gemara of the Land of Israel) brings our words, "You found his heart faithful," and says Avraham turned his drive to do wrong into a good one. Then it adds that David could not stand up to his, so he killed it inside himself, as he says in Tehillim: "My heart is slain within me."
Mishnah Berakhot 9:5; Talmud Yerushalmi, Berakhot 9:5; Tehillim 109:22In Nechemiah the prayer does not stop at the sea. It goes on for more than twenty verses: the desert, the land, the people's sins, the exile. It ends: "Today we are slaves... and we are in great distress." Then the people write and sign a pact to keep the Torah. The Malbim (Rabbi Meir Leibush Wisser, a Bible commentator of the 1800s) lays out the plan: God chose them, God kept His word, they failed, and now they promise to fix it. The siddur takes only the opening, up to the sea.
Nechemiah 9:36-37 and 10:1; Malbim on Nechemiah 9:5Take the first letter of each word in "Atah hu Hashem ha'Elokim," the start of the second sentence. Alef, heh, yud, heh: Ehyeh, "I will be," the name God told Moshe at the burning bush. Shulchan Aruch HaRav (the code of law by Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi, founder of Chabad) says some stay standing from Vayevarech David until these words, then sit. The Kaf HaChaim (a Sephardic law commentary, early 1900s) traces it to the Arizal (the great Kabbalist of Tzfat, died 1572).
Shemot 3:14; Shulchan Aruch HaRav, Orach Chaim 51:11; Kaf HaChaim, Orach Chaim 51:43The last line here, "You threw their pursuers into the depths, like a stone," uses the words of the Song at the Sea: "They went down into the depths like a stone." In a moment you will say the original, in Az Yashir. (The Vayevarech David prayer tells why the Song comes right after.)
Nechemiah 9:11; Shemot 15:5A carpenter builds a table and goes home, and the table stays a table. The planets keep moving by the laws of nature. So what does "ve'atah mechayeh et kulam," "You give life to them all," add?
The Malbim, a Bible commentator of the 1800s, says God becomes known in three ways: by making the world, by keeping it going, and by miracles. This verse has the first two. On keeping it going he writes: You are not like other makers, whose work goes on existing by itself once it is made. All of creation has existence and life only through You. The Ralbag (Rabbi Levi ben Gershom, France, 1300s) says the same about this verse.
The Malbim even answers the nature objection. It looks, he says, as if the world is run by the heavens and their fixed order. That is why the verse adds, "and the armies of the heavens bow down to You." They run things because You give them their power.
Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi, the founder of Chabad, takes on the carpenter idea in the Tanya. Those who deny that God watches over the world, he says, picture God like a silversmith. Once the vessel is made, it no longer needs the smith. Their mistake is that a smith only changes the shape of silver that was already there. God makes something from nothing.
His example is the event at the end of this prayer, the splitting of the sea. A strong wind blew all night and the water stood like a wall. If God had stopped the wind for a moment, the water would have run back down. Making something from nothing is a bigger wonder than that, so the Creator's power has to be inside each created thing all the time. He even reads mechayeh, "gives life," as mehaveh, "brings into being."
The Sforno (Rabbi Ovadia Sforno, Italy, 1500s) uses this verse to explain gibor, "mighty," in a phrase from Devarim that you also say in the Amidah. Mighty, he says, means the One who keeps all existence in being.
Malbim on Nechemiah 9:6,Ralbag on Nechemiah 9:6,Tanya, Sha'ar HaYichud VeHaEmunah, chapter 2,Sforno on Devarim 10:17Open Bereishit to Lech Lecha. God tells Avram to leave home and promises him huge blessings. Nothing before that says he served God or was righteous. The Ramban (Rabbi Moshe ben Nachman, Spain, 1200s) noticed. This passage, he says, does not explain the whole story. Usually, the Torah puts the promise after "walk before Me" or "if you follow My laws."
His answer is a story the Torah left out. The people of Ur Kasdim did terrible things to Avraham because of his faith in God, and he ran away from them. The Torah did not want to spend time on the beliefs of idol worshippers. Our prayer names the same place: "You brought him out of Ur Kasdim."
The Rambam (Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon, Egypt, 1100s) tells it as a search. As a small child, Avraham began to wonder day and night how the heavens could keep turning with no one turning them. No one taught him. He worked it out, argued with the people of Ur, broke their idols, and the king tried to kill him.
Now look at the order in Nechemiah. First "You chose Avram." Only later, "You found his heart faithful." The Malbim reads "found" as the result of the tests: after all the trials Avraham stood up to, his heart was found faithful, and then came the covenant.
Bereishit Rabbah stops on the word "found." Rabbi Simon says God made three finds: Avraham, David and the Jewish people. What about Noach, who "found favor"? Noach found, the midrash answers. God did not find.
So the sources do not give one reason. The Ramban and the Rambam point to what Avraham did before the Torah picks up his story. Nechemiah puts the choosing first and the finding after.
Ramban on Bereishit 12:2,Rambam, Laws of Idolatry 1:3,Malbim on Nechemiah 9:8,Bereishit Rabbah 29:3In the Torah, God tells Avraham: "Your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs. They will be enslaved and afflicted for four hundred years. And the nation they serve, I will judge." So Egypt only did what God said would happen. Why punish them?
The Rambam asks this question himself, in his Laws of Repentance. His answer: God never decreed that any particular Egyptian would do it. He only said that Avraham's descendants would end up enslaved. Every Egyptian who hurt the Jews could have refused.
The Ramban, writing on that verse in Bereishit, does not accept this. If God decrees something, he argues, a person who carries it out to fulfill the decree has earned a mitzvah. His own answer: Egypt went far past the decree. They threw the baby boys into the river, made the Jews' lives bitter, and planned to wipe out their name. Drowning babies is not "enslave and afflict." It is an attempt to destroy a people.
The Ramban backs this up with the word Yitro used about Egypt: they acted with malice, and that is what brought their great punishment. Then he quotes the words you just said: "because You knew that they acted with malice against them."
The Malbim reads our verse the same way. God knew they were not afflicting the Jews to carry out His decree. They added cruelty on purpose, from the wickedness of their own hearts. He finds a second reason in the next words, "You made a name for Yourself": the signs and wonders were so that people would come to know God.
So there are two answers. The Rambam: every person stays free, even inside a prophecy. The Ramban: a prophecy does not cover what you add on your own. The Kadesh Li prayer takes on a harder question, the plague of the firstborn.
Bereishit 15:13-14,Rambam, Laws of Repentance 6:5,Ramban on Bereishit 15:14,Malbim on Nechemiah 9:10Short ideas from the Chassidic masters, the Kabbalah and the Mussar teachers.
This line calls him by his old name. The Gemara says Avram meant father of his own people, Aram, and Avraham meant father of the whole world. Rav Kook (the first Chief Rabbi of the Land of Israel, who died in 1935) explains the choice. Love for your own people, he writes, is a good and honest feeling. Aimed at nothing higher, it breaks its limits and grabs what is not its own. But it must not be thrown away. God chose Avram, already full of that love, and lifted him up to be a father of many nations.
הרגש הלאומי הוא רגש נעלה ביושר טבעיותו... צריך שלא יהיה נעזב ונשלל
Rav Kook, Olat Re'iyah, on Pesukei DeZimra; Berakhot 13aThe Talmud Yerushalmi reads this line to say that Avraham made his bad inclination good. Rabbi Yaakov Yosef of Polonne (a leading student of the Baal Shem Tov, the founder of Chassidut) builds on it. There are two kinds of people, he writes. One fights against his bad inclination. The other serves God with it. He reads the word for heart here, levavo, as two hearts: the good drive and the bad one. In another book he gives the lesson: do not push it away, sweeten it.
א' הנלחם נגד היצר הרע, ב' העובד ה׳ עם היצר הרע
Toldot Yaakov Yosef, Parashat Emor; Ketonet Pasim, Vayikra; Jerusalem Talmud, Berakhot 9:5Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi (the founder of Chabad, who wrote the Tanya) turns this line around. People think God's greatness is that He gives life to all the worlds. The opposite, he writes: that is God lowering Himself and wrapping Himself inside the worlds to keep them alive. So "You give life to them all" is not praise of His greatness, which has no limit. It is praise of His humility. He brings the Sages' saying: where you find God's greatness, there you find His humility.
ומ"ש ואתה מחיה את כלם אינו שבח בבחי' גדולתו ית'... אלא השבח הוא בבחי' ענוה שלו שיוכל להשפיל עצמו
Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi, Torah Ohr, Parashat Chayei SarahRabbi Shlomo of Radomsk (a Chassidic master who died in 1866) reads "You found his heart faithful" closely. A find comes to you without any work on your part. Avraham pushed himself to be good before God came to help him, so God simply found his heart already faithful. But then serving God was no longer hard for him, and there was nothing left to choose. So, he says, "You chose Avram" also means "You brought choice into Avram." The ten tests gave him something to choose again.
מציאה שבאה למוצאה בלי שום התפעלות כן מצאת את לבבו נאמן לפניך
Tiferet Shlomo, on the Festivals, Sha'ar HaTefillahRabbi Meshulam Feivush of Zbarazh (a Chassidic teacher of the 1700s) says what you see depends on what you want. His example: a man gripped by lust barely notices a woman's gold-embroidered dress. His mind goes straight to the woman. A man free of that desire just sees a dress. In the same way, someone who longs for God sees, in anything at all, God's power giving it life: "You give life to them all." Someone else sees only the physical thing, even if, asked, he would say God gives life to everything.
נמצא שניהם מסתכלים בדבר א' וכ"א מסתכל דבר אחר
Yosher Divrei Emet, first booklet, 12The practical laws. For a final ruling, ask your rav.
After the four words Atah hu Hashem ha'Elokim, which open the second sentence. This siddur says to stand until you have said them. The Kaf HaChaim (a Sephardic law commentary, early 1900s) adds: then sit at asher bacharta. The Shulchan Aruch HaRav (the first Chabad Rebbe's code of law) calls this an added custom. The basic one ends at tifartecha.
Siddur Sefard; Kaf HaChaim, Orach Chaim 48:1; Shulchan Aruch HaRav, Orach Chaim 51:11From Vecharot on. This siddur records the custom: at a brit in shul, the mohel and the congregation say Vecharot and what follows, one verse at a time. The Aruch HaShulchan (a code of law by Rabbi Yechiel Michel Epstein, around 1900) says the mohel sings them with a tune until Yishtabach.
Siddur Sefard, Shabbat morning; Aruch HaShulchan, Yoreh De'ah 265:36The Shulchan Aruch HaRav says greetings here follow the rules of Shema. Mid-section, you may greet first only someone you would be afraid to ignore, and answer only someone who deserves respect. Between sections, you may answer anyone. It brings a view, also held by the Eliyah Rabbah (Rabbi Eliyahu Shapiro of Prague, around 1700), that Atah hu Hashem levadecha through bemayim azim is one section, as the verses run in order in Nechemiah. So the break at Vecharot is not a break. Amen to a blessing is fine anywhere.
Shulchan Aruch HaRav, Orach Chaim 51:5; Eliyah Rabbah, Orach Chaim 51:4It is not on the lists. The Shulchan Aruch HaRav sets the order for catching up: Ashrei between Baruch She'amar and Yishtabach first, then the Halleluyah psalms, then Vayevarech David only until tifartecha, "and skip to Yishtabach," then Hodu. That skip passes over this paragraph. The Chayei Adam (a guide to daily law by Rabbi Avraham Danzig, Vilna, early 1800s) adds Vayosha and the Song of the Sea next, and says to say whatever you skipped after the Amidah, but without Baruch She'amar and Yishtabach.
Shulchan Aruch HaRav, Orach Chaim 52:1; Chayei Adam 19:5; Mishnah Berurah 52:4וּמָצָאתָ אֶת־לְבָבוֹ נֶאֱמָן לְפָנֶיךָ וְכָרוֹת עִמּוֹ הַבְּרִית
You found his heart faithful before You, and You made the covenant with him.
אַבְרָהָם אָבִינוּ עָשָׂה יֵצֶר הָרַע טוֹב דִּכְתִיב וּמָצָאתָ אֶת לְבָבוֹ נֶאֱמָן לְפָנֶיךָ... אֲבָל דָּוִד לֹא הָיָה יָכוֹל לַעֲמוֹד בּוֹ וְהָרְגוֹ בִלְבָבוֹ.
Avraham our father turned his drive to do wrong into a good one, as it says, "You found his heart faithful before You." ... But David could not stand up to it, and he killed it in his heart.
כל הקורא לאברהם אברם עובר בעשה... מתיב רבי יוסי בר אבין... אתה הוא ה׳ האלהים אשר בחרת באברם אמר ליה התם נביא הוא דקא מסדר לשבחיה דרחמנא מאי דהוה מעיקרא
Whoever calls Avraham "Avram" breaks a commandment... Rabbi Yosei bar Avin objected: "You are Hashem the God who chose Avram." He answered: there, a prophet is listing the praises of God, telling what was at the start.
נָטַל אַבְרָהָם סַכִּין וְהָיָה אוֹחֵז בְּעָרְלָתוֹ וּבָא לַחְתֹּךְ וְהָיָה מִתְיָרֵא שֶׁהָיָה זָקֵן, מֶה עָשָׂה הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא שָׁלַח יָדוֹ וְאָחַז עִמּוֹ, וְהָיָה אַבְרָהָם חוֹתֵךְ
Avraham took a knife and went to cut, but he was afraid, because he was old. What did God do? He put out His hand and held on with him, and Avraham cut.
שאינך דומה כפועל אחר, שאחר שעשה את הדבר הוא מתקיים בעצמו, כי כל הבריאה אין לה קיום וחיות רק על ידך
You are not like any other maker, whose work goes on existing by itself once he has made it. All of creation has existence and life only through You.
אֶלָּא צָרִיךְ לִהְיוֹת כֹּחַ הַפּוֹעֵל בַּנִּפְעָל תָּמִיד, לְהַחֲיוֹתוֹ וּלְקַיְּימוֹ
Rather, the power of the Maker has to be in the thing made, all the time, to give it life and keep it in existence.
וְכֵן הָיָה בְּמִצְרַיִם, שֶׁהוֹסִיפוּ לְהָרַע כִּי הִשְׁלִיכוּ בְּנֵיהֶם לַיְּאוֹר וַיְמָרְרוּ אֶת חַיֵּיהֶם, וְחָשְׁבוּ לִמְחוֹת אֶת שְׁמָם
That is what happened in Egypt: they went further and did more harm. They threw their sons into the river, made their lives bitter, and planned to wipe out their name.
וְכֵן הַמִּצְרִיִּים כָּל אֶחָד וְאֶחָד מֵאוֹתָן הַמְּצֵרִים וְהַמֵּרֵעִים לְיִשְׂרָאֵל אִלּוּ לֹא רָצָה לְהָרַע לָהֶם הָרְשׁוּת בְּיָדוֹ
So too the Egyptians: each one of those who oppressed and harmed Israel had the choice. Had he not wanted to harm them, it was up to him.
תמהתי על שנהגו ביום המילה שאומר המוהל וכרות ומחלק קצת פסוקים
I am puzzled by the custom on the day of a brit, that the mohel says "vecharot" and splits some verses.
ויש מוסיפין לעמוד עד שאומרים אתה הוא ה׳ האלהים שר"ת אהיה ואח"כ יושבין
Some keep standing until they say "Atah hu Hashem ha'Elokim," whose first letters spell Ehyeh, and then they sit.
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