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בָּרְכִי נַפְשִׁי

Barchi Nafshi (part 2)

Second half of Tehillim 104. Said on Rosh Chodesh.

Daven with it Read it here

Draft. This siddur is waiting for a rav's review. For a halachic question, ask your rav.

At a glance

When: Said on Rosh Chodesh.
From: Tehillim 104, verses 19 to 35, the end of the psalm
First in the book: The first Halleluyah in all of Tehillim
One surprise: The Gemara says God plays with the sea monster daily

The words

Hebrew, then English. Open "What it means" under any line for the explanation.

Second half of the psalm, verses 19 to 35:
עָשָׂה יָרֵחַ לְמוֹעֲדִים שֶׁמֶשׁ יָדַע מְבוֹאוֹ. תָּשֶׁת חֹשֶׁךְ וִיהִי לָיְלָה, בּוֹ תִרְמֹשׂ כָּל חַיְתוֹ יָעַר.
He made the moon for set times the sun knows its setting You bring darkness and it is night when all the forest animals prowl
What it means
He made the moon to mark the set times. The sun knows when to go down. You bring darkness and it is night, when all the animals of the forest prowl.
הַכְּפִירִים שֹׁאֲגִים לַטָּרֶף, וּלְבַקֵּשׁ מֵאֵל אָכְלָם. תִּזְרַח הַשֶּׁמֶשׁ יֵאָסֵפוּן, וְאֶל מְעוֹנֹתָם יִרְבָּצוּן. יֵצֵא אָדָם לְפָעֳלוֹ, וְלַעֲבֹדָתוֹ עֲדֵי עָרֶב.
The young lions roar for prey and to ask God for their food The sun rises they gather in and lie down in their dens A person goes out to his work and to his labor until evening
What it means
The young lions roar for prey, asking God for their food. When the sun rises they gather in and lie down in their dens. A person goes out to his work, to his labor until evening.
Radak (Rabbi David Kimchi, Provence, around 1200) explains "to ask God for their food." God gives food to every living thing through a chain of natural causes, he says, so when the lions hunt for prey it is as if they were asking Him for their food.
Radak on Tehillim 104:21
מָה רַבּוּ מַעֲשֶׂיךָ יְיָ כֻּלָּם בְּחָכְמָה עָשִׂיתָ, מָלְאָה הָאָרֶץ קִנְיָנֶךָ.
How many are Your works, Hashem You made them all with wisdom the earth is full of what You own
What it means
How many things You have made, Hashem. You made them all with wisdom. The earth is full of what You own.
Radak says this verse wraps up the things of dry land, whose wisdom shows more plainly to people than the sea creatures' does. He adds that the whole earth is full of what God made, and nothing in it is by chance.
Radak on Tehillim 104:24
זֶה הַיָּם גָּדוֹל וּרְחַב יָדָיִם שָׁם רֶמֶשׂ וְאֵין מִסְפָּר, חַיּוֹת קְטַנּוֹת עִם גְּדֹלוֹת. שָׁם אֳנִיּוֹת יְהַלֵּכוּן, לִוְיָתָן זֶה יָצַרְתָּ לְשַׂחֶק בּוֹ.
This sea, great and wide there, creeping things without number living things, small with large there, ships sail Leviathan which You formed to play in it
What it means
Here is the sea, great and wide. In it are creeping things beyond number, living creatures small and large. Ships sail there, and Leviathan, which You formed to play in it.
The word bo can mean "in it" or "with it." Radak reads "in it": Leviathan plays in the sea. The Gemara (Avodah Zarah 3b) reads "with it": God plays with Leviathan. The first hard question looks at both.
Radak on Tehillim 104:26; Avodah Zarah 3b
כֻּלָּם אֵלֶיךָ יְשַׂבֵּרוּן, לָתֵת אָכְלָם בְּעִתּוֹ. תִּתֵּן לָהֶם יִלְקֹטוּן, תִּפְתַּח יָדְךָ יִשְׂבְּעוּן טוֹב.
All of them look to You hopefully to give them their food in its time You give them they gather it up You open Your hand they are filled with good
What it means
All of them look to You hopefully, to give them their food in its time. You give to them and they gather it up. You open Your hand and they are filled with good.
Radak says animals have no idea who provides their food. They just look to the way of life built into them, "and we know that it is to You." He also says the verse has "its time" in the singular because each kind of creature has its own time for its food.
Radak on Tehillim 104:27
תַּסְתִּיר פָּנֶיךָ יִבָּהֵלוּן תֹּסֵף רוּחָם יִגְוָעוּן, וְאֶל עֲפָרָם יְשׁוּבוּן. תְּשַׁלַּח רוּחֲךָ יִבָּרֵאוּן, וּתְחַדֵּשׁ פְּנֵי אֲדָמָה.
You hide Your face they are terrified You gather in their breath they die and to their dust they return You send Your breath they are created and You renew the face of the earth
What it means
You hide Your face and they are terrified. You gather in their breath and they die, and to their dust they return. You send out Your breath and they are created, and You renew the face of the earth.
יְהִי כְבוֹד יְיָ לְעוֹלָם, יִשְׂמַח יְיָ בְּמַעֲשָׂיו. הַמַּבִּיט לָאָרֶץ וַתִּרְעָד, יִגַּע בֶּהָרִים וְיֶעֱשָׁנוּ.
May the glory of Hashem last forever may Hashem rejoice in His works He looks at the earth and it trembles He touches the mountains and they smoke
What it means
May the glory of Hashem last forever. May Hashem rejoice in His works, He who looks at the earth and it trembles, who touches the mountains and they smoke.
אָשִׁירָה לַייָ בְּחַיָּי, אֲזַמְּרָה לֵאלֺהַי בְּעוֹדִי. יֶעֱרַב עָלָיו שִׂיחִי, אָנֹכִי אֶשְׂמַח בַּייָ.
I will sing to Hashem all my life I will make music for my God while I am still here May my talk please Him I will rejoice in Hashem
What it means
Radak says "my talk" means song, thanks and praise. He also says "I will rejoice in Hashem" answers "May Hashem rejoice in His works" from a few lines back: as if God rejoices in us, and we rejoice in Him.
Radak on Tehillim 104:34
יִתַּמּוּ חַטָּאִים מִן הָאָרֶץ וּרְשָׁעִים עוֹד אֵינָם
May sinners come to an end from the earth and the wicked be no more
What it means
May sinners come to an end on the earth, and the wicked be no more.
Beruriah, the wife of Rabbi Meir (a Sage of the Mishnah), pointed out that the second word, chata'im, can be read as "sins," not "sinners." The Gemara tells how her reading changed her husband's prayer about the thugs who tormented him. The Yehi Chevod and Velamalshinim pages tell the story.
Berakhot 10a
בָּרְכִי נַפְשִׁי אֶת יְיָ הַלְלוּיָהּ.
Bless, my soul Hashem Halleluyah
What it means
My soul, bless Hashem. Halleluyah.

How to say it

After the last word, this siddur says to go on with Hoshienu (two verses from Tehillim 106 that ask God to save us and gather us in from the nations), and then the Mourner's Kaddish.

Siddur Sefard, Weekday Shacharit, Barchi Nafshi

The story

The first Halleluyah in the whole book

Midrash Tehillim (an old collection of rabbinic teachings on Tehillim) points out that 103 psalms come before this one, and none has the word Halleluyah. It first shows up in the last words of this psalm, once the wicked are gone. The Midrash adds Mishlei (Proverbs) 11:10: when the wicked are lost, there is a joyful shout. Radak (Rabbi David Kimchi of southern France, about 800 years ago) calls Halleluyah the greatest of praises, because it holds song and praise in one word.

Midrash Tehillim 104:22; Mishlei 11:10; Radak on Tehillim 104:35

A moon verse in a fight over Yom Kippur

Rabban Gamliel (head of the Sages after the Temple was destroyed) accepted new-moon witnesses that other sages called false. Rabbi Yehoshua sided with the critics, so the two counted Yom Kippur on different days. Rabban Gamliel ordered him to come with staff and money on Yehoshua's Yom Kippur, and he went. The Gemara gives Rabban Gamliel's family tradition: the moon sometimes takes a long path and sometimes a short one. Rabbi Yochanan finds the source in this psalm: the sun knows its setting, the moon does not.

Mishnah Rosh Hashanah 2:8-9; Rosh Hashanah 25a; Rashi on Tehillim 104:19

A lion verse sets the workday

Reish Lakish (a sage of the Land of Israel, about 1,700 years ago) finds a work rule in verses 22 and 23. When the sun rises the animals go back to their dens, and then "man goes out to his work, to his labor until evening." Rashi (the great French commentator of the 1000s) explains: a worker need not head out early, only at sunrise, and he works until dark. The Gemara then asks why a verse is needed when local custom decides these things. Its answer: the verse covers a place with no custom, such as a new city.

Bava Metzia 83b, with Rashi; Tehillim 104:22-23

Rabbi Akiva and the two kinds of giants

Midrash Tehillim says that when Rabbi Akiva (a leading sage about 1,900 years ago) reached "this sea, great and wide," he would say: there are huge creatures in the sea and huge creatures on land. If the sea ones came up on land, and the land ones went into the sea, they would die. The place that gives life to one is death to the other. That, the Midrash ends, is what "how many are Your works" means.

Midrash Tehillim 104:13; Tehillim 104:24-25

A word that can be read "become whole"

Beruriah's reading of this verse, "sins" and not "sinners," is the famous one (the note on the line tells it). Midrash Tehillim, which tells her story too, also records a second reading. Rabbi Yehuda reads the first word, yitamu, as "will become whole." Then "the wicked are no more" means they are no longer wicked. Metzudat David (a commentary from the 1700s) has the same wish: that people overcome their urge to do wrong and stop sinning, so that no wicked people are left.

Berakhot 10a; Midrash Tehillim 104:22; Metzudat David on Tehillim 104:35

You said this verse earlier

In Siddur Sefard, verse 24, "How many are Your works," is also in Yotzer Or, the blessing before the Shema. There it comes right after the line that God "renews every day, constantly, the work of creation." The Hebrew for "renews" there (mechadesh) has the same root as "renew" in verse 30 here (utechadesh), "You renew the face of the earth." Both are about a world made new.

Siddur Sefard, Yotzer Or; Tehillim 104:24, 104:30

Touching mountains, and Sinai

Verse 32 says God touches the mountains and they smoke. Rashi (France, 1000s, the most widely read Torah commentator) compares it to Sinai, where the Torah says: "And Mount Sinai was all in smoke" (Shemot 19:18). Radak points to the order: the verse says God "looks" and then "touches." For Radak, God's touch is His looking and His watching over the world.

Rashi and Radak on Tehillim 104:32; Shemot 19:18

Hard questions

Does the psalm really say God made a sea monster to play with?

Verse 26 says God formed Leviathan "lesachek bo." The little word bo can mean "with it" or "in it," so the line can mean "to play with" or "to play in it." Leviathan is a giant sea creature, and the psalm sets it right next to the ships and the fish. Read the first way, it can sound like a joke slipped into a prayer.

The Gemara (the central book of rabbinic discussion) takes it seriously. Rav Yehuda says in the name of Rav, a leading sage in Babylon about 1,800 years ago, that God's day has four parts of three hours. First God studies Torah. Then He judges the world, and if He sees the world deserves destruction, He moves from the seat of justice to the seat of mercy. Then He feeds the whole world, "from the horns of wild oxen to the eggs of lice." Last, He plays with Leviathan, and this verse is the proof.

Rashi (the French commentator of the 1000s) quotes this Gemara on our verse. He adds a line from Iyov (Job) 40:29, where God, speaking out of a storm, asks Iyov about Leviathan: "Will you play with him like a bird?"

Others read bo the other way. Radak says Leviathan was made to play in the sea, among all the sea creatures, since all of them are in its power. Metzudat David says the same: it roams and plays in that sea and fears no creature, because the others are its food.

In Avodah Zarah the Gemara is really asking whether God ever laughs. Rav Nachman bar Yitzchak draws a line: God plays with His creatures, but laughs at them only on one day. The sources we opened do not choose between "God plays with Leviathan" and "Leviathan plays in the sea." Both readings are old.

Tehillim 104:26,Avodah Zarah 3b,Rashi on Tehillim 104:26,Radak and Metzudat David on Tehillim 104:26,Iyov 40:29

The psalm says God feeds every animal. So why do creatures go hungry?

Verses 27 and 28 say every creature looks to God to give it food in its time. "You open Your hand, they are filled with good." So why is anyone hungry? The Ashrei page asks this about almost the same words in Ashrei. This psalm, and one sage who read it, add two things.

First, the psalm itself does not say feeding is automatic. The next verse says: "You hide Your face, they are terrified." Radak says hiding God's face means holding back their food. He also says the food comes through a chain of causes, and that it is in God's hand to give or to hold back.

Second, Rabbi Shimon ben Elazar, a sage of about 1,800 years ago, looks at the same picture from the other side. He says he has never seen a deer drying figs, a lion working as a porter, or a fox running a shop, and yet they get their food without hardship. They were made to serve him, and he was made to serve his Maker. So why does he struggle for a living? His answer: "I have spoiled my deeds and cut off my own livelihood." He says it about himself, and he backs it with Yirmeyahu (Jeremiah) 5:25: "Your wrongs have turned these things away."

So the sources give a few answers. Food comes through causes. It can be held back. One sage blames his own deeds. None of the sources we opened explains why a particular person or animal goes hungry. That question stays open.

Tehillim 104:27-29,Radak on Tehillim 104:27 and 104:29,Kiddushin 82b,Yirmeyahu 5:25

Everything in this psalm dies and gets replaced. Is that meant to comfort me?

Verses 29 and 30 sit side by side. First: "You hide Your face, they are terrified. You gather in their breath, they die and return to dust." Then: "You send Your breath, they are created, and You renew the face of the earth." The first part of this prayer tells how the Gemara linked verse 29 to the day of death.

Who is being created in verse 30? Rashi says it is the resurrection of the dead.

Radak gives that reading first. He says that in our belief, this is the resurrection, and it will come as a wonder, not through nature. Then he adds a second way to read the verse, about all living things and not only people. When these die, others are born in their place, as Kohelet (Ecclesiastes) says: a generation goes and a generation comes. In his words, the kinds stay standing and the individuals are lost. "Renew the face of the earth" would then be the new ones arriving.

Midrash Tehillim ties the verse to what comes next. When does God send His breath? When He renews the face of the earth. At that hour: "May the glory of Hashem last forever," which is the next verse of this prayer.

Neither reading says dying is nothing. The psalm's own word for creatures at that moment is "terrified." Then, in the next verse, it turns to creation.

Tehillim 104:29-30,Rashi and Radak on Tehillim 104:30,Kohelet 1:4,Midrash Tehillim 104:19

Sparks

Short ideas from the Chassidic masters, the Kabbalah and the Mussar teachers.

Zohar

The verses are a story

In the Zohar, Rabbi Yochanan says no one explained this idea as well as King David did, in the verses of our psalm. First, "You hide Your face, they are terrified." This teaches that God does not do evil to anyone. When God stops looking after a person, that person fades away on his own. Next comes "You send Your breath and they are created." Then "May Hashem rejoice in His works." And after that, it says, comes laughter in the world, like the laughter Sarah spoke of. Now read those verses in order.

מכאן שאין הקב"ה עושה רעה לשום אדם, אלא כשאינו משגיח בו, הוא כלה מאליו

Zohar, Parashat Vayera

Rebbe Nachman

Sing with what you have left

Rebbe Nachman of Breslov (a Chassidic master who lived from 1772 to 1810) teaches that you must look for some good in everyone, even someone who seems completely wicked, and also in yourself. Even if you see yourself as full of sins, he says, you cannot have gone your whole life without one good deed. Find it, and then you can pray and sing. He reads "I will sing to my God b'odi" as "with my od," my "yet a little bit" of good. He quotes Tehillim 146:2, which ends with the same words as our line.

בעודי דיקא, הינו על ידי בחינת העוד שלי, שאני מוצא בעצמי בחינת: עוד מעט ואין רשע

Rebbe Nachman, Likutei Moharan 282

Rav Kook

Only the sins end

Rav Kook (the first Chief Rabbi of the Land of Israel, who died in 1935) explains the last lines. "Bless Hashem, my soul" means: bless God for your own share. Your soul is a share of God from above, made from the light of God's wisdom and uprightness. So it can never be completely ruined. That is why the verse says only that the sins will end and the wicked will be no more. The soul itself, at its root in the highest light, does not end. It lives forever. Now read the last lines again.

יתמו רק החטאים והרשעים לא יהיו עוד, אבל הנפש בעצם יסודה ממקור אורה העליון לא תתם ותחי עוד לנצח

Rav Kook, Olat Re'iyah, on Barchi Nafshi

Chassidut

God dimmed the light

Jews count their months by the moon, the small light. The Sefat Emet (a Chassidic master who died in 1905) explains: so to speak, God shrank His light so that Israel could take in a little of it. He cites a Midrash that the moon was made not to give light but for set times, as our verse says, and he calls that a way for the mind to grasp God. Then the Torah's words "This month is for you" mean that Israel can see the moon renew itself and understand it.

פי' שכביכול צמצם הקב"ה אורו להיות יכולין בנ"י להשיג השגת משהו. ובמד' הירח אינו נברא להאיר רק למועדים

Sefat Emet, Parashat HaChodesh

Halacha

The practical laws. For a final ruling, ask your rav.

The psalm says the moon marks the seasons. Do I bless the moon today?

Not on Rosh Chodesh itself. The blessing on the new moon waits a few days. The Shulchan Aruch (the main code of Jewish law, by Rabbi Yosef Karo, 1500s) says not until seven days have passed. The Mishnah Berurah (a standard commentary on daily law, around 1900) says most later authorities allow it after three days. Peninei Halakhah (a modern guide to Jewish law) reports that Sefardim and Chassidim wait for seven, and that it is usually said on Saturday night.

Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 426:4; Mishnah Berurah 426:20; Peninei Halakhah, Zemanim 1:18

The psalm mentions the sun. Is there a blessing for it?

Yes, but only once every 28 years. The Shulchan Aruch says that when the sun reaches its turning point, which falls at the start of a Tuesday night, you say "who makes creation" when you see it on Wednesday morning. The Mishnah Berurah explains that this is when the sun returns to where it was placed at creation. It says to bless as early as you can; after the fact, within the first three hours of the day, and when there is no choice, until midday. The last time was April 2009. The next is April 2037.

Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 229:2; Mishnah Berurah 229:6 and 229:8; Berakhot 59b

I see a stunning animal. Is there a blessing for that?

The Tehillim 148 page covers the blessing for an elephant or a monkey. For a beautiful creature, the Gemara (the central book of the Oral Torah) teaches a different one: shekacha lo ba'olamo, "that He has such in His world." The Shulchan Aruch rules you say it even for an animal, but only the first time, unless a later one is more beautiful. The Mishnah Berurah notes that today the custom is not to say this blessing at all, and that it is right to say it without God's name.

Berakhot 58b; Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 225:10; Mishnah Berurah 225:32

I'm at the beach in Tel Aviv. Is there a blessing for the sea?

Yes, if you have not seen it in the last 30 days; the Gemara sets that time. For the Mediterranean, Peninei Halakhah reports that the custom is to say oseh ma'aseh bereishit, "who makes the work of creation." The Shulchan Aruch held that the Mediterranean is "the Great Sea," which gets its own blessing, oseh hayam hagadol, "who makes the Great Sea." The Tehillim 148 page gives the view of many later authorities, that this blessing is for the ocean.

Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 228:1; Mishnah Berurah 228:2; Berakhot 59b; Peninei Halakhah, Berakhot 15:2

Sources

Show the 9 sources quoted on this page

Midrash Tehillim 104:22
אמר רבי שמואל בר אבא מראש הספר ועד כאן מאה ושלשה מזמורין ואין כתיב בהן הללויה. וכשהרשעים נגמרין מה כתיב ורשעים עוד אינם ברכי נפשי את ה׳ הללויה
Rabbi Shmuel bar Abba said: from the beginning of the book until here are 103 psalms, and Halleluyah is not written in them. And when the wicked come to an end, what is written? "And the wicked are no more. My soul, bless Hashem. Halleluyah."
Avodah Zarah 3b
שלישיות יושב וזן את כל העולם כולו מקרני ראמים עד ביצי כנים רביעיות יושב ומשחק עם לויתן שנאמר לויתן זה יצרת לשחק בו
For three hours He sits and feeds the whole world, from the horns of wild oxen to the eggs of lice. For three hours He sits and plays with Leviathan, as it says: "This Leviathan, You formed to play with."
Radak on Tehillim 104:26
לשחק בו פי' בים כלומר בכל נבראי הים הוא משחק כי כולם באים ברשותו
"Lesachek bo" means in the sea: it plays among all the creatures of the sea, for all of them come under its power.
Kiddushin 82b
מימי לא ראיתי צבי קייץ וארי סבל ושועל חנוני והם מתפרנסים שלא בצער והם לא נבראו אלא לשמשני ואני נבראתי לשמש את קוני
Rabbi Shimon ben Elazar says: In all my days I never saw a deer drying figs, a lion carrying loads, or a fox keeping a shop, and they are fed without hardship. They were made only to serve me, and I was made to serve my Maker.
Radak on Tehillim 104:30
כי ימותו אלה ויולדו אחרים תחתיהם, וכן כתוב דור הולך ודור בא, הכללים עומדים והפרטים אובדים
For these will die and others will be born in their place. So it is written: a generation goes and a generation comes. The kinds stand, and the individuals are lost.
Bava Metzia 83b
פועל בכניסתו משלו ביציאתו משל בעל הבית שנאמר תזרח השמש יאספון ואל מעונתם ירבצון יצא אדם לפעלו ולעבודתו עדי ערב
A worker's coming in is his own, his going out is the employer's, as it says: "The sun rises, they gather and lie down in their dens. Man goes out to his work, to his labor until evening."
Rosh Hashanah 25a
אמר רבי יוחנן מאי טעמא דבי רבי דכתיב עשה ירח למועדים שמש ידע מבואו שמש הוא דידע מבואו ירח לא ידע מבואו
Rabbi Yochanan said: what is the reason of the house of Rabbi, meaning the family of the Nasi, the head of the Sages (Rabban Gamliel's family)? It is written: "He made the moon for seasons, the sun knows its setting." The sun knows its setting. The moon does not know its setting.
Mishnah Rosh Hashanah 2:9
שלח לו רבן גמליאל גוזרני עליך שתבא אצלי במקלך ובמעותיך ביום הכפורים שחל להיות בחשבונך
Rabban Gamliel sent word to him: I order you to come to me with your staff and your money on the day Yom Kippur falls by your count.
Siddur Sefard, Yotzer Or
ובטובו מחדש בכל יום תמיד מעשה בראשית מה רבו מעשיך
And in His goodness He renews every day, constantly, the work of creation. How many are Your works.

Every prayer in the siddur