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בָּרְכִי נַפְשִׁי

Barchi Nafshi (part 1)

Psalm 104, verses 1 to 18: a poem about the world God made. 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 1 to 18 of 35
Author: Unsigned. Ibn Ezra reasons it is David's
The Gemara's reading: David's song about the day of death

The words

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

On Rosh Chodesh (the new month), after the Song of the Day. A custom from Spain, for its verse about the moon (in part 2):
בָּרְכִי נַפְשִׁי אֶת יְיָ יְיָ אֱלֺהַי גָּדַלְתָּ מְאֹד, הוֹד וְהָדָר לָבָשְׁתָּ.
My soul, bless Hashem Hashem, my God, You are extremely great You wear splendor and majesty
עֹטֶה אוֹר כַּשַּׂלְמָה, נוֹטֶה שָׁמַיִם כַּיְרִיעָה. הַמְקָרֶה בַמַּיִם עֲלִיּוֹתָיו הַשָּׂם עָבִים רְכוּבוֹ, הַמְהַלֵּךְ עַל כַּנְפֵי רוּחַ.
Wrapped in light like a cloak stretching out the sky like a curtain Who lays the beams of His upper rooms in the waters Who makes the clouds His chariot Who walks on the wings of the wind
What it means
Wrapped in light like a cloak, stretching out the sky like a curtain. He lays the beams of His upper rooms in the waters, makes the clouds His chariot, and walks on the wings of the wind.
Ibn Ezra (a Spanish Torah commentator of the 1100s) says the light here is the light made on day one of creation, and the sky stretched out like a curtain is day two. The tallit prayer opens with these same words, so see there for the image of being wrapped in light.
Ibn Ezra on Tehillim 104:2
עֹשֶׂה מַלְאָכָיו רוּחוֹת, מְשָׁרְתָיו אֵשׁ לֺהֵט. יָסַד אֶרֶץ עַל מְכוֹנֶיהָ, בַּל תִּמּוֹט עוֹלָם וָעֶד.
Who makes the winds His messengers and blazing fire His servants Who founded the earth on its foundations so it will never be shaken, forever and ever
What it means
He makes the winds His messengers and blazing fire His servants. He founded the earth on its foundations, so it will never be shaken, forever and ever.
תְּהוֹם כַּלְּבוּשׁ כִּסִּיתוֹ, עַל הָרִים יַעַמְדוּ מָיִם. מִן גַּעֲרָתְךָ יְנוּסוּן, מִן קוֹל רַעַמְךָ יֵחָפֵזוּן.
You covered the deep like a garment the waters stood above the mountains At Your rebuke they ran away at the sound of Your thunder they rushed off
What it means
This is day three of creation. Radak (Rabbi David Kimchi, a medieval commentator on Tehillim) says that at the start the earth was covered with water. Rashi (the main commentator on the Torah and Gemara, France, died 1105) says the "rebuke" and "thunder" are God's words in Bereishit 1:9, "Let the waters be gathered," and the waters hurried to obey.
Radak and Rashi on Tehillim 104:6-7
יַעֲלוּ הָרִים יֵרְדוּ בְקָעוֹת, אֶל מְקוֹם זֶה יָסַדְתָּ לָהֶם.
They went up mountains they went down into valleys to the place You set up for them
What it means
They went up the mountains and down into the valleys, to the place You set up for them.
The Hebrew does not say who goes up and down. In Bereishit Rabbah (early rabbinic teachings on Genesis), Rabbi Yehoshua ben Rabbi Nechemyah says it is the water: it climbed mountains and went down into the depths until it reached the ocean. Radak and Metzudat David (a short plain-meaning commentary) read it the same way.
Bereishit Rabbah 5:3; Radak and Metzudat David on Tehillim 104:8
גְּבוּל שַׂמְתָּ בַּל יַעֲבֹרוּן, בַּל יְשֻׁבוּן לְכַסּוֹת הָאָרֶץ.
You set a border that they cannot cross so they never again cover the earth
What it means
You set a border they cannot cross, so they will never again cover the earth.
Rashi says the border God set for the sea is the sand around its edge. Yirmeyahu (Jeremiah, a prophet) has God say the same: "I set sand as the border of the sea." Radak adds that water naturally runs downhill and would cover the land, but God stopped it at the shore.
Rashi and Radak on Tehillim 104:9; Yirmeyahu 5:22
הַמְשַׁלֵּחַ מַעְיָנִים בַּנְּחָלִים, בֵּין הָרִים יְהַלֵּכוּן. יַשְׁקוּ כָּל חַיְתוֹ שָׂדָי, יִשְׁבְּרוּ פְרָאִים צְמָאָם.
Who sends springs into streams between the mountains they flow they give drink to every animal of the field wild donkeys quench their thirst
What it means
He sends springs into the streams, and they flow between the mountains. They give drink to every wild animal of the field; wild donkeys quench their thirst.
Radak says the streams that run through the wilderness are there for travelers and for the animals that live there.
Radak on Tehillim 104:10
עֲלֵיהֶם עוֹף הַשָּׁמַיִם יִשְׁכּוֹן, מִבֵּין עֳפָאיִם יִתְּנוּ קוֹל. מַשְׁקֶה הָרִים מֵעֲלִיּוֹתָיו, מִפְּרִי מַעֲשֶׂיךָ תִּשְׂבַּע הָאָרֶץ.
Beside them the birds of the sky live from among the branches they sing out He waters the mountains from His upper rooms from the fruit of Your works the earth is full
What it means
Beside them the birds of the sky live, and from among the branches they sing out. He waters the mountains from His upper rooms; from the fruit of Your works the earth is full.
In the Gemara (the rabbis' discussion of law and stories), two early rabbis argue over where rain is from: Rabbi Eliezer says the ocean, Rabbi Yehoshua the waters above the sky. Rabbi Yochanan says the "upper rooms" are God's, which the Gemara says fits Rabbi Yehoshua. For Rabbi Eliezer, it explains, water rises to the clouds, so they are upper rooms too.
Taanit 9b
מַצְמִיחַ חָצִיר לַבְּהֵמָה וְעֵשֶׂב לַעֲבֹדַת הָאָדָם, לְהוֹצִיא לֶחֶם מִן הָאָרֶץ.
He makes grass grow for the livestock and plants for people to work to bring out bread from the earth
What it means
This line has exactly ten words. So does the blessing HaMotzi, said before bread. The Tur (a law code from the 1300s) ties both to ten mitzvot that depend on bread, such as leaving the corner of a field for the poor, and to the ten fingers you rest on the loaf as you bless it.
Tur, Orach Chaim 167:1
וְיַיִן יְשַׂמַּח לְבַב אֱנוֹשׁ לְהַצְהִיל פָּנִים מִשָּׁמֶן, וְלֶחֶם לְבַב אֱנוֹשׁ יִסְעָד.
And wine that cheers a person's heart oil to make faces shine and bread that sustains a person's heart
What it means
A discussion in the Gemara about blessings uses this verse. It says wine does two things, it sustains you and it cheers you, while bread only sustains you.
Berakhot 35b
יִשְׂבְּעוּ עֲצֵי יְיָ אַרְזֵי לְבָנוֹן אֲשֶׁר נָטָע. אֲשֶׁר שָׁם צִפֳּרִים יְקַנֵּנוּ, חֲסִידָה בְּרוֹשִׁים בֵּיתָהּ. הָרִים הַגְּבֹהִים לַיְּעֵלִים, סְלָעִים מַחְסֶה לַשְׁפַנִּים.
Hashem's trees drink their fill, the cedars of Lebanon that He planted where birds make their nests the stork has her home in the junipers the high mountains are for the wild goats the rocks are a refuge for the rock badgers

How to say it

Only on Rosh Chodesh. Siddur Sefard puts it right after the Song of the Day; in its Rosh Chodesh section, that comes after Hallel, before the Torah reading.

Siddur Sefard

The story

A song about the day of death

The Gemara (the central book of rabbinic discussion, about 1,500 years old) says King David lived in five worlds and sang in each: the womb, coming into the world and looking at the stars, nursing, seeing the wicked fall, and the day of death. For that last one it quotes this psalm's first verse. Its proof comes from near the end of the psalm, verse 29: "You hide Your face, they are terrified. You take away their breath, they die." The psalm itself never mentions David or a deathbed. This is the Gemara's reading.

Berakhot 10a

It retells the creation story

Ibn Ezra (a Spanish-born Bible commentator of the 1100s) says this psalm tells how the world was made, starting with light because it came first. Then come the heavens and earth, grasses, the lights in the sky, fish, wild animals and people. He also guesses who wrote it. The psalm has no title, so he reasons from its shape: it opens and closes the same way as the psalm before it, which has David's name on it.

Ibn Ezra on Tehillim 104:1; Tehillim 103:1

You can wear God's clothes

Verse 1 says God is dressed in splendor and majesty. Midrash Tehillim (an old collection of rabbinic teachings on Tehillim) points out a difference from kings. Nobody gets to wear a king's clothes. But people can wear God's, as another verse says: "You place splendor and majesty on him." A second passage there lists who received some of it: Moshe, Yehoshua, King Shlomo, the Messiah in the future, and anyone who works hard at Torah.

Midrash Tehillim 104:1 and 104:4; Tehillim 21:6

Is it angels or weather?

Verse 4 can sound like angels made of wind and fire. Rashi (France, 1000s, the most widely read Torah commentator) reads it simply: God makes the winds His messengers. Radak (Rabbi David Kimchi of southern France, about 800 years ago) says why: nothing is by chance. The blowing winds, the fire and the lightning all serve God and happen at His word. In Hebrew, "angel" and "messenger" are the same word, malakh.

Rashi and Radak on Tehillim 104:4

A bird named Kindness

Verse 17 says the stork makes its home in the junipers. The Hebrew word is chasidah, close to chesed, kindness. The Gemara asks why the bird has that name and answers: it acts with kindness toward its companions. Rashi says that means it shares out its food. Midrash Tehillim gives two reasons, one of them that it has pity (chasah) on its neighbors. In the Torah, the same word is on the list of birds Jews may not eat.

Chullin 63a; Rashi on Chullin 63a; Midrash Tehillim 104:10; Vayikra 11:19

Two sages argue about birds

Verse 12 says the birds of the sky live by the streams and sing from among the branches. Rabbi Akiva said these are angels who serve God. Rabbi Yishmael (both were leading sages about 1,900 years ago) told him: Akiva, enough of this talk, go back to Negaim and Ohalot, two sections of the Mishnah (the Sages' earliest law code) about ritual impurity. His own reading: they are birds that live in trees, and from them comes praise of God.

Midrash Tehillim 104:6

Hard questions

How can a happy nature psalm be a song about the day of death?

At first glance this psalm has nothing to do with death. Springs run between hills, cedars grow, a stork nests in a juniper. Yet the Gemara says David sang the first verse when he looked at the day of death.

The Gemara says David lived in five worlds and sang in each, and the first verse of this psalm is the song of the last one, the day of death. When the Gemara asks how it knows, it points to verse 29: "You hide Your face, they are terrified. You take away their breath, they die and return to dust."

Read one verse further and the picture is not only grim. Verse 30 says: "You send Your breath, they are created, and You renew the face of the earth." The psalm puts dying and new life in back-to-back verses.

Radak (Rabbi David Kimchi of southern France, about 800 years ago) adds a point about the opening words. This psalm is about how the world was made, he writes, and in the lower world nobody knows how to bless God except the thinking soul of a person. That is why the psalm begins by talking to the soul.

The Gemara gives only the proof from verse 29. It does not say more about why these opening words fit the day of death. That part stays open.

Berakhot 10a,Tehillim 104:29-30,Radak on Tehillim 104:1

The psalm says the earth will never move. What is it even standing on?

Verse 5 says God set the earth on its foundations so that it will never be moved. Today we know the earth spins and circles the sun. So what did the sages think the foundations were, and what do these words mean?

The Gemara has a whole discussion. Rabbi Yose says: "Woe to the creatures that see and do not know what they see, that stand and do not know what they stand on." Then he gives a chain. The earth stands on pillars. The pillars stand on water. The water stands on mountains, which is a line from verse 6 of our psalm. The mountains stand on wind, the wind on storm, and the storm hangs on God's arm. Other sages say twelve pillars, or seven, or a single pillar named "Righteous," from the verse "a righteous person is the foundation of the world." The Gemara lists these and picks none.

Two medieval commentators went another way. Radak says it is in the earth's nature to fall toward the lowest place, which is the center of the heavens, so it sits there like a ball, leaning to no side. Ibn Ezra says the earth has no motion, because next to the heavens it is like a point inside a circle.

Neither of them thought the earth moved. They explained the verse with the best astronomy of their day, and they gave different reasons. The Gemara knew this could happen. In Pesachim, Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi (the editor of the Mishnah) argued against the sages of the nations on one question. On another, where the sun goes at night, he said their view looked more accurate than the Sages', because springs are cold by day and hot at night.

So none of these sources knew what we know, and none answers your question directly. Notice, though, where the psalm goes next. It praises God for setting a boundary the waters cannot cross, so they will not come back and cover the earth (verse 9). Radak says that boundary is the sand at the edge of the sea.

Tehillim 104:5-9,Chagigah 12b,Radak and Ibn Ezra on Tehillim 104:5,Pesachim 94b,Radak on Tehillim 104:9

Is the whole world here for humans? What are mountain goats for?

Look at what verses 10 to 18 describe. Springs for wild donkeys that live in the desert. Cedars no person planted. A stork in a juniper. High mountains for mountain goats. Little of it is for people. So who is it for?

Radak notices how deliberate this is. Verse 11 names the wild donkeys because they stay in the desert and never come to settled places. Verse 16 calls the cedars "trees of Hashem" because no human effort made them grow. Yet on verse 18 he also writes that nothing small was made except to benefit something bigger than itself, "and all of it is for the benefit of man, who is above them all."

Rambam (Maimonides, who lived in Egypt in the 1100s, a little before Radak) saw it differently. In the Guide for the Perplexed, his book of Jewish philosophy, he asks whether God could have made a person without all these preparations. The right view, he says, is not to believe that everything exists for human beings. The rest also exist for themselves, not for anything else. He adds that some things exist so that others can exist.

The book of Iyov (Job) has a similar picture. When God finally answers Iyov, it is out of a storm, with questions about wild creatures and places no one controls. "Do you know when the mountain goats give birth?" "Who sent the wild donkey out free?" And about rain: to make it fall "on a land where no one lives, a desert with no person in it."

So the sources hold more than one answer. Radak sees a ladder where each thing serves what is above it, ending with people. Rambam says the world is not only about us, and the questions from the storm seem to point the same way, though they never say it in so many words. The sources do not settle it.

Tehillim 104:10-18,Radak on Tehillim 104:11, 104:16 and 104:18,Rambam, Guide for the Perplexed 3:13,Iyov 38:26 and 39:1-5

Sparks

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

Zohar

You are made from this psalm

The Zohar (the central book of Kabbalah) says God put four things into every person: fire, wind, water and earth. Where does it find them? In this psalm. "He makes the winds His messengers" is wind. "Blazing fire His servants" is fire. "He founded the earth" is earth. "You covered the deep like a garment; the waters stood" is water. Now read those lines again.

כָּלַל הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא בָּאָדָם אַרְבָּעָה דְבָרִים ... עוֹשֶׂה מַלְאָכָיו רוּחוֹת, הָא רוּחַ. מְשָׁרְתָיו אֵשׁ לוֹהֵט, הָא אֵשׁ.

Zohar Chadash, Bereishit

Zohar

Bless now, while you still can

The words "Bless Hashem, my soul" open this psalm, and they also open Psalm 103, the psalm just before it. The Zohar reads them there, in Psalm 103. It pictures King David thinking about the judgments a person faces when life ends. So he says: bless Him before you leave this world, while you are still together with your body. Hurry to bless, before the time comes when you will no longer be able to bless or to return to Him. Now read the first two words again.

בָּרְכִי נַפְשִׁי אֶת ה׳, עַד לָא תִּפּוּק מִן עָלְמָא, בְּעוֹד דְּאַנְתְּ אִשְׁתְּכָחַת עִם גּוּפָא.

Zohar, Parashat Vayakhel

Rav Kook

Your will is wind, your mind is fire

Rav Kook (the first Chief Rabbi of the Land of Israel, who died in 1935) reads "He makes the winds His messengers and blazing fire His servants" as a picture of two forces in a person. The will is called wind, because it moves toward what it wants. The mind is called fire, because of its fierce strength. Prayer is where the will shows itself, and learning Torah is where the mind shows itself. Each needs the other: prayer should aim to earn you Torah, and learning should aim to point your will at doing what God wants.

הרצון יקרא רוח בתנועת שאיפתו, והשכל יקרא אש בעז גבורתו.

Rav Kook, Olat Re'iyah, on Barchi Nafshi

Chassidut

A wandering mind gets a spring

The Mei HaShiloach (a book of Chassidic teachings from Izhbitz, in Poland, in the 1800s) reads the streams in "He sends springs into the streams" as your thoughts, because thoughts never stop wandering. When you wander in your thinking about serving God and do not know what to do with yourself, God sends a spring of life into your thoughts: clear words of Torah that give good advice. Anyone who was thirsty for that spring breaks the wildness of their own thoughts and walks on level ground.

נְחָלִים נִקְרְאוּ מַחְשְׁבוֹת הָאָדָם לְפִי שֶׁהַמַּחְשָׁבָה מְשׁוֹטֵט תָּמִיד בְּרַעְיוֹנוֹת

Mei HaShiloach, on Tehillim 104

Chassidut

Your praise makes God greater, so to speak

The Tiferet Shlomo (Rabbi Shlomo Rabinowicz of Radomsk, a Chassidic master who died in 1866) looks at the words "You have become great." He writes that, so to speak, God is raised up and made greater by the songs and praise offered to Him. He also says that being allowed to praise God is itself a kindness, one that deserves its own thank you.

כי כביכול הש"י מתרומם ומתגדל ע"י השירות ותשבחות שלו

Tiferet Shlomo, Parashat Beshalach

Halacha

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

Do I have to say it?

The sources call it a custom. The Tur (a law code from 1300s Spain) writes that in Sefarad, meaning Spain, they say it on Rosh Chodesh because the psalm says God "made the moon for seasons." The Mishnah Berurah (a standard commentary on daily Jewish law, written around 1900) repeats that reason and adds, from the Magen Avraham (a Polish commentary from the 1600s), that in some places it is not said.

Tur, Orach Chaim 423; Mishnah Berurah 423:9; Magen Avraham 423:5

Where does it go on Rosh Chodesh?

Sources differ. The Shulchan Aruch (the main code of Jewish law, by Rabbi Yosef Karo, 1500s) puts it after the repetition of the Musaf prayer (the extra prayer added on Rosh Chodesh) and the Kaddish that follows. The Piskei HaSiddur (rulings on prayer by Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi, the first Chabad Rebbe) and a printed Siddur Sefard say to say it right after the Song of the Day, the psalm for that day of the week.

Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 423:3; Piskei HaSiddur, after the morning prayer, no. 12; Siddur Sefard, Rosh Chodesh

Does it replace the Song of the Day?

Siddur Sefard and the Piskei HaSiddur add it after the Song of the Day. The Vilna Gaon (Rabbi Eliyahu of Vilna, a leading Torah scholar of the 1700s) did it differently. The Maaseh Rav, a book of his practices written by his student, says that on Rosh Chodesh the day's song is not said and Barchi Nafshi is said in its place, and that it overrides even the Shabbat psalm.

Maaseh Rav 157; Piskei HaSiddur, after the morning prayer, no. 12; Siddur Sefard, Rosh Chodesh

Is this the Temple's extra song for Rosh Chodesh?

The Arukh HaShulchan (a code of Jewish law by Rabbi Yechiel Michel Epstein, rabbi of Novogrudok in today's Belarus, written around 1900) explains that on days with an extra offering, the Levites in the Temple sang a second psalm for it. He writes that the Sefardim say Barchi Nafshi on Rosh Chodesh as that extra Rosh Chodesh song. He adds that his own community does not say these extra songs at all, which he calls surprising.

Arukh HaShulchan, Orach Chaim 133:3

On Rosh Chodesh Elul, which psalm comes first?

From Rosh Chodesh Elul on, Psalm 27 ("Ledavid Hashem Ori") is added at the end of davening. Mateh Efrayim (a guide to Elul and the High Holidays by Rabbi Efrayim Zalman Margoliot of Brody, who died in 1828) says it seems to him that where Psalm 27 comes after the whole service, Barchi Nafshi goes before it on Rosh Chodesh, since it comes every Rosh Chodesh. A printed Siddur Sefard prints them in that order too.

Mateh Efrayim 581:6; Siddur Sefard, before Psalm 27

Why do I see this psalm on Shabbat afternoons?

Some siddurim also have Psalm 104 for Mincha (the afternoon prayer) on Shabbat. The Metsudah Sefard Shabbat siddur (1981) lists it among the psalms said from the Shabbat after Sukkot until the Shabbat before Pesach. The Rema (Rabbi Moshe Isserles, who added Ashkenazi custom to the Shulchan Aruch) writes that on Shabbat HaGadol, the Shabbat before Pesach, people stop saying it and read part of the Haggadah instead.

Rema, Orach Chaim 430:1; Metsudah Sefard Shabbat siddur, Mincha

Sources

Show the 10 sources quoted on this page

Tur, Orach Chaim 423
ונוהגין בספרד לומר מזמור ברכי נפשי לפי שיש בו עשה ירח למועדים
In Spain it is the custom to say the psalm Barchi Nafshi, because it has in it the line "He made the moon for the seasons."
Berakhot 10a
נִסְתַּכֵּל בְּיוֹם הַמִּיתָה, וְאָמַר שִׁירָה, שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר: ״בָּרְכִי נַפְשִׁי אֶת ה׳, ה׳ אֱלֹהַי גָּדַלְתָּ מְּאֹד הוֹד וְהָדָר לָבָשְׁתָּ״
He looked at the day of death and sang, as it says: "Bless Hashem, my soul. Hashem, my God, You are so great; You wear splendor and majesty."
Tehillim 104:29-30
תַּסְתִּיר פָּנֶיךָ יִבָּהֵלוּן תֹּסֵף רוּחָם יִגְוָעוּן וְאֶל־עֲפָרָם יְשׁוּבוּן. תְּשַׁלַּח רוּחֲךָ יִבָּרֵאוּן וּתְחַדֵּשׁ פְּנֵי אֲדָמָה
You hide Your face, they are terrified. You take away their breath, they die and return to dust. You send Your breath, they are created, and You renew the face of the earth.
Ibn Ezra on Tehillim 104:1
ובמזמור הזה יספר מעשה בראשית והחל מהאור, כי הוא ההוה בתחלה ואח"כ השמים והארץ והדשאים והמאורות ודגי הים וחית השדה, האדם
In this psalm he tells the story of creation, beginning with light, because it came first. After that: the heavens and earth, grasses, the lights in the sky, fish of the sea, animals of the field, and people.
Radak on Tehillim 104:1
כי אין בתחתונים מי שידע לברך אלא נפש האדם המשכלת
Because among the lower creatures, only the thinking soul of a person knows how to bless.
Chagigah 12b
אוֹי לָהֶם לַבְּרִיּוֹת, שֶׁרוֹאוֹת, וְאֵינָן יוֹדְעוֹת מָה רוֹאוֹת. עוֹמְדוֹת, וְאֵין יוֹדְעוֹת עַל מָה הֵן עוֹמְדוֹת
Woe to the creatures that see and do not know what they see, that stand and do not know what they stand on.
Radak on Tehillim 104:18
ואין דבר דק וקטן במעלה שלא נברא לתועלת הגדול ממנו, והכל לתועלת האדם כי הוא עליון על כולם
Nothing small and low in rank was created except to benefit what is greater than it, and all of it is for the benefit of man, who is above them all.
Rambam, Guide for the Perplexed 3:13
הוא שלא יאמן בנמצאות כולם שהם מפני מציאות האדם, אבל יהיו גם כן שאר הנמצאות כולם מכוונות לעצמם לא מפני דבר אחר
It is not to be believed that all things exist for the sake of human beings. The other things also exist for themselves, not for the sake of anything else. (Hebrew translation by Ibn Tibbon.)
Iyov 38:26
לְהַמְטִיר עַל־אֶרֶץ לֹא־אִישׁ מִדְבָּר לֹא־אָדָם בּוֹ
To make it rain on a land where no one lives, a desert with no person in it.
Chullin 63a
למה נקרא שמה חסידה שעושה חסידות עם חברותיה
Why is it called the chasidah? Because it acts with kindness toward its companions.

Every prayer in the siddur