Halleluyah: Tehillim 149

A sword with two mouths

The sword in verse 6 is called pifiyot. The word is peh, mouth, doubled. Radak (Rabbi David Kimchi, Provence, around 1200) explains: a sword with two mouths, one that kills from both sides. The verse sets that sword next to a throat full of praise, and Midrash Tehillim (a collection of rabbinic teachings on Tehillim) reads the two halves as one. God says: you raise Me up, and I fight the war for you. Then its summary: the mouth of Israel is their sword.

The Gemara: the sword is the bedtime Shema

Rabbi Yitzchak says in the Gemara (the rabbis' discussions built on the Mishnah): whoever says Shema in bed is like someone holding a two-edged sword. His proof is verse 6. The Gemara asks how he knows the verse is about Shema. The answer: look one verse back. "Let them sing out on their beds," and right after it, praise in the throat and a sword in the hand. Rashi (the classic commentator, France, died 1105) says what the sword is for: to kill the mazikin, the harmful spirits.

The tenth song

The Mekhilta (an early Midrash on Shemot) counts ten songs in the history of Israel. The first was sung in Egypt. The eighth is King Shlomo's, and its proof is the first line of Mizmor Shir Chanukat HaBayit, which you said a little before Baruch She'amar. The ninth belongs to King Yehoshafat. The tenth has not been sung. It belongs to the future, and one of the Mekhilta's two proofs is the first line of this psalm: "Sing to Hashem a new song." So read, the psalm opens by calling for a song that does not exist yet.

Rashi: it points to a book that was not written yet

The last verse speaks of "the written verdict." Written where? Rashi points to the prophet Yechezkel: "I will place My vengeance on Edom, in the hand of My people Israel." Then Rashi asks the obvious question. Yechezkel was not born yet when David said this. His answer: David was speaking in prophecy about the final redemption, and by the time it comes, this verdict will have been in writing for a long time. Radak offers another possibility: what is written in the Torah and the prophecies.

Singing in bed

"Let them sing out on their beds." Why beds? Ibn Ezra (a Spanish commentator who died in the 1160s): when they are alone at night. Metzudat David (a commentary from the 1700s) hears "bed" as rest: they will sing when they are at rest in their own land. Meiri (Rabbi Menachem Meiri, Provence, around 1300) brings a reading that it means actual beds, because the hour of sleep is a time of clear thought. Midrash Tehillim pictures the Garden of Eden, with many fine beds laid out for the righteous.

The joy goes both ways

Verse 2: "Let Israel be glad in its Maker." A few minutes ago, at the start of Yehi Chevod, you said the mirror image: "May Hashem be glad in what He made." Midrash Tehillim, explaining why the song here is a happy one, brings that same line and has God say: you see Me and you are glad, and I see you and I am glad. It backs that with a verse from the prophet Yeshayahu: "I will rejoice in Jerusalem and delight in My people." Verse 4 of the psalm says it outright: Hashem is pleased with His people.

Dancing like at the sea

"Let them praise His name with dancing, with drum and harp." Midrash Tehillim hears an echo. After the sea split, Miriam took a drum, and all the women went out after her with drums and dancing. The Midrash ties the two with a line from the prophet Michah: "As in the days when you left Egypt, I will show wonders." The celebration to come will look like the one at the sea. Meiri reads the dancing as a picture of great longing, and says the instruments are there to wake up people's hearts.

Makers, not Maker

The Hebrew does not say Israel will be glad in its Maker. It says "Makers," plural. The Zohar (the central book of Kabbalah) asks why, and answers: the makers are God and His presence, and a person's father and mother. Even if the parents have died, it says, God brings them from the Garden of Eden to share in their child's joy. The Zohar says this while teaching that a joy with no place in it for God is not joy. Now read the line again and count who is in it.

בְּעוֹשָׂיו, בְּעוֹשׂוֹ מִבָּעֵי לֵיהּ. אֶלָּא אִלֵּין קוּדְשָׁא בְּרִיךְ הוּא וּשְׁכִינְתֵּיהּ, וְאָבִיו וְאִמּוֹ

Singing before the ending

The note printed above this psalm says it is about the future, the days of the Mashiach (the future redeemer). So why sing it this morning? The Sefat Emet (Rabbi Yehudah Aryeh Leib Alter of Ger, a Chassidic master who died in 1905) quotes a midrash that cites a twin verse, Tehillim 98:1, "Sing to Hashem a new song": Israel will sing in the future, and what earns it is faith. He explains that as long as bad is mixed into the world, the song is not whole. But with faith, he writes, Israel can find the light of that song already in this world.

כי בעוד שיש תערובות רע בעולם. אין השירה בשלימות... אבל בנ"י בכח האמונה יכולין למציא הארת השירה גם בעוה"ז

The Mashiach's weapon

This psalm puts a two-edged sword in the hands of the faithful, and the siddur's note ties the psalm to the days of the Mashiach. Rebbe Nachman of Breslov (a Chassidic master who died in 1810) teaches that the main weapon of the Mashiach is prayer. Every war he fights and everything he conquers, Rebbe Nachman says, comes from there. Then he reads this verse. The Hebrew for "two-edged" literally means "two mouths." Prayer, he says, is double: it holds praise of God and asking for what you need.

כִּי עִקַּר כְּלֵי זֵינוֹ שֶׁל מָשִׁיחַ הוּא הַתְּפִלָּה

Sharp on every side

The Gemara (Berakhot 5a) learns from this verse that saying Shema in bed is like holding a two-edged sword. The Maharal (Rabbi Yehudah Loew of Prague, who died in 1609) explains the picture. Shema says God is one. Most things are one only from a certain angle: a king is the only king, but as a human being he is one of many. An ordinary sword is like that, sharp on one side. A two-edged sword is sharp all over. God, he writes, is one from every side. And forces that harm, he says, have power only where things are split in two.

אבל השם יתברך אחד לגמרי מכל צד ... שהוא כולו חד, ואין בו חלוק

Did the prayer change God's mind?

On the opening verse, Rabbi Elimelech of Lizhensk (an early Chassidic master who died in 1787) asks a hard question. If someone prays for a sick person who then recovers, did God change? No, he says. Nothing bad comes from above. A person is tied to a source, and sin can cut that tie. When a righteous person prays for him, the prayer ties him back, and so he heals. That, he says, is what the word tefillah means: connection. Praise, tehillah, reaches a place of only light, where nothing can accuse. That is why David's songs are called Tehillim.

ולכן נקראת תפילה, כי תפילה היא מלשון התקשרות

There is a brit today. Why did the prayer leader sing one line of this psalm?

The Rema (Rabbi Moshe Isserles, who added Ashkenazi practice to the Shulchan Aruch, the main code of Jewish law) records a custom: the mohel, who performs the brit (circumcision), leads the prayers that day. He cites this psalm: God's praise in their throats, a sword in their hands. The Shach (a 1600s commentary) cites a ruling: that reading is found nowhere. The real reason: he is busy with a mitzvah. The Aruch HaShulchan (a law code, about 1900): among us the mohel does not lead. The prayer leader sings this verse.

"Let them praise His name with dancing." So is dancing on Shabbat a problem?

The Shulchan Aruch: on Shabbat, no clapping and no dancing. It is a decree, in case someone comes to fix a musical instrument. The Rema records a view that today it is all allowed, since we are not skilled at making instruments. That may be why people are lenient, he says. The Mishnah Berurah (a law commentary, about 1900): on Simchat Torah dancing is allowed, for the honor of the Torah, but not bells or instruments. The Aruch HaShulchan: our clapping and dancing, to songs sung by mouth, were never forbidden.

The psalm says "let them sing out on their beds." Is that a real practice?

The Gemara reads it as the bedtime Shema, and the Story section tells how. Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi, in the Gemara: even after Shema in the synagogue, it is a mitzvah to say it on your bed. The Shulchan Aruch: say the first paragraph of Shema and HaMapil, the bedtime blessing. Peninei Halakhah (a modern law guide by Rabbi Eliezer Melamed): the Sages set those two. The rest is not required.

Do I say these two verses at bedtime?

It depends on your siddur. The Kaf HaChaim (a Sephardic law commentary, early 1900s) gives a bedtime order based on the Arizal (Rabbi Yitzchak Luria, the Kabbalist of Tzfat, 1500s): after Shema say Ya'alzu chasidim and Romemot El from this psalm, then the verses from Shir HaShirim (the Song of Songs) about sixty warriors around Shlomo's bed, each with a sword, and repeat them three times. The Chabad siddur and Siddur Edot HaMizrach, a Sephardic siddur, print it so. Siddur Sefard has the Shlomo verses alone.

Can I talk after the bedtime Shema?

The Rema: after the bedtime Shema, no eating, drinking or talking. Go right to sleep. If sleep does not come, say Shema again until it does. The Mishnah Berurah: if you are thirsty, or something urgent has to be said, it seems allowed, and then you say Shema again. After HaMapil, he adds, be careful: that would be a break between the blessing and sleep. Peninei Halakhah allows it then too, for a need: HaMapil is praise for the night's sleep, not like a blessing on food. Still, best to keep it next to sleep.

Do girls say the bedtime Shema?

Most authorities say yes. The Magen Avraham (a 1600s commentary on the Shulchan Aruch) noted that women did not have the custom, and suggested why: it applies only at night, and women are exempt from commandments tied to a set time. The Eliyah Rabbah (Rabbi Eliyahu Shapira of Prague, about 1700) disagreed: "Do men need protection and women not?" The Kaf HaChaim quotes him, and a later report that women now say it. Peninei Halakhah: the other authorities rule that women say Shema and HaMapil, as men do.

Is there a night when the protection verses are left out?

Seder night, in Ashkenazi custom. The Rema: at bedtime say only the Shema paragraph, not the other things said on other nights for protection, because it is leil shimurim, a night guarded from harm. The Mishnah Berurah adds that HaMapil is still said. The Kitzur Shulchan Aruch (a short law guide, 1860s) gives the point: to show that this night needs no guarding. The Ben Ish Chai (Rabbi Yosef Chaim of Baghdad, died 1909) rules differently: say the usual verses too, in the order of the Arizal.