Hashem Melech

The first line is not a verse

Search Tanach for "Hashem melech, Hashem malach, Hashem yimloch" and you will not find it. Abudarham (Rabbi David Abudarham of Seville, Spain, who wrote a classic commentary on the prayers around 1340) says so plainly: "This is not a verse." It is three pieces. "Hashem is King" is from Tehillim 10. "Hashem was King" opens Tehillim 93. "Hashem will be King forever and ever" is from the Song at the Sea. The joined line already appears in Tractate Soferim, a small tractate usually dated to the 700s.

An angel opens with it every morning

Where did the joined line come from? Abudarham says the angels say it, and points to the Heichalot books (early mystical writings about the heavens). There Rabbi Akiva says: every day an angel stands in the middle of the sky and begins "Hashem is King," and all the host above answers after him until he reaches Barchu. Shibbolei HaLeket (a book of law and custom, Rome, 1200s) gives this, in the name of the author's brother Rabbi Binyamin, as the reason to stand: the angels say it standing, so we should too.

Standing was for Shabbat. Now it is every day, twice

Shibbolei HaLeket knew standing for this line as a Shabbat and festival custom. On weekdays, he explains, people lose work time and have no time to draw out the tune, so they did not stand, and some places skipped it. In the 1500s Rabbi Yosef Karo, author of the Shulchan Aruch (the main code of Jewish law), writes: "Now the custom is to say it every day, twice, standing." Why twice? The Ben Ish Chai (Rabbi Yosef Chaim of Baghdad, died 1909) points to Mount Carmel, where the people cried "Hashem is God" twice.

Why does "is" come before "was"?

Is, was, will be. Why not start with the past? Abudarham: because you should first make Him King over the present, today, and then over the past and the future. Rabbeinu Bachya (Rabbi Bachya ben Asher, a Torah commentator in Spain who died in 1340) adds two reasons. With God every time is the present: none of His years have gone by. And this is the order in Tehillim itself. "Hashem is King" comes in chapter 10, "Hashem was King" in later chapters, and the future tense near the end, in chapter 146.

Two endings in a row

"Save us, Hashem our God, and gather us" should sound familiar. Hodu ended with nearly the same two verses, as they appear in Divrei HaYamim. Here they come in the Tehillim version: the last two verses of Tehillim 106, which closes the fourth of the five books of Tehillim. The next line, "Let every soul praise God," is the last verse of all of Tehillim.

Tehillim 67: count the words

Skip the title of Tehillim 67 and count: seven verses, 49 words. The verses run 7, 6, 6, 11, 6, 6 and 7 words, a long middle with matching sides. The Ben Ish Chai calls it good to say it "in the shape of the menorah," the Temple's seven-lamp stand, and adds that picturing it is enough if you have no drawing. The Aruch HaShulchan (a law code from around 1900) reports that some say it after counting the Omer, the 49 days from Pesach to Shavuot, because it has 49 words. On Shabbat Tehillim 19 takes its place here.

The kohanim's blessing, turned around

The psalm opens: "May God be gracious to us and bless us. May He light up His face with us." Bless, light up His face, be gracious: the verbs of Birkat Kohanim, the kohanim's blessing you said after the Torah blessings. There the kohen says "you." Here we say "us." Midrash Tehillim (rabbinic teachings on Tehillim) makes the link: with what blessing are Your children blessed? "May Hashem bless you and guard you." Bless them that way here too. Who wrote the psalm? Ibn Ezra (Spain, 1100s): "We do not know."

Ordered by how sure you are

You would expect past, present, future. This line goes present, past, future: is King, was King, will be King. Rabbi Meir Simcha of Dvinsk (a rabbi in Latvia who died in 1926; his Torah commentary is called Meshech Chochmah) explains the order. The present you take in with your senses. The past exists for you only in memory. The future is not a precise, true picture like the past, only an estimate that rests on the imagination. The line, he says, is ordered by how firmly we grasp each one.

שההוה קודם ואחר זה העבר, ואחר זה העתיד... ולפי חוזק ההשגה וההרגשה בא סדורו כן.

A taste of that day

The Gemara (Pesachim 50a) asks about this verse: is God not one today? It answers that today we say one blessing on good news and a different one on bad news. In the world to come there will be only the blessing for good. Rebbe Nachman of Breslov (a Chassidic master who died in 1810) builds a teaching on that Gemara. When a person knows that everything that happens to him is for his good, he says, that is a taste of the world to come. Now read "on that day" again.

כְּשֶׁאָדָם יוֹדֵעַ שֶׁכָּל מְאֹרְעוֹתָיו הֵם לְטוֹבָתוֹ, זֹאת הַבְּחִינָה הִיא מֵעֵין עוֹלָם הַבָּא

Nobody got every talent

Rav Kook (the first Chief Rabbi of the Land of Israel, who died in 1935) writes that God did the world a kindness by not putting all the talents in one place. Not in one person, not in one people, not in one land, not in one generation. They are scattered. The need to be complete, he says, is what pulls everyone toward the unity that has to come, and he quotes this verse. He adds that Israel, which he says holds the world's inner treasure, was left missing certain talents so that the rest of the world would supply them.

צדקה עשה הקב"ה עם עולמו, מה שלא נתן כל הכשרונות במקום אחד, לא באיש אחד ולא בעם אחד, לא בארץ אחת, לא בדור אחד ולא בעולם אחד

Why it stops being exciting

The Sages read "every soul" here as "every breath": praise God for each one (the Elokai Neshama prayer has the Midrash). Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev (a Chassidic master who died in 1809) spells out what that means. Every moment the soul wants to leave, and every moment God, in His mercy, does not let it. A person who keeps this in mind is a new creation every moment, and that gives him fire for serving God. People get fired up, he writes, about what is new. Something that is always there gives no pleasure at all.

שבכל רגע הנשמה רוצה לצאת ממנו והקדוש ברוך הוא ברוב רחמיו בכל רגע ורגע משגיח על האדם ומרחם עליו ואינו מניח להנשמה לצאת ממנו.

A psalm in four voices

The Gemara (Berakhot 3b) says a harp hung over King David's bed. At midnight a north wind blew through it and it played by itself. The Zohar (the central book of Kabbalah) asks what song it sang, and answers with this psalm, in four voices. The heavenly hosts open with joy: "May God be gracious to us." The north wind blows: "so that Your way is known on earth." The harp sings: "All the peoples will thank You." David wakes and sings the ending: "The earth has given its harvest." Afterward, the Zohar says, David arranged them into one.

כִּנּוֹר בְּשַׁעֲתָא דְּאִיהוּ מְנַגְּנָא בֵּיהּ בְּהַהוּא רוּחָא, פָּתַח וְאָמַר יוֹדוּךָ עַמִּים כֻּלָּם... לְבָתַר אָתָא דָּוִד בְּרוּחַ קֻדְשָׁא, וְסִדֵּר לוֹן כַּחֲדָא

Do I stand for this, and for how long?

Yes, for the first three lines. The Arizal (Rabbi Yitzchak Luria, the Kabbalist of Tzfat, 1500s) taught, as his student Rabbi Chaim Vital wrote it down: say Hashem Melech twice, standing, then the verse Vehayah Hashem lemelech, also standing, then sit and say Hoshi'enu. The Kaf HaChaim (a Sephardic law commentary, early 1900s) adds two points. "Sit" means sit if you want to. It is not required. And only those lines need standing, not the verses after them. On Shabbat, Siddur Sefard prints "Stand and say" here.

Was this always a standing prayer on weekdays?

No. Shibbolei HaLeket (a law book from Rome, 1200s) records standing for it on Shabbat and festivals. On weekdays people had to get to work, so they did not stand, and some skipped it. The Story section tells why anyone stood at all. By the 1500s the Beit Yosef (Rabbi Yosef Karo's commentary on the Tur, a law code) writes: now it is said every day, twice, standing. Three times has "nothing to rely on."

The minyan reaches Hashem Melech and I am on another page. Now what?

Stand up with them. The Arizal taught: someone saying other verses or the passages about the offerings, who hears the congregation say Hashem Melech, must stand while they say it, and need not stop to say it. The Mishnah Berurah (a law commentary, about 1900) reports that the Arizal did so himself. The Ben Ish Chai (Rabbi Yosef Chaim of Baghdad, died 1909) adds: if you are sitting quietly or learning Torah, it is right to join in. The Kaf HaChaim infers: one person saying it does not make you stand.

Do I stand every time I hear these words?

No. The line comes back in Yehi Chevod, a set of verses later in the morning. There the Ben Ish Chai rules that you need not stand or say it twice, and the Kaf HaChaim agrees about standing. In Selichot (the prayers for forgiveness), both rule that you stand, and so does anyone who hears the congregation say it. The circuits with the Torah scrolls on Simchat Torah are different: someone sitting on the side need not stand. The Ben Ish Chai, unsure at first, explains that there it is said as a custom only.

Kaddish starts while I am mid-line. Can I answer?

Finish the pair of words you are on. The Eliyah Rabbah (Rabbi Eliyahu Shapira of Prague, about 1700) rules, on this line where it comes back in Yehi Chevod, that there is no stopping at all inside it. The Kaf HaChaim explains: do not stop between God's name and the word that goes with it. The meaning changes, and it is like saying the Name for nothing. Between one pair and the next you may answer Kaddish, Kedushah or Amen. He adds that this holds wherever you say God's name.

Do I say Lamnatze'ach here every day?

On weekdays. The Arizal: "On weekdays he says the psalm Elohim yechonenu," which is this one, "and on Shabbat, HaShamayim mesaprim," Tehillim 19. Siddur Sefard prints Tehillim 19 here on Shabbat, and the Ben Ish Chai says the same for festivals. On the middle days of Pesach and Sukkot, Sephardic customs split. The Kabbalists of Beit El in Jerusalem said Tehillim 19. Baghdad said this psalm, and the Ben Ish Chai left that alone, since he found nothing explicit from the Arizal on those days. He himself said both.

Why do some siddurim print this psalm as a menorah?

Because of an old custom to say it that way. The Chida (Rabbi Chaim Yosef David Azulai, 1700s) writes that earlier teachers gave great praise to saying Lamnatze'ach Binginot in the shape of the menorah, and that we should say it with attention from a menorah drawing written on parchment. The Kaf HaChaim quotes him. The Ben Ish Chai calls it good to say the psalm in the form of the menorah, and adds a practical note: if there is no drawing in front of you, picturing it in your mind is enough.