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TT Siddur · Rosh Chodeshמִן הַמֵּצַר
Tehillim 118:5 to 24, "From the narrow place." Said in full and half Hallel.
Also said at Chanukah.
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.
After the call and response of Hodu, everyone says this together:
מִן הַמֵּצַר קָרָאתִי יָהּ. עָנָנִי בַמֶּרְחָב יָהּ. יְיָ לִי לֹא אִירָא. מַה יַעֲשֶׂה לִי אָדָם.
From the narrow place I called Yah Yah answered me with wide-open space Hashem is for me I will not fear What can a person do to me?
יְיָ לִי בְּעֹזְרָי. וַאֲנִי אֶרְאֶה בְשֹׂנְאָי. טוֹב לַחֲסוֹת בַּייָ. מִבְּטֹחַ בָּאָדָם. טוֹב לַחֲסוֹת בַּייָ. מִבְּטֹחַ בִּנְדִיבִים.
Hashem is for me among my helpers and I will see my enemies defeated It is better to take refuge in Hashem than to trust in a person It is better to take refuge in Hashem than to trust in nobles
Hashem is for me among those who help me, and I will see my enemies defeated. It is better to take refuge in Hashem than to trust in a person. It is better to take refuge in Hashem than to trust in nobles.
Rashi (the classic Torah commentator, France, died 1105) says "taking refuge" here means sheltering in a shadow, which is a small thing. "Trusting" is firm and solid. Even so, a little shelter in Hashem is better than the firm promises of people.
Rashi on Tehillim 118:8כָּל גּוֹיִם סְבָבוּנִי. בְּשֵׁם יְיָ כִּי אֲמִילַם. סַבּוּנִי גַם סְבָבוּנִי. בְּשֵׁם יְיָ כִּי אֲמִילַם.
All the nations surrounded me in the name of Hashem for I will cut them off they surrounded me, yes, they surrounded me in the name of Hashem for I will cut them off
All the nations surrounded me. In the name of Hashem, I will cut them off. They surrounded me, yes, they surrounded me. In the name of Hashem, I will cut them off.
Rashi says "all the nations" is the war of Gog and Magog, the end-of-days war in which, as Zechariah says, all the nations gather against Jerusalem. Radak (Rabbi David Kimchi, Provence, around 1200) gives two other readings: the Jewish people as a whole, or David, when people in Israel and the Philistines were after him and raiders burned his town, Tziklag.
Rashi and Radak on Tehillim 118:10סַבּוּנִי כִדְבוֹרִים. דֹּעֲכוּ כְּאֵשׁ קוֹצִים. בְּשֵׁם יְיָ כִּי אֲמִילַם.
They surrounded me like bees they were put out like a fire of thorns in the name of Hashem for I will cut them off
They surrounded me like bees. They were put out like a fire of thorns. In the name of Hashem, I will cut them off.
Ibn Ezra (a Spanish-born commentator of the 1100s) says a fire of thorns does not last. It goes out at once. Metzudat David (a Tanach commentary from the 1700s) says the bees are like bees swarming around a container full of honey.
Ibn Ezra and Metzudat David on Tehillim 118:12דַּחֹה דְחִיתַנִי לִנְפֹּל. וַייָ עֲזָרָנִי. עָזִּי וְזִמְרָת יָהּ. וַיְהִי לִי לִישׁוּעָה.
You pushed me hard to make me fall but Hashem helped me Yah is my strength and my song and He became my salvation
Rashi says "you pushed me" is spoken straight to the enemy: "You, my enemy."
Rashi on Tehillim 118:13קוֹל רִנָּה וִישׁוּעָה בְּאָהֳלֵי צַדִּיקִים. יְמִין יְיָ עֹשָׂה חָיִל. יְמִין יְיָ רוֹמֵמָה. יְמִין יְיָ עֹשָׂה חָיִל.
The sound of joyful singing and rescue in the tents of the righteous Hashem's right hand does mighty things Hashem's right hand is raised high Hashem's right hand does mighty things
The sound of joyful singing and rescue is in the tents of the righteous: Hashem's right hand does mighty things. Hashem's right hand is raised high. Hashem's right hand does mighty things.
Rashi says the "sound of joyful singing" in the tents of the righteous is something that will happen in the future, and the song itself is the next words: "Hashem's right hand does mighty things."
Rashi on Tehillim 118:15לֹא אָמוּת כִּי אֶחְיֶה. וַאֲסַפֵּר מַעֲשֵׂי יָהּ. יַסֹּר יִסְּרַנִּי יָהּ. וְלַמָּוֶת לֹא נְתָנָנִי.
I will not die but I will live and tell what Yah has done Yah disciplined me hard but He did not hand me over to death
Radak reads "I will not die" as the answer to those who planned to wipe the speaker off the earth: I will live and tell what Yah did.
Radak on Tehillim 118:17פִּתְחוּ לִי שַׁעֲרֵי צֶדֶק. אָבֹא בָם אוֹדֶה יָהּ. זֶה הַשַּׁעַר לַייָ. צַדִּיקִים יָבֹאוּ בוֹ.
Open for me the gates of righteousness I will enter them I will thank Yah This is the gate of Hashem the righteous will enter through it
Open the gates of righteousness for me. I will enter them and thank Yah. This is the gate of Hashem. The righteous will enter through it.
Rashi says the gates of righteousness are the doors of synagogues and study halls, which belong to Hashem, and "this gate" is the gate of the Temple. Radak reads the gates as a figure of speech for words of praise and thanks: the speaker asks wise people to help him thank God.
Rashi on Tehillim 118:19-20; Radak on Tehillim 118:19From here on, each verse is said twice, as printed:
אוֹדְךָ כִּי עֲנִיתָנִי. וַתְּהִי לִי לִישׁוּעָה. אוֹדְךָ כִּי עֲנִיתָנִי. וַתְּהִי לִי לִישׁוּעָה.
I thank You, for You answered me and You became my salvation I thank You, for You answered me and You became my salvation
I thank You, for You answered me and became my salvation. I thank You, for You answered me and became my salvation.
אֶבֶן מָאֲסוּ הַבּוֹנִים. הָיְתָה לְרֹאשׁ פִּנָּה. אֶבֶן מָאֲסוּ הַבּוֹנִים. הָיְתָה לְרֹאשׁ פִּנָּה.
The stone the builders rejected has become the head of the corner The stone the builders rejected has become the head of the corner
מֵאֵת יְיָ הָיְתָה זֹאת. הִיא נִפְלָאת בְּעֵינֵינוּ. מֵאֵת יְיָ הָיְתָה זֹאת. הִיא נִפְלָאת בְּעֵינֵינוּ.
This came from Hashem it is wonderful in our eyes This came from Hashem it is wonderful in our eyes
Rashi says this is what everyone will say.
Rashi on Tehillim 118:23זֶה הַיּוֹם עָשָׂה יְיָ. נָגִילָה וְנִשְׂמְחָה בוֹ. זֶה הַיּוֹם עָשָׂה יְיָ. נָגִילָה וְנִשְׂמְחָה בוֹ.
This is the day Hashem made let us rejoice and be glad in it This is the day Hashem made let us rejoice and be glad in it
Radak says "this day" is the day of rescue.
Radak on Tehillim 118:24Everyone says this part together, and from "Odecha" on each verse is said twice, says the Tur (a law code from the 1300s).
Tur, Orach Chaim 422The Gemara (the central collection of the Sages' discussions, finished around the year 500) names who said the closing verses. David said, "I thank You, for You answered me." His father Yishai said, "The stone the builders rejected." David's brothers said, "This came from Hashem, it is wonderful in our eyes." The prophet Shmuel said, "This is the day Hashem made." So the Gemara hears several voices here, not one.
Pesachim 119aMin hametzar means "from the narrow place." The Midrash on Tehillim (rabbinic teachings on the book) says one meaning is Egypt, where the Egyptians "made their lives bitter." It does not say why, but the words are close: Egypt is Mitzrayim, a narrow place is metzar. Radak (Rabbi David Kimchi, of Provence in southern France, about 800 years ago) adds two readings. If David said it, the narrow place was his years on the run, hiding in caves and strongholds. If the Jewish people said it, it is exile.
Midrash Tehillim 118:8; Radak on Tehillim 118:5The Midrash asks what "from the narrow place" teaches, and answers: by whatever name Israel calls on God, He answers them by that name. They called Him Shaddai, and He answered as Shaddai. They called Him Elokim, and He answered as Elokim. They called Him Hashem, and He answered as Hashem. Then comes Yah, the short name in this verse: "I called Yah, and Yah answered me with wide-open space." Yah appears six times in this passage.
Midrash Tehillim 118:8Verse 14, "Ozi vezimrat Yah vayehi li lishua," is word for word what Israel sang when the sea split: "Yah is my strength and my song, and He became my salvation" (Shemot 15:2). You say it in Az Yashir too. So a passage whose first line can be read as Egypt has the Song at the Sea sitting in its middle.
Tehillim 118:14; Shemot 15:2Verses 8 and 9 say it is better to take refuge in Hashem than to trust people, then say it again about the powerful and generous. Malbim (a rabbi in Europe in the 1800s) gives two reasons trusting people falls short: you cannot be sure a person will do what you asked, and even a generous one may not be able to. Tehillim 146, which you say every morning, uses the same Hebrew word, nedivim: "Do not trust in nobles." The Tehillim 146 prayer asks whether that means trusting no one at all.
Malbim on Tehillim 118:8-9; Tehillim 146:3"This is the day Hashem made." The Gemara gives this line to the prophet Shmuel, and Rashi says he was prophesying that in the end they would be glad, when God saved them from their enemies. The Midrash on Tehillim reads it as a rescue unlike the earlier ones. Every earlier rescue of Israel was followed by new oppression, it says, but from this day on, none is.
Pesachim 119a, with Rashi; Midrash Tehillim 118:20Verse 22 says: "The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone." Picture a work crew that tosses one stone aside as useless. Later it turns out to be the stone the whole corner depends on.
The Gemara says Yishai, David's father, said this line. When the prophet Shmuel came to Yishai's house to anoint the next king, Yishai had seven sons walk past. None was chosen. Shmuel asked if those were all, and Yishai said there was still the youngest, out with the sheep (Shmuel I 16:10-13). Rashi says the line means David, who spent his days as a shepherd and became the head. Rashbam (Rashi's grandson) adds that David was the youngest of his brothers.
Rashi also notices that the next verse says "wonderful in our eyes," in the plural. So it is the brothers speaking. They were standing there when Shmuel anointed the one who had been left with the sheep.
The Midrash on Tehillim imagines the talk: yesterday he was herding sheep, and suddenly he is king. David answers with a line from Shir HaShirim (the Song of Songs), "I did not know myself." The same Midrash then tells of a man who carried loads for the nobles and became governor. He tells the people staring at him, "You are amazed at me. I am more amazed than you." That, it says, is how Israel will answer the nations in the future, when they see Israel at peace.
There is a second reading. Radak says that if the Jewish people said it, then the stone is Israel. Kings looked down on them and would not count them as even one of the building stones. But Israel, he says, is the foundation of the world's building through its laws and rulings. Rashi on Tehillim agrees the stone is a people that was low among the nations.
So the sources agree on the shape of it: someone dismissed turns out to be what holds the building up. They differ on who. Rashi himself gives both readings, David in the Gemara and a people in Tehillim.
Pesachim 119a, with Rashi and Rashbam,Shmuel I 16:10-13,Midrash Tehillim 118:21,Radak and Rashi on Tehillim 118:22From "Odecha" ("I thank You") to the end of Hallel, every phrase is said twice. Your siddur prints it twice on purpose. It is a custom, and the Sages knew it was a custom.
The Mishnah (the Sages' earliest teaching, put in writing around the year 200) says it plainly: in a place where they are used to doubling, double, and in a place where they say it once, say it once. The Gemara adds that Rabbi (Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi, who edited the Mishnah) doubled some verses, and Rabbi Elazar ben Perata added more. Abaye explains the addition: doubling from "Odecha" and on. The Rambam (Maimonides, who died in 1204) spells it out: each phrase twice, from "Odecha" to the end of Hallel.
The Gemara does not say why. Later teachers gave reasons. Abudarham (a scholar in Spain in the 1300s who wrote a classic commentary on the prayers) gives two. First, the early part of this passage already comes in pairs. Rashi on Sukkah 38a lists them and gives this same reason: "Hashem is mine" twice, "better to take refuge" twice, "surrounded me" twice. So the passage is finished the same way, and Abudarham links those pairs to this world and the days of the Mashiach. Second, since David, Yishai, the brothers and Shmuel each said a verse, we double them to honor them, as if each verse stood alone.
The Shulchan Aruch (the main code of Jewish law) says that for doubled verses, each place follows its own custom. The Mishnah Berurah (a central commentary on daily Jewish law, written around 1900) says that in our places the custom is to double from "Odecha" to the end of Hallel.
So the answer is a custom with two reasons, not a rule with one. If a friend's shul says these lines once, the Mishnah and the Shulchan Aruch both say to follow the local custom.
Mishnah Sukkah 3:11,Sukkah 39a,Rashi on Sukkah 38a,Rambam, Laws of Megillah and Chanukah 3:11,Abudarham, Rosh Chodesh,Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 422:3,Mishnah Berurah 422:19Verse 18 says: "Yah disciplined me hard, but He did not hand me over to death." The Hebrew for "disciplined" comes from the same root as yissurim, the Sages' word for suffering. So it sounds like hard times are God's correction.
Two classic commentators read it that way. Radak says the days of trouble were God's discipline, to clean away the speaker's wrongdoing, not because God wanted him dead. Rashi says the discipline was exile, where all the speaker's sins were atoned for.
But the Gemara does not treat every hardship as a punishment. The Wednesday Song of the Day in this siddur walks through its steps in full. The last step matters here: if a person looks over his deeds, and then at his Torah study, and finds nothing, it is clear these are "sufferings of love," because Hashem rebukes the one He loves (Mishlei 3:12). So the Gemara expects some suffering with no cause the person can find.
The book of Iyov (Job) goes further. His friends argued that suffering must come from a person's own wrongdoing. One of them, Elifaz, says, "Who that was innocent ever perished?" (Iyov 4:7). At the end, God says to Elifaz and his two friends: "You have not spoken rightly about Me, as My servant Iyov has" (Iyov 42:7). The people who explained Iyov's pain as his fault are the ones God says did not speak rightly.
Notice when the verse is said. It is spoken afterward, by someone who got through it: "but He did not hand me over to death." Radak puts it in the past: these were the days when the speaker was in trouble, and he is looking back.
Radak and Rashi on Tehillim 118:18,Berakhot 5a,Mishlei 3:12,Iyov 4:7 and 42:7Short ideas from the Chassidic masters, the Kabbalah and the Mussar teachers.
The Shelah (Rabbi Yeshayahu Horowitz, a Kabbalist of the early 1600s) looks at the names of God in the verse. In the narrow place we call out "Yah," only part of God's four-letter Name, as if two letters were missing. So the person prays for the Name to be whole. "Yah answered me with wide-open space" means Yah itself widens: spelled out in full, its letters add up to 26, the number of the four-letter Name. Then: "Hashem is with me, I will not fear." That, he says, is being saved: no longer fearing anything created.
כי עתה בעת המיצר קראו שם י"ה, וכביכול ו"ה נחסר. ענני במרחב יה שיתרחב יה
Shelah, Shenei Luchot HaBerit, Pesachim, Matzah ShemurahRabbi Yaakov Yosef of Polonne (a leading student of the Baal Shem Tov, the founder of Chassidut) reads "all the nations surrounded me" as the bad inclination, which comes to talk a person into rebelling and doing as the nations do. The verse answers: in Hashem's Name. When I realize that God's Name is in this too, I see the tempter is the King's own servant, sent to test me in a changed costume and language. Then he turns away. He comes back from another side, and the answer is the same.
כל גוים סבבוני, שהוא היצר הרע שבא לפתות האדם למרוד באדונו ולעשות ככל הגוים
Toldot Yaakov Yosef, Parashat VayakhelIn the verse, someone asks for the gates of righteousness to be opened, and the answer is that the righteous enter through them. Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev (an early Chassidic master) explains: a righteous person is always small in his own eyes and always feels as if he has not yet begun to serve God. That, he says, is the main service. So he keeps asking God to open the gate he can enter through. "This is the gate of Hashem" means: this attitude is the main service.
הצדיק הוא תמיד קטן בעיני עצמו ותמיד הוא בעיני עצמו כאלו לא התחיל עדיין בעבודתו יתברך
Kedushat Levi, Likutim 46Rav Kook (the first Chief Rabbi of the Land of Israel, who died in 1935) writes about awe of God. When it first comes, he says, it can leave a person dull and weak. A person who holds on to it may seem unable to stand up to modern freedom, cultural greatness, beauty and the roar of life. But a strong spirit that senses this awe is the whole of life will not let it go. He will refine it, renew the world through it, and "the stone the builders rejected" will be the cornerstone. The weakness at the start is the base of a higher strength.
ואבן מאסו הבונים היה תהיה לראש פנה. תכונתה של יראת שמים היא מחלשת את האדם בתחלת הופעתה, אבל חולשה זו היא בסיס ליסוד גבורה עליונה
Rav Kook, Orot HaKodesh, volume 3, on awe of GodRebbe Nachman of Breslov (a Chassidic master who lived in Ukraine from the late 1700s into the early 1800s) points out that the letters that spell zeiah, "sweat," are the first letters of the four words "Zeh hayom asah Hashem" (This is the day Hashem made). He teaches that a good sweat, such as effort put into something holy, brings the joy of a holiday. And not only a calendar holiday: any day that is good counts as a yom tov, a "good day." Think of the last time you felt happy after sweating over something holy.
וְזֶה אוֹתִיּוֹת זֵיעָה
Likutei Moharan, Part II, Torah 6The practical laws. For a final ruling, ask your rav.
Yes. The Tur (a law code from the 1300s) lays out the doubling as part of Rosh Chodesh Hallel, and this section is not one of the skipped parts. The usual skips, says the Mishnah Berurah, start at Lo Lanu and at Ahavti. The Kaf HaChaim (a Sephardic law commentary, early 1900s) cites Sha'ar HaKavanot, teachings of the Arizal (the great Kabbalist of Safed, died 1572), which gives the doubling for Sukkot, and says other days are the same. The Beit El Kabbalists in Jerusalem double on full and half Hallel days alike.
Tur, Orach Chaim 422; Mishnah Berurah 422:12; Kaf HaChaim, Orach Chaim 422:43Along with everyone. The Tur describes the leader saying the opening Hodu verses alone, with the congregation answering each one. Then, he writes, everyone reads together from Min HaMetzar to Odecha, and from Odecha on each verse is doubled. The leader takes over again at Ana Hashem, the verse right after this section, and the congregation repeats it after him. The Shulchan Aruch adds that which verses the leader says for the congregation to repeat follows each place's custom.
Tur, Orach Chaim 422; Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 422:3אמר רבי שמואל בר נחמני אמר רבי יונתן אודך כי עניתני אמר דוד אבן מאסו הבונים היתה לראש פנה אמר ישי מאת ה׳ היתה זאת אמרו אחיו זה היום עשה ה׳ אמר שמואל
Rabbi Shmuel bar Nachmani said in the name of Rabbi Yonatan: "I thank You, for You answered me," David said. "The stone the builders rejected," Yishai said. "This came from Hashem," his brothers said. "This is the day Hashem made," Shmuel said.
מהו מן המצר בכל לשון שישראל קוראין להקב"ה הוא עונה אותם... דבר אחר מן המצר מדבר במצרים
What does "from the narrow place" teach? By whatever name Israel calls on God, He answers them. Another meaning: "from the narrow place" speaks of Egypt.
אבן מאסו הבונים - כלומר דוד שמימיו רועה צאן היה ונעשה ראש ונפלאת בעינינו לשון רבים אמרו אחיו
"The stone the builders rejected": this means David, who was a shepherd all his days and became the head. "Wonderful in our eyes" is plural, so his brothers said it.
אם על ישראל נאמר יקרא כל ישראל בכלל אבן על דרך משל כי ישראל עיקר בנין העולם בחוקיהם ובמשפטיהם
If it is said about Israel, the whole Jewish people is called a stone as a comparison, because Israel is the foundation of the world's building through its statutes and laws.
משל לאחד שהיה נושא משאו לדוכסין ונעשה אפרכוס והוא אומר להם אתם תמהים עלי יותר אני תמה מכם
A parable of a man who carried loads for the nobles and became governor, and he tells them: you are amazed at me, I am more amazed than you.
מקום שנהגו לכפול תנא רבי כופל בה דברים רבי אלעזר בן פרטא מוסיף בה דברים מאי מוסיף אמר אביי מוסיף לכפול מאודך ולמטה
"In a place where they are used to doubling..." It was taught: Rabbi doubles things in it, and Rabbi Elazar ben Perata adds things in it. What does he add? Abaye said: he adds doubling from "Odecha" and on.
והטעם שתקנו לכפול פסוקים אלו מפני שתחלת פרשת מן המצר עניניה כפולים עד אודך כי עניתני... ויש אומרים טעם אחר לכפילת פסוקים אלו מפני שאמרום ישי ודוד ואחיו ושמואל
The reason they set up doubling these verses: the beginning of the Min HaMetzar passage comes in pairs up to "Odecha ki anitani." Some say another reason: because Yishai, David, his brothers and Shmuel said them.
מדבר במלחמות גוג ומגוג שכל הגוים יהיו שם
"All the nations surrounded me" speaks of the wars of Gog and Magog, since all the nations will be there.
מפני שיש ספק אם יעשה בקשתו וזה באדם דעלמא... שהגם שהנדיב יתנדב לעזרו יוכל להיות שלא יהיה בכחו לעזור
Because with an ordinary person there is doubt whether he will do your request... even though a generous person will volunteer to help, it may be that he does not have the power to help.
אם רואה אדם שיסורין באין עליו יפשפש במעשיו... ואם תלה ולא מצא בידוע שיסורין של אהבה הם
If a person sees suffering coming upon him, he should examine his deeds... And if he blamed neglect of Torah and found nothing, it is known that these are sufferings of love.
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