Ribon HaOlamim

No bull? Bring words.

The Midrash Tanchuma (an early collection of rabbinic teachings on the Torah) has God set a sliding scale. Whoever has a bull brings a bull. Whoever has a ram brings a ram. Then a lamb, then a dove. Whoever has none of these brings flour. And whoever has no flour, and nothing at all, brings words, as the prophet Hoshea said: "Take words with you and return to Hashem." Will words be accepted? God answers yes, with the line this prayer quotes: "We will pay with our lips in place of bulls."

Hoshea said it with a Temple standing

The key verse does not come from after the destruction. Hoshea was a prophet in the days of four kings of Yehudah, when the First Temple stood and bulls were being offered. Radak (Rabbi David Kimchi, Provence, about 1200) explains his words: in place of bulls we will pay You the confession of our lips, because You want words of repentance more. Offerings, he writes, do no good without admitting the wrong. So the idea of paying with our lips is older than the destruction.

A prayer with the same shape in the Gemara

The Gemara (the rabbis' discussions built on the Mishnah) records what Rav Sheshet, a sage in Babylonia about 1,700 years ago, said after praying on a fast day: "Master of the worlds, You know that when the Temple stood, a person who sinned brought an offering. Only its fat and blood were offered, and it atoned for him. Now I have fasted, and my own fat and blood have grown less. May it be Your will that this count as if I had offered it on the altar." Same opening words. Same then and now. Same "as if."

Who wrote it?

Nobody knows. The oldest source we found is the Tur, a code of Jewish law from Spain in the 1300s. It calls it "good to say" after Abaye's order, two passages back. Its shorter version argues from Hoshea, "and You said: we will pay with our lips in place of bulls," and ends in the singular: "as if the daily offering was brought at its time, and I stood at its post." Siddur Sefard says "we" and adds two verses from Vayikra. The Rema (Rabbi Moshe Isserles, Poland, 1500s) lists it as something "some say."

A phrase the Gemara already used

"Kohanim (priests) at their service, Levites on their platform, Israelites at their post" is a set phrase in the Gemara. In one place, all three stop what they are doing to go hear the Megillah on Purim. In another, when they finished and left, they did not turn their backs. They walked off with their faces turned to the side. From there the Gemara moves to a student leaving a teacher, and then to the three steps back that end the Amidah (the standing prayer). The Tamid passage explains the Israelites' post.

Kids on the choir floor

The platform is where the Levites stood to sing as the wine of the daily offering was poured. The Mishnah (the Sages' collected rulings, about 200 CE) says at least twelve stood on it. Young Levites came in to sing along, voices only, "to add spice to the melody." One sage says the boys stood on the ground, heads between the Levites' legs. What did they sing? A psalm for each day of the week. It is still in your siddur near the end of Shacharit, as what "the Levites used to say in the Temple."

Why five more verses on Rosh Chodesh?

On Rosh Chodesh (the first day of a Hebrew month) the Temple brought extra offerings on top of the two daily lambs: two bulls, a ram, seven lambs and a goat. These five verses list them. The Tur reports that communities in Germany read them here on Rosh Chodesh. Not everyone agreed. The Shulchan Aruch (the main code of Jewish law) rules not to add them, since they are read from the Torah that morning. The Rema records that the custom is to say them, and why: "to make it known that it is Rosh Chodesh."

Brain, heart, body

Three groups stand in this prayer: kohanim, Levites and Israelites. The Zohar (the central book of Kabbalah) says they are like one person. The kohen is the brain. The Levite is the heart. Israel is the body. One line earlier, the Zohar says what God takes from an offering: only the wanting of the heart, and its being broken. It quotes Tehillim: "The offerings of God are a broken spirit." Now read the request in this prayer again.

כַּהֲנָא מוֹחָא. לֵוִי לִבָּא. גּוּפָא יִשְׂרָאֵל. וְאִתְּמַר בְּהוֹן, כֹּהֲנִים בַּעֲבוֹדָתָם, וּלְוִּיִם בְּדוּכָנָם, וְיִשְׂרָאֵל בְּמַעֲמָדָם.

What holds a Temple up

"Because of our sins the Temple was destroyed." Rav Kook (the first Chief Rabbi of the Land of Israel, who died in 1935) explains these words by describing what keeps a Temple standing. Souls that are pure. An inner life in the nation that keeps rising. A steady longing for justice, honesty, truth, holiness and a pure life. When those hold, he writes, the Temple stands in its place. When life grows thin and the holy light in it dims, that light cannot shine out in the open either.

כשהשקיקה לצדק, ליושר, לאמת, לקדושה עליונה, ולטהרת החיים, היא קבועה, אז הקדש הכללי עומד במכונו, בית המקדש על משפטו

The gift that lasted

A midrash says Moshe was sad. Everyone had given something to build the Mishkan, the desert sanctuary, and he had not. God told him: your speech is dearer to Me than all of it. The Sefat Emet (Rabbi Yehudah Aryeh Leib Alter of Ger, a Chassidic leader who died in 1905) explains why Moshe minded. Whatever Moshe gave us stayed for all generations. Had he had a share in the Mishkan and the offerings, they would have stayed too. God's answer: your power stays in speech. That, he says, is this verse: our lips will pay.

ואם הי' למשה רבינו ע"ה חלק בעשיות המשכן וקרבנות הי' ג"כ נשאר לדורות. ולכן עגמה נפשו. והקב"ה השיב כי כלי יקר שפתי דעת שנשאר כוחו בדיבור. כמ"ש ונשלמה פרים שפתינו

Not out of pain

Rabbi Kalonymus Kalman Shapira (the Rebbe of Piaseczno in Poland, killed in the Holocaust in 1943) wrote about this verse in German-occupied Warsaw, for the Shabbat before Yom Kippur 1940. With no animal offerings, he says, the prayer and Torah a person puts his soul into are the offering itself. Even a Jew who cries to God only because he hurts: that too is like an offering. But in Hoshea, two words come right before ours: "take good." He asks: why should the offerings of our lips come from pain? Let them come out of good things, and song.

למה נביא קרבנות ונשלמה פרים שפתינו מכאב ויסורים ח״ו, וקח טוב ונשלמה וכו׳ תפילות מתוך טובות וישועות טובות ושירה וזמרה

Light for someone still in the dark

The Gemara asks why the Rosh Chodesh goat is the one called an offering "for Hashem." Its answer: God says, bring an atonement for Me, for making the moon smaller. Rabbi Kalonymus Kalman Shapira of Piaseczno, in a sermon from 1930, explains what the smaller light is for. The moon, he says, does not cancel the night. It brings a little light into it. It is sunlight cut down for someone who is still in the dark. So whenever you want to start over, he says, start like the new moon: with a small light that reaches the place where you are.

הירח שמאירה אינה מבטלת את הלילה וחשכותו רק גם ללילה ממשכת מעט אור

Do I have to say this?

The Tur (a law code from the 1300s) writes that "it is good to say" this after the order of the altar service. If you cannot because you are praying with the congregation, he advises reading the daily offering passage on your own first and saying this after. The Rema (Rabbi Moshe Isserles, who added Ashkenazi practice to the Shulchan Aruch, the main code of Jewish law) writes that "some say" it. Peninei Halakhah (a modern law guide): the prayers printed with the offerings are good to say, but not an obligation.

Is it said on Shabbat and Yom Tov?

Customs differ. The Shabbat Siddur Sefard notes that some do not say this on Shabbat and Yom Tov. The Chabad siddur drops it on any day without Tachanun, the pleading prayer after the Amidah. That includes Rosh Chodesh. The Sefard Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur prayer books print it with no note. None gives a reason, and we found no source that does. A rule from the Ribono Shel Olam card may be behind it: Shabbat leaves out pleading that breaks the heart. This prayer says the Temple was destroyed for our sins.

My friend's siddur has no Rosh Chodesh verses here. Why?

The Shulchan Aruch adds extra-offering verses here on Shabbat only. Rosh Chodesh and Yom Tov get none, because their verses are read from the Torah that morning. The Shabbat offering has just two verses, too few for a Torah reading, explains the Mishnah Berurah (a major commentary on daily Jewish law, about 1900). The Rema: some add Rosh Chodesh too, "and that is the custom, to make it known that it is Rosh Chodesh." This siddur prints them. Siddur Edot HaMizrach (Sephardic) and the Chabad siddur have none here.

Why would Rosh Chodesh need advertising?

Because it is easy to miss. The Mishnah Berurah: a Yom Tov is already known from the day before. The Aruch HaShulchan (a law code from around 1900): Rosh Chodesh does not stand out, and people can forget Ya'aleh VeYavo, the paragraph it adds to the Amidah. The Magen Avraham (a 1600s commentary on the Shulchan Aruch) points to the Temple. The Mishnah (the core text of the Oral Torah) says the parts of the Rosh Chodesh offering got a place of their own by the altar. The Gemara: to show the new month was set on time.

Musaf is hours away. Isn't this out of order?

Sefer HaManhig (a book of customs from about 1200) objected: how can extra offerings be mentioned before the morning one? The Tur: an extra offering could be brought all day. The Beit Yosef (Rabbi Yosef Karo's commentary on the Tur): the morning one should still come first. The Magen Avraham: you already said the daily offering passage. If verses count as offerings, that counted too. The Kaf HaChaim (a Sephardic law commentary, early 1900s) gives that objection as another reason Sephardim skip these verses.

Rosh Hashanah is the first of the month. Do I add the verses?

No. Mateh Efrayim (a guide to the High Holiday laws, about 200 years ago) rules that the Rosh Chodesh passage is not said on Rosh Hashanah. The Pri Megadim (Rabbi Yosef Teomim, 1700s) cites a reason from the Levush (by Rabbi Mordechai Yaffe, who died in 1612): on Rosh Hashanah, Rosh Chodesh is kept hidden. Either way, he writes, the custom is not to say it. The Shulchan Aruch rules the same for the Amidah: Rosh Chodesh is not mentioned. The Sefard Rosh Hashanah prayer book prints only the Shabbat verses here.

Rosh Chodesh on Shabbat, or two days long. What changes?

When Rosh Chodesh falls on Shabbat, the Shabbat Siddur Sefard prints the Shabbat verses first, then the Rosh Chodesh verses. The Mishnah gives the same order for the offerings themselves: whatever comes more often goes first, so the Shabbat extra offering came before the Rosh Chodesh one. For a two-day Rosh Chodesh, this siddur says only "On Rosh Chodesh add." The Kaf HaChaim quotes one view that the verses are for the first day only. By the second day, that view says, it is already known.