Romemu

Read out loud at a flogging

"And He, the compassionate One, forgives wrongdoing" (Vehu Rachum) once had a hard job. The Mishnah (the first written collection of the rabbis' laws) describes a court punishment of lashes. While it was carried out, someone read verses aloud, and he closed with this one. The Tur (a law code from the 1300s) does the math: the verse has 13 words, and three times 13 is 39, the number of lashes. You will meet it again. It opens the evening prayer, and the long prayer of pleading added on Mondays and Thursdays.

The middle verse of Tehillim

The Gemara (the rabbis' discussions built on the Mishnah) says the early scholars were called soferim, "counters," because they counted every letter in the Torah. They counted Tehillim (the book of Psalms) too, and passed down that Vehu Rachum is its halfway verse. Look at where it sits. Tehillim 78 has just said that the people flattered God with their mouths while their hearts were not with Him. The next words are: "And He, the compassionate One, forgives wrongdoing."

Who stitched this together?

We do not know who built it. Hodu, the passage before this one, is one long piece from Divrei HaYamim (Chronicles). It ends with the people answering "Amen" and praising Hashem. What you are saying now is a chain: 22 verses pulled from 17 psalms. The Kol Bo (a collection of laws and customs from the Middle Ages) records the custom: after Hodu's last words "we add Romemu and the other verses of mercy." The Tur says some add more verses, "and every place follows its own custom."

Bowing to a footstool?

The first verse says to bow "at His footstool." The second says "toward His holy mountain." Both point to the Temple. King David used the same word when he planned it: a house of rest for the Ark, "the footstool of our God." So are we told to bow to a building? The Radak (Rabbi David Kimchi, a commentator on Tanach who died around 1235) answers: when people bow toward the wall of the House, they are bowing only to the One who made the House holy.

Ten words that count ten people

"Save Your people and bless Your inheritance. Shepherd them and lift them up forever." In Hebrew that verse is exactly ten words. The Kitzur Shulchan Aruch (a short guide to daily Jewish law from the 1860s) says not to count Jews by number, even to find out if there is a minyan (the ten needed for communal prayer). The custom instead is to count them by saying this verse, which has ten words.

Compassion as old as the first mistake

"Remember Your compassion, Hashem, and Your kindnesses, for they are as old as time." How old is that? Rashi (the classic commentator, France, died 1105) says: from the days of Adam. God told him that on the day he ate from the tree he would die. Then God gave him a day by God's own measure, which is a thousand years.

Three verses you have met before

In the middle of the chain come three short lines: "Hashem of hosts is with us," "Hashem of hosts, happy is the person who trusts in You," and "Hashem, save." You said them after the incense recipe, and the Pitum HaKetoret prayer tells their story. The Kol Bo gives that story as the reason the first two are here: the Yerushalmi (the Gemara of the Land of Israel) says a verse like this should never leave your mouth.

You give strength to God

The plain sense of "give strength to God" is: say that all strength is His. The Zohar (the central book of Kabbalah) reads it more boldly. When Israel does wrong, they weaken God's power, "as if such a thing could be." When they do right, they give Him power and strength. Then it asks: give strength with what? Its answer: with right actions. Rabbi Chaim of Volozhin (who died in 1821, the leading student of the Vilna Gaon) quotes this passage in his book Nefesh HaChaim to show how much rides on what a person does.

וְכַד עַבְדִין עוֹבָדִין דְּכַשְׁרָן, יַהֲבִין תּוּקְפָּא וְחֵילָא לְקוּדְשָׁא בְּרִיךְ הוּא. וְעַל דָּא כְּתִיב, תְּנוּ עֹז לֵאלֹהִים. בְּמָה. בְּעוֹבָדִין דְּכַשְׁרָן.

The lifting never stopped

The Ten Commandments say "who took you out of Egypt." This verse, from Tehillim 81, says "who brings you up." Rav Kook (the first Chief Rabbi of the Land of Israel, who died in 1935) builds on that word. The Exodus, he says, was not only a taking out. It was a lifting up, and that lifting was never told to stop. It still raises every soul that belongs to it, with no upper limit. Only one thing can block it: a person who shrinks what they ask for. So, he writes, widen your requests a great deal. Rise above every smallness.

המניעה תוכל רק להיות, אם תלחץ הנפש בעצמה, אם היא תצמצם את הגבולים של משאליה... על כן הרחב מאד משאלותיך, התרומם מעל כל הגבלה התעלה מעל כל קטנות.

The king's revenge

The Baal Shem Tov (the founder of the Chassidic movement, who died in 1760) explained this verse with a story, written down by his student Rabbi Yaakov Yosef of Polonne. A villager rebelled against the king and stoned the king's statue. The king at once promoted him, again and again, until he was second to the king. The more good the king did him, the more it hurt to remember what he had done. Killing him would have hurt for a moment. This lasted all his life. God's revenge, the Baal Shem Tov said, comes through mercy.

שנקמות הש"י הוא על ידי מדת הרחמים, שלא כמלך בשר ודם... שהנקמה הוא במה שהופיע לו מגדולתו

Like the chirping of a starling

The Kuzari, by Rabbi Yehudah HaLevi, a poet in Spain about 900 years ago, is a classic of Jewish thought written as a talk between a rabbi and the king of the Khazars. The king pushes: you bow toward the Land of Israel and pray for it, but you do not go live there. That is either for show or empty habit. The rabbi answers: "You have shamed me." He quotes these two verses, "bow down toward His holy mountain" and "bow down at His footstool," and says our saying them is like the chirping of a starling, because we do not think about what we say.

וְאֵין דִּבּוּרֵנוּ: "הִשְׁתַּחֲווּ לְהַר קָדְשׁוֹ", וְ"הִשְׁתַּחֲווּ לְהֲדוֹם רַגְלָיו", וְ"הַמַּחֲזִיר שְׁכִינָתוֹ לְצִיּוֹן", וְזוּלַת זֶה, אֶלָּא כְצִפְצוּף הַזַּרְזִיר, שֶׁאֵין אֲנַחְנוּ חוֹשְׁבִים עַל מַה שֶּׁנֹאמַר בָּזֶה

Trust is not being sure you will get it

Rav Kook says what trust in God is not. It is not a person picturing that whatever they ask for, and think they need, God will make happen. What you think is good for you, he writes, may be the opposite of the truth. Trust means relying on the kindness that created the world, built it, and still watches over it. That kindness is over every creature at every moment, and so, he says, there is no place for worry. Now look at what the last verse says it trusts: "Your kindness."

כי אפשר שמה שהוא חושב, שהוא הטוב, הוא ההפך מהאמת. אלא שהוא בטוח בחסד עליון, שברא את העולם ובנה אותו... ועל כן אין מקום לשום דאגה

I got to shul late. Do I skip this?

If time is tight, yes. The Shulchan Aruch (the main code of Jewish law) lists what a latecomer says. This prayer is not on it. The Rema (Rabbi Moshe Isserles, who added Ashkenazi practice to it) adds: with more time, say Hodu up to Vehu Rachum, then jump to the Vehu Rachum before Ashrei, "because in between there are only collected verses." On that wording the two Romemu lines are said and the rest is skipped. The Mishnah Berurah (a law commentary, about 1900) puts Ashrei and the Halleluyah psalms ahead of Hodu.

Is it better not to skip anything?

Ideally, come on time. The Mishnah Berurah quotes a tradition that Rabbi Yosef Karo, who wrote the Shulchan Aruch, was warned by his heavenly teacher to come early so he could pray in order. The Kaf HaChaim (a Sephardic law commentary, early 1900s) leans toward never skipping, following the Kabbalists. But the Mishnah Berurah also cites the Chacham Tzvi (Rabbi Tzvi Ashkenazi, about 1700): that is for someone praying alone. If the congregation is already praying, all agree that you skip in order to pray with them.

Baruch She'amar comes later in my siddur. Does that matter?

It changes the section you are in. The Aruch HaShulchan (a law code, about 1900) explains. Nusach Ashkenaz says Hodu and these collected verses after Baruch She'amar, so they are inside Pesukei DeZimra, the morning's verses of praise. Nusach Sefard says them before it, holding that the core of Pesukei DeZimra starts at Ashrei. Both are "the words of the living God," it says. Each place keeps its custom, and no one should break from it. The Kaf HaChaim notes that the Rema's skipping list follows the Ashkenaz order.

Why do people count a minyan with a line from this prayer?

The Gemara (Yoma 22b) says it is forbidden to count Jews, even for a mitzvah. The Kitzur Shulchan Aruch (a short guide to daily Jewish law, 1860s) applies that to checking for a minyan, the ten needed for public prayer. The custom he records: say Hoshia et amecha, "Save Your people," from this prayer, because it has ten words. Sefer HaOrah, a medieval law book attributed to Rashi, uses Va'ani berov chasdecha from Mah Tovu, one word per person. The Kaf HaChaim quotes a third way: look and count in your head.

Where else do I say Romemu?

When the Torah is taken out. The Tur (a law code from the 1300s) describes it: the prayer leader takes out the Torah scroll, stands at the ark and says Gadlu, "Declare Hashem great with me," and the congregation answers Romemu. The Rema rules the same. In Siddur Sefard the congregation's answer includes both Romemu verses from this prayer. The Mishnah Berurah adds that even someone standing outside should come into the synagogue to see the Torah taken out and put back.

Where else do I say Vehu Rachum?

It opens two other prayers. One is weekday Maariv, the evening prayer. One reason the Tur gives: the morning and afternoon each had a daily Temple offering that atones, and the night has none, so this verse about atonement was placed there. The other is the long prayer added to Tachanun (the weekday prayers of pleading) on Mondays and Thursdays. There the Shulchan Aruch says to say it standing and aloud. The Rema: standing, but quietly. The Mishnah Berurah adds: slowly and with attention, not in a rush.