Shir LaMaalot: Tehillim 121

Eliyahu's taunt about a sleeping idol

On public fast days, the Mishnah has the leader add six extra blessings to the Amidah, and this psalm is one of the passages it lists for them. Abudarham (a commentary on the prayers, Spain, 1300s) pairs it with the blessing that ends: "He who answered Eliyahu on Mount Carmel." His reasons: Carmel is a mountain, like the psalm's first line. And on Carmel, Eliyahu (the prophet Elijah) mocked the prophets of Baal, an idol: shout louder, maybe he is asleep. This psalm says the Guardian of Israel does not sleep.

The first night away from home

Yaakov leaves home alone. At sunset he stops for the night and lies down with a stone under his head. The Gemara (the rabbis' discussions that explain the Mishnah) says his prayer there is where Arvit comes from. The Avot page tells that story. Midrash Tanchuma (a collection of Torah teachings) adds: about him David said, "The Guardian of Israel does not doze and does not sleep." The sources we checked do not link this to why the psalm is said at Arvit.

A psalm that names the evening

The Kaf HaChaim (a large law book from Jerusalem, early 1900s) records a ruling from earlier rabbis. A person took on a fast "until Shir LaMaalot," then forgot to say it and ate. He did not break his promise, because he meant the time of the psalm, which is the evening prayer. Along the way the ruling calls this psalm a fixed song of Arvit. In that case, the psalm works as a name for the time of day.

A song for ascents, not of ascents

The title is shir lamaalot, "a song for ascents." Radak notes that only this one of the fifteen says lamaalot. The Sifrei (an early rabbinic commentary on Devarim) reads it: a song for the One who will make ascents for His righteous servants in the world to come. Rabbi Akiva (a leading sage of the Mishnah) counts thirty steps, each above the last. Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi, editor of the Mishnah, says sixty. Would those on different steps envy each other? No, says the Sifrei: stars do not, and neither do the righteous.

Why the moon is on the list

The sun striking you is easy to picture. The moon is odd. Radak explains it through the body as he understood it: the sun's heat dries a person out, the moon adds moisture and cold, and heat and cold are causes of illness. Ibn Ezra says much the same. The Malbim (a rabbi and Bible commentator in Eastern Europe, 1800s) adds that the two forces are opposites, one hot and dry, one cold and moist, and Hashem guards against both.

The guard stands outside the door

In the Gemara's discussion of the mezuzah (the scroll on a doorpost), Rabbi Chanina says a king sits inside and his people guard him from outside. God is the opposite: His servants sit inside and He guards them from outside. His proof is verse 5, "Hashem is your guardian, Hashem is your shade at your right hand." The Aruch HaShulchan (a law book from about 1900) connects this to the mezuzah's place on the right side of the entrance.

Who is talking to whom?

Verses 1 and 2 speak in the first person: "I lift my eyes." From verse 3 on, the voice says "you." Radak and Metzudat David (a commentary on the Prophets and Writings from the 1700s) say it is like one person comforting another. The Malbim hears a voice answering the writer: why do you search for where help will come from, as if it were new? The One above you has not taken His watch off you for a moment.

Feeling small, and doing ordinary things

A midrash reads this psalm as Yaakov's words when he left home. The Mei HaShiloach (teachings of Rabbi Mordechai Yosef of Izhbitz, a Chassidic master who died in 1854) explains why. Yaakov had no food and nothing of his own, and had to go work as a shepherd for Lavan to earn a living. He felt small next to his father and grandfather, who spent their lives on holy things. Then he reminds himself that there is service of God in small, ordinary work too, because God formed everything. Now read "I lift my eyes" again.

נפל דעתו מאד, לאשר הביט וראה עצמו קטן מאד נגד אבותיו

The gazelle that sleeps with one eye open

The Zohar (the central book of Kabbalah) has Rabbi Shimon say that a gazelle sleeps with one eye closed and the other awake. Then it puts these words in the mouth of the Jewish people, speaking to God: be like the gazelle in this. The proof it brings is the verse in our prayer, that the Guardian of Israel "does not doze and does not sleep." Now read "does not doze" again.

הצבי כשהוא ישן, הוא ישן בעין אחת, והאחרת הוא נעור

When you feel too far gone to come back

Rabbi Natan of Breslov (the main student of Rebbe Nachman, writing in the 1800s) describes a person who feels sunk so low that he cannot imagine coming back to God, because his urges keep getting stronger. He says this is common among young people, and that discouragement and despair are the main reason they lose both this world and the next. His answer: even this person can lift his eyes and search. He does not know how help could come, and that is the question "from where will my help come?" The searching itself brings the help.

כמו ששכיח זה הדבר מאד ברב בני הנעורים שעקר מה שאובדין שני העולמות הוא מחמת חלישות דעתם ויאושם

Do I have to say Shir LaMaalot?

The sources call it a custom, not a requirement. The siddur says only that in Israel at Maariv, some are accustomed to say it here. Peninei Halakhah (a modern guide to Jewish law by Rabbi Eliezer Melamed) says the Sephardic custom is to say it after the Amidah and its Kaddish. The Kaf HaChaim (a Sephardic law commentary from the early 1900s) also says "the custom is" to say it at that spot.

Where does it go, and what comes after it?

Right after the Amidah and the Kaddish that follows it (Kaddish Titkabal). Then Shir LaMaalot, the mourners' Kaddish, Barchu, and Aleinu. Peninei Halakhah and the Kaf HaChaim give this order. Peninei adds that in the Ashkenazic custom there is no psalm here: Aleinu comes right after Kaddish Titkabal, and the mourners' Kaddish and Barchu come after Aleinu.

Why does someone say Barchu again at the end?

Peninei Halakhah says one of the mourners says it for the latecomers who did not get to hear it at the start of the service. Barchu is the call that opens the blessings of the Shema, so it comes at the beginning of Maariv. Saying it again lets someone who came in late respond to it.

Is this the Shir HaMaalot some people say before Maariv?

Not necessarily. Peninei Halakhah says that before Maariv, Sephardim say three verses that start "Hashem Tzevaot," and Chassidim say a "Shir HaMaalot" instead. The Mishnah Berurah (a central commentary on daily Jewish law, written around 1900) says some places said Hinei Barchu (Tehillim 134) before Maariv. Our psalm is Tehillim 121, and it comes after the Amidah.

Do some people add it to every Amidah?

Some later books say so. Ta'amei HaMinhagim (a collection of reasons for customs, by Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak Sperling) cites Agra DePirka (a Chassidic book by Rabbi Tzvi Elimelech of Dinov): whoever says it at the end of all his prayers, before stepping back, will be matched with the right spouse. The Kaf HaChaim cites Asarah Maamarot (a Kabbalah book by Rabbi Menachem Azariah of Fano): say it before Elokai Netzor and you will be loved above and liked below, if you say it with great awe and expect no reward.