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.
Every day has its own psalm, the one the Levites sang in the Temple that day. On Tuesday:
הַיּוֹם יוֹם שְׁלִישִׁי בַּשַּׁבָּת שֶׁבּוֹ הָיוּ הַלְוִיִּם אוֹמְרִים בְּבֵית הַמִּקְדָּשׁ.
Today is the third day of the week on which the Levites used to say in the Temple
מִזְמוֹר לְאָסָף
A psalm by Asaf
Twelve psalms carry his name: Psalm 50 and Psalms 73 to 83. Thursday's psalm, 81, is also his.
Tehillim 50, 73 to 83; Mishnah Tamid 7:4אֱלֺהִים נִצָּב בַּעֲדַת אֵל בְּקֶרֶב אֱלֺהִים יִשְׁפֹּט.
God stands in the congregation of God in the midst of the judges He judges
God stands in the congregation of God. In the midst of the judges, He gives judgment.
Rashi (the main commentator on Tanach and Gemara, France, died 1105) says God stands among the judges to see whether they judge truthfully. Radak (Rabbi David Kimchi, a medieval commentator in southern France) also reads the second elohim as judges. Ibn Ezra (a Spanish commentator of the 1100s) says angels, and lists the judges reading as what "some say."
Rashi, Radak and Ibn Ezra on Tehillim 82:1עַד מָתַי תִּשְׁפְּטוּ עָוֶל וּפְנֵי רְשָׁעִים תִּשְׂאוּ סֶלָה.
How long will you judge unjustly and favor the wicked Selah
שִׁפְטוּ דַל וְיָתוֹם עָנִי וָרָשׁ הַצְדִּיקוּ.
Give justice to the lowly and the orphan Declare the poor and the needy in the right
Give justice to the lowly and the orphan. Declare the poor and the needy to be in the right.
Doing right by the poor does not mean always taking their side. Radak says: when the poor person is in the right, declare him so, and do not fear the strong who wronged him.
Radak on Tehillim 82:3פַּלְּטוּ דַל וְאֶבְיוֹן מִיַּד רְשָׁעִים הַצִּילוּ.
Rescue the lowly and the needy save them from the hand of the wicked
Ibn Ezra reads verses 3 and 4 as two kinds of cases. "Judge the poor" is about money. "Rescue the poor" is about their lives. Radak says the rescue is about not letting the poor be oppressed physically.
Ibn Ezra and Radak on Tehillim 82:4לֺא יָדְעוּ וְלֺא יָבִינוּ בַּחֲשֵׁכָה יִתְהַלָּכוּ יִמּוֹטוּ כָּל מוֹסְדֵי אָרֶץ.
They do not know and do not understand they walk about in darkness all the foundations of the earth shake
אֲנִי אָמַרְתִּי אֱלֺהִים אַתֶּם וּבְנֵי עֶלְיוֹן כֻּלְּכֶם.
I said you are godlike and sons of the Most High all of you
אָכֵן כְּאָדָם תְּמוּתוּן וּכְאַחַד הַשָּׂרִים תִּפֹּלוּ.
But in truth you will die like humans and fall like one of the princes
Who are "the princes"? Rashi gives the earlier princes who died. He adds a Midrash that reads it as the princes of heaven, citing the prophet Yeshayahu (Isaiah 24:21).
Rashi on Tehillim 82:7קוּמָה אֱלֺהִים שָׁפְטָה הָאָרֶץ כִּי אַתָּה תִנְחַל בְּכָל הַגּוֹיִם.
Rise up, God judge the earth for You will take all the nations as Your own
"Inherit" can mean take as your own. Rashi: God takes all the nations, so everyone is in His hands to judge. Radak: God takes the poor and oppressed of any nation as His own people, whoever they are.
Rashi and Radak on Tehillim 82:8People say it at the end of Shacharit, because in the Temple the Levites sang it after the morning offering. This siddur then has you add Hoshienu (a verse asking God to save us) and the Mourner's Kaddish.
Peninei Halakhah, Prayer 23:4; Siddur SefardThe Gemara (the central record of the rabbis' teaching and debate) uses this psalm's first line twice. "God stands in the congregation of God" proves that God is present when ten people pray together. "Among the judges He gives judgment" proves that God is present when three judges sit as a court. The same verse covers a prayer group and a courtroom.
Berakhot 6aThe psalm says God stands "among elohim." That word usually means God, but the Torah also uses it for human judges. A slave who chooses to stay with his master is brought "to the elohim" (Shemot 21:6), and Rashi (the main Torah commentator, France, died 1105) says that means the court. Radak (Rabbi David Kimchi, a commentator in France around 1200) reads our verse the same way: among the judges.
Shemot 21:6; Rashi on Shemot 21:6; Radak on Tehillim 82:1Rabbi Yehuda, a rabbi of the Mishnah (the first written collection of Jewish oral law), reports a teaching from Rabbi Akiva, one of its leading rabbis. On the third day, he says, they sang this psalm because God revealed the earth by His wisdom and prepared the world for His "congregation." Rashi adds that the dry land is the place where that congregation stands, and the Torah says the land appeared on day three. Sunday's prayer gives the whole list of days.
Rosh Hashanah 31a, with Rashi; Bereishit 1:9The title says the psalm is by Asaf. Divrei HaYamim (Chronicles, a book of Tanach) names him as head of the Levites King David appointed to praise and give thanks before the Ark. The Levites were the tribe that served as the Temple's singers and helpers. Rashi reads the last verse as Asaf himself praying: "Rise up, God," and cut off the corrupt judges from Israel. So the Levites' Tuesday song is a Levite's complaint about courts.
Divrei HaYamim I 16:4-5 and 16:7; Rashi on Tehillim 82:8Radak guesses the psalm was written in the days of King Yehoshafat of Yehuda, who set up judges in every fortified city. He told them: "See what you are doing, for you do not judge for a person but for Hashem, and He is with you when you decide." Midrash Tehillim (an old collection of rabbinic teachings on Tehillim) quotes that line and has God say to the judges: do not think you sit for yourselves. I sit with you.
Radak on Tehillim 82:1; Divrei HaYamim II 19:5-6; Midrash Tehillim 82:1Verses 6 and 7 are the strangest part. "I said: you are elohim, sons of the Most High, all of you. But in truth, you will die like humans, and fall like one of the princes." The sources disagree about who is being addressed and what the fall is.
Radak says the judges themselves. A judge who rules truthfully is rightly called elohim, and God hoped they would be that, like the angels, who are also called "sons of the Most High." But Radak sees them ruining the high rank of their souls, so they will die like any ordinary person.
Ibn Ezra (a Spanish commentator who died in the 1160s) puts it differently. Your souls are like the souls of angels, he says, but you are no more than bodies, and bodies die.
Rashi reads "elohim" as angels, and the speaker as God at Mount Sinai. The Gemara has Rabbi Yosei teach that Israel accepted the Torah so that the Angel of Death would no longer rule over them, and he proves it from this verse (Avodah Zarah 5a). Rashi then reads "like humans" as "like Adam," since they spoiled their deeds as he did. Midrash Tehillim also reads the verse through Adam: he got one command, did not keep it, and was sent out of Eden.
So there are three readings: judges who fall from a high rank, souls like angels inside bodies that die, and a people who lost a gift given at Sinai. They share one shape, a high calling followed by a drop. The psalm does not spell out the drop, and each commentator fills it in his own way.
Radak on Tehillim 82:6-7,Ibn Ezra on Tehillim 82:6-7,Rashi on Tehillim 82:6-7,Avodah Zarah 5a,Midrash Tehillim 82:3The psalm says judges "do not know and do not understand, they walk about in darkness," and because of it "all the foundations of the earth shake." A bad ruling in one courtroom seems small next to that.
Rashi explains the darkness. Because of this wrong, he says, the judges walk in darkness, the way "a bribe blinds." That is the Torah's rule "do not take a bribe, for a bribe blinds those who see clearly" (Shemot 23:8). A judge who bends the law loses the ability to see what is right.
Radak reads the words at full size. He says the judges' acts could bring the world down, and he recalls that the flood came because of chamas. The Torah says that before the flood "the earth was filled with chamas" (Bereishit 6:11), and Rashi says that word means robbery.
The Gemara has a similar idea. Rabbi Yose ben Elisha (a rabbi from the time of the Mishnah) taught that if you see a generation with many troubles, go and check its judges, because every punishment that came into the world came because of Israel's judges. He proves it from the prophet Michah, who accused the leaders of judging for bribes (Shabbat 139a).
Pirkei Avot (the Mishnah's book of sayings on ethics) states the positive version: the world stands on three things, on justice, on truth and on peace (1:18). The Hashivah Shofteinu prayer, the blessing about judges in the Amidah, tells more about that line.
None of these sources explains how a single verdict does it. What they share is the claim that the state of the world depends on whether its courts are fair.
Rashi on Tehillim 82:5,Shemot 23:8,Radak on Tehillim 82:5,Bereishit 6:11 and Rashi,Shabbat 139a,Pirkei Avot 1:18The Torah's rule for fair judging is not in a section addressed only to judges. Vayikra 19:15 says: "Do not do injustice in judgment. Do not favor the poor and do not honor the great. In righteousness judge your fellow." It sits in a chapter that God tells Moshe to speak to the whole congregation of Israel.
Rashi spells out both halves. Do not say, "He is poor, and the rich man should support him anyway, so I will rule for the poor man." And do not say, "He is rich and from a good family, why embarrass him?" Either way you are bending the case. Midrash Tehillim says the same about our psalm: give the poor man his justice, but do not take from a rich man just because the other side is poor.
Then Rashi gives a second meaning for "in righteousness judge your fellow": judge your friend favorably. The Mishnah has the same instruction, in the name of Yehoshua ben Perachyah (a teacher who lived more than 2,000 years ago): judge every person favorably (Pirkei Avot 1:6).
Most people never sit on a court, but almost everyone decides, all the time, whose story to believe. The sources do not say that is what the psalm is about. They do say the Torah's call for fairness is addressed to everyone, and that one reading of it is about how you judge people you know.
Taking the psalm from the courtroom to your own life is a step the sources leave to you.
Vayikra 19:2 and 19:15,Rashi on Vayikra 19:15,Midrash Tehillim 82:2,Pirkei Avot 1:6Short ideas from the Chassidic masters, the Kabbalah and the Mussar teachers.
The Gemara says a judge who rules with perfect truth, even for one hour, is counted as a partner with God in Creation. The Maharal (Rabbi Judah Loew of Prague, a great Jewish thinker who died in 1609) explains. God made the world and gave each person what belongs to them. A true judge puts each side back in what is theirs, the way God set it. Now read "judge" again.
ועל ידי הדין כל אחד עומד בשלו... כל דיין שדן דין אמת לאמתו אפילו שעה אחת, כאילו נעשה שותף
Maharal, Derech Chaim on Pirkei Avot 1:18The Zohar (the central book of Kabbalah) describes a hidden order in the world above. It says that when the judgments down here are set right, the judgments above are set right too. Then, it says, God dwells among them, and it quotes the first verse of today's psalm: "God stands in the congregation of God." Now read the first line again.
בשעתא דאתתקנו דינין דלתתא. וכד דינין מתתקנין לתתא, מתתקנין לעילא
Zohar, Parashat MishpatimArvei Nachal (a Chassidic book by Rabbi David Solomon Eibeschutz, who died in 1813) asks a sharp question. If these judges are crooked, why does the psalm begin with God standing among them? His answer: the psalm is not accusing the judges. He reads "How long will you judge unjustly?" as "How long will you be suspected of judging unjustly?" Each side thinks the judge favored the other, and even the winner is angry that he did not win more. When a judge hears that both sides are angry, he can tell himself he probably ruled correctly.
עד מתי תהיו לחשד בעיני הפתאים שאתם שופטים עול
Arvei Nachal, Parashat YitroThe psalm says: "You are godlike, all of you. Yet you will die like humans." The Kozhnitzer Maggid (Rabbi Yisrael of Kozhnitz, a Chassidic leader in Poland who died in 1814), in his book Avodat Yisrael, sees a problem: right after calling us godlike, the verse seems to take it back. His answer: to "die like humans" means you have an urge that pulls you toward physical wants, and falling from your level is what he calls dying. But you fight that urge and win. That is why God said "you are godlike." Now read "godlike" again.
אכן כאדם תמותון שיש לכם יצה"ר שמפיל אתכם לידי חמדות ותאות גשמיות... ואתם לוחמים כנגד היצה"ר ומנצחים אותו
Avodat Yisrael, on Tehillim 82This psalm belongs to the third day of the week. On the third day of Creation, the Torah says, God made the dry land and the plants (Bereishit 1:9-13). The Mei HaShiloach (a Chassidic book by Rabbi Mordechai Yosef Leiner of Izhbitz, Poland, who died in 1854) finds a hint in a verse about Yosef: all the good in the world was made on two days. On the third day, he says, God made the good of food, and on the sixth day the human being. Now read "third day" again.
בשני ימים נבראו כל הטובות שבעולם היינו ביום ג' נברא טובת אכילה
Mei HaShiloach, Parashat MiketzThe practical laws. For a final ruling, ask your rav.
At least three. The Shulchan Aruch (the main code of Jewish law) rules that a court (a beit din) is never fewer than three, and any three count, even ordinary people. The Rema (Rabbi Moshe Isserles, who added Ashkenazi practice to the Shulchan Aruch) explains why: one of them is bound to know the legal reasoning. If none of them does, they are not fit to judge. The Gemara finds God's presence with three sitting in judgment in this psalm's first verse: "in the midst of the judges, He gives judgment."
Shulchan Aruch and Rema, Choshen Mishpat 3:1; Berakhot 6aNot about ordinary things. The Gemara reads the first line of this psalm as proof that God is present in a shul. The Shulchan Aruch rules that a shul is not a place for laughing, joking or idle talk, nor for eating or drinking. The Mishnah Berurah (a central commentary on daily Jewish law, written around 1900) adds that even everyday talk about earning a living, which is fine outside, is forbidden inside.
Berakhot 6a; Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 151:1; Mishnah Berurah 151:2בשלישי היו אומרים אלהים נצב בעדת אל בקרב אלהים ישפוט
On the third day they would say: "God stands in the congregation of God, among the judges He gives judgment."
בשלישי היו אומרים אלהים נצב בעדת אל על שם שגילה ארץ בחכמתו והכין תבל לעדתו
On the third day they would say "God stands in the congregation of God," because He revealed the earth by His wisdom and prepared the world for His congregation.
שגילה ארץ. מקום מצב עדתו שנאמר ותראה היבשה בשלישי נאמר
"Revealed the earth": the place where His congregation stands, as it says "and the dry land appeared," which was said on the third day.
ומנין לשלשה שיושבין בדין ששכינה עמהם שנאמר בקרב אלהים ישפט
How do we know that when three sit as a court, God's presence is with them? It says: "Among the judges He gives judgment."
אמר להם הקב"ה הוו יודעין כי עמכם אני יושב שנאמר אלקים נצב בעדת אל
The Holy One said to them: know that I am sitting with you, as it says, "God stands in the congregation of God."
ימוט כל מוסדות ארץ ויחריב העולם כי המבול בא לעולם מפני החמס
All the foundations of the earth will shake and the world will be destroyed, for the flood came to the world because of chamas (theft and violence).
שכל פורענות שבאה לעולם לא באה אלא בשביל דייני ישראל
Every punishment that came into the world came only because of the judges of Israel.
לא קיבלו ישראל את התורה אלא כדי שלא יהא מלאך המות שולט בהן שנאמר אני אמרתי אלהים אתם
Israel received the Torah only so that the Angel of Death would not rule over them, as it says: "I said: you are elohim."
בצדק תשפט עמיתך. כמשמעו; דבר אחר: הוי דן את חברך לכף זכות
"In righteousness judge your fellow": as it sounds. Another explanation: judge your friend favorably.
כי לא לאדם תשפטו... ועמכם בדבר משפט
You do not judge for a person (but for Hashem)... and He is with you when you decide.
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