Siddur › Chanukah lights › After lighting
TT Siddur · Chanukah lightsהִנֵּה מַה טּוֹב
A short psalm about brothers, oil and dew, printed after the Chanukah lighting.
Draft. This siddur is waiting for a rav's review. For a halachic question, ask your rav.
The title says "of David" and gives nothing more. The psalm does not say when or why it was written. Ibn Ezra (a Spanish Bible commentator of the 1100s) ties it to the psalm just before it, which speaks of the house of David. Rashi (the classic commentator, France, died 1105) says the main meaning of this Song of Ascents is the Temple.
In this siddur it is the last psalm printed after the Chanukah lights, right after Ranenu Tzaddikim (Tehillim 33). We found no source that says why it is placed here. The Bnei Yissaschar (a Chassidic book on the months and holidays) does read the psalm's "good oil" as a hint to the Chanukah oil.
Ibn Ezra and Rashi on Tehillim 133; Siddur Sefard, Chanukah, Menorah Lighting 36 to 37; Bnei Yissaschar, Kislev and Tevet 2:44Hebrew, then English. Open "What it means" under any line for the explanation.
On each night of Chanukah, the last psalm printed after lighting the candles:
שִׁיר הַמַּעֲלוֹת לְדָוִד
A song of ascents, of David
הִנֵּה מַה טּוֹב וּמַה נָּעִים שֶׁבֶת אַחִים גַּם יָחַד.
Look how good and how pleasant for brothers to sit together
Look how good and how pleasant it is for brothers to sit together.
כַּשֶּׁמֶן הַטּוֹב עַל הָרֹאשׁ יֹרֵד עַל הַזָּקָן זְקַן אַהֲרֹן שֶׁיֹּרֵד עַל פִּי מִדּוֹתָיו.
It is like the good oil on the head running down onto the beard the beard of Aharon that runs down over the opening of his robes
Metzudat David (a short commentary on the Prophets and Writings by Rabbi David Altschuler, 1700s) says Aharon was the first to be anointed. Hanerot Halalu, said earlier in this lighting, says the Chanukah miracles came "through Your holy kohanim."
Metzudat David on Tehillim 133:2; Hanerot Halaluכְּטַל חֶרְמוֹן שֶׁיֹּרֵד עַל הַרְרֵי צִיּוֹן כִּי שָׁם צִוָּה יְיָ אֶת הַבְּרָכָה חַיִּים עַד הָעוֹלָם.
Like the dew of Hermon that falls on the mountains of Zion for there Hashem commanded the blessing: life, forever
Ibn Ezra (a Spanish Bible commentator of the 1100s) says the blessing here is the dew, because dew makes the crops grow and human life depends on them. Radak (Rabbi David Kimchi of southern France, who died in 1235) adds that mountains need dew more than valleys do.
Ibn Ezra and Radak on Tehillim 133:3The Gemara (the Talmud, the rabbis' written debates) pictures the oil as two drops like pearls hanging from Aharon's beard. Moshe worried he had misused holy oil. A heavenly voice answered with lines from this psalm: the dew of Hermon cannot be misused, so neither can the oil on Aharon's beard. Then Aharon worried: maybe Moshe did not, but I did. The voice gave him the first verse: as Moshe did not, you did not.
Horayot 12aThe dew of Hermon is said to fall on Zion, which is Jerusalem. Meiri (Rabbi Menachem HaMeiri, Provence, about 1300) asks the obvious question: Hermon is not close to Zion. His answer is that the dew falls on Hermon, where it belongs, and the king's rule on Zion is just as pleasant. Rashi says Hermon is the higher mountain and the dew runs down from it. Radak (Rabbi David Kimchi, Provence, about 1200) says the word "like" works twice: like Hermon's dew, like dew that falls on Zion.
Meiri, Rashi and Radak on Tehillim 133:2 to 133:3The Mishnah (the first written collection of the rabbis' laws) says fifteen steps led up in the Temple from the Women's Courtyard to the Israelites' Courtyard, matching the fifteen Songs of Ascents. The Levites (the Temple singers) sang on them. This is the fourteenth song. Meiri suggests it was sung when they were near the top, and that the highest step went with the next psalm.
Mishnah Middot 2:5; Meiri on Tehillim 133:3Sefer Chasidim (a book of ethics and customs from medieval Germany, about 1200) reads "brothers dwelling together" and adds a warning. Brothers, a father and his sons, or a teacher and his students: if they keep fighting and stay angry, it is better that they not be together, even when the students learn Torah from him. Even the son who is hurt by his father, it says, should part from him if they cannot bear each other.
Sefer Chasidim 343The psalm never says, so the commentators answer differently. The Gemara says Moshe and Aharon, who were brothers. Rashi says the brothers are the Jewish people, whom the Tanach calls brothers and friends, and that the "also" in "also together" is God, living among them in the Temple.
Radak says it is about the future king Messiah and the High Priest. Both are leaders, and they will be brothers in greatness who are not jealous of each other.
Metzudat David (a commentary from the 1700s) reads it as all of Israel living on its land under one kingdom, never split into two again.
The Malbim (Rabbi Meir Leibush, a Bible commentator in Eastern Europe, who died in 1879) says the brothers are the tribes Yissachar and Zevulun. Zevulun traded and earned, so Yissachar could learn Torah. Together they had the lasting good and the pleasant things of this world.
Sefer Chasidim applies the verse to brothers, to fathers and sons, and to teachers and students, and adds a warning: when they keep fighting, it is better that they not be together.
These are separate explanations. Rashi mentions the Gemara's reading and still says the main meaning is the Temple. The others simply give their own reading.
Horayot 12a,Rashi on Tehillim 133:1 and 133:2,Radak on Tehillim 133:1,Metzudat David on Tehillim 133:1,Malbim on Tehillim 133:1 and 133:3,Sefer Chasidim 343The psalm gives two pictures. Fine oil on the head runs down onto the beard and then to the collar. Dew from Hermon falls on Zion. Rashi says the oil is the anointing oil used on Aharon the priest. Just as that oil stands for greatness, he says, Mount Zion stands for glory and honor for Israel.
Metzudat David says the point is that the oil does not stay put. It spills from the head onto the beard and the collar. In the same way, when the people are united under one head, the king, the blessing reaches everyone through him.
Meiri reads the oil as the priesthood. Oil floats above every other liquid and is smooth, he says, which points to humility. He thinks the detail of it running down to someone else shows the last stage of wisdom: giving to others. The dew, for him, is the king. Everyone needs dew every day, so a king should rule steadily, not like a flood.
The Malbim adds that the oil was meant for the head, yet it overflowed onto the beard. Blessing can come in such plenty that it also reaches people who were not ready for it.
Metzudat David, Meiri and the Malbim read the picture differently, but in all three, what comes down does not stop with the first one who receives it.
Rashi on Tehillim 133:2,Metzudat David on Tehillim 133:2,Meiri on Tehillim 133:2 to 133:3,Malbim on Tehillim 133:2As with Tehillim 33 just before it, we found no source that says why this psalm is printed after the lights. But oil ties the psalm to Chanukah, and two Chassidic writers say so.
The psalm's oil, Rashi says, is the anointing oil used on Aharon the priest.
Chanukah is about oil and priests too. The Gemara says the Greeks made all the oil in the Temple impure. When the Hasmoneans (the family of Matityahu, who led the revolt) won, they found one jar still sealed with the seal of the High Priest, enough for one day. The Rambam (Maimonides, who died in 1204) writes that the Hasmoneans were High Priests.
The Bnei Yissaschar, by Rabbi Tzvi Elimelech of Dinov (a Chassidic rebbe in Galicia, in the 1800s, whose prayer opens this lighting service in the siddur), says the psalm hints at Chanukah. "Like the good oil" is what happened in the Chanukah miracle: with good oil came light. The first spark on this prayer shows how he gets there.
Rabbi Natan of Breslov (the main student of Rabbi Nachman, a Chassidic teacher who died in 1810) writes in Likutei Halakhot that the oil of the Chanukah light is like the holy anointing oil, and he quotes this verse. For him that oil stands for the light of knowledge, which should grow every day, the way the Chanukah lights grow each night.
Neither one says this is why the psalm is printed here. Another Gemara is about the anointing oil Moshe made in the desert. It was only twelve log (a measure of liquid), yet it anointed the Tabernacle, its vessels, Aharon and his sons for seven days, and then High Priests and kings after them. The Gemara says many miracles were done with it, and that all of it will still be there in the future.
So the jar and the anointing oil are both a small amount of holy oil that lasted far longer than it should. That comparison is ours. No source we found makes it.
Rashi on Tehillim 133:2,Shabbat 21b,Rambam, Laws of Megillah and Chanukah 3:1,Keritot 5b,Bnei Yissaschar, Kislev and Tevet 2:44,Likutei Halakhot, Choshen Mishpat, Laws of Paid Guardians 2:2,Siddur Sefard, Chanukah, Menorah Lighting 4Short ideas from the Chassidic masters, the Kabbalah and the Mussar teachers.
Rabbi Tzvi Elimelech of Dinov (a Chassidic rebbe in Galicia, in the 1800s) says this psalm hints at Chanukah. He starts from a midrash where Rabbi Meir tells an innkeeper he has a brother named Ki Tov, "that it is good." Meir means light, and the Torah says "the light, that it is good" (Bereishit 1:4), so those are the psalm's "brothers." Then "like the good oil" is the oil of the Chanukah miracle: with good oil, light came. Now read "like the good oil" again.
היינו כמו שהי' בימי הנס דחנוכ"ה בשמ"ן הטו"ב בא האור
Bnei Yissaschar, Kislev and Tevet 2:44One explanation in the Zohar (the central book of Kabbalah) says this verse is about study partners. At first they look like soldiers who want to kill each other. Then they come back to brotherly love. The words of the psalm, it says, are what God Himself says about them. Not only that: God listens to their words, is pleased, and takes joy in them. It backs this up with a verse from Malachi: those who respect God spoke to one another, and God listened.
בקדמיתא אתחזון גוברי מגיחי קרבא, דבעו לקטלא דא לדא. לבתר, אתהדרו ברחימותא דאחוה.
Zohar, Parashat Acharei MotThe Zohar says Israel was not handed to a ruler or a messenger. They hold on to God, and God holds on to them. God first called them servants, then children, and finally brothers (it quotes Vayikra, Devarim and Tehillim for each). And because He called them brothers, the Zohar says, God wanted to make His home among them and never leave. Then comes our verse.
ובגין דקרא לון אחים, בעא לשוואה מדוריה בהו, ולא יעדי מנייהו.
Zohar, Parashat VayikraRabbi Kalonymus Kalman Epstein, author of the Maor VaShemesh (a Chassidic rebbe in Poland, early 1800s), takes up the Gemara's story about verse 2. As he tells it, Aharon, the first High Priest, worried that he had personally enjoyed the anointing oil. (The Gemara's word is "misused.") The author heard from his teacher, Rabbi Elimelech of Lizhensk, that sincere people always suspect themselves, even after acting for God. And someone sure he acted only for God should still not grow proud, the book says. The work is a gift from God.
ועדיין הי' אהרן דואג שמא נהניתי בשמן המשחה
Maor VaShemesh, Parashat Korach; Horayot 12aThe practical laws. For a final ruling, ask your rav.
We found no law code that requires it. The Shulchan Aruch (the main code of Jewish law) names only Hanerot Halalu after lighting, and the Aruch HaShulchan (a law code from about 1900) adds that skipping even that does not undo the mitzvah. The Kaf HaChaim (a Sephardic law commentary, early 1900s) lists Tehillim 30 and 67 after it, not this psalm. None of the three mentions Tehillim 133. Siddur Sefard prints it last, after Ana Bekoach and Tehillim 33.
Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 676:4; Aruch HaShulchan, Orach Chaim 676:8; Kaf HaChaim, Orach Chaim 676:30; Siddur SefardThe Shulchan Aruch says to light at the end of sunset, not later and not earlier. The Rema (Rabbi Moshe Isserles, who added Ashkenazi custom) quotes a view that today, with lights indoors, you need not light before the street empties, though it is still good to. On that view, the Mishnah Berurah (a central commentary, about 1900) says to light when the household is gathered, and once the time comes not to eat or study. If you are late, the Ben Ish Chai (Baghdad, 1800s) says to bless only if two at home are awake.
Shulchan Aruch with the Rema, Orach Chaim 672:1-2; Mishnah Berurah 672:10; Ben Ish Chai, Year 1, Vayeshev 7It depends on custom. The Shulchan Aruch says a household lights one set, even a large one. The Rema writes that some say every member lights, and this is the widespread custom. The Mishnah Berurah excepts a man's wife, who is like himself, and elsewhere points to a view that women need not light separately but may, with a blessing. In Baghdad, the Ben Ish Chai writes, an unmarried son, even grown, relies on his father. A married son stands by his father for the blessing, then lights in his own room without one.
Shulchan Aruch with the Rema, Orach Chaim 671:2; Mishnah Berurah 671:9 and 675:9; Ben Ish Chai, Year 1, Vayeshev 16The sources allow it with care. The Rema says that when each person lights, each should set his lights in his own spot, so people can tell how many are lit. The Mishnah Berurah first quotes a view that two people should not light one lamp. He then suggests that on a menorah with eight places, two people may light, one at each end, since it is clear that two people lit. Otherwise one would simply light the next light after the other. He adds that this is what people do.
Rema, Orach Chaim 671:2; Mishnah Berurah 671:12Shabbat candles come first. The Gemara (Shabbat 23b) says so because of shalom bayit, peace in the home. The Shulchan Aruch rules that way, and the Rambam (Maimonides, 1100s) adds that the whole Torah was given to make peace in the world. But if the choice is a Chanukah light or wine for Kiddush, the Shulchan Aruch says buy the Chanukah light, to publicize the miracle. The Mishnah Berurah says one candle on the Shabbat table is enough, so the rest can go to Chanukah.
Shabbat 23b; Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 678:1; Rambam, Laws of Megillah and Chanukah 4:14; Mishnah Berurah 678:1יָצְתָה בַּת קוֹל וְאָמְרָה לוֹ: ״הִנֵּה מַה טּוֹב וּמַה נָּעִים שֶׁבֶת אַחִים גַּם יָחַד״, מָה מֹשֶׁה לֹא מָעַל, אַף אַתָּה לֹא מָעַלְתָּ.
A heavenly voice said to him: "How good and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell together." Just as Moshe did not misuse the oil, you did not either.
ועיקר שיר המעלות על בית המקדש נאמר
The main meaning of this Song of Ascents is said about the Temple.
על מלך המשיח ועל כהן גדול שיהיה בימיו מדבר... והם אחים בגדולה ולא יקנאו זה לזה
He is speaking about the king Messiah and the High Priest in his days... they are brothers in greatness, and they will not be jealous of each other.
ודמה הכהונה לשמן שהוא עליון על כל משקה וצף על כלם... והוא ההשפעה לזולתו
He compared the priesthood to oil, which is above every other liquid and floats over them all... [the last stage of wisdom] is giving to someone else.
אם כל בית ישראל אחת וראש אחד להם תתחלק אז השפע לכולם
When all of Israel is one, with one head, the flow of blessing is then shared with everyone.
שהם יששכר וזבולון שהתחברו יחד עד שהיו כגוף ונפש
They are Yissachar and Zevulun, who joined together until they were like a body and a soul.
כיון שמתקוטטים יחדיו מוטב שלא יהיו יחדיו
Once they are quarreling with each other, it is better that they not be together.
וכי נס אחד נעשה בשמן המשחה והלא נסים הרבה נעשו בו מתחלתו ועד סופו
Was only one miracle done with the anointing oil? Many miracles were done with it, from beginning to end.
ולא מצאו אלא פך אחד של שמן שהיה מונח בחותמו של כהן גדול ולא היה בו אלא להדליק יום אחד נעשה בו נס
They found only one jar of oil, sealed with the seal of the High Priest, with enough to light for one day. A miracle was done with it.
וְגָבְרוּ בְּנֵי חַשְׁמוֹנַאי הַכֹּהֲנִים הַגְּדוֹלִים וַהֲרָגוּם
The sons of the Hasmoneans, the High Priests, overcame them and killed them.
Torah Tech is a beit midrash in Tel Aviv built for personal and professional growth: Torah learning at the center of every day, and internships at Israeli startups. It is the year a future Jewish leader realizes who he can become, and chooses to become it.