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TT Siddur · Chanukah lightsרַנְּנוּ צַדִּיקִים
A psalm of 22 verses, said after the Chanukah lights. Also a Shabbat morning psalm.
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.
On each night of Chanukah, after you light the candles. In Siddur Sefard it comes after Ana BeKoach:
רַנְּנוּ צַדִּיקִים בַּייָ לַיְשָׁרִים נָאוָה תְהִלָּה.
Sing out, righteous ones, in Hashem for the upright praise is fitting
Sing out in Hashem, you righteous. Praise is fitting for the upright.
הוֹדוּ לַייָ בְּכִנּוֹר בְּנֵבֶל עָשׂוֹר זַמְּרוּ לוֹ.
Give thanks to Hashem with a harp with a ten-stringed lute sing to Him
Give thanks to Hashem with a harp. Sing to Him with a ten-stringed lute.
Rashi (the main classic commentator on Tanach, in France, died 1105) says nevel asor means a lute of ten kinds of melody. Radak (Rabbi David Kimchi, a commentator in southern France who died in 1235) says asor is a second instrument with ten strings, and that music wakes up the wise soul and helps it.
Rashi and Radak on Tehillim 33:2שִׁירוּ לוֹ שִׁיר חָדָשׁ הֵיטִיבוּ נַגֵּן בִּתְרוּעָה.
Sing to Him a new song play well with a loud blast
Sing Him a new song. Play well, with a loud blast.
The Meiri (Rabbi Menachem Meiri of Provence, who died around 1315) says "a new song" is one added to your usual daily songs, a new one for each new miracle God does for you.
Meiri on Tehillim 33:3כִּי יָשָׁר דְּבַר יְיָ וְכָל מַעֲשֵׂהוּ בֶּאֱמוּנָה.
For the word of Hashem is upright and all He does is done in faithfulness
Radak says the upright accept even hard events, because they know every decree of God is fair and faithful. So they praise Him with joy over bad news as over good. His wording echoes the Mishnah (the first written collection of the rabbis' teachings): a person must bless God over the bad just as over the good.
Radak on Tehillim 33:4; Mishnah Berakhot 9:5אֹהֵב צְדָקָה וּמִשְׁפָּט חֶסֶד יְיָ מָלְאָה הָאָרֶץ.
He loves doing right and justice Hashem's kindness fills the earth
He loves doing right and justice. The earth is full of Hashem's kindness.
Radak says God runs the world with tzedakah (doing right) at times and mishpat (justice) at other times, but kindness is what wins out. That is why the verse ends "the earth is full of Hashem's kindness." He adds that God loves it when people act the same way.
Radak on Tehillim 33:5בִּדְבַר יְיָ שָׁמַיִם נַעֲשׂוּ וּבְרוּחַ פִּיו כָּל צְבָאָם.
By the word of Hashem the heavens were made and by the breath of His mouth all their hosts
Radak links "the word of Hashem" to the Creation story, where it says "And God said." Metzudat David (a commentary on Tanach written in Poland in the 1700s) says "all their hosts" means the angels and the circling heavens.
Radak and Metzudat David on Tehillim 33:6כֹּנֵס כַּנֵּד מֵי הַיָּם נֹתֵן בְּאוֹצָרוֹת תְּהוֹמוֹת.
He gathers the waters of the sea like a heap and puts the deeps into storehouses
He gathers the waters of the sea like a heap. He puts the deeps into storehouses.
Rashi says kened means height, as Onkelos (the old Aramaic translation of the Torah) renders the same word in Shemot 15:8, where the waters of the sea stood up "like a wall." That verse in the Song at the Sea mentions tehomot, the deeps, too.
Rashi on Tehillim 33:7; Shemot 15:8יִירְאוּ מֵיְיָ כָּל הָאָרֶץ מִמֶּנּוּ יָגוּרוּ כָּל יֹשְׁבֵי תֵבֵל.
Let all the earth be in awe of Hashem Let all who live in the world stand in awe of Him
Let all the earth be in awe of Hashem. Let everyone who lives in the world stand in awe of Him.
Radak ties this to the verse before. God set up the land so that people could live on it, by gathering the sea away. So it is right that the whole earth be in awe of Him.
Radak on Tehillim 33:8כִּי הוּא אָמַר וַיֶּהִי הוּא צִוָּה וַיַּעֲמֹד.
For He spoke, and it was He commanded, and it stood
Radak says this verse can be read two ways: as the end of the Creation verses before it, or as the start of the verses after it, about nations whose plans fail. Either way, what God says happens, and no one can push away what He decreed. Verses 9 to 11 are also in Yehi Chevod, said every morning.
Radak on Tehillim 33:9; Siddur Sefard, Yehi Chevodיְיָ הֵפִיר עֲצַת גּוֹיִם הֵנִיא מַחְשְׁבוֹת עַמִּים.
Hashem foils the plan of nations He frustrates the thoughts of peoples
Radak's first explanation is that the word "nations" is meant to include everyone: even if all the nations agreed on one plan, Hashem would cancel it. He quotes Yeshayahu 40:17: "All the nations are as nothing before Him."
Radak on Tehillim 33:10; Yeshayahu 40:17עֲצַת יְיָ לְעוֹלָם תַּעֲמֹד מַחְשְׁבוֹת לִבּוֹ לְדֹר וָדֹר.
The plan of Hashem stands forever the thoughts of His heart for all generations
Ibn Ezra (a Bible commentator from Spain in the 1100s) and Radak both say "the plan of Hashem" is set against "the plan of nations" in the verse before. Mishlei (Proverbs, the book of wise sayings) 19:21 says it in one line, and Yehi Chevod puts that line right between these two verses.
Ibn Ezra and Radak on Tehillim 33:11; Mishlei 19:21אַשְׁרֵי הַגּוֹי אֲשֶׁר יְיָ אֱלֹהָיו הָעָם בָּחַר לְנַחֲלָה לוֹ.
Happy is the nation whose God is Hashem the people He chose as His own inheritance
The Meiri says this describes a choice that goes both ways: the nation serves Him alone, and He chose them as His inheritance. He points to Devarim 26:17-18, where Israel declares Hashem its God "today" and Hashem declares Israel His treasured people "today."
Meiri on Tehillim 33:12; Devarim 26:17-18מִשָּׁמַיִם הִבִּיט יְיָ רָאָה אֶת כָּל בְּנֵי הָאָדָם.
From heaven Hashem looks down and sees all of humankind
From heaven Hashem looks down. He sees all of humankind.
Radak says this verse states the belief of the nation just described: that God really looks. It is the opposite of those who say, in words from the book of Iyov (Job, about a righteous man who suffers): "Thick clouds hide Him, and He does not see."
Radak on Tehillim 33:13; Iyov 22:14מִמְּכוֹן שִׁבְתּוֹ הִשְׁגִּיחַ אֶל כָּל יֹשְׁבֵי הָאָרֶץ.
From the place where He lives He watches over everyone who lives on earth
Radak says this verse repeats the one before in other words, to make the belief stronger: God really does see and know what people do. He explains hishgiach as "looked," like the one who peeks in through the windows in Shir HaShirim (the Song of Songs) 2:9.
Radak on Tehillim 33:14; Shir HaShirim 2:9הַיֹּצֵר יַחַד לִבָּם הַמֵּבִין אֶל כָּל מַעֲשֵׂיהֶם.
The One who forms their hearts together who understands everything they do
He forms all their hearts together, and understands everything they do.
אֵין הַמֶּלֶךְ נוֹשָׁע בְּרָב חָיִל גִּבּוֹר לֹא יִנָּצֵל בְּרָב כֹּחַ.
A king is not saved by a great army a warrior is not rescued by great strength
שֶׁקֶר הַסּוּס לִתְשׁוּעָה וּבְרֹב חֵילוֹ לֹא יְמַלֵּט.
The horse is a false hope for rescue and with all its great strength it saves no one
The horse is a false hope for rescue. With all its great strength it saves no one.
Radak says a horse's strength is a gift from God, as God asks Iyov, "Do you give the horse its strength?" When God does not want the horse to win, He makes it stumble, and the rider is not saved.
Radak on Tehillim 33:17; Iyov 39:19הִנֵּה עֵין יְיָ אֶל יְרֵאָיו לַמְיַחֲלִים לְחַסְדּוֹ.
Look, the eye of Hashem is on those who fear Him who wait for His kindness
Look, the eye of Hashem is on those who fear Him, on those who wait for His kindness,
Radak sets this against the last two verses. People who trust their army are not saved. People who fear Hashem and hope for His kindness are watched over, and He saves them even from a huge army. Ibn Ezra adds that they fear Him alone, not a king of flesh and blood, and hope only for His kindness.
Radak and Ibn Ezra on Tehillim 33:18לְהַצִּיל מִמָּוֶת נַפְשָׁם וּלְחַיּוֹתָם בָּרָעָב.
to rescue their lives from death and keep them alive in famine
to rescue their lives from death and to keep them alive in famine.
Radak reads "death" as death in war. The Meiri adds that the verse means every kind of trouble, and that famine is one of the biggest and hardest to avoid.
Radak and Meiri on Tehillim 33:19נַפְשֵׁנוּ חִכְּתָה לַייָ עֶזְרֵנוּ וּמָגִנֵּנוּ הוּא.
Our soul waits for Hashem He is our help and our shield
כִּי בוֹ יִשְׂמַח לִבֵּנוּ כִּי בְשֵׁם קָדְשׁוֹ בָטָחְנוּ.
For in Him our heart rejoices for in His holy name we trust
For our heart rejoices in Him, for we trust in His holy name.
Radak says: when God saves us from bad things, we see that the rescue came from Him, so our heart is glad in Him. Metzudat David adds that it is His way to save those who trust in Him.
Radak and Metzudat David on Tehillim 33:21יְהִי חַסְדְּךָ יְיָ עָלֵינוּ כַּאֲשֶׁר יִחַלְנוּ לָךְ.
May Your kindness, Hashem, be on us just as we have waited for You
Metzudat David reads the ending this way: as much as we hope, that is how much kindness there will be. This is also the first and only verse in the psalm spoken straight to God. Every verse before it speaks about Him.
Metzudat David on Tehillim 33:22A custom for after the lights are lit. Siddur Sefard prints it after Ana BeKoach and before Tehillim 133.
Siddur Sefard, ChanukahNo source we found says. This siddur prints a group of psalms and verses after the song Maoz Tzur, and this is one of them. For two of them, Tehillim 90:17 and 91, the Ben Ish Chai (Rabbi Yosef Chaim of Baghdad, who died in 1909) records a practice said to protect: saying them seven times each night after lighting.
Ben Ish Chai, Year 1, Vayeshev (Laws of Chanukah) 23; Siddur Sefard, ChanukahVerse 20: "Our soul waits for Hashem." Those Hebrew words start with nun, chet and lamed. The first letters of the Hebrew for "to light the Chanukah light" are the same three, in a different order. Rabbi Natan of Breslov (the main student of Rebbe Nachman, a Chassidic master who died in 1810) points this out in Likutei Halakhot. He says it is in the Kabbalistic prayer instructions, and reads it to mean that lighting is about waiting and hoping for God to save. He does not say it is why this psalm is said here.
Likutei Halakhot, Yoreh Deah, Laws of Mixed Breeding 4:14Verse 1 says the righteous sing "in" Hashem, not "to" Hashem. Midrash Tehillim (an old collection of the rabbis' teachings on the psalms) notices this. It says everyone sings, even the wicked. Pharaoh said "Hashem is the righteous one" (Shemot 9:27), but only after the plagues began. The righteous are different, it says: they sing the moment they see. Israel saw the great hand at the sea, and right away "Then Moshe sang."
Midrash Tehillim 33:1In the Shabbat afternoon Amidah we say: Avraham will be glad, Yitzchak will sing (yeranen), Yaakov and his sons will rest on it. Why does Yitzchak sing? The Arukh HaShulchan (a code of Jewish law written around 1900 by Rabbi Yechiel Michel Epstein) gives this reason. The Midrash reads "a righteous man's father will rejoice" as Avraham, so his son Yitzchak is the righteous one. Of the righteous it says "Ranenu." Yeranen comes from the same root.
Arukh HaShulchan, Orach Chaim 292:5; Beit Yosef, Orach Chaim 292The Mishnah (the first written collection of the rabbis' teachings) says that on Rosh Hashanah everyone in the world passes before God. For proof it quotes verse 15: "The One who forms their hearts together, who understands everything they do." The Gemara (the rabbis' discussions built on the Mishnah) asks what "together" means. It cannot mean God made all hearts alike, because we can see they are not. So it means He looks at all their hearts in a single glance.
Mishnah Rosh Hashanah 1:2; Rosh Hashanah 18aThe Mishnah in Pirkei Avot says the world was created with ten sayings. But the Creation story has only nine places that say "And God said." The Gemara asks where the tenth is. Its answer: the first verse of the Torah, "In the beginning," counts as a saying too, because of Tehillim 33:6, "By the word of Hashem the heavens were made."
Rosh Hashanah 32a; Megillah 21b; Pirkei Avot 5:1Verses 16 and 17 sound like a warning about armies. "A king is not saved by a great army. A warrior is not rescued by great strength. The horse is a false hope for rescue." On Chanukah that raises a fair question. The Hasmoneans (the priestly family also known as the Maccabees) went to war. Was that a mistake?
Radak (Rabbi David Kimchi, a Torah commentator in southern France around 1200) says what the verse is for. It is so people will see that God watches over them. At times, he says, a king with a big army falls to a small nation. He gives examples. The king of Assyria came to Jerusalem with a huge force, and in the morning his soldiers were all dead. And Goliath, a mighty warrior, fell to David, who was only a young man. Radak sums it up: neither strength nor an army helps a person unless God wants it.
Notice what Radak does not say. He does not say anyone should have stayed home. In his own example, Goliath fell into David's hand.
The Mishnah makes a similar point about the war against Amalek. Moshe held up his hands while Israel fought. The Mishnah asks: do Moshe's hands make war or break war? No. When Israel looked upward and gave their hearts to their Father in heaven, they won. If not, they fell.
The Rambam (Maimonides, the great medieval codifier of Jewish law, who died in 1204) describes the Chanukah war like this: God had mercy on Israel and saved them, and the Hasmonean high priests overcame the enemy, killed them and saved Israel. The prayer Al HaNissim says it in one line: You handed the strong over to the weak, and the many to the few.
So the sources agree on something narrow. The Hasmoneans did fight, and the sources credit God for the result. Where the line falls between doing your part and counting on God, they do not say.
Tehillim 33:16-17,Radak on Tehillim 33:16,Mishnah Rosh Hashanah 3:8,Rambam, Laws of Megillah and Chanukah 3:1,Al HaNissim, in the AmidahVerses 18 and 19 say: "The eye of Hashem is on those who fear Him, who wait for His kindness, to rescue their lives from death and to keep them alive in famine." Read fast, it sounds like a promise that good people are safe. Most people have seen that life does not always work that way.
Look at the last words: "in famine," not "from famine." Radak reads it this way. If famine comes to the world, God keeps these people alive, and arranges ways to feed them among the hungry. The famine still comes.
The Midrash Bereishit Rabbah (an early Midrash on Bereishit) reads these verses as the story of Avraham. "From death" is his rescue from Nimrod. "In famine" is the famine of Bereishit 12:10, which is why he went down to Egypt. So the rescue came inside a hard time, not instead of one.
The Gemara knows the question is hard. In Berakhot 7a, Moshe asks God directly why one righteous person does well and another suffers. One answer given there is that a righteous person who suffers is not completely righteous. That is a hard answer to hear. Then the Gemara records a disagreement: Rabbi Meir says Moshe was not given this answer at all. God told him only that He is kind to whom He is kind, even to someone who is not worthy.
So there is no single clean answer here. The psalm says what God does for people who trust Him. The Midrash shows it in one man's life. And the Gemara says openly that how God runs the world was not fully explained, even to Moshe, according to Rabbi Meir.
Tehillim 33:18-19,Radak on Tehillim 33:19,Bereishit Rabbah 40:1,Berakhot 7aVerse 3 says: "Sing to Him a new song." But when you say this psalm, you read words that have been said for a long time, from a printed page. So what is new?
Radak (Rabbi David Kimchi, the commentator from southern France) reads the command as a habit. He explains it as: renew a song for Him always. So the point is not one new song. It is that the song keeps being renewed.
Malbim (Rabbi Meir Leibush Malbim, a Torah commentator in Eastern Europe who died in 1879) gives a reason. God does not run the world only by fixed laws of nature. He also responds to what people do, so new things keep happening, good or bad. The song is renewed along with the events.
The Midrash Tehillim hears "new" differently. The song is for the One who did something new: He left the heavens and made His presence dwell on earth, as it says, "Make Me a Sanctuary."
The Gemara in Arakhin uses this verse another way. Rabbi Yehuda says the Temple harp had seven strings, the harp of the days of the Messiah will have eight, and the harp of the World-to-Come will have ten. For ten he cites Tehillim 92, and then this verse, which mentions a ten-stringed instrument and a new song.
Two other Gemaras have an idea close to Malbim's, though neither quotes this verse. In Pesachim 117a, the Sages say the Prophets set up Hallel (the psalms of praise) to be said for every trouble, and when Israel is rescued, for that rescue. Shabbat 21b says that for Chanukah the sages made the days holidays with Hallel and thanks. New rescue, new praise.
These readings do not agree, and none of them says how a fixed prayerbook fits "new." That part is left to you.
Tehillim 33:3,Radak on Tehillim 33:3,Malbim on Tehillim 33:3,Midrash Tehillim 33:1,Arakhin 13b,Pesachim 117a,Shabbat 21bShort ideas from the Chassidic masters, the Kabbalah and the Mussar teachers.
Rabbi Moshe Teitelbaum (a Chassidic master in Hungary who died in 1841) asks about the opening of this psalm. It says praise is fitting for "the upright." So how can anyone less than perfect sing? His answer is a stringed instrument. One string may sound rough on its own, yet it makes the music better when it is played with the others. The Jewish people are like that: a person who is not worthy alone can still belong to the choir.
יכול להיות שיש ביניהם נימות שהנימא ההיא בפני עצמה אין קולה יפה ונעים... אף על פי כן יפה מאד אל הצירוף
Yismach Moshe, Parashat KorachReishit Chochmah (a 1500s book by Rabbi Eliyahu de Vidas, a kabbalist) notices that the psalm says "sing in Hashem," not "sing to Hashem." One explanation he gives: simply telling God's praises ties a person to Him. Picture a king who hears one of his servants speaking well of him. The king will surely love that servant. So when the righteous sing, he writes, they are attached to God at once. Now read the first line again.
סתם רנה גורם דבקות... כשתרננו צדיקים מיד אתם דבקים
Reishit Chochmah, Gate of Love, chapter 10The Sefat Emet (Rabbi Yehudah Aryeh Leib of Ger, a Chassidic leader in Poland who died in 1905) says the line in Al HaNissim, "the many into the hands of the few," is also about each person. Every Jew has a small point inside where blessing rests. The forces pulling you the wrong way can be strong and many. Still, he writes, in these days a person should strengthen that small point. Now read "a king is not saved by a great army" again.
בימים אלו צריך כל אחד להתחזק בנקודה מועטת שנמצא בכל איש ישראל ששורה בו ברכה
Sefat Emet, Chanukah, 5638 (1877)Rabbi Tzadok HaKohen of Lublin (a Chassidic thinker in Poland in the 1800s) ties the Chanukah reading from the Prophets, "Not by might and not by power, but by My spirit," to this psalm: "A king is not saved by a great army." In his reading, the king is a Torah scholar and the army is Torah learning. Great learning, great strength and good deeds do not beat the urge to do wrong on their own. They work when they come as gifts from Heaven. That, he says, is the root of Chanukah: to feel small and see everything as a gift.
שורש קדושת חנוכה שיהיה שפל בעיניו ויכיר שהכל מתנות שמים
Pri Tzadik, Parashat Miketz 9Shivchei HaBesht, a book of stories about the Baal Shem Tov (the founder of Chassidut, who died in 1760), printed in 1815, tells this. In the morning psalms the Baal Shem Tov repeated "the horse is a false hope for rescue" again and again. A young man named Eliyahu, who was praying along word by word, got puzzled and stopped. Later the Baal Shem Tov explained. A Jew was stuck in a field for Shabbat, and a robber on horseback was riding out to kill him. By saying the verse, he said, he ruined the robber's road, so he could not find him.
ובאמירות זה קלקלתי לו הדרך שלא יוכל למצוא אותו
Shivchei HaBesht 147The practical laws. For a final ruling, ask your rav.
No law book we checked requires it. After lighting, the Shulchan Aruch (the main code of Jewish law, 1500s) names only HaNerot Halalu. The Kaf HaChaim (a Sephardic law commentary from the early 1900s) adds Tehillim 30 and 67. This psalm is in neither.
Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 676:4; Kaf HaChaim, Orach Chaim 676:30Not by their light. HaNerot Halalu already states it: "we have no permission to use them, only to look at them." The Shulchan Aruch rules that this includes a holy use like studying, though one opinion allows it. The Rema (Rabbi Moshe Isserles, who added Ashkenazi practice) has a taller shamash (the helper light) stand beside them for any use. The Mishnah Berurah (a central commentary on daily Jewish law, c. 1900) says by strict law a table light is enough, and cites a view that a shamash is ideally used alone.
HaNerot Halalu, Siddur Sefard; Shulchan Aruch and Rema, Orach Chaim 673:1; Mishnah Berurah 673:14-15Sefer Chasidim (a medieval German book of ethics and customs, from about 1200) is talking to someone saying praises aloud in synagogue for others. If he must stop, he should stop between verses, and he should clear his throat before he starts. He should also not pause where a similar verse could pull listeners off track. One example is from this psalm: after "He frustrates the thoughts of peoples," they might slide into Mishlei 19:21, "Many are the thoughts in a person's heart." It says nothing about Chanukah.
Sefer Chasidim 782; Tehillim 33:10; Mishlei 19:21The sources call it a custom. The same psalm is in Shabbat morning davening, before Baruch SheAmar in Siddur Sefard. The Kaf HaChaim, quoting older books, lists it among the psalms added on Shabbat and festivals. The Tur (a code of Jewish law from about 1340) calls adding psalms a custom, since people are not at work. If you skip one by mistake, the Rema rules that you do not go back for it, and the Mishnah Berurah adds that you need not say it after the prayer. The Tehillim 90 page has the one exception.
Tur, Orach Chaim 281; Rema, Orach Chaim 281:1; Mishnah Berurah 281:2-3; Kaf HaChaim, Orach Chaim 50:7Yes, at the Seder. The Shulchan Aruch has you say Hallel HaGadol (the Great Hallel, Tehillim 136) after the regular Hallel. The Mishnah Berurah adds that you do not tack Ranenu Tzaddikim, this psalm's opening line, onto the end of it. Darkhei Moshe (the Rema's notes on the Tur) quotes an earlier authority: it does not belong there, because it is not part of that psalm. The line still appears at the Seder, inside Nishmat.
Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 480:1; Mishnah Berurah 480:3; Darkhei Moshe 480:1; Siddur Sefard, Haggadahוכי ידיו של משה עושות מלחמה. או שוברות מלחמה. אלא לומר לך. כל זמן שהיו ישראל מסתכלים כלפי מעלה. ומשעבדין את לבם לאביהם שבשמים היו מתגברים. ואם לאו היו נופלין.
Do Moshe's hands make war, or break war? The point is this: as long as Israel looked upward and gave their hearts to their Father in heaven, they won. If not, they fell.
תראה לפעמים, כי המלך שהוא הגדול שבבני אדם, ויש לו רב חיל, לא יושע, אלא יכשל עם כל חילותיו לפני עם מעט... הנה לא יועיל לו לאדם לא כחו ולא חילו, אם לא ברצון האל.
You will see at times that the king, the greatest of people, with a big army, is not saved. He fails, with all his armies, before a small nation... Neither strength nor an army helps a person, unless God wants it.
אבל אין הרשעים מרננין לפניו עד שמביא עליהם מכות... רננו צדיקים אל ה׳ אין כתיב כאן אלא בה׳. בזמן שהן רואין מיד מרננין.
But the wicked do not sing before Him until He brings plagues on them... It does not say "the righteous sing to Hashem" here, but "in Hashem." When they see, they sing right away.
הִנֵּה עֵין ה׳ אֶל יְרֵאָיו, זֶה אַבְרָהָם... לְהַצִּיל מִמָּוֶת נַפְשָׁם, מִמִּיתָתוֹ שֶׁל נִמְרוֹד, וּלְחַיּוֹתָם בָּרָעָב, וַיְהִי רָעָב בָּאָרֶץ.
"Look, the eye of Hashem is on those who fear Him": this is Avraham... "To rescue their lives from death": from Nimrod's death sentence. "And to keep them alive in famine": "There was famine in the land."
רבונו של עולם מפני מה יש צדיק וטוב לו ויש צדיק ורע לו יש רשע וטוב לו ויש רשע ורע לו
Master of the Universe, why is there a righteous person who has it good and a righteous person who has it bad, a wicked person who has it good and a wicked person who has it bad?
שירו לו שיר חדש חדשו לו שיר תמיד
"Sing to Him a new song": renew a song for Him always.
ויאמר דבראשית תשעה הוו בראשית נמי מאמר הוא דכתיב בדבר ה׳ שמים נעשו
The "And He said" in Bereishit are nine. "In the beginning" is also a saying, as it is written, "By the word of Hashem the heavens were made."
וכיון שמקרא זה קאי על אברהם, וכתיב ביה 'אבי צדיק' - הוה יצחק צדיק, ובצדיקים כתיב: 'רננו צדיקים' - וזהו 'יצחק ירנן'.
Since this verse is about Avraham, and it says "father of a righteous man," Yitzchak is the righteous one. About the righteous it is written "Ranenu tzaddikim," and that is "Yitzchak yeranen."
הַשֵּׁם נַחַ"ל הוּא רָאשֵׁי תֵּבוֹת "נַפְשֵׁנוּ "חִכְּתָה "לַה׳
The Name Nachal (a Name of God in Kabbalah, spelled nun, chet, lamed) is the first letters of "Nafsheinu chikta laHashem" (Our soul waits for Hashem).
ויש סגולה לשמירה לומר כל לילה אחר הדלקת נר חנוכה שבעה פעמים ויהי נועם וכו', ומזמור יושב בסתר
There is a practice said to protect: to say each night after lighting the Chanukah light, seven times, "Vihi noam..." and the psalm "Yoshev beseter."
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