Vayevarech David

Near the end of David's life

David wanted to build the Temple. God told him no: "You are a man of wars, and you have shed blood." So he gathered the materials for his son Shlomo, gave his own gold and silver, and asked: who else will give today? The leaders gave, and the people were happy, because they gave with a whole heart. Then, in front of the whole crowd, David said these words. At the end of the same chapter, the book reports his death, "full of days, wealth and honor."

Why Yaakov and not Avraham?

David says "God of Israel our father." Israel here is Yaakov. Why not Avraham? Bereishit Rabbah (an early midrash on Bereishit) answers: the people had just made pledges, and Yaakov was the first to make a vow. He had promised God: "Of all that You give me, I will give a tenth back to You." So David named the one who started it. The Radak (Rabbi David Kimchi, Provence, around 1200) adds that Yaakov was also the first to speak of a house for God: "This stone will be God's house."

Trying to outdo Yitro

The Gemara has a sharp line about the Exodus. It was an embarrassment for Moshe and the 600,000 that none of them said "Blessed" until Yitro arrived and said, "Blessed is Hashem, who saved you." Yitro was a convert. The commentary printed as Rashi on Divrei HaYamim hears that story behind David's "from forever to forever." David is saying: Yitro was one convert among 600,000, and he blessed. I am going to add to it and bless God more than Yitro did.

Two worlds in one phrase

Me'olam ve'ad olam is usually translated "forever and ever." Metzudat David (a classic commentary on Tanach from the 1700s) reads it as from this world to the World to Come. The Mishnah tells a story about this phrase. Blessings in the Temple used to end with only "from the world." When heretics began to say there is only one world, the Sages changed the ending to "from the world and until the world." The wording itself became the answer.

Why the Temple had no Amen

The last line is not David's. It comes from Nechemiah, centuries later. The people who had come back from the Babylonian exile gathered after Sukkot, fasting and in sackcloth. The Levites called out: "Stand up, bless Hashem your God from forever to forever. Let them bless Your glorious name, raised above every blessing and praise." The Gemara learns from this verse that in the Temple, people did not answer Amen. "Above every blessing" means: for each blessing, give God its own praise.

These words were once part of Modim

When the prayer leader reaches Modim, everyone bows and says a short thank-you of their own. The Talmud Yerushalmi (the Gemara of the Land of Israel) collects the versions different sages whispered. Bar Kappara's version runs through our verses, from "Yours, Hashem, is the greatness" to "and now, our God, we thank You." Here you say those words again. The Rema (Rabbi Moshe Isserles, Krakow, 1500s) rules that you do not bow at it. The Aruch HaShulchan (a law code, around 1900): we bow only where the Sages set it.

Why the Song at the Sea comes next

The Tur (a code of Jewish law by Rabbi Yaakov ben Asher, 1300s) says that in the order set by the Geonim (the heads of the Babylonian academies after the Gemara), some say this passage. His reason, for it and for the Song at the Sea that follows: the fifteen words of praise in Yishtabach are drawn from these two places. You can see the link in the Mekhilta (an early midrash on Shemot). On "I will sing to Hashem" it says greatness and might belong to Hashem, "and so David said: Yours, Hashem, is the greatness."

The more you learn, the more you wonder

The Gemara reads "Yours, Hashem, is the greatness" as the creation of the world. Rav Kook (the first Chief Rabbi of the Land of Israel, who died in 1935) explains. Everything that exists is really one great work. If we could see all of it at once, it would look like a single person, body and spirit. But we only ever see parts. So every new thing we learn opens more puzzles than it closes. We go, he writes, "from wonder to wonder." Now read "the greatness" again.

כי כל שיוסיף דעת עוד יוסיף פליאות על פליאות... הננו הולכים מפליאה אל פליאה

What blocks you can make you stronger

Netzach means "victory," and it also means "forever." The Gemara reads this word as the fall of a great empire. Rav Kook asks what it takes to last forever. Anything that keeps moving will be stopped once enough things get in its way. The only way to last forever is to be built so that every force that blocks you, by blocking you, adds to your strength. Then you go "from strength to strength." He says God's plan for the world, carried by Israel, works this way: every attack on it is turned into more strength and light.

שכל כח מפריע יהיה דוקא בהפרעתו ובנגודו מוסיף לה כח, אז תלך מחיל אל חיל

Even crowning God is His gift

Rabbi Yisrael Hopstein, the Maggid of Kozhnitz (a Chassidic master in Poland, who died in 1814), notices a word. The verse does not say melukhah, "kingship." It says mamlachah, and he hears in it our act of making God king. David is saying: everything is Yours, even our crowning You. That too comes from Your strength, since You give us our strength. He reads Avraham the same way. "He believed in Hashem, and He counted it as tzedakah": Avraham counted it as God's kindness that God gave him a mind able to believe.

שהכל שלך הוא אפילו מה שממליכין אותך הוא מכח שלך

Help that lets you do it yourself

The verse ends: "In Your hand it is to make great and to strengthen all." The Sefat Emet (Rabbi Yehudah Aryeh Leib Alter of Ger, a Chassidic leader who died in 1905) says these are two different gifts. Making great is like the miracles done for Avraham. Strengthening is when God makes a person stronger just as he is, so the blessing shows up in the work of his own hands. That, he says, is the greater kindness. Someone who lives on what is not his is embarrassed to look the giver in the face.

הגדולה הוא מדת אברהם אבל לחזק הוא בחי' יד החזקה שהקב"ה מחזק את האדם כמו שהוא להיות הברכה שולט במעשה ידיו. וזה חסד גדול ביותר.

Give before you stand before God

The custom of giving charity in this prayer goes back to the Arizal (Rabbi Yitzchak Luria, the great Kabbalist of Tzfat, who died in 1572). His student Rabbi Chaim Vital writes: give charity every morning before the Amidah, because of the verse "Through tzedek I will see Your face" (Tehillim 17:15). The Arizal gave it at "You rule over everything," standing. One reason: a mitzvah should be done standing. Another: the poor person stands for God's presence in the world, which sits on the ground, and the gift lifts it up.

היה נוהג מורי זלה"ה ליתן צדקה עתה באומרו ואתה מושל בכל. והטעם, כי הלא הצדקה הוא מ"ע, וראוי לעשות המצוה מעומד.

Do I stand for this? Until where?

Yes. The Rema (Rabbi Moshe Isserles, who added Ashkenazi practice to the Shulchan Aruch, the main code of Jewish law) says the custom is to stand. In another work he notes the Maharil (a leading German rabbi of the early 1400s) stayed seated, but people now stand until "tifartekha," the end of David's verses. Rabbi Chaim Vital saw his teacher the Arizal (the great Kabbalist of Tzfat, 1500s) stand until "Atah hu Hashem ha'Elokim," in the next paragraph. The Mishnah Berurah and this siddur say the same.

Why do people take out coins in the middle of this?

The Shulchan Aruch says it is good to give charity before praying. Rabbi Chaim Vital records that his teacher, the Arizal, gave his at "ve'atah moshel bakol," "You rule over everything," standing. The Mishnah Berurah records that some communities made it a set custom to give at this verse.

Why two coins and then one? And what if nobody is collecting?

This siddur's note, from the Chida (Rabbi Chaim Yosef David Azulai, 1700s), says: three coins, two together and then the third, and calls the reason a deep secret. The Ben Ish Chai (Rabbi Yosef Chaim of Baghdad, died 1909): hand them to a collector if one is there. If not, hold a charity pouch in your left hand and drop them in with your right. The Kaf HaChaim (a Sephardic law commentary, early 1900s) adds: if all you have is a bigger coin, pledge part of it silently, since you cannot interrupt here.

There is no money on Shabbat. What happens at this verse then?

The Ben Ish Chai, in his book Od Yosef Chai, describes pious people who keep the custom anyway. On Friday they wrap two coins in one paper and one coin in another, label them, and leave them in a window at home. On Shabbat, at "ve'atah moshel bakol," they picture the coins and pledge them in their hearts, and give them after Shabbat. He calls it a fine custom, because here a thought counts as an action. His father, he writes, did something like it, quietly pledging piles of silver coins set out before Shabbat.

The words say "we thank You." Do I bow, like at Modim in the Amidah?

No. The Rema rules that at "ve'atah Elokeinu modim anachnu lakh" you do not bow. The Sages fixed where we bow in the Amidah, and the Shulchan Aruch says someone who wants to bow at the start or end of its other blessings is taught not to. The Aruch HaShulchan (a code of law by Rabbi Yechiel Michel Epstein, around 1900) explains that "thanks" here means praise, not bowing, so bowing at this line is foolish. But a small bow because your heart was stirred, he adds, is praiseworthy.

I started a blessing by mistake. How can this verse save me?

The Kitzur Shulchan Aruch (a short guide to daily Jewish law from the 1860s) rules: if you said "Baruch atah Hashem Elokei" and caught it before finishing Elokeinu, end with "Yisrael avinu me'olam ve'ad olam." Now you have said David's words from this prayer, a verse, so God's name was not said for nothing. He still adds "Baruch shem kevod malchuto le'olam va'ed." The Kaf HaChaim gives the reason: the verse itself opens with "Vayevarech David," not "Baruch atah."