Vihi Noam: Tehillim 91

Why this psalm, on Saturday night?

Shibbolei HaLeket (a book of Jewish law and custom from Italy, 1200s) gives an answer from the author's brother, Rabbi Binyamin. On Shabbat we need no extra guarding, because Shabbat guards itself and those who keep it. On Saturday night the weekdays begin, and now we do. So we say a psalm about being kept safe from harmful forces, and from Gehinnom (the place of punishment after death). Uva LeTzion, part 1, tells the old tradition about Gehinnom on Saturday night.

Moshe's blessing for the builders

The Torah does not say what Moshe's blessing was. The Sifra gives two answers. In the one Rashi quotes, Moshe says: may God's Presence rest on the work of your hands, and Rashi points to Vihi Noam as the words. In another view, Rabbi Meir (an early rabbi) says Moshe blessed them with a different verse, from Devarim, and the people answered with Vihi Noam. The Tur (a code of Jewish law, Spain, 1300s) says this is why we say it: it is a psalm of blessing.

Who wrote Yoshev Beseter?

Tehillim 91 has no author's name. Midrash Tehillim (a collection of rabbinic teachings on Tehillim) says: you might think King Shlomo said it, but only Moshe did, right after the builders finished and he blessed them. Radak (Rabbi David Kimchi, Provence, about 1200) says that is why the Midrash gives Moshe all eleven psalms from 90 on that name no other writer. Ibn Ezra (Spain, 1100s) is more careful: perhaps Moshe, perhaps one of the other psalm writers. Mizmor LeTodah has the eleven psalms of Moshe.

The Gemara already knew it

The Gemara (the rabbis' discussions built on the Mishnah) knew this psalm as a "song of pega'im," harmful things that strike people. In Shevuot 15b it lists the songs sung when an addition to Jerusalem or the Temple courtyards was dedicated, and quotes Tehillim 91 from its first verse. Rashi says Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi, a Gemara teacher, would say these verses when he went to sleep at night. The Gemara allows it: the verses are for protection, not for healing.

Only if the week has work in it

The prayer asks God to establish "the work of our hands," so it is skipped when a Yom Tov falls in the coming week. Rav Shalom Gaon (a head of a Babylonian academy in the early Middle Ages) gave the reason: Yom Tov has no work. In the Tur's version of his ruling, the prayer says those words twice, so it needs six full weekdays. The Mishnah Berurah (a central commentary on daily Jewish law, written around 1900) says even a Yom Tov on Friday cancels it. Purim does not.

The last verse is said twice

The final verse, "I will satisfy him with long life," is said two times. The Tur says it is so that "the Name that comes out of it is completed." The Magen Avraham (a major commentary on the Shulchan Aruch, 1600s) passes on one explanation: the word "bishuati" has two yuds, saying it twice makes four, and he ties that to a way of spelling God's four-letter Name. The Arukh HaShulchan says plainly that none of us knows what this means. In its plain sense, he adds, this verse is said twice wherever it comes up.

When Shabbat ends, ask for joy

The Zohar says that even the wicked who are being punished in Gehinnom (the place of punishment after death) get to rest on Shabbat. When Shabbat ends, their punishment starts again. So the Zohar says we should awaken a great joy over ourselves, so that we are saved from that punishment. The verse it names for this is Vihi Noam. It calls the noam in the verse "the joy of everything." Now read the first line again.

כֵּיוָן דְּנָפִיק שַׁבְּתָא, אִית לָן לְאַתְעָרָא חֵידוּ עִלָּאָה עָלָנָא, דְּנִשְׁתֵּזִיב מֵהַהוּא עוֹנְשָׁא דְּחַיָּבָיא

Pleasantness means a way back

The Zohar Chadash (a later collection of Zohar teachings) asks: who is the noam, the pleasantness, of Hashem? Its answer is teshuvah, which means turning back to the right path. It uses a verse from Tehillim 27, "to see the pleasantness of Hashem," and says that means teshuvah too, and the World to Come. In the same book, Naomi, the mother-in-law in the Book of Ruth, gets her name from this verse. Now read the word noam again.

מַאן נוֹעַם ה'. דָּא תְּשׁוּבָה.

A prayer for when your heart is not in it

The Zohar says God wants a person's heart and will. Someone who does a mitzvah without that focus is still fortunate, because he did what his Master commanded. But it is not counted the same as doing it for its own sake. And not everyone knows how to bring their heart to what they are doing. For that reason, the Zohar says, this prayer was said: "the work of our hands, establish it for us." Now read the second half of the verse again.

דְּהָא קוּדְשָׁא בְּרִיךְ הוּא בָּעֵי לִבָּא, וּרְעוּתָא דְּבַר נָשׁ

Shabbat has no work, so this is about Monday

Rabbi Tzadok HaKohen of Lublin (a Chassidic teacher in Poland in the 1800s) notes that on Shabbat there is no "work of our hands" at all. So when we say this verse on Saturday night, we are asking about the six days ahead: that the holiness in what we do should be set in place and last. He adds, drawing on the Rambam (Maimonides, the great medieval legal authority), that even earning a living becomes holy service when it is done for the sake of Heaven, for example to raise your children to learn Torah.

שבשבת אין מעשה ידינו כלל ומבקשים על ימי המעשה שמעשה ידינו יהיה כוננה עלינו

Your guards are made of your mitzvot

The verse says God will command His angels to guard you in all your ways. Rabbi Shlomo of Radomsk (a Chassidic master in Poland in the 1800s) writes that when a person does a mitzvah, an angel is made from it. That angel stays to help the person do the next mitzvah, because one mitzvah pulls the next. He reads "His angels" in this verse as those angels, the ones made from your own mitzvot and good deeds.

אם האדם עושה מצוה נברא ממנו מלאך למעלה והוא העומד להיות לאדם לעזר בבחי' מצוה גוררת מצוה

Do I stand for it?

For the first verse, yes. The Mishnah Berurah (a central commentary on daily Jewish law, written around 1900) says the verse "Vihi Noam" must be said standing. The Kaf HaChaim (a Sefardi law commentary from the early 1900s) and the Ben Ish Hai (Rabbi Yosef Chaim of Baghdad, 1800s) go further, following the Arizal (the great kabbalist of Tzfat, 1500s): say the whole psalm standing, or at least this verse standing, and then sit. Their reason: this is a moment to receive some of Shabbat's holiness into the week.

Do I say it every Saturday night?

Almost always. The Rema (Rabbi Moshe Isserles, who added Ashkenazi practice to the Shulchan Aruch, the main code of Jewish law) says it is left out when a Yom Tov falls in the coming week. The Mishnah Berurah gives the reason: the verse says "the work of our hands," so the whole week should be fit for work. Even a Yom Tov on Friday means skipping it. Purim and the eve of Pesach do not.

I follow Sefardi custom. Do I skip it in a Yom Tov week?

Many Sefardi authorities (from Spanish and Middle Eastern communities, not Nusach Sefard) say no. The Kaf HaChaim writes that, following the Arizal, it is said every Saturday night, even with a Yom Tov that week. The Ben Ish Hai agrees: plain-sense authorities skip it, but by the hidden teachings it is said every week. He changed the custom in Baghdad's synagogues. The Kaf HaChaim quotes the Chida (Rabbi Chaim Yosef David Azulai, 1700s): where the congregation skipped it, some leading rabbis said it quietly.

If Vihi Noam is skipped, is the next part skipped too?

The next part is "Ve'atah kadosh," the start of the closing Kedushah section. The Tur (an early code of law, 1300s) says Ashkenazi communities skip it in those weeks. The Rema follows that, and says they say only the blessing verses, "Veyitten lecha." The Tur adds that Spain did not do this: there they began with the verse "Orech yamim" and went on to "Ve'atah kadosh." The Kaf HaChaim says that by the Arizal's way, both are said every week.

Do I have to say the last verse twice?

It is a custom, not a rule. The Mishnah Berurah says people are accustomed to double the verse "Orech yamim." The Tur gives a reason: doing so completes a Name of God that comes out of the verse. The Arukh HaShulchan (a code of law by Rabbi Yechiel Michel Epstein, from around 1900) repeats the Tur's reason and admits he does not know what it means. Our siddur prints the verse twice.

Do I say it at a shiva minyan?

It depends on the place. The Mishnah Berurah says some places do not say Vihi Noam in a house of mourning (where a family is sitting shiva, the first week of mourning) and begin at "Yoshev beseter." The Kaf HaChaim adds that some places skipped "Yoshev beseter" too and began at "Orech yamim." He concludes, from the Arizal, that the verse "Vihi Noam" should still be said.