Siddur › Shacharit › Pesukei DeZimra

TT Siddur · Shacharit

יְהִי כְבוֹד

Yehi Chevod

Eighteen lines, almost all from Tehillim, on one theme: God rules, and His plan holds.

Daven with itRead it here

Draft. This siddur is waiting for a rav's review. For a halachic question, ask your rav.

At a glance

When
Every morning, right before Ashrei
Made of
18 lines, 15 of them straight from Tehillim
Named as early as
Tractate Soferim, usually dated to the 700s
First line said by
An angel, according to the Gemara

The words

Hebrew, then English. Open "What it means" under any line for the explanation.

  1. Eighteen verses, for the eighteen blessings of the Amidah. That is why they are part of the morning songs of praise.

    יְהִי כְבוֹד יְיָ לְעוֹלָם יִשְׂמַח יְיָ בְּמַעֲשָׂיו.

    May the glory of Hashem last forever. May Hashem be happy with what He made.

    What it means

    From Tehillim 104, a long psalm about the natural world. What is "the glory of Hashem"? Ibn Ezra (a Spanish-born commentator of the 1100s): the created things themselves, since they were made by His word. Metzudat David (a line-by-line commentary from the 1700s): people are sometimes saddened by what they made, when it turns out badly for them. Not so God.

    Tehillim 104:31, with Ibn Ezra and Metzudat David

  2. יְהִי שֵׁם יְיָ מְבֹרָךְ מֵעַתָּה וְעַד עוֹלָם.

    May the name of Hashem be blessed from now and forever.

    What it means

    This line and the next two are three verses in a row from Tehillim 113, the psalm that opens Hallel. Radak (Rabbi David Kimchi, Provence, around 1200): "from now" is the present, and "forever" is the time still to come. The main response of Kaddish is close to this line, in Aramaic. The Kaddish DeRabbanan prayer tells where that response comes from.

    Tehillim 113:2-4; Radak on Tehillim 113:2

  3. מִמִּזְרַח שֶׁמֶשׁ עַד מְבוֹאוֹ מְהֻלָּל שֵׁם יְיָ.

    From the rising of the sun to its setting, the name of Hashem is praised.

    What it means

    This could be heard as "all day long." Radak, Ibn Ezra and Metzudat David all read it as a map: from the far east to the far west. Radak: everyone in between praises God, because even the idol worshippers among them admit that He is the highest cause. Ibn Ezra: east to west is the long side of the settled world.

    Radak, Ibn Ezra and Metzudat David on Tehillim 113:3

  4. רָם עַל כָּל גּוֹיִם יְיָ עַל הַשָּׁמַיִם כְּבוֹדוֹ.

    Hashem is high above all nations. His glory is above the heavens.

    What it means

    Radak gives two readings. One: all the nations lift Him up, and still His glory is "above the heavens," because the angels grasp more of it than anyone down here. The other: He is higher than every praise the nations can give, and His glory is higher than the heavens too, because even they cannot take it all in.

    Radak on Tehillim 113:4

  5. יְיָ שִׁמְךָ לְעוֹלָם יְיָ זִכְרְךָ לְדֹר וָדֹר.

    Hashem, Your name is forever. Hashem, Your remembrance is for every generation.

    What it means

    God told Moshe nearly this at the burning bush: "This is My name forever, and this is My remembrance for every generation." Radak: the two halves say one thing twice. Malbim (a commentator of the 1800s) hears two: the "name" is the steady order of nature, which never changes. The "remembrance" is the miracle, done to be remembered, as each generation needs.

    Shemot 3:15; Radak and Malbim on Tehillim 135:13

  6. יְיָ בַּשָּׁמַיִם הֵכִין כִּסְאוֹ וּמַלְכוּתוֹ בַּכֹּל מָשָׁלָה.

    Hashem set up His throne in the heavens, and His kingship rules over everything.

    What it means

    Malbim reads the first half as "although": His throne is set in the heavens, and still His kingship reaches everything. Ibn Ezra: those above and those below. Abudarham (a commentary on the prayers, Spain, about 1340) matches the morning psalms to the ten sayings of creation. This passage, he says, stands for the sky, because of this verse.

    Malbim and Ibn Ezra on Tehillim 103:19; Abudarham, Songs of Praise

  7. יִשְׂמְחוּ הַשָּׁמַיִם וְתָגֵל הָאָרֶץ וְיֹאמְרוּ בַגּוֹיִם יְיָ מָלָךְ.

    Let the heavens be glad and the earth rejoice, and let them say among the nations: Hashem reigns.

    What it means

    The one line here from Divrei HaYamim (Chronicles). You said it in Hodu, where the note gives the explanation printed as Rashi's (the classic commentator, France, died 1105). Tehillim 96, sung in Kabbalat Shabbat, has nearly the same words as two verses, in the other order: first "Say among the nations: Hashem reigns," then the heavens and the earth.

    Divrei HaYamim I 16:31; Tehillim 96:10-11

  8. יְיָ מֶלֶךְ יְיָ מָלָךְ יְיָ יִמְלֹךְ לְעֹלָם וָעֶד.

    Hashem is King, Hashem was King, Hashem will be King forever and ever.

    What it means

    The one line here that is not a verse. Each third comes from a different place in Tanach, and the Hashem Melech prayer, earlier this morning, shows where. Count the lines printed here: they reach the eighteen at the top only if this one is counted. In Nusach Sefard you have already said it twice today, standing.

    Tehillim 10:16 and 93:1; Shemot 15:18; Sha'ar HaKavanot, Nusach HaTefillah

  9. יְיָ מֶלֶךְ עוֹלָם וָעֶד אָבְדוּ גוֹיִם מֵאַרְצוֹ.

    Hashem is King forever and ever. Nations have perished from His land.

    What it means

    Tehillim 10 is about a wicked man who hunts the poor and tells himself that God has forgotten. Rashi: God is King forever once the nations are gone from His land. Radak: this is when God judges the wicked who oppress Israel in exile. He ties it to the verse "Hashem will be King over all the earth."

    Tehillim 10:2, 10:11 and 10:16, with Rashi and Radak; Zecharyah 14:9

  10. יְיָ הֵפִיר עֲצַת גּוֹיִם הֵנִיא מַחְשְׁבוֹת עַמִּים.

    Hashem cancels the plan of nations. He blocks the thoughts of peoples.

    What it means

    Radak: even if every nation were of one plan and one mind, God would cancel it. Both verbs in this line also appear in the Torah's chapter on vows (Bamidbar 30), where they are used for stopping a vow that someone else made.

    Radak on Tehillim 33:10; Bamidbar 30:6 and 30:9

  11. רַבּוֹת מַחֲשָׁבוֹת בְּלֶב אִישׁ וַעֲצַת יְיָ הִיא תָקוּם.

    Many are the thoughts in a person's heart, but the plan of Hashem is what will stand.

    What it means

    The only line here from Mishlei. It is set between two verses that sit side by side in Tehillim 33, and it shares their two key words: thoughts and plan. Metzudat David: sometimes a person thinks up many different plans and not one of them happens. What God planned is what stands, even if it was never among the things that person thought of.

    Mishlei 19:21, with Metzudat David; Tehillim 33:10-11

  12. עֲצַת יְיָ לְעוֹלָם תַּעֲמֹד מַחְשְׁבוֹת לִבּוֹ לְדֹר וָדֹר.

    The plan of Hashem will stand forever, the thoughts of His heart for every generation.

    What it means

    Ibn Ezra: this verse is set against the one two lines back. The plan of nations is cancelled. The plan of Hashem stands. "His heart," he adds, is a figure of speech. Malbim: the plan is the goal, and the thoughts are the steps that lead to it. The goal never changes. The steps change with the generations, which is why the verse ends "for every generation."

    Ibn Ezra on Tehillim 33:11; Malbim on Tehillim 33:10

  13. כִּי הוּא אָמַר וַיֶּהִי הוּא צִוָּה וַיַּעֲמֹד.

    For He spoke, and it came to be. He commanded, and it stood.

    What it means

    In Tehillim 33 this verse comes first, closing a few lines about creation. The two verses you just said from that psalm follow it. Here the order is flipped. Radak: read it either way, about creation, or with what follows: no person can change what He said should be. Abudarham: the name "He who spoke and the world came to be" is built on this verse.

    Tehillim 33:6-11; Radak on Tehillim 33:9; Abudarham, Songs of Praise

  14. כִּי בָחַר יְיָ בְּצִיּוֹן אִוָּהּ לְמוֹשָׁב לוֹ.

    For Hashem has chosen Zion. He wanted it as a home for Himself.

    What it means

    Tehillim 132 tells how David swore not to sleep until he found a place for God. Radak: David is saying, now I know that God has chosen Zion, the city I captured. The next verse there is "This is My resting place forever." Radak: from now on there would be no more moving from place to place, as there had been until then.

    Tehillim 132:2-5 and 132:13-14, with Radak

  15. כִּי יַעֲקֹב בָּחַר לוֹ יָהּ יִשְׂרָאֵל לִסְגֻלָּתוֹ.

    For God chose Yaakov for Himself, Yisrael as His treasure.

    What it means

    The Hebrew can be read two ways: God chose Yaakov, or Yaakov chose God. The Sifrei (an early midrash on Devarim) says both are true. The Story section tells how it gets there.

    Sifrei Devarim 312

  16. כִּי לֹא יִטּשׁ יְיָ עַמּוֹ וְנַחֲלָתוֹ לֹא יַעֲזֹב.

    For Hashem will not desert His people, and He will not leave His inheritance.

    What it means

    From Tehillim 94, the psalm for Wednesday. Earlier in that psalm comes the complaint: "They crush Your people, Hashem, and they torment Your inheritance." Ibn Ezra notes that this verse answers it with the same two words: people, inheritance. Radak: when God disciplines Israel, do not think He has deserted them.

    Tehillim 94:5 and 94:14, with Ibn Ezra and Radak; Mishnah Tamid 7:4

  17. וְהוּא רַחוּם יְכַפֵּר עָוֹן וְלֹא יַשְׁחִית וְהִרְבָּה לְהָשִׁיב אַפּוֹ וְלֹא יָעִיר כָּל חֲמָתוֹ.

    And He, the compassionate One, forgives wrongdoing and does not destroy. Again and again He turns back His anger, and He does not wake up all His rage.

    What it means

    You said this verse a few pages back in Romemu, where its story is told. Radak adds, on "He turns back His anger": that takes strength and much mercy. Malbim explains the two words for anger. Af is the anger that shows on the outside and punishes. Chemah is the anger kept inside. The first, he says, God turns back. The second He does not wake at all.

    Radak and Malbim on Tehillim 78:38

  18. יְיָ הוֹשִׁיעָה הַמֶּלֶךְ יַעֲנֵנוּ בְיוֹם קָרְאֵנוּ.

    Hashem, save. May the King answer us on the day we call.

    What it means

    You have already said this verse twice this morning: at the end of Pitum HaKetoret (the incense passage) and again in Romemu. The note in Romemu explains why "the King" here is God and not a human king. Malbim on why the verse calls Him that: because He is the King who rules over everything, He will answer at once, on the day we call.

    Tehillim 20:10, with Malbim

How to say it

Earlier you stood for "Hashem Melech." Here you need not, rules Kaf HaChaim (a Sephardic law commentary, early 1900s), though he notes a siddur that says to stand. In that line, do not answer Amen between God's name and the next word. After the last line go straight to Ashrei, with no verse between.

Kaf HaChaim, Orach Chaim 51:13 and 51:15

The story

The grass worked it out

The Gemara (the rabbis' discussions built on the Mishnah) says the first line was first said by an angel, the one in charge of the world. On the third day of creation God told the trees to grow each "by its kind." The grasses were told no such thing. They reasoned: trees do not grow tangled together anyway, and God still wanted each kind apart. Then we certainly should. Each kind came up on its own. At that the angel said: "May the glory of Hashem last forever. May Hashem be happy with what He made."

Chullin 60a, with Rashi

Not a psalm

Abudarham (Rabbi David Abudarham of Seville, Spain, who wrote a classic commentary on the prayers around 1340) says it plainly: Yehi Chevod "is not a psalm, but scattered verses." There are eighteen lines. Fifteen are verses from ten different chapters of Tehillim. One is from Divrei HaYamim (Chronicles) and one is from Mishlei (Proverbs). And one is not a verse at all: "Hashem is King, Hashem was King, Hashem will be King." The Hashem Melech prayer tells where that line came from.

Abudarham, Songs of Praise; Divrei HaYamim I 16:31; Mishlei 19:21

Why eighteen?

The siddur this text comes from prints a small note above this prayer. It is a line from the Aruch HaShulchan (a law code from around 1900): the eighteen verses of Yehi Chevod match the eighteen blessings of the Amidah. He uses that to explain something about this siddur. Nusach Sefard says Hodu and the verses after it before Baruch She'amar. Yehi Chevod stayed where it was. Because of the eighteen, he writes, even Nusach Sefard keeps it inside Pesukei DeZimra, the "verses of song" that Baruch She'amar opens.

Aruch HaShulchan, Orach Chaim 50:3-4

For the Rambam it came first

The Rambam (Maimonides, who died in 1204) wrote out the order of the prayers. In his version, right after the blessing of Baruch She'amar, "we read these verses: Yehi chevod," then Ashrei, then on to the end of Tehillim. Nothing stands between the blessing and this prayer. The name is older still. Tractate Soferim, a small tractate usually dated to the 700s, says what to add "after Yehi Chevod." It does not list the verses, so we cannot be sure its Yehi Chevod was our eighteen lines.

Rambam, Order of Prayer; Tractate Soferim 17:11

Hooked together like a chain

In the middle, Hebrew words carry over from line to line. He blocks the machshevot, the thoughts, of peoples. Many are the machashavot in a person's heart, but the atzat Hashem, the plan of Hashem, will stand. The atzat Hashem will stand, ta'amod, forever. He commanded, vaya'amod, and it stood. This is not the order of Tehillim: a verse from Mishlei sits between two verses of Tehillim 33, and verse 9 comes after verse 11. Then four lines in a row open with ki, "for," and two of them share bachar, "chose."

Tehillim 33:9-11; Mishlei 19:21; Tehillim 132:13, 135:4 and 94:14

Who chose whom?

One line can be read two ways in Hebrew: God chose Yaakov, or Yaakov chose God. The Sifrei (an early midrash on Devarim) says so out loud: "We do not know whether the Holy One chose Yaakov or Yaakov chose the Holy One." It settles it from the end of the verse, "Yisrael as His treasure," and from a verse in Devarim: God did the choosing. Then it adds that Yaakov chose God too, and brings a verse for that as well. The Birkot HaTorah prayer takes up what being chosen means.

Sifrei Devarim 312, on Tehillim 135:4

Hard questions

Can God be happy? What would that even mean?

The first line asks for something strange: "May Hashem be happy with what He made." People are happy when things go their way. What could fail to go God's way?

The Gemara (the rabbis' discussions built on the Mishnah) ties the line to a moment in creation. The grasses kept their kinds apart without being told to, and an angel said this verse (the Story section has it). Rashi (the classic commentator, France, died 1105) explains what the angel meant: God is happy with His works because all of them are careful about what He commands.

A Midrash (Vayikra Rabbah, a collection of rabbinic teachings on Vayikra) looks at the tense. The verse does not say "Hashem was happy with what He made." It says "will be happy." God, "so to speak," has not been happy in His world. He will be, in the future, with what the righteous do.

The Radak (Rabbi David Kimchi, Provence, around 1200) gives two readings. In the first, the verse belongs to the end of creation: everything is God's work and His glory, and He is happy with it. In the second, it is about the future. In this world, he writes, there are times of sadness, like the generation of the Flood, where the Torah says God "was saddened in His heart." When people do what God wants, then He is happy.

Then the Radak adds a warning. Happiness and sadness, said about God, are a figure of speech. "He has no happiness and no sadness, and He does not change from one state to another." A person is happy when his work turns out well and sad when it does not, and the verse borrows those words so that listeners understand. The Ribono Shel Olam prayer asks the same question about God's anger.

Put the sources side by side. For the Radak, "happy" is a way of saying that God's work turned out as He wanted. For the Midrash, that has not fully happened yet, and it waits on what people do. That makes the line a wish, not a report.

Tehillim 104:31,Chullin 60a, with Rashi,Vayikra Rabbah 20:2,Radak on Tehillim 104:31,Bereishit 6:6

If God's plan always wins, why bother making plans?

One line here comes from Mishlei (Proverbs), King Shlomo's book of sayings: "Many are the thoughts in a person's heart, but the plan of Hashem is what will stand." It can sound like a reason to stop trying.

Midrash Mishlei (rabbinic teachings on Mishlei) asks who Shlomo had in mind, and gives a list. Avshalom, who thought he would kill his father David and take the throne. Adoniyahu, who decided he was the one fit to be king. Haman. Pharaoh, who ordered every baby boy thrown into the river. None of them, it says, knew that God's plan came before his. On this reading the "many thoughts" are schemes, and the verse says they fail.

The Ramban (Nachmanides, Spain, 1200s) applies the verse to someone who was not scheming at all. Yaakov sent Yosef to check on his brothers. Yosef got lost in a field. A stranger found him and pointed the way, and that led to the pit and to Egypt. Why does the Torah bother with the stranger? To teach, the Ramban says, that "the decree is true and the effort is false." God sent Yosef a guide without his knowing it, "to tell us that the plan of Hashem is what will stand."

In the same comment the Ramban praises Yosef for not giving up. He had many reasons to turn back, and he put up with all of it for his father's honor.

The Malbim (a commentator of the 1800s) says it as a rule. The "thoughts" are all the ways a person weighs to reach a goal, and choosing between them is up to him. But "although the choice is in a person's hand, how the act ends is under God's supervision."

In the Gemara, Rabba reads the verse another way. He means Torah learned for its own sake: a plan that has God's word in it will stand forever. None of these sources says not to plan. For the Malbim, the choosing is yours and the ending is not. Later Yosef told his brothers: "You planned evil against me. God planned it for good."

Mishlei 19:21,Midrash Mishlei 19,Ramban on Bereishit 37:15,Malbim on Mishlei 19:21,Sanhedrin 26b,Bereishit 50:20

"Nations have perished from His land." Is this prayer against non-Jews?

Four of the eighteen lines mention the nations. Two are hard: "Hashem is King forever and ever; nations have perished from His land," and "Hashem cancels the plan of nations."

The first is from Tehillim 10. It describes a wicked person who hides to grab the poor and kill the innocent, and tells himself, "God has forgotten... He never sees." The psalm asks God to break his arm. Then our line. Then the ending: justice for the orphan and the crushed, so that no one on earth terrorizes people anymore.

Rashi (the classic commentator, France, died 1105) adds no limit: God is King forever once the nations are gone from His land. Others say which nations. The Radak (Rabbi David Kimchi, Provence, around 1200): "the wicked who oppress Israel in exile." Metzudat David (a commentary from the 1700s): they were lost "because of their evil deeds." The Meiri (Rabbi Menachem Meiri, Provence, around 1300): "the nations who deny His faith." None of them softens the word "perished."

The second line is from Tehillim 33. The Radak: even if all the nations agreed on one plan, God would cancel it. Ibn Ezra (Rabbi Avraham ibn Ezra, Spain, 1100s): no nation can cancel God's plan, but He cancels theirs.

Other lines sound different. "From the rising of the sun to its setting, the name of Hashem is praised." The Radak: all people, from east to west. Some worship the stars, and still all admit He is the highest cause. On "high above all nations": all the nations lift Him up.

One more source, about a different verse. Tehillim 104, the source of this prayer's first line, ends: "Let sinners vanish from the earth." The Gemara tells of thugs who tormented Rabbi Meir (a sage of the Mishnah) until he prayed for them to die. His wife Beruriah said: is the word "sinners"? It is written "sins." Pray that they change. He did, and they did.

So the prayer does take sides. The commentators say against whom: oppressors, evildoers, those who deny God. It also pictures "Hashem reigns" being said among the nations.

Tehillim 10,Rashi, Radak, Metzudat David and Meiri on Tehillim 10:16,Radak and Ibn Ezra on Tehillim 33:10,Radak on Tehillim 113:3-4,Divrei HaYamim I 16:31,Tehillim 104:35,Berakhot 10a

Sparks

Short ideas from the Chassidic masters, the Kabbalah and the Mussar teachers.

Chassidut

Your plans are how the plan happens

"Many are the thoughts in a person's heart, but the plan of Hashem is what will stand." Of course God's plan wins. Rabbi Simcha Bunim of Peshischa (a Chassidic master in Poland who died in 1827) said that cannot be the point. The news is that God's plan gets carried out through those thoughts themselves, as if they were its cause. The Shem MiShmuel (Rabbi Shmuel Bornsztain of Sochatchov, who died in 1926) quotes him and applies it: the offerings that were part of Bilam's scheme against Israel are what led to the blessings being said by him.

אין רבותא שעצת השי"ת מתקיימת נגד רבות מחשבות שבלב איש, אלא הרבותא מה שממחשבות אלו עצמן נתקיימה עצת ה׳

Rabbi Simcha Bunim of Peshischa, quoted in Shem MiShmuel, Parashat Balak, 5680 (1920)
Chassidut

High up, and still in everything

Two lines here seem to pull apart. "Hashem is high above all nations." And then: "His kingship rules over everything." The Sefat Emet (Rabbi Yehudah Aryeh Leib Alter of Ger, a Chassidic master who died in 1905) puts them together. God is so far above, he writes, that the whole world is not fit to receive His kingship. What Israel came to believe at the splitting of the sea is the second line: high as He is, nothing falls outside His care. He adds that a person who fully believes this is always full of joy.

שהגם שהוא רם ונשא עכ"ז לא יצא שום דבר מהשגחתו ית"ש ומלכותו בכל משלה

Sefat Emet, Pesach, 5655-5656 (1895-1896)
Chassidut

A craftsman happy with his work

Rebbe Nachman of Breslov (a Chassidic master who died in 1810) uses a picture to explain the first line, about Hashem being happy with what He made. A craftsman makes something. It comes out beautiful, and he enjoys it. God's joy, he says, is found inside the mitzvot. So a person who does a mitzvah for the joy of the mitzvah itself, and not for a reward later, steps into God's own joy. He pairs our verse with another from Tehillim: "Israel will rejoice in its Maker."

כְּמוֹ בַּעַל־מְלָאכָה, שֶׁעוֹשֶׂה אֵיזֶה כְּלִי, וְהַכְּלִי הוּא יָפֶה... אֲזַי הוּא מִתְעַנֵּג בָּה

Rebbe Nachman of Breslov, Likutei Moharan I:5
Rav Kook

The name stays. The memory changes.

"Hashem, Your name is forever. Hashem, Your remembrance is for every generation." Why two words? Rav Kook (the first Chief Rabbi of the Land of Israel, who died in 1935) says the "name" is what never changes: God's greatness as it shows in the whole sweep of what He does, from beginning to end. The "remembrance" is the impression each period gets from seeing how God guides that period. That one shifts with the state of the generation, sometimes more and sometimes less. But some mark of God's greatness, he writes, comes out of every generation.

השגה זו הרי משתנה בצביונה, לפי הערך של ההופעה, בריבוי או במיעוט, הכל לפי מצב הדורות

Rav Kook, Olat Re'iyah, on Tehillim 135 (Shabbat morning)

Halacha

The practical laws. For a final ruling, ask your rav.

Is Yehi Chevod inside the no-talking part of davening?

Yes. It comes after Baruch She'amar, the blessing that opens this section, and the Shulchan Aruch (the main code of Jewish law) says not to talk from there until the end of the Amidah. In Nusach Sefard that stands out, because Hodu, another collection of verses, comes before the blessing. The Aruch HaShulchan (a law code by Rabbi Yechiel Michel Epstein, about 1900) explains: its eighteen verses match the eighteen blessings of the Amidah, so even that custom put it inside. Siddur Sefard prints his words above it.

Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 51:4; Aruch HaShulchan, Orach Chaim 50:4; Siddur Sefard, weekday Shacharit

Kaddish starts while I am in Yehi Chevod. Do I answer?

Yes. The Mishnah Berurah (a law commentary, about 1900) allows stopping in these psalms for Kaddish, Kedushah and Barechu. The Ben Ish Chai (Rabbi Yosef Chaim of Baghdad, died 1909) adds a caution from the Arizal (Rabbi Yitzchak Luria, the Kabbalist of Tzfat, 1500s): no other verse may come between Yehi Chevod and Ashrei. So if Kaddish is coming, stop before the end of the eighteen verses and answer. If it comes suddenly, answer, then repeat the last three verses. In a later book he prefers repeating all eighteen.

Mishnah Berurah 51:8; Ben Ish Chai, Year 1, Vayigash 11; Od Yosef Chai, Vayigash 8; Sha'ar HaKavanot, Morning Prayer

I came late. Can I skip Yehi Chevod?

Most of it, yes. The Shulchan Aruch's short list for a latecomer leaves it out. The Rema (Rabbi Moshe Isserles, who added Ashkenazi practice to it) says that with more time you say Hodu up to Vehu Rachum, then jump to the Vehu Rachum before Ashrei, since in between are "only collected verses." That is the second-to-last verse of Yehi Chevod. The Kitzur Shulchan Aruch (a short law guide, 1860s): start there, and say the rest after davening. The Hodu and Romemu cards give the order, and the view not to skip at all.

Shulchan Aruch and Rema, Orach Chaim 52:1; Kitzur Shulchan Aruch 14:7

On Shabbat there is no Mizmor LeTodah. Where is Yehi Chevod?

In the same slot, after different psalms. On a weekday it follows Mizmor LeTodah, which is not said on Shabbat or Yom Tov (the festivals). On Shabbat morning Siddur Sefard has Baruch She'amar, then Mizmor Shir LeYom HaShabbat (Tehillim 92), then Hashem Malach (Tehillim 93), then Yehi Chevod and Ashrei. The Kaf HaChaim (a Sephardic law commentary, early 1900s) records the same order. The Arizal adds that Ashrei follows Yehi Chevod right away, with no break, "even on Shabbat."

Siddur Sefard, Shabbat morning; Kaf HaChaim, Orach Chaim 51:49; Sha'ar HaKavanot, Morning Prayer

Vehu Rachum is left out on Friday night. Is it left out here on Shabbat?

No, by the common custom. The Tur (a code of Jewish law from the 1300s) notes that Ashkenaz does not say Vehu Rachum at Maariv, the evening prayer, on Shabbat. Rabbi Yaakov Emden (1700s) wrote in his siddur to drop it from the Shabbat morning psalms too. The Chida (Rabbi Chaim Yosef David Azulai, 1700s) ruled to say it, even on Shabbat and Yom Tov. The Kaf HaChaim quotes his reason: nearly the whole world says it, including Jerusalem, Hebron, Egypt and Italy. The Arizal says the same, and Siddur Sefard prints it.

Tur, Orach Chaim 267; Kesher Gudal 7:40; Kaf HaChaim 267:5 and 51:14; Sha'ar HaKavanot, Nusach HaTefillah

Sources

Show the 10 sources quoted on this page
  • Chullin 60a

    מִיָּד כׇּל אֶחָד וְאֶחָד יָצָא לְמִינוֹ, פָּתַח שַׂר הָעוֹלָם וְאָמַר: ״יְהִי כְבוֹד ה׳ לְעוֹלָם יִשְׂמַח ה׳ בְּמַעֲשָׂיו״.

    Right away each one came up by its own kind. The angel in charge of the world spoke up and said: "May the glory of Hashem last forever. May Hashem be happy with what He made."

  • Vayikra Rabbah 20:2

    כִּבְיָכוֹל הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא לֹא שָׂמַח בְּעוֹלָמוֹ, שָׂמַח ה׳ בְּמַעֲשָׂיו אֵינוֹ אוֹמֵר, אֶלָּא יִשְׂמַח, עָתִיד הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא לִשְׂמֹחַ בְּמַעֲשֵׂיהֶם שֶׁל צַדִּיקִים לֶעָתִיד לָבוֹא.

    So to speak, the Holy One has not been happy in His world. It does not say "Hashem was happy with what He made" but "will be happy." In the future the Holy One will be happy with what the righteous do.

  • Radak on Tehillim 104:31

    והשמחה והעצבון בו יתברך דרך משל כי אין לו שמחה ועצבון ולא ישתנה ממדה למדה אלא כמו שבן אדם ישמח בהצלחת מעשיו ויעצב בהפך זה, כך נאמר הדבר על האל יתברך דרך משל להבין השומעים.

    Happiness and sadness, said about God, are a figure of speech. He has no happiness and no sadness, and He does not change from one state to another. A person is happy when his work succeeds and sad when it does not, and so the thing is said about God as a figure of speech, for listeners to understand.

  • Abudarham, Songs of Praise

    יהי כבוד ה׳ לעולם אינו מזמור אלא פסוקים מפוזרים מהתלים.

    "Yehi chevod Hashem le'olam" is not a psalm, but scattered verses from Tehillim.

  • Rambam, Order of Prayer

    וְקוֹרִין פְּסוּקִין אֵלּוּ יְהִי כְבוֹד ה׳ לְעוֹלָם יִשְׂמַח ה׳ בְּמַעֲשָׂיו כוּ׳ אַשְׁרֵי כוּ׳ עַד סוֹף תִּלִּים.

    And we read these verses: "May the glory of Hashem last forever, may Hashem be happy with what He made," and so on, then Ashrei, and so on to the end of Tehillim.

  • Aruch HaShulchan, Orach Chaim 50:4

    ושמונה עשר פסוקי "יהי כבוד" כנגד שמונה עשרה ברכות דשמונה עשרה. ולפיכך אפילו לפי מנהג הספרדים הכניסום בתוך פסוקי דזמרה.

    The eighteen verses of Yehi Chevod match the eighteen blessings of the Amidah. That is why, even in the custom of Sefard, they were placed inside Pesukei DeZimra.

  • Ramban on Bereishit 37:15

    וּלְהוֹדִיעֵנוּ עוֹד כִּי הַגְּזֵרָה אֱמֶת וְהַחֲרִיצוּת שֶׁקֶר, כִּי זִמֵּן לוֹ הקב"ה מוֹרֵה דֶּרֶךְ שֶׁלֹּא מִדַּעְתּוֹ לַהֲבִיאוֹ בְּיָדָם... לְהוֹדִיעֵנוּ כִּי עֲצַת ה׳ הִיא תָּקוּם.

    And also to teach us that the decree is true and the effort is false. God arranged a guide for him, without his knowing it, to bring him into their hands... to tell us that "the plan of Hashem is what will stand."

  • Sifrei Devarim 312

    וְאֵין אָנוּ יוֹדְעִים אִם הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא בָּחַר בְּיַעֲקֹב אִם יַעֲקֹב בָּחַר בַּקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא? תַּלְמוּד לוֹמַר ״יִשְׂרָאֵל לִסְגֻלָּתוֹ״.

    We do not know whether the Holy One chose Yaakov or Yaakov chose the Holy One. So the verse says: "Yisrael as His treasure."

  • Radak on Tehillim 113:3

    כי כל בני אדם שהם מן המזרח עד המערב כולם יהללו יה כי אף על פי שיש בהם עובדי כוכבים ומזלות הכל מודים כי הוא הסיבה העליונה.

    All people, from the east to the west, all of them praise God. Even though some of them worship the stars, all admit that He is the highest cause.

  • Berakhot 10a

    אָמְרָה לֵיהּ בְּרוּרְיָא דְּבֵיתְהוּ: מַאי דַּעְתָּךְ, מִשּׁוּם דִּכְתִיב ״יִתַּמּוּ חַטָּאִים״, מִי כְּתִיב ״חוֹטְאִים״? ״חַטָּאִים״ כְּתִיב.

    His wife Beruriah said to him: What are you thinking? Because it is written "Let sinners vanish"? Is the word "sinners"? It is written "sins."

Every prayer in the siddur

The Opportunity Year · Tel Aviv, Israel

Learn like this for a year

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.

Apply Now See the program