We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
THIS CHAPTER discusses the second of the two preliminary liturgical sequences of the morning, Pesukei Dezimra (‘sections of songs’), leading the speaker to the brink of the statutory morning service. Its mostly poetic texts, the majority related to King David—psalms or other writings—involve the speaker in a virtual rebuilding of the Temple planned by David, but completed only by his son Solomon. They also point towards its destruction. The Temple symbolizes communication with God and the happiness resulting from this, while its absence is experienced as the transcendent difficulty of achieving such contact, leaving the exiled speaker no option but to hope for miraculous intervention.
EXTRACT 43. The Introductory Blessing of Pesukei Dezimra
The Kaddish that ended the previous sequence suggests that this passage might constitute a new liturgical opening to the day, without links to what has gone before. But the emphasis on God's blessedness in the first lines resembles phrases in the preceding Kaddish (Extract 41, lines 6–7), while the reference to ‘psalms of David’ (lines 8–9) glances back at the previous psalm and forward at those to come. The earlier psalm now emerges as a preview of others, the speaker quasiauthorially reconciling multi-layered significances to produce kaleidoscopic literary effects in which here and now meets there and then in repeating and constantly renewed harmonies.
Developmentally speaking, this passage is distinct from everything that has gone before. In Amram Gaon's version it begins morning prayer, opening a
Blest is he who but ºspoke and the universe existed! Ps. 33,9
Blest is he, blest—the ºmaker of Genesis, blest—who says Gn.1,1
and performs, blest—who decrees and ºfulfils, blest— Ps. 33,6, B’Br.57
who has mercy upon the world, blest—who has mercy Ku.1,89
upon the creatures, blest—who ºgrants goodly reward Ikk.4,18
unto his venerators, blest—who lives ºto infinity and Ps. 132,14
endures unto the ºfinale, blest—who redeems and rescues; Ps. 68,17
blest is his name!— ºblest art thou, God our Lord, Mai.Tef.4,16
sovereign of the universe, the ºalmighty, ºthe father, the Dt. 10,17
merciful, praised by the mouth of his People, lauded and Ps. 103,13
glorified by the tongue of his ºdevotees, his servants, yea, Ps. 149,1
with the psalms of David thy servitor we ºwill praise thee, II Cr. 23,18
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.
