May Your Name Be Praised: Shochen Ad and Yishtabach

Look at the four lines that begin with בְּפִי יְשָׁרִים. Each line names a group: the upright, the righteous, the pious, the holy. Take the first letter of each group: the י of יְשָׁרִים, the צ of צַדִּיקִים, the ח of חֲסִידִים, the ק of קְדוֹשִׁים. Together they spell יִצְחָק, Yitzchak. Now look at the verb at the end of each line. Each one begins with תִּתְ; skip these two letters and take the third: the ר of תִּתְרוֹמָם, the ב of תִּתְבָּרֵךְ, the ק of תִּתְקַדָּשׁ, the ה of תִּתְהַלָּל. Together they spell רִבְקָה, Rivkah (§G68).

The Abudarham, on the Shabbos morning prayer, writes exactly this: “You find in the first letters Yitzchak and Rivkah”, and he spells them out letter by letter. Then: “Some say that the sage who composed this was named Yitzchak and his wife’s name was Rivkah, and he made it in honor of Yitzchak our father and Rivkah our mother, to remind us of their merit.”

The Kol Bo (37) shows how the lines came to have this order. He brings the words of Rabbi Nasan, in which the verbs are matched differently: the upright with תִּתְהַלָּל, because “praise is fitting for the upright”; the righteous with תִּתְבָּרֵךְ, because “blessings are on the head of the righteous”; the pious with תִּתְרוֹמָם; the holy with תִּתְקַדָּשׁ. Then he writes: “So they arranged it in the old machzorim; but the new ones … because they saw Yitzchak signed at the heads of the lines, sought to sign Rivkah at the end of the lines.” And his own reason for the first name: “It seems to me that it is because of the Midrash that רַנְּנוּ צַדִּיקִים is about Yitzchak, that he was signed in it.” I did not open that Midrash.

One more small difference. Rabbi Nasan in the Kol Bo, and the Abudarham, both read ובדברי צדיקים, “in the words of the righteous”. Our siddur reads וּבְשִׂפְתֵי צַדִּיקִים, “on the lips of the righteous”. The two names come out the same.

The Abudarham finds one more name, at the start of Yishtabach: “And you find that שִׁמְךָ לָעַד מַלְכֵּנוּ הָאֵל are the first letters of Shlomo; and it is possible that the sage who composed it had this name, and made it in honor of King Shlomo.” Notice his word: “it is possible”. He offers it as a possibility, not as a tradition, and so do I.

Shochen Ad itself is built from verses. Its first words come from Yeshayahu 57:15: “He dwells forever, and holy is His Name”, and the verse goes on: “in the high and holy place I dwell”. That verse opens with the words רָם וְנִשָּׂא, “high and exalted”, the very words with which Nishmas ended a moment ago; I noticed this myself, no source says it. Our siddur puts a comma after עַד: “He Who dwells forever, exalted and holy is His Name”, just as in the verse, where עַד ends the first phrase.

Then the siddur says וְכָתוּב, “and it is written”, and quotes Tehillim 33:1 whole: “Sing joyfully, righteous ones, in Hashem; for the upright, praise is fitting.” The four lines that follow take up these words: the upright and the righteous of the verse, and then the pious and the holy.

After יִשְׁתַּבַּח שִׁמְךָ and the words כִּי לְךָ נָאֶה, “for to You it is fitting”, come fifteen words of praise, one after another: shir and sh’vachah, hallel and zimrah, oz and memshalah, netzach, g’dulah and g’vurah, t’hillah and tif’eres, k’dushah and malchus. That is thirteen. Then b’rachos and hoda’os: fifteen. (Each one is translated in the Text section, and their forms are in §G70.)

Where do they come from? The Tur (Orach Chaim 51) explains why we say Vayevarech David and the Song of the Sea just before Yishtabach: “the reason is that all those fifteen expressions of praise set in the blessing Yishtabach, are expounded in the Mechilta from the Song of the Sea and from those verses of Vayevarech David.” The Alter Rebbe writes the same (Shulchan Aruch HaRav 51:1): “the fifteen expressions of praise enumerated in the blessing Yishtabach are all derived by the Sages … from the Song of the Sea and from the above verses beginning with Vayivarech David.” The translator gives the source: the Mechilta, Parshas HaShirah (as cited). So the fifteen are the harvest of all the songs we said before: we sang, and now we gather the songs into fifteen words.

Why fifteen? The Abudarham: “All these fifteen expressions of praise correspond to the fifteen Shir HaMaalos that David said, and to the fifteen steps set out in the Haggadah of Pesach.” I checked: Tehillim 120 to 134 are fifteen psalms, each beginning with שִׁיר הַמַּעֲלוֹת (in 121: לַמַּעֲלוֹת). The Chabad commentary, from the Or HaTorah (as cited), says: “These fifteen expressions parallel the fifteen Shir HaMaalos psalms and the fifteen words in the verse” of Devarim 26:17, and I counted fifteen words there too. It adds that fifteen is the numerical value of the first two letters of Hashem’s Name, yud (10) and hei (5).

The Mishnah Berurah (53:1) speaks of “all the fifteen praises in Yishtabach”: “one should be very careful not to interrupt between them, … but it need not be in one breath.” The Aruch HaShulchan (53:1), in the name of the Magen Avraham (as cited), writes that it is proper to say them in one breath, if one is able, “for it is not fitting to interrupt the praises of Hashem, even with a mere breath.” How to say them in practice is a question for your rav.

Baruch She’amar (Lesson 10) opens Pesukei D’zimra with a blessing; Yishtabach closes it with a blessing. The Alter Rebbe (54:1): “[The blessing] Yishtabach does not begin with Baruch, because it is [considered as] continuous with [the blessing] Baruch SheAmar.” That is why Yishtabach does not begin with the word בָּרוּךְ, although it ends with one. The Abudarham says the same, and adds: “and the verses in between are not an interruption.”

Because the two blessings are one frame, we do not talk inside it. The Alter Rebbe (51:4): “One must take care not to make an interruption by speaking from the time one begins Baruch SheAmar … until the conclusion of Shemoneh Esreh.” Baruch She’amar is the blessing before, Yishtabach the blessing after, and “it is forbidden to make an interruption between them even for the sake of a purpose associated with a mitzvah”. He says it again in 53:3: “because it is forbidden to make an interruption from Baruch SheAmar until the end of Yishtabach even for the sake of a mitzvah”.

Between Yishtabach and Yotzer Or, too (54:3): “A person who speaks between Yishtabach and [the beginning of the blessing] Yotzer [Or] has committed a sin. [In former times] this would be sufficient cause for such a person to return from the battle lines”. The Abudarham brings a Midrash (as cited) on the verse about the soldier sent home from the war: “‘Who is the man who is afraid and faint-hearted?’ This is the one who talks from Baruch She’amar until the end of the prayer.” Still, there the Alter Rebbe adds: “There are those who maintain that it is permitted to make an interruption for communal needs or for the sake of a mitzvah”.

What may be answered in the middle, such as Amen or Kaddish, and what to do if one did talk, are detailed laws (Shulchan Aruch HaRav 51 and 53-54). In practice, ask your rav.

Standing. The Tur (53): “and the sheliach tzibbur stands and begins Yishtabach.” The Shulchan Aruch (53:1): “The sheliach tzibbur says Yishtabach standing.” The Alter Rebbe (53:1) explains why: the Kaddish after Yishtabach must follow it at once, and: “It is forbidden to make any interruption at all between them.” So the sheliach tzibbur stands already for Yishtabach, “so that he will not make an interruption by rising from his seat between Yishtabach and the Kaddish that follows it.” And for the whole congregation: “Nevertheless, it is customary to stand while reciting Yishtabach, even [when praying] alone.” The Mishnah Berurah (53:1) brings the same custom of “men of deeds”, on Shabbos and on weekdays, even alone.

Amen. In the closing blessing, the words בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יְיָ אֵל מֶלֶךְ גָּדוֹל וּמְהֻלָּל בַּתִּשְׁבָּחוֹת sound like the end of a blessing. They are not. The Alter Rebbe (54:2) rules that one does not say Amen there, “for this is not the conclusion of the blessing. Instead, it should be said after the words Chei HaOlamim, for this is the conclusion of the blessing.” The Abudarham brings the same from the Rosh. The translator adds (54, note 7): “In the Alter Rebbe’s Siddur, the wording is ...Gadol U’Mehullal BaTishbachos.” That is how our siddur prints it, and, as we saw in Lesson 10, with a chirik under the ת of בַּתִּשְׁבָּחוֹת.

Amen after my own Yishtabach? The Alter Rebbe (54:1) brings the custom of many places to answer Amen even after one’s own Yishtabach. Then he writes: “However, certain authorities maintain that one should not say Amen after one’s own blessing except after Boneh Yerushalayim in the Grace … This is the practice in these countries.” What to do in your congregation, ask your rav.

In Lesson 10 we learned how Baruch She’amar ends: “Unique, Life of the worlds, King”, and the pause before מְשֻׁבָּח. Now Yishtabach, the other end of the same frame, ends with the same three words in another order: מֶלֶךְ יָחִיד חֵי הָעוֹלָמִים, “King, Unique, Life of the worlds”.

The Alter Rebbe asks about this in Torah Or (Mikeitz 40c): “The matter is this: sometimes we say ‘Unique, Life of the worlds, King’, and sometimes we say ‘King, Unique, Life of the worlds’.” His answer, in short (my paraphrase of the Hebrew): in Baruch She’amar, יָחִיד comes first. He is unique and alone, holy and set apart, and to become the Life of the worlds He contracts His light many times, down to the level of King. In Yishtabach, מֶלֶךְ comes first: “that to be the Life of the worlds He contracts Himself into the level of King; and this level of King, although it is the last level compared with the Infinite Himself, is nevertheless in the level of Unique.”

The Chabad commentary on Yishtabach sums it up: “In Baruch SheAmar, we describe how G‑dly influence is being drawn down from the level of yachid, G‑d’s singular oneness, to Malchus, G‑d’s kingship, through the level of chei ha’olamim, “the life of the worlds.”” And in Yishtabach, “He remains Melech yachid, i.e., the sublime oneness of His Essence is drawn down to His kingship.”

So the two blessings are like the two doors of one hall. At the entrance, the Unique One comes down to be King. At the exit, after all the songs, the King is shown to be the Unique One.