Weekly Tefilah Focus

How exciting and energizing it is to begin a new cycle of Weekly Tefilah Focus!

B’tzeis Yisrael miMitzrayim, Beis Yaakov mei’am lo’eiz.

When klal Yisrael [the men] left from the land of Mitzrayim, (and) Beis Yaakov [the women] left from a people of a foreign language (that they did not understand)

Ha’yam ra’ah vayanos, HaYarden yisov l’achor.

The Yam Suf saw klal Yisrael going in and fled (split), (and at that time) the Yarden River (and all the waters in the world miraculously) turned backwards.

M’kimi mei’afar dal, mei’ashpos yarim evyon.

He (looks even to the lowest and) raises up the extremely poor from the dust, (and) He lifts up the destitute from the garbage dumps.

Then the tribe of Yehudah became His holy nation (for jumping into the threatening Yam Suf first), and klal Yisrael became under Hashem’s rule (and no longer under the Egyptians’ rule).

There are numerous opinions in the Gemara, in Maseches P’sachim, as to who authored these chapters of T’hilim (113-118), which comprise what we refer to as “Hallel.” It has been suggested that there is really no dispute in the Gemara. The basic framework was established by the early Prophets and later enhanced by successive generations. Eventually, David HaMelech organized these chapters into the final form we have today in T’hilim (T’shuvah MeiAhavah, Vol. II, responsum 264).