Weekly Tefilah Focus

Elul 5785

What Does Hashem Want? As we begin this period of 40 days of unique opportunity and closeness to...

Read more: Elul 5785

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)

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, responsa 264).

Now that we have provided the outline of this powerful tefilah, with which we begin and end our day, we present the line-by-line translation and explanation of Adon Olam from the Pathway to Prayer Siddur by HaRav Mayer Birnbaum shlita.