PSALM 134

We have come to the last of the group of psalms that we traditionally study on Shabbat afternoons during the winter months.  These psalms, #120-#134, are known as the Shir HaMaalot, the Songs of Ascent, as they were sung, by pilgrims and/or Levites, as people climbed the final flight of stairs up to the Temple in Jerusalem.  So far, we have reviewed Psalms 120 through 133, along with the associated Psalm 104, which is the Psalm for the New Month.  We now turn to the end of the cycle, Psalm 134. You can find it on page 451 in your Siddur Lev Shalem, and it can also be located in Sefaria at https://www.sefaria.org/Psalms.134?lang=bi.

As opposed to the earlier posts on this theme, let’s start with the text of this relatively short psalm, and then talk about its meaning.

PSALM 134

A Song of Ascents.

Now come, let all the servants of Adoshem standing in G-d’s house in the evenings, praise Adoshem.

Lift up your hands in holiness toward the sanctuary, and bless Adoshem.

May Adoshem, who created the heavens and the earth, bless you from Zion.

In the first verse, who are the “servants of G-d”? The Radak said that while preceding commentators had said that this literally referred to the priests who served in the Temple and would issue the Priestly Blessing to pilgrims, he felt that this was an allusion to David’s words in Psalm 103, meaning that if you bless G-d, he will bless you (and this these continues through the balance of the psalm).  More recently, Reb Steinsaltz noted that while sacrifices were not brought at night and the Temple was not “open for business,” people would still regularly come then and stand before G-d in prayer and devotion, and these were the “servants” at issue.

In the final verse, G-d is referred to as the one “who made heaven and earth” and his blessing comes “from Zion”, to make clear that the blessing does not come from the structure and order of the working of the heavens, but rather from the one who created them. The heavens transmit the blessing through rain, and the earth through its crops and produce. Zion, Eretz Yisrael, is the special blessing for the people of Israel, and the blessing here is meant for the entire people. That blessing steadily reaches higher value as we focus from the entire land to the city of Jerusalem, and then to the Temple Mount, and finally the Temple itself (based on the comments of the Radak, Malbim and Reb Steinsaltz). As we finish the final verse of the psalm, we have completed our climb up to the main level of the Temple; all 15 steps from the preceding level have been taken.

We are now steadily moving out of the depths of winter, and our review of the Winter Psalms, at least as a first read-through, is done. Stay tuned for a new study topic for consideration.