Tefillah 060

75:
We continue our survey of the Shabbat morning Amidah in general and of the fourth of its seven benedictions in particular. In the previous shiur we noted that this fourth benediction, which the sages called K^edushat ha-Yom ('The Sanctity of the Day'), consists of several paragraphs. We shall now turn our attention to the first of these constituent paragraphs.

76:
The benediction K^edushat ha-Yom begins with a poetic passage whose first Hebrew words are Yismaĥ Moshe [Siddur Sim Shalom page 117; Siddur Va'ani Tefillati page 347]. This passage is in the 'four square' rhythm that is so typical of our early liturgical poetry. Each line consists of four stresses, a caesura and another four stresses – which usually means that each line consists of eight Hebrew words (though sometimes short unstressed enclitic words, such as kol ['all'] or min ['from'], are elided with the stress which follows). Of course, when our liturgical formats gradually changed, the editors of our prayerbooks were no longer aware that such passages were in a lyric format, and they began presenting them as prose. Once these passages began to look like prose here and there 'corrections' were made: we shall find one such 'correction' in the passage which is the subject of our present discussion. To facilitate our discussion I shall present here the passage in transliteration, with the natural stresses and the 'four-square' rhythm marked:

Even if it is difficult for you, try reading these lines out loud, strssing the natural Hebrew rhythms. The passage may be rendered in English as follows:

77:
It would be worth while to look at the Hebrew text of this passage. You can find it here. In this Hebrew text I have enlarged certain letters. Those familiar with Hebrew will recognize that they are three consecutive letters of the Hebrew alphabet. (It is almost certain that the first word of the last line, ushnei, is one of those 'corrections' mentioned above, and the word should be stricken out: it destroys both the 'four-square' rhythm and the alphabetic acrostic. The last line should read:

78:
Of course, the question immediately presents itself: why should those three letters, yod, khaf and lamed form an acrostic? Where are all the other letters of the alphabet? The short answer is that we don't know. The longer answer is that we have here a small remnant of a much longer liturgical poem. We have mentioned on several occasions that in the ritual that was used in Eretz-Israel until the Crusades the cantor was expected to embellish his repetition of the Amidah with poetic compositions. Many of these compositions have survived – especially thanks to the Cairo Genizah. It seems clear that the original work from which Yismáĥ Moshé comes was a poem that allocated three successive letters of the alphabet to each of the seven benedictions of the Shabbat Amidah. Thus Avot had a stanza of three lines which began with the letters alef, bet and gimmel respectively. The G^evurot benediction had the letters dalet, heh and vav. The third benediction, K^edushat ha-Shem, utilized the letters zayin, ĥet and tet. The next three letters follow on naturally in the fourth benediction. The rest of the letters would have followed in the succeeding benedictions.

79:
There is one further fact that makes the above reconstruction almost certain, and that is the fact that our three lines are followed by the phrase "This is what is written in Your Torah". This phrase always serves as the introduction to a biblical quotation. If we were not so used to the quotation which does follow these words we would be rather startled; for surely, if the author of our passage were looking for a 'proof-text' concerning Shabbat observance the most natural choice would have been the Sabbath command in the Ten Commandments [Exodus 20:8-11 or its parallel in Deuteronomy 5:12-15]. However, the almost ubiquitous text of this benediction that was so beloved in Eretz-Israel had a reference to Shabbat as a sign of the covenant between God and Israel, so it was but natural that the following 'proof-text' refer to Shabbat as a sign of the covenant:

Since this text was almost always used in Eretz-Israel it was but natural for the author of Yismáĥ Moshé to use it as his 'proof-text' too.

80:
The proof-text is followed by a passage to conclude this section of the benediction. While this passage in in prose, it does have a certain natural rhythm in Hebrew:

The message of this passage is clear: Shabbat is God's gift to Israel. It is not an onerous burden but a day of delight and the people of Israel are delighted in turn that they have been selected of all people to be the recipients of God's most precious gift. (For a philosophic exposition of the regulations which constitute Sabbath observance see Shabbat Eve in the Home 008 and 009.)

To be continued.