“The siddur is the most important work of Jewish spirituality” – this was how I began these essays. A number of people reached out to me to clarify what I meant and to try to support this claim. While I do not think that I can prove such an idea, let me return to that point from a different perspective.

Let’s be honest about pesukei d’zimra for a moment. For most people, even those who are committed, regular daveners this is the section that most likely to get skipped or cut for one reason or another. It feels repetitive and it is hard to discern a clear through line that brings it all together. While it does contain some of the most majestic selections of Tehilim it is difficult (for me) to muster the energy and focus for each and every section.

However, when we step back from the details and look at pesukei d’zimra from a bit of a distance, some very powerful and beautiful ideas emerge. What this series strove to do was zoom out and evaluate the spiritual themes that are applied to pesukei d’zimra from the outside – both from the Gemara and rishonim. A careful analysis of those competing ideas and models leads to some important guidance for how to sit with pesukei d’zimra as well as what it means to be a prayerful human being. Let us begin with a brief review and then see if we can make meaning from all these data points.

Summary

There are nine unique ideas that different texts from chazal and rishonim articulate as the function of pesukei d’zimra:

1. Hallel (on nature) – הלל טבעי (Bavli Shabbat 118b, R. Yosi)
2. Preparation for the Amida: Praise before Petition – שבח לפני בקשה (Bavli Berachot 32a, R. Simlai)
3. Preparation for the Amida: Rising from Solemnity – כבד ראש (Mishna, Berachot 5:1, 30b)
4. Preparation for the Amida: Rising from Settled Law – הלכה פסוקה (Berayta, Berachot 31a)
5. Preparation for the Amida: Rising from the Joy of a Mitzvah – שמחה של מצוה (Berayta, Berachot 31a)
6. Preparation for the Amida: Pausing in Anticipation – שוהים (Berayta, Berachot 31a)
7. Thanking God upon Waking – הודאה (Rav Saadia)
8. Fear of God (Zohar)- יראת השם (Vayakhel, 202b)
9. Pruning away distractions – לזמור (Sha’arei Orah, Menorat ha-Maor)

At first glance this seems like a confusing set of diffuse themes. However, on reflection, I think that these nine themes can be boiled down two core ideas (with one additional reminder). It is in the combination of these two themes that we find an overarching set of goals for pesukei d’zimra. These nine ideas can be divided into two main groups.

The first cluster of ideas is: Hallel (1), Praise (2), Joy (5) and Thankfulness (7). The second cluster is: Solemnity (3), Pausing in Anticipation (6), Fear of God (8) and Pruning Away Distractions (9). In some ways the notion of settled law (4) is a kind of outlier, and serves as a reminder for the need to focus. If we bring these two groups of ideas together and view “settled law” (4) as a directive then the meta-narrative of pesukei d’zimra becomes: “Focused attention to gratitude and serenity in divine worship leading to an awareness of the awesome nature of God.”

Learning to walk in the world with an attitude of gratitude is a life’s journey. Seeking the serenity embedded in the depth and awe of the Holy One can help us to achieve that goal. Doing so with a focused mind, is truly the only way forward. When the Rabbis offer different and sometimes competing themes they are well aware that there are other approaches.

Conclusion

In the second essay we mentioned this powerful text, to which I would like to return in conclusion:

בבלי ברכות ל ע”ב ויומא ד ע”ב
אָמַר רַב אַדָּא בַּר מַתְנָא אָמַר רַבָּה בִּמְקוֹם גִּילָה שָׁם תְּהֵא רְעָדָה.

Bavli, Berachot 30b & Yoma 4b
Rav Ada bar Matna said in the name of Rabba, “In the place of exultation there should be trembling.”

The awareness that we live in a world that is both filled with the joy of Hallel and the seriousness of settled law is a key to cultivating spiritual growth. Life will always have ups and downs, times of ecstatic joy followed by loss and tragedy – weddings and funerals. The spiritually attuned individual can move between those emotional states and learn to feel God at both polls.

Pesukei d’Zimra, with all of its peaks and valleys, provides us with our own daily reminder to live in the complexities of life. We are living in a world in which we need to work hard to find those moments of great joy in the midst of a global pandemic. We are given that opportunity every morning as we work through the chapters and verses of this wonderful section of the siddur.