Parshas Passover Issue
By Rabbi Dovid Zauderer
One of the holiest and most moving prayers of all is the Nishmas prayer. This beautiful prayer is an outpouring of praise and gratitude to G-d. Lyrically, it depicts our utter and complete dependency on G-d’s mercy, our total inadequacy to praise Him properly, and our enthusiastic resolve to dedicate ourselves to His service.
Nishmas is recited every Shabbos morning at the synagogue as well as in the Hallel section near the end of the Seder on Passover night. The prayer begins: “The soul of every living being shall bless Your Name …”, and ends with the words: “A psalm of David: Bless G-d, O my soul, and let my whole inner being bless His holy Name!”
There are many different opinions as to who exactly authored the Nishmas prayer. Many medieval rabbis – including Rashi, the Rokeach, and the Mordechai - believe that Nishmas was authored by “The Men of the Great Assembly”, the same group of rabbis who authored and compiled the traditional Jewish Prayer Book, the Siddur. Others suggest that Nishmas was authored by the Sages of the Talmud at a later time. And there are many other opinions.
One radical theory held by a small minority of rabbis is that Nishmas was authored by none other than Peter, the first Pope - otherwise known in Hebrew as Shimon Kippa! However, this theory has been largely discredited by mainstream Jewish scholars such as the Machzor Vitri and many others throughout the centuries.
The Chid”a writes in the name of Rabbi Avraham Galanti that from the words “G-d of all creatures” until “were our mouth as full of song as the sea” were added in at a later date as per the story of Rabbi Kalonymus, “Master of the Miracle”:
Rabbi Kalonymus, a great Torah scholar and Kabbalist, and was reputed to have been the holy Ari’s teacher. His greatest renown came from having saved the then-Sephardi Eliyahu Hanavi Synagogue from the bloody consequences of a blood libel. On the last Saturday before Passover, neighboring Arabs dumped the body of a young boy at the synagogue and charged that Jews had baked matzos with his blood – a popular calumny that originated in 1144 in Norwich England and which many Jews were to pay with their lives for centuries. Rav Kalonymus did his mystical magic and prayed to G-d for salvation – and lo and behold a great miracle occurred and the Arab child came back to life revealing both the name of the Arab murderer as well as the name of the one who threw him into the courtyard of the synagogue – and all the Jews were saved.
It is because of this story of Rabbi Kalonymus – explained the Chida’’h – that the section with the verses, “Who makes the mute speak” and (in Sephardic versions of the Siddur) “Who reveals the hidden” were added to the Nishmas prayer … to praise G-d for causing the dead Arab child to speak and to reveal the identity of the true murderers.
As to why the Nishmas prayer was added specifically to the Shacharis (morning prayer) on Shabbos and not to the regular weekday Shacharis, the Ariza”l explained that the Zohar (Shemos 205a) states that since on Shabbos a person has a neshamah yeseirah, an “additional soul”, the prayer beginning with the words Nishmas kol chai is very appropriate. As a matter of fact, the sefer Yesod V’shoresh Ha’avodah (Chapter 8) brings from the Ariza”l that a part of the neshamah yeseirah that comes to a person on Shabbos enters into him while he says Nishmas.
The recitation of Nishmas was always taken very seriously by our great rabbis. The Bobover Rebbe, Rav Shlomo, used to relate that the father of Reb Naftali Ropshitzer, Reb Mendel Linsker, put so much effort into saying Nishmas that afterward he would faint from exhaustion.
There is also a long-standing Jewish segulah and tradition handed down from Rabbi Yehudah HaChassid that if, G-d forbid, a person finds himself in danger and distress, he should accept upon himself now while he is still in danger to recite the entire Nishmas prayer after he is out of danger (it should then be sung joyfully with a quorum of ten men) – and this will protect him and save him from the impending danger. Rabbi Chaim Palag”i writes in his Passover Haggadah Chaim L’Rosh that this segulah of committing to say Nishmas is baduk u’menuseh, tested and guaranteed.
One of the most powerful verses in the Nishmas prayer is where we beseech G-d: “Until now Your mercy has helped us; and Your kindness has not forsaken us. Do not abandon us, L-rd, our G-d, forever!”
The Vilna Gaon explains this verse as follows: The difference between collecting a debt and asking for a contribution is that one who is collecting a debt can collect only until the debt is paid up, while the one who is receiving a contribution can continue to ask for more since there is no limit to chessed. And so it is with man asking G-d for kindness and mercy. If all the good things that G-d gave us until now was merely reward for our actions, then we might be justifiably concerned that our reward will have run out, G-d forbid. However, this is not the case, as everything G-d gave and continues to give us is pure chessed and far more than we deserve. We therefore beseech G-d that until now only Your mercy has helped us, and only Your kindness has not forsaken us, so please do not abandon us forever!
The Mystics teach that at the Passover Seder (which this year falls out on Friday evening April 15th) when we reach this verse, we should make sure to have proper kavanah (intent) and concentrate on the words that we are saying …and then all of our prayers will be answered for the good. Amen.
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