Halakhah su Salmi 92:71

Later, during the Geonic era, it became customary to add more psalms and verses to Pesukei De-zimra. They ordained reciting Mizmor Le-toda (Tehilim 100), for the Sages say that in the future, all songs will be nullified except for this one (Vayikra Rabba 9:7). Therefore, it is proper to recite it with a melody. It is not said on Shabbatot and festivals; instead, Mizmor Shir Le-yom Ha-Shabbat (Psalm 92) is recited.¹According to Ashkenazic custom, Mizmor Le-toda corresponds to the toda (thanksgiving) offering, which contained ḥametz. For that reason, it is not recited on Erev Pesaḥ, Ḥol Ha-mo’ed Pesaḥ, or Erev Yom Kippur, since on those days no toda offering was brought, since it could not be eaten the next day. However, in Sephardic custom,  Mizmor Le-toda is recited as praise and thanksgiving, not to commemorate the toda offering, and therefore it is also recited on those specific days (Beit Yosef and Rema 51:8).

The individual shakes off mundane routine frequently— every week. “Shabbat comes and so does rest!”¹²Rashi on Gen. 2:2. Rashi’s full comment reads: “What was lacking [in Cre-ation]? Rest. Enter Sabbath, enter rest; and then the work of Creation was finished.” Creation was not complete until rest was made to complement and balance creative activity. The soul begins to shed her harsh chains. “The Lord has given you rest from your sorrow and trouble and from the hard service that you were made to serve.”¹³Isa. 14:3. The soul then seeks higher pathways of spiritual desire that are consonant with the nature of her source. “It is good to praise the Lord, to sing hymns to Your name, O Most High, to proclaim Your steadfast love at daybreak, Your faithfulness each night with a ten-stringed harp with voice and lyre together.”¹⁴Ps. 92:1–4. This is the “Psalm for the Sabbath Day.” “It shall be a sign for all time between me and the people of Israel.”¹⁵Exod. 31:17. This is a holy day when the innate inclination of the people for a godly life emerges from its hiddenness and is a sign for the people that its soul treasure contains within it the need and the ability to rejoice in God, in the delight of the divine. This is concentrated in the point of the extra soul¹⁶Rav Kook refers to the “extra soul” that, according to tradition, Jews possess on the Sabbath. The talmudic source is Beitza 16a, which in-terprets the words shavat vayinafash (Exod. 31:17) as Vay nefesh! (“Alas for the soul that is lost!”— at the end of Sabbath). Interpretations of this idea have ranged from the more rational, e.g., Ibn Ezra and Radak, who argue that the soul that “is given rest on this day from the affairs of the world can occupy itself with wisdom and the words of God” (commentary to Gen. 2:3), to the more mystical, e.g., Naḥmanides, who takes issue with Ibn Ezra and writes that “although his view of this is right to those who believe in it, for this is not something that can be tested by experience, … nonetheless you must understand that on the Sabbath, there is in truth an additional soul.” (See also Zohar II 204a–b.) Rav Kook draws on elements of both schools here in understanding the “extra soul” as something that is always within us that we are able to access on Sabbath when the rush of weekday activity is stilled. that dwells within each one of the people’s children.

(starting at ועכשיו) We gather in shul and we say five chapters of psalms from Lechu Neranena (Ch. 95) until Hashem malach yirgezu amim (Ch. 99) because they are about the future redemptive days. Therefore (like Radak says), a person says to his friend “Let us sing to Hashem,” and then [the next chapter we sing] “Hashem reigns,” that is to say that we’ll fulfill that which is written (Zecharia 14:9) “On that day Hashem will be One and His Name will be One.” For Shabbat is a hint to this time, to “The Day that is Entirely Shabbat,” and then we’ll sing a new song (Ch. 96) to Hashem. For all songs are in the feminine, and the song of the future [redemption] will be in the masculine, like the Midrash explain. Therefore we say these chapters.