Yishtabach () (

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

: "

God In monotheistic belief systems, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. In polytheistic belief systems, a god is "a spirit or being believed to have created, or for controlling some part of the un ...

] be praised") is a prayer in the final portion of the Pesukei Dezimra morning prayers of Judaism known as shacharit, recited before the first kaddish of the prayer service itself leading to the

Shema ''Shema Yisrael'' (''Shema Israel'' or ''Sh'ma Yisrael''; , “Hear, O Israel”) is a Jewish prayer (known as the Shema) that serves as a centerpiece of the morning and evening Jewish prayer services. Its first verse encapsulates the monothe ...

prayers. The theme of the number " fifteen" plays a pivotal role in the blessing; there are fifteen expressions conveying praise in the beginning half of the paragraph and fifteen words in the concluding blessing (after "Blessed are You, God..."). The number fifteen is an allusion both to the

Divine Name There are various names of God, many of which enumerate the various qualities of a Supreme Being. The English word ''god'' (and its equivalent in other languages) is used by multiple religions as a noun to refer to different deities, or speci ...

יה (whose

gematria In numerology, gematria (; or , plural or ) is the practice of assigning a numerical value to a name, word, or phrase by reading it as a number, or sometimes by using an alphanumeric cipher. The letters of the alphabets involved have standar ...

is fifteen) and to the fifteen Songs of Ascents composed by

King David David (; , "beloved one") was a king of ancient Israel and Judah and the third king of the United Monarchy, according to the Hebrew Bible and Old Testament. The Tel Dan stele, an Aramaic-inscribed stone erected by a king of Aram-Damas ...

(Psalms 120–34). There are two themes of Yishtabach: God's power and might are deserving of our praise and adoration, and that one must continually praise God. Since

Baruch Sheamar Barukh she'amar ( or other variant English spellings), is the opening blessing to pesukei dezimra, a recitation in the morning prayer in Rabbinic Judaism. As with many texts in Judaism, it takes its name from the opening words of the prayer. Accor ...

and Yishtabach are both blessings, this gives the sense that Pesukei Dezimra is one single prayer. Yishtabach is not recited unless

is recited, because Baruch Sheamar is the opening blessing, and Yishtabach is the closing blessing. In the Ashkenazic rite, Yishtabach is normally recited while standing. This is because Baruch Sheamar is recited while standing, and since Baruch Sheamar is the opening of Pesukei Dezimra and Yishtabach is the conclusion, they are both recited in the same manner. However, on

Shabbat Shabbat (, , or ; , , ) or the Sabbath (), also called Shabbos (, ) by Ashkenazi Hebrew, Ashkenazim, is Judaism's day of rest on the seventh day of the seven-day week, week—i.e., Friday prayer, Friday–Saturday. On this day, religious Jews ...

, some congregations have a custom to sit, and most Sephardic communities sit daily. The author of Yishtabach is not known to this day. But with words 2–5 in the prayer spelling ''שׁלמה'' (''Shlomo''), this alludes to a reference to

King Solomon King is a royal title given to a male monarch. A king is an absolute monarch if he holds unrestricted governmental power or exercises full sovereignty over a nation. Conversely, he is a constitutional monarch if his power is restrained by f ...

Text of Yishtabach

Text according to

Nusach Ashkenaz Nusach Ashkenaz is a style of Jewish liturgy conducted by Ashkenazi Jews. It is primarily a way to order and include prayers, and differs from Nusach Sefard (as used by the Hasidim) and Baladi-rite prayer, and still more from the Sephardic rit ...

References

Pesukei dezimra Hebrew words and phrases in Jewish prayers and blessings Siddurim of Orthodox Judaism {{Judaism-stub