According to the Mishnah, our 3rd century compendium that records much of the history of the Temple Service, the Levites—part of the priestly class—would recite one Psalm each day. Sung in the Temple, this Psalm would signify the end of the morning sacrifice. When the Temple was destroyed and the sacrificial system ended, the practice was adapted into synagogue services, where the Shir Shel Yom, or Psalm of the Day, is recited towards the end of the daily morning service.
Psalm 48 is Monday’s Psalm, the song associated with what is the second day of the week on the Jewish weekly calendar. Written before the destruction of Jerusalem, it imagines a triumphant God, and a triumphant King, celebrating a conquered Jerusalem. Knowing that it was read, and continues to be read publicly after the destruction of the Temple, this verse feels particularly poignant—perhaps even more so now when we can, indeed, walk the streets of a rebuilt Jerusalem:
סֹ֣בּוּ צִ֭יּוֹן וְהַקִּיפ֑וּהָ סִ֝פְר֗וּ מִגְדָּלֶֽיהָ׃
שִׁ֤יתוּ לִבְּכֶ֨ם ׀ לְֽחֵילָ֗הֿ פַּסְּג֥וּ אַרְמְנוֹתֶ֑יהָ לְמַ֥עַן תְּ֝סַפְּר֗וּ לְד֣וֹר אַֽחֲרֽוֹן׃
Walk around Zion,
circle it;
count its towers,
take note of its ramparts;
go through-d its citadels,
that you may recount it to a future age.
I was lucky enough to spend two weeks in Jerusalem this summer with my daughter. One of her favorite things to do was to go to Teddy Park, which sits in the shadow of the Old City walls, just next to the new, fancy Mamilla Mall. Teddy Park, in the summer, is a gathering place for the children of Jerusalem—religious, secular, and ultra-Orthodox alike—who are drawn to the fountains that spray every hour, turning it into a water park. And I sat, amazed, to see my American daughter frolicking in a city she has come to love, under the walls of its ancient city.
Recount it to a future age, indeed. May we all be blessed to walk around Jerusalem, circle it, and rejoice in its beauty.
—Rabbi Sari Laufer