Tuesday, September 04, 2007

The שיר של יום

Every day we say the שיר של יום which is what the לויים said in the Beis Hamikdash. The Gemara in Rosh Hashana (31a) details the שיר של יום for every day of the week and for Shabbos. The simple understanding of the Gemara on (30b) is that in addition there was a special שיר של יום for Yom Tov as well.

The Minhag Ashkenaz for the שיר של יום on Shabbos and Yom Tov is very difficult. We say מזמור שיר ליום השבת after musaf. However, the Gemara says that מזמור שיר ליום השבת was the שיר for the תמיד של שחר, for the תמיד of musaf they said the שירה of האזינו (split into the six aliyos one aliaya a week). Therefore, really we should say מזמור שיר ליום השבת after shacharis like nusach sefard as that is it's place. To ay it after musaf and say that this is what the Leviim said is simply not true. The Aruch Hashulchan makes this point and says he doesn't understand the minhag. It's also interesting that we don't say the שיר mentioned in the gemara for shabbos musaf or mincha.

On Yom Tov it is not clear whether there was a different שיר at shacharis, there definately was one for musaf. Therefore, again our minhag of saying the regular שיר של יום on Yom Tov is difficult because that was not what was said at musaf.

3 comments:

Chaim B. said...

Just to add one more point: it is also unclear why we don't say a shir by mincha to correspond to what would have been said by the tamid shel bein ha'arbayim.

bluke said...

The Magen Avraham in siman קל"ב addresses this. He says that they never said shira after the tamid shel bein haarbayim and therefore it is not appropriate to say shira after ou have davened mincha.

Beisrunner said...

Presumably there is no intent to reproduce the chronological order of the Temple. In nusach ashkenaz, shir shel yom is apparently a kind of independent zecher lemikdash, not part of either shacharit or mussaf. Practically speaking we say it right after davening (or before - as some do on Yom Kippur), but this is just for convenience, lest people forget to say it later. Additional support for this view would be the fact that nusach ashkenaz says shir shel yom after aleinu, i.e. after the end of the prayer, even on weekdays.

Whereas according to nusach sefarad, shir shel yom is in fact seen as part of shacharit, so it is recited before mussaf and before aleinu.