Some congregations begin the service here: ACROSS THE THRESHOLD
DIRECTING THE HEART TO GOD Ea «rHÎd ©n How good are your tents, O Jacob, and your homes, O Israel! Through the greatness of Your love I enter Your house. In awe of You I worship before the ark of Your holiness. God, as I loved the courts of Your temple, and the place where Your glory dwelt, so I still worship and bend low, humble before the Eternal my Maker. As for me, let my prayer come before You at the proper time. Answer me God, in the greatness of Your love, for Your deliverance is sure. 1
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Ea «rHÎd ©n Mah tovu ohalecha ya’akov, mishk’notecha yisra’el. Va’ani b’rov chasd’cha avo veitecha, eshtachaveh el heichal kodsh’cha b’yiratecha.
Adonai ahavti m’on beitecha, um’kom mishkan k’vodecha. Va’ani eshtachaveh v’echra’ah, evr’chah lifnei Adonai osi. Va’ani t’fillati l’cha Adonai eit ratson. Elohim b’rov chasdecha, aneini be’emet yish’echa.
exile, the experience of ‘Jacob’; while ‘homes’points to a stable messianic future for ‘Israel’. All the Psalm verses that follow are couched in the first person singular except Psalm 95:6, which is in the first person plural. It was modified by the author to fit this liturgical adaptation. The effect is to emphasise how each individual reading it is consciously entering into the world of liturgy and prayer, of community and communion with God. The alternative version acknowledges the role of both men and women in creating and sustaining Jewish domestic and community life. 1 Num 24:5, Ps 5:8, Ps 26:8, Ps 95:6, Ps 69:14.
Ea «oHÎd ©n How good ... The first recorded appearance of this passage, traditionally recited on entering the synagogue, is in the Seder Rav Amram Gaon in the ninth century. The sentence ‘How good are your tents, O Jacob… ’was said in the Bible by Balaam, a foreign prophet hired to curse the Israelites on their journey through the wilderness. Instead God forced him to bless the people with these opening words. In its Biblical context the ‘tents’and ‘homes’(literally: ‘dwelling places’) refer to the encampment in the wilderness, but later tradition interpreted them to refer to ‘synagogues’ and ‘schools’. ‘Tents’can also indicate the temporary nature of much of Jewish life in
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