Pesukei d’zimra, “passages of song” constitute the “warm up” for the core of the service (the Sh’ma and the Amidah, specifically). Most of these “passages” consist of Psalms, but there are some other biblical passages as well. One such passage is taken from the book of 1 Chronicles. It reads, “Save us, G-d of our salvation; gather us and deliver us from oppression, that we may acknowledge Your holiness, that we may take pride in Your praise.”

This last phrase is the most curious. “…take pride in your praise.” What does this mean? In what way does one take pride in G-d’s praise? The Hebrew text is “l’hishtabeyach.” It is a special verb form (called hitpael) which conveys mutuality. Consider, for example, the common Hebrew “goodbye,” “l’hitraot,” which literally means, “to see each other.”

Back to “l’hishtabeyach.” Grammatically, the word seems to mean “to praise each other” so the whole phrase would mean “to each gain praise through praising You.” And that is a thought worth considering. The ongoing willingness of the Jewish people to continue to express loyalty to, and even adulation of, the Divine in spite of all that has befallen us is indeed worthy of praise. In the hall of fame of acts of faith, Jewish devotion surely has a place.

But there is a deeper meaning, because another take on “l’histhabeyach” is “to make oneself worthy of praise,” or, in simpler language, “to improve.” And if this is true, the text would mean, “…that we may acknowledge Your holiness, and be improved through praising You.” And that too is a concept worthy of consideration. Praising G-d can be seen as an act of self-improvement.

And then the question becomes, “Why?” What is there about praising

G-d that improves us? Well, first of all, knowing that there is something higher than ourselves encourages humility—for the most part, something very desirable. Second, praise is intimately linked to gratitude. The more gratitude we feel, the more we can appreciate what we have, and the more appreciative we are, the better our lives will be, and the better our behavior will be. And finally, the awareness of the possibility—indeed, certainty—of salvation is the ultimate source of hope. You don’t survive for 4,000 years without hope, and as Jews we assert—as chutzpahdik as it may be—that there is purpose and meaning in Jewish existence.

And the more we live up to it, the more our very existence serves as praise of G-d.