אַשְׁרֵי כָּל יְרֵא יְיָ
Ashrey Kol Yirei
Psalm 128 — a blessing on the home
Sung by Rabbi Jonathan Cohen and family. From the family’s recordings of Western Sephardi home singing.
Text & translation
שִׁיר הַמַּעֲלוֹת, אַשְׁרֵי כָּל יְרֵא יְיָ, הַהֹלֵךְ בִּדְרָכָיו.
Shir hama’alot, ashrei kol y’rei Adonai, haholekh bidrakhav.
A song of ascents. Happy are all who revere God, who walk in God’s ways.
יְגִיעַ כַּפֶּיךָ כִּי תֹאכֵל, אַשְׁרֶיךָ וְטוֹב לָךְ.
Y’gia kappekha ki tokhel, ashrekha v’tov lakh.
You shall enjoy the fruit of your labours; happy shall you be, and it shall be well with you.
אֶשְׁתְּךָ כְּגֶפֶן פֹּרִיָּה בְּיַרְכְּתֵי בֵיתֶךָ, בָּנֶיךָ כִּשְׁתִלֵי זֵיתִים סָבִיב לְשֻׁלְחָנֶךָ.
Eshtekha k’gefen poriyyah b’yark’tei veitekha, banekha kishtilei zeitim saviv l’shulḥanekha.
Your spouse shall be like a fruitful vine within your house; your children like olive saplings around your table.
הִנֵּה כִי־כֵן יְבֹרַךְ גָּבֶר יְרֵא יְיָ.
Hinneh khi khen y’vorakh gaver y’rei Adonai.
So shall all who revere God be blessed.
יְבָרֶכְךָ יְיָ מִצִּיּוֹן, וּרְאֵה בְּטוּב יְרוּשָׁלִַם, כֹּל יְמֵי חַיֶּיךָ.
Y’varekhekha Adonai mitziyyon, ur’eh b’tuv Y’rushalayim, kol y’mei ḥayyekha.
May God bless you from Zion; may you share the good of Jerusalem all the days of your life,
וּרְאֵה בָנִים לְבָנֶיךָ, שָׁלוֹם עַל יִשְׂרָאֵל.
Ur’eh vanim l’vanekha, shalom al Yisrael.
and live to see your children’s children. Peace be upon Israel!
About this song
Psalm 128, one of the fifteen Songs of Ascents — the song of the God-fearing one whose labour, household, and table are blessed: “you shall eat the fruit of your hands; happy shall you be.”
Its place at the Sephardi table is the most natural thing in the world — a psalm about the blessing of the home, sung in the home, and a fixture at weddings and around the family meal.
In the living tradition
These are not museum pieces. The same songs are sung today at Kehillah Kedoshah Zikhron Zvi, the egalitarian Western Sephardi congregation of the Hudson Valley — the community at the endpoint of the Program’s Sephardi Liturgy project.