← Western Sephardic Liturgical Classics
שָׂמַחְתִּי
Samaḥti
Psalm 122 — “I rejoiced”
Text & translation
שִׁיר הַמַּעֲלוֹת לְדָוִד שָׂמַחְתִּי בְּאֹמְרִים לִי בֵּית יְיָ נֵלֵךְ
Shir hama’alot l’David. Samaḥti b’om’rim li beit Adonai nelekh.
A Song of Ascents, of David. I rejoiced when they said to me, “Let us go to the House of God.”
עֹמְדוֹת הָיוּ רַגְלֵינוּ בִּשְׁעָרַיִךְ יְרוּשָׁלָ͏ִם
ʿOm’dot hayu raglenu, bishʿarayikh Y’rushalayim.
Our feet were standing within your gates, O Jerusalem.
יְרוּשָׁלַ͏ִם הַבְּנוּיָה כְּעִיר שֶׁחֻבְּרָה־לָּהּ יַחְדָּו
Y’rushalayim hab’nuyah, k’ʿir sheḥub’rah lah yaḥdav.
Jerusalem rebuilt, like a city knit together.
Psalm 122; the opening of nine verses.
About this piece
Psalm 122, a Song of Ascents — a pilgrim’s joy at the gates of Jerusalem, and a prayer for the city’s peace.
Sung among the psalms that lead into the evening service.
Recordings — Daniel Halfon
Psalm 122 · London
In the living tradition
This music is the prayer of a living rite. It is 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.