- Trope marks of Psalms: History
-- All Jewish texts are put to music using trope marks
-- They were developed in 700-900 AD
-- Therefore the trope marks don't show you how they sang the Psalms in Ancient times
-- Instead they talk about how the Rabbis interpreted the poems
-- Job/Proverbs/Psalms have their own trope system compared to Tanakh trope
-- The trope singing of the Kurds and the Yemenites are older
-- Trope can also be used as punctuation
(1) Happy is the man who has not followed the counsel of the wicked, or taken the path of sinners, or joined the company of the insolent; (2) rather, the teaching of the LORD is his delight, and he studies that teaching day and night. (3) He is like a tree planted beside streams of water, which yields its fruit in season, whose foliage never fades, and whatever it produces thrives. (4) Not so the wicked; rather, they are like chaff that wind blows away. (5) Therefore the wicked will not survive judgment, nor will sinners, in the assembly of the righteous. (6) For the LORD cherishes the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked is doomed.
Walk - Stand - Sit
Hebrew is a gendered language without a neutral gender.
----Modern Queer Hebrew Exists!!!!
(1) Ashrei HaIsh - Happy is the person
Ashrei is always in the plural even though
---- Starts by defining happiness and contentment
---- Happiness - depth of human contentment
---- Prevent going backwards before we try to go forward in happiness
---- DON'T do these things (interrupt your natural instincts)
----------- follow (listen) the advice of the evil (of those who do bad) (walking)
----------------"Woe to the evil person and woe to their neighbor"
---------- stand with those who act poorly/sinning/missing the mark
---------------- missing the mark decreases the presence of G!d
---------------- doing mitzvot increases the presence of G!d
---------- sit/live with the lazy
---- You follow, then stop and stand, then settle and sit
RATHER you should
---- follow the Torah
---- study the Torah day and night
--------- two words meaning all the time (juxtapositions)
---- Name of Gd
--------- BIG name of Gd
---------------- I am what I am
---------------- would only be said on Yom Kippur by the high priest on the holy of holies
---------------- we don't know how to say it and we are forbidden to say it
---------------- Jews say Adonai instead, My Lord
---------- important that the biggest name is the first one mentioned in the Psalms
Psalms are poems
The trope helps us understand where the punctuation is,
Clauses divided by the (ands) and the clauses build on each other