Birchot Ha-Shachar/Psukei D'Zimra

The opening sections of the morning service, Birchot Ha-Shachar (“Morning Blessings”) and Psukei D'Zimra (“Verses of Song”) are designed in many ways as a warm-up to the central prayers of the service. Although many congregations allocate only 15 or 20 minutes to this section of the service, at Nishmat Shalom it may run up to one-half hour, from 10:30 am to 11 am. In the event that services are started late, it is the responsibility of Shlichat or Shaliach Tzibbur to assure that this section is concluded by 11 am in respect to the other parts of the service which follow.

The following is a list of TOP PRIORITY and SECOND PRIORITY materials, as indicated by the typeface. Nothing in this list should be construed as deprecating any other pages which the Shlichat or Shaliach Tzibbur leader may choose to lead, including experiential versions of the material, new melodies and additional interpretive readings!

Also, none of this material requires a minyan. (In some congregations, Kaddish is included, which does require a minyan, but we do not have it in this section in our siddur.)

p.3-5 BLESSING FOR READING TORAH AND SOME SELECTION OF TEXT (Choose from options on pgs. 4-5 or additional material.)
p.6 MORNING BLESSINGS
pgs. 8-26 AT LEAST ONE PSALM
pgs. 28 & 27B BARUCH SHE-AMAR
pgs. 33-38 ONE or more SELECTIONS FROM THE HALLELUYAH PSALMS (146-150)
pgs. 40-41 NISHMAT – AT LEAST FIRST LINE AND LAST TWO LINES ALOUD
pg. 42 FIRST 3 LINES