Psalms — Chapter 113

• The Zohar (II, 186a) identifies this as the first of the Hallel psalms, which together form the most powerful praise-weapon in the Tehillim. Hallel is recited on festivals — days when the Sitra Achra's grip is specifically weakened by the light of the Mo'adim (appointed times). Each Hallel psalm is a hammer blow against the already-weakened Klipot.

• "From the rising of the sun to its setting, the name of Hashem is to be praised!" — the Zohar (III, 93a) establishes a continuous perimeter of praise that tracks the sun across the sky. As the sun rises in the east, praise begins; as it sets in the west, praise continues. This creates a 24-hour praise-shield that the Sitra Achra can never find unguarded.

• "Hashem is high above all nations, and His glory above the heavens!" — the Zohar (I, 12b) establishes God's position above the highest point the Sitra Achra can reach. The nations' archons operate below the heavens; God's glory exceeds even the heavens. This vertical superiority means the Klipot always fight uphill, while the Tzaddik fights from the high ground.

• "He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap" — the Zohar (II, 163a) reads the dust (Afar) and ash heap (Ashpot) as the lowest levels of Malkhut, where souls are pressed by the weight of the Klipot. God's raising (Mekimi) is the vertical rescue that lifts the soul above the Sitra Achra's operational altitude. From the ash heap to the throne — this is the complete trajectory.

• "He gives the barren woman a home, making her the joyous mother of children" — the Zohar (III, 74b) identifies the barren woman as the Shechinah in exile, unable to produce spiritual offspring because the Klipot have blocked the channel of Yesod. God's intervention reopens the channel, and the Shechinah produces children — new holy souls — in joyous defiance of the Sitra Achra's sterility program.

• Pesachim 117a records that Psalms 113-118 constitute the Great Hallel sung at the Passover Seder — the Talmud teaches that beginning with this psalm of God's transcendence and His attention to the lowly establishes the theological frame for all of the liberation celebration.

• Pesachim 113b notes that "from the rising of the sun to its setting" (verse 3) means God's praise must cross all time zones and all political territories — the Hallel is a global spiritual declaration that interrupts the Sitra Achra's local franchises everywhere simultaneously.

• Berakhot 9b records that the Hallel was sung the night Israel left Egypt — its recitation is a re-enactment of the liberation moment, making each Seder a fresh spiritual defeat of the adversarial power that Egypt represented.

• Megillah 14a notes that the raising of the poor from the dust (verse 7) is the liberation theology of the psalm — the Sitra Achra's primary political strategy is the maintenance of oppressive hierarchies, and God's specific response is inversion.

• Rosh Hashanah 11a connects this psalm's universal praise to the Talmudic vision of the World to Come — when the Messiah arrives, the whole earth will sing the Hallel together, because the adversarial powers that divided worship by nation and culture will be no more.