249 PSALMS 120–136 : SONGS GREAT FESTIVAL FOR A at the Passover meal could hardly open with a call to worshippers “ who stand in the house of YHWH” (v. 2) – especially so after the destruction of the second temple. For the same reason it is not probable that the Great Hallel should have opened with Ps 134,1. Therefore it may be assumed that the second answer refers to all the songs bearing the title twl[mh ryv. References to Jerusalem, the temple and the gathering there would not be left out, but hardly interfered with the actual situation when they were heard in their literary context. According to the second answer the Great Hallel unites Psalms 135 and 136 with at least one of the songs preceding them. If the above explanation is correct, the answer supposes it to include all the Songs of Ascents. I suspect that this in fact is the supposition in the other answers as well. The question lwdgh llh –kyhm, “From where the Great Hallel?”, is not then about the beginning of the Great Hallel itself, but about the point from where this text is to be recited at the Passover meal 34. The assumption that Psalms 135 and 136 were connected once to Psalms 120–134 35 is supported by the texts themselves. The author of Psalm 135 (or its first part) apparently meant to link his text to the Songs of Ascents. As its opening he chose Ps 113,1, of which he transposed the stichs following hy wllh, thus smoothing the transition to v. 2a, which (apart from v) he derived from Psalm 134. In v. 3 he used the word pair μy[n — bwf (“ good — pleasant”), also found in Ps 133,1. Psalm 136, for its part, is strongly reminiscent of Psalm 135. Verse 1a (“... for he is good”) recalls Ps 135,3 36. Verses 2-3 have the words μyhla and ynda in common with Ps 135,5, with which they agree by their content as well. In Cf. GRAETZ, “Psalmen”, 241-242. Graetz argues that the Great Hallel 34 can hardly have consisted of one or two psalms, when the Festal (Egyptian) Hallel had six of them. Since “great” (lwdg) is often used in the sense of “ important, prominent”, especially so in later Hebrew, the argument is not decisive. J.C. MCCANN, “The Book of Psalms. Introduction, Commentary, and 35 Reflections ”, The New Interpreter’s Bible (Nashville, TN 1994-2004) IV 1219, , 1223, considers Pss 135 and 136 to be “an appendix to the Songs of Ascents”. In Ps 135,3 hwhy seems to be a later addition, intended to make clear that 36 the word bwf relates to God, not to the praise of God (as in Ps 92,2). In Ps 147,1, of which the first words were taken from Ps 135,3, the element hwhy is missing.