הוֹשִׁיעֵנוּ אַחַר שִׁיר שֶׁל יוֹם אוֹמְרִים הֵן בְּחוֹל הֵן בְּשַׁבָּת, יוֹם טוֹב, רֹאשׁ הַשָּׁנָה וְיוֹם הַכִּפּוּרִים.

The passage beginning Hoshieinu1 isrecited after the Psalm of the Day (Shir shel Yom)2 on weekdays,3 as well as on Shabbos, festivals, Rosh HaShanah, and Yom Kippur.

Peering Over the Horizon

Each day’s psalm is introduced by the following words: “Today is the […] day4 of the week, on which the Levites in the Beis HaMikdash used to say….”

The libation of wine, one of the last rituals surrounding the daily sacrificial offering, was accompanied by the chanting of a daily psalm by a choir of Levites. The mishnah5 that pinpoints exactly when this took place concludes — quite exceptionally — with a prayer: “This was the sequence of the daily service in the House of our G‑d. May it be His Will that it be rebuilt speedily and in our own days, Amen.”

Likewise, the following mishnah6 proceeds to record which psalm was recited on each day of the week.7 It concludes by stating that on Shabbos the Levites used to chant Psalm 92, which opens with the words, Mizmor shir leyom haShabbos — “A psalm, a song for the Shabbos day….” Then, resuming the above spirit of yearning for the Messianic Redemption, the mishnah goes on to say: “…a psalm, a song for the Future Time, for the day that will be entirely Shabbos and repose for life everlasting.”8 For that “seventh day” is an allusion to the seventh millennium, the era of Mashiach.