The Merit of Forty Days of Shirah

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Reciting Shirah each day is an ancient custom, even before it became a segulah for everything. And even regarding the segulah, there is no need to stop after completing forty days; one may always begin another forty days. So it is written in the book Derech Chochmah (p. 45): "Our custom is to recite Shirah, as Chazal said: anyone who recites Shirah every day is assured of a place in the World to Come, and his learning will endure."

And in the book Eliyahu Rabbah, he commented on it: this is the language of the baraita: it is taught that Rabbi Eliezer the Great says: anyone who engages in this Shirah every day is assured, etc. And it would seem that one does not need to recite it all, rather only that one who engages with a chapter each day, and it appears that it is customary to divide it among the seven days of the week, like the book of Tehillim." Maharam Traani wrote at the end of the book Beit Elokim that it is close to believing that King David, עליו השלום, composed Shirah by means of Ruach HaKodesh that was added to him when he finished the book of Tehillim.

And it has greater merit than the book of Tehillim, for Rabbi Eliezer testified regarding it what he did not testify regarding the book of Tehillim, and he said, "anyone who engages" and not "anyone who recites," because the idea of engaging is to understand the matters and their intent, for the purpose of gaining moral instruction from these songs, which were attributed to those who are many levels below the levels of man, in order that we may become wise in our end and do the statutes of His will." And in the conduct of the holy Rabbi Shabsi of Rashkov, he wrote:

"A person must recite Shirah every day, and its secret is this: know that all the creatures in the world have a ministering angel in Heaven, and through that ministering angel abundance flows to it, but it is impossible for the ministering angel to bestow influence upon the lower worlds until it first says Shirah below, and through that Shirah it receives its life and sustenance to bestow, for just as all the upper worlds depend on the measure of His stature, so too all the lower creatures depend on the measure of the human stature, and through him they are all blessed. Therefore, anyone who recites Shirah and knows how to intend where all the creatures are alluded to in those songs and says those songs causes abundance for all the creatures dependent on him, and his reward is great, and he merits such great matters as are explained."

With success - Menashe Israel