Reciting Nishmas Daily

Real questions, submitted by actual OU Torah followers, with their real answers. NOTE: For questions of practical halacha, please consult your own rabbi for guidance.

Q. Is it permissible to add Nishmas to the weekday shacharis?

A. Thanks for your question. When I was in high school, I went to visit Rav Moshe Feinstein ztz”l and one of the questions I asked him was about reciting Hallel on a day on which Chazal did not institute it. He replied that doing so would constitute an interruption in the order of tefillah. Therefore, if one feels that a day warrants extra praise to Hashem, one may recite the paragraphs that constitute Hallel after davening, without a bracha.

The Zohar (Shemos 205) explains that Nishmas was added specifically to shacharis on Shabbos because of its connection to the neshama yeseira (“extra soul”) that we receive on that day. Based on the ruling that I received from Rav Moshe ztz”l, I wouldn’t advocate adding Nishmas to shacharis on weekdays, as doing so would be an interruption to the day’s prescribed tefillos. The Rema (OC 664:1) points out that we don’t even say Nishmas on Hoshana Rabbah, when pesukei d’zimra is otherwise like that of Shabbos and yom tov; the Mishnah Brurah there says this is because it’s really still a weekday.

There is a custom to recite Nishmas daily for 40 days as a segulah. This is based on Ben Ish Chai, Rav Chaim Palagi, et al., who advocated reciting it on an as-needed basis. If one wishes to observe this practice, I would recommend reciting Nishmas after davening. When reciting Nishmas outside of davening, one should not recite the bracha of Yishtabach that is appended to its end when it’s part of davening.

I’m led to believe that there are Chasidishe communities that do recite Nishmas every day as part of davening. If part of such a community, one should follow the local practice.

Addendum: I wasn’t completely satisfied with the response that I drafted for you because, despite my research, part of my answer was speculative. I forwarded my draft to a more senior colleague to make sure that my conclusion was correct. He referred me to a ruling from Rav Chaim Kanievsky, who said the exact same thing, i.e., that that one may not say Nishmas daily as part of pesukei d’zimra but that one may do so after davening. He also specifies that reciting it daily is without the bracha.

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