Explanations of the Prayer - Ashrei - Part 2

00:03 Speaker 1 This verse is actually one of the reasons we say Ashrei every day. The Gemara also asks why they instituted the recitation of Tehillah LeDavid—Ashrei. Why did they institute saying Ashrei? No, certainly not. No. No, even if I explain it as above, we’re not there yet. We haven’t reached that point. The Gemara asks why they instituted saying Tehillah LeDavid every day, and gives two reasons. So, we’ve already explained the matter of the alphabet: the verses here follow the order of the alphabet. The second reason is that it says, “You open Your hand and satisfy the desire of every living thing.” In other words, this is a central verse in the chapter. So there must be something more to this verse than to another verse, and if a person didn’t concentrate on it, there’s reason to repeat it. This is the one verse—the only verse—that must be said with concentration. If someone remembers that he didn’t concentrate, he says it again with concentration. And what is the simple meaning of this verse? On the simplest level, it reminds us of parnassah. Parnassah is very important to every person, right? So it adds something very important. The point of this verse, then, is that we ask Hakadosh Boruch Hu to give us parnassah. Its simple meaning follows what we said before: “The eyes of all look to You with hope.” Every living thing has that hope, right? They have their own needs and hope that Hakadosh Boruch Hu will provide them with everything they need. “And You give them their food in its time.” Hakadosh Boruch Hu gives them food at the proper time. Then it continues, “You open Your hand.” Hakadosh Boruch Hu actually does this. Hakadosh Boruch Hu opens His

02:26 Speaker 1 hand—His hands, right?—“and satisfy the desire of every living thing.” On the simplest level, it means that Hakadosh Boruch Hu satisfies all living creatures, all those that are alive, the plants, and provides each one with what it wants. That’s the plain meaning of “satisfy” and so on. So, “satisfy the desire of every living thing” means that He gives each and every living thing what it wants from Hakadosh Boruch Hu. That’s the plain meaning. Before we move on, there’s another explanation of the plain meaning as well. There are other verses that speak about parnassah, yes. But the distinctive quality of this verse is in its plain meaning, too. What is distinctive here is that it says, “satisfy every living thing.” In other words, the abundance is for everyone. There’s no limitation. Other verses also speak about food and parnassah, but there’s a limitation in those verses. As we discussed at the beginning, the verses also say [unclear], right? That implies some kind of limitation: you have to be on a certain level to be worthy of receiving parnassah. Here, Hakadosh Boruch Hu “satisfies the desire of every living thing.” If it says “every living thing,” then anyone who is simply alive receives parnassah from Hakadosh Boruch Hu. That’s what is distinctive about this verse. There are several other explanations of what makes this verse special, particularly regarding parnassah. Before we get into Chassidus, there’s also something the Rebbe said about it several times. There was a special fondness for this point. We’ve repeated it from the Rebbe several times, particularly in recent years. I remember him returning several times to this interpretation. The Rebbe emphasized the words “every

04:43 Speaker 1 living thing’s desire.” Right? Even if his desire is the desire of a living creature, he receives it too. The Rebbe said that several times. We know, too, that what this verse emphasizes is that Hakadosh Boruch Hu provides for every living thing, even if it is merely alive. In other words, it is alive, but it has no distinction beyond that. All it has going for it is that it’s alive. It’s like what we say about a creature being “merely a creature”: it has no distinction beyond being a creature. And the same applies here. Even if it has no distinction at all, it’s alive. It doesn’t say here a generation, a leader, a person, or a soul. It says “living thing.” All it has going for it is that it’s alive. What’s more, the Rebbe once said that a person may behave like an animal. He’s a human being, but he behaves like an animal, concerned only with eating. Right? So he wouldn’t deserve it either. Nevertheless, “He satisfies the desire of every living thing.” Even if he behaves like an animal, even if he has no distinction beyond being alive—even if he actually behaves like an animal—Hakadosh Boruch Hu provides him with parnassah and gives him everything he needs. That was one explanation the Rebbe gave. Another explanation: if I’m not mistaken about the wording—I didn’t check it now—it says, “according to his will and his appetite.” That’s how I remember the wording. So “desire” can mean his will and his appetite. That

06:33 Speaker 1 means that even if a person asks for parnassah for things he merely desires—things he doesn’t actually need. He wants wealth, he wants possessions, he wants a house; he wants things that aren’t necessary for his physical survival. Hakadosh Boruch Hu gives him those too. That’s the distinctive quality of this verse: it speaks of Hakadosh Boruch Hu providing, and providing without limit. He provides even when a person asks for things he doesn’t need, because that is what he wants. He doesn’t

07:13 Speaker 2 need to use it.

07:14 Speaker 1 In His goodness, this is the way Hakadosh Boruch Hu acts, and He provides that too. That’s the Chassidus aspect here. So there’s a point to examine in the words “You open Your hand.” The verse tells you, “You open Your hand.” What does that mean? What are we talking about here? Among Sephardim, they hold out their hands like this. Have you ever seen it? When Sephardim daven and say “You open Your hand,” their custom is to open their hands like this. They open their hands. So that’s the idea: you make yourself a vessel. “You open Your hand”—He does it Himself. We have something like that in the morning; now our community has done it with Maggid Yisroel, which is a big thing. So they arranged for people to do it: to open the hand, making a vessel to receive parnassah. But in the verse, “You open Your hand,” are we talking about a person? It says “the desire of every living thing.” So whose hand is being opened here? The Siddur explains that “yadecha,” “Your hand,” contains the letters yud and daled. “Yadecha” refers to the letter yud: the yud of the name Havayah and the yud of the name Adnai. Those are two yuds. The first letter of the name Havayah is a yud, and the last letter of the name Adnai is also a yud. So there’s a yud at the beginning and a yud at the end. Now parnassah comes from the union of these two names, Havayah and Adnai. That is the source of parnassah: the joining of Havayah and Adnai. This is the pattern of what it represents in the higher realms, the whole matter of Havayah and Adnai. Havayah refers to “was, is, and will be.” And Adnai means Master; that’s the whole matter of Malchus. The two components

09:25 Speaker 1 are Havayah and Adnai. Havayah is Ze’eir Anpin, and Adnai is Malchus. Their union is the source of parnassah. In other words, from the union of Havayah and the name Adnai come all forms of abundance. That’s the point. So the first yud and the last yud—those two yuds—are, as it were, the source of the whole matter of parnassah. This is alluded to in the words “You open Your hand.” Look, you can see it in Sephardic siddurim too, on the right-hand side. The initials of “posei’ach es yadecha,” “You open Your hand,” are pei, alef, yud. Right, those letters are printed large in the siddurim. You can see them.

10:03 Speaker 3 What is it?

10:05 Speaker 1 Huh?

10:05 Speaker 3 Which machzor?

10:08 Speaker 1 Which machzor?

10:09 Speaker 3 Shh... It’s stars at the top of...

10:12 Speaker 1 It’s stars at the top?

10:13 Speaker 3 Yeah.

10:13 Speaker 1 Okay. So the initial letters of “You open Your hand” spell pai. Pai has the numerical value of Havayah and Adnai together: ninety-one. Yes, that’s the numerical value of pai, ninety-one. It represents the joining of Havayah and the name Adnai, the two names from which sustenance comes. So we say, “You open Your hand”—yad, “hand,” begins with the letter yud. The yud is the source of sustenance, but a yud is a closed letter. It’s a small letter, right? It shows that everything is concealed there. Everything is there—it’s the source of sustenance—but there it remains within the letter yud, a small, closed yud. So we ask, “You open Your hand”: that Hakadosh Boruch Hu should open the yud, that it shouldn’t remain closed, but should open up, like opening the fingers. “Open Your good treasure for us”—that’s what we say in the Yom Kippur prayers. That’s it: “Open the gates of heaven, and open Your good treasure for us.” There should be an opening of the fingers. The yud contains the source of sustenance, but there it is enclosed within the letter. So we ask that “You open Your hand”—that it should open and the abundance should come to everyone, without an evil eye. It’s also written in the sefarim that the final letters of “You open Your hand” spell chatach. The initial letters spell pai, Havayah and Adnai; the final letters spell chatach. What is chatach? It relates to “the One who apportions”—“who apportions life to every living being.” We also say that in the prayer for peace. How does it go? “Who apportions life to every living being.” That, too, is a name, some kind of acronym for one of the names of Hakadosh Boruch

12:30 Speaker 1 Hu, and of the name Elokim. I don’t remember exactly. It’s chatach, and that is the name from which material abundance also comes—the name associated with sustenance. So that’s chatach: “who apportions life to every living being.” In any case, the whole matter of sustenance and where it comes from is alluded to here. And that is the meaning of pai: through it comes the union of Havayah and Adnai. It is the union of masculine and feminine, from which the power of both the material and the spiritual comes. Then we have “and satisfies every living being with favor.” There’s also an explanation in the Siddur of the allusions here. Now I want to look at “and satisfies every living being with favor.” Why does it say ratzon, “favor” or “desire”? It says, “You open Your hand and satisfy every living being with ratzon.” The power to “satisfy every living being” is His kindness. What does “satisfy every living being with ratzon” mean? According to the Siddur, ratzon here means a desire for G-dliness. That’s the desire we’re talking about: we want a person to have a desire for G-dliness. “You open Your hand”—You open the letter, the letter that contains this idea. “And satisfy every living being”: Hakadosh Boruch Hu gives every living being desire, so that he will have desire. Sometimes the problem is that we have no desire for G-dliness. So we ask Hakadosh Boruch Hu to give us desire—that we should have desire, that we should want G-dliness and want... I once told you about Pinkus. Pinkus was at yechidus with the Rebbe and complained that he had no desire to serve Hashem. Not only did he have no desire; he didn’t even have a desire to want to. The Rebbe told him: In the time you spent thinking about wanting to have the desire to want, how far could you have reached in [unclear]... It’s an amazing story about the great sages. There is

14:39 Speaker 1 such a thing: sometimes a person doesn’t want to. So that is what we ask for—that we should at least have desire, that at least on some level we should still want to. There is an allusion to this as well. But there’s also an entirely opposite interpretation. It’s written somewhere—I don’t remember where—that the meaning follows from the words “You open Your hand and satisfy every living being with ratzon.” It can also mean the desire of the tzaddik, of course: He gives every living being the tzaddik’s desire, so that we should have the desire of the tzaddik. In other words, I want to be connected to the Rebbe, the tzaddik. So that’s the meaning of “You open Your hand and satisfy every living being with ratzon”: that a person should desire the tzaddik. That also has something in common with that story about the great sages. In any event, that’s the point about this verse. Afterward the verse says, “Hashem is righteous in all His ways and kind in all His deeds.” On the other hand, a Jew says, “Hashem is righteous in all His ways and kind in all His deeds.” One could say that He acts justly and uprightly in all His ways, and He is kind—He acts with kindness in all His deeds. If we look at how the ideas in this verse unfold, on the one hand we ask Hakadosh Boruch Hu to bestow goodness on us, to give every living being only good things in all His ways. On the other hand, a Jew has simple faith. He knows that everything Hakadosh Boruch Hu does is for the good. So this verse contains two things. First, we need Hakadosh Boruch Hu to fulfill these words and give us everything as a matter of justice; and if not as a matter of justice, then to give it to us as kindness. Justice is when we deserve it. Kindness is when we don’t deserve it. That’s what kindness means. But the deeper meaning is that even when, outwardly and in practice, it appears that what is being bestowed is not good—it’s not

16:49 Speaker 1 simply a question of one judgment or another. Even so, a Jew believes that everything Hakadosh Boruch Hu bestows is for the good. As the sage says in Taanis, “This too is for the good.” Even when something bestowed appears on the surface to be suffering or something bad, that is only how it appears outwardly. Inwardly, it is hidden good: “This too is for the good,” and it comes from hidden good. In everything, it isn’t only right or only left; everything is good. This is one of the foundations of faith that a Jew must believe. It expresses the difference between a Jew and a non-Jew: things that seem bad to a non-Jew, a Jew knows are also good gifts at their core. That’s what is alluded to in the verse, “Hashem is righteous in all His ways.” Whatever happens—even news of wars and scandals, bad things—he affirms that Hakadosh Boruch Hu is just, because Hakadosh Boruch Hu is just; He knows what He is doing. “And kind in all His deeds”: more than being just, He shows kindness. Hakadosh Boruch Hu even gives a person more than the strict letter of the law requires. Even if I don’t deserve it, Hakadosh Boruch Hu gives to me and treats me with kindness. That’s why the verse says “in all His deeds” when it speaks of kindness. With righteousness it says “in all His ways”; with kindness it says “in all His deeds.” “In all His ways” refers to the attribute of judgment and the attribute of kindness. It means all sorts of ways, all sorts of means and modes of conduct—conduct marked by kindness, conduct marked by mercy. Hakadosh Boruch Hu is righteous in all His ways. By contrast, “in all His deeds” refers to deeds, to action. In other words, Hakadosh Boruch Hu gives and bestows kindness beyond the strict letter of the law. “In all His deeds” means even when it is beyond the strict letter of the law. Deeds means action—even when a person doesn’t deserve it.

18:42 Speaker 1 It uses the language of action. Action can also imply compulsion. Even when the person doesn’t deserve it, Hakadosh Boruch Hu, as it were, compels Himself to go beyond the attribute of judgment and give him kindness at a deeper level, a gift beyond the strict letter of the law. So that, in general, is the point of this verse and the next one. All right, that’s enough analysis.