Explanations of the Prayer - Ashrei - Part 8

00:00 “All Your works will thank You, Hashem, and Your chassidim will bless You.” After explaining Hashem’s kindness—that it is not just kindness, but comes from His very attribute of kindness—and explaining “Hashem is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and great in kindness,” how His compassion and kindness are felt as acts of kindness, he says that this is why “all Your works will thank You, Hashem.” All the beings Hashem created, all His works, thank Him. “And Your chassidim will bless You.” What does “Your chassidim” mean? On the plain level, it means all those who receive Hashem’s kindness. “Will bless You”—they bless Hashem for all the goodness and kindness He has shown. On this verse, we are fortunate to have an extensive explanation from the Rebbe. It appears in the Rebbe’s maamarim, in two maamarim printed in Sefer Hamaamarim Melukat. They are two very fundamental maamarim. The Rebbe edited them into about twenty pages, explaining this verse at length in a truly wonderful way. They are based on a maamar of the Rebbe [unclear], and the Rebbe develops it in greater detail. What is the substance of the explanation? I’ll give a brief account of what it says about this verse. As with the other verses here in Ashrei, at first glance the two halves seem to repeat the same thing, but they actually address two different ideas. Here too, “All Your works will thank You, Hashem, and Your chassidim will bless You” seems repetitive. But when you look more deeply, they are two entirely different things. The first half of the verse says “Your works.” The second says—

02:49 “Your chassidim.” In other words, there is a difference between those called “Your works” and those called “Your chassidim.” There is another distinction: of “Your works” it says “will thank You,” an expression of acknowledgment; of “Your chassidim” it says “will bless You,” an expression of blessing. So there are two distinctions here. What is the difference between “Your works” and “Your chassidim,” and why do we say “will thank You” of Your works, but “will bless You” of Your chassidim? By the way, before giving the explanation, the Rebbe cites the Zohar. The Zohar says that “will bless You”—yevarechucha—can be read as though it were two words: “will bless ko.” Ko refers to the sefirah of Malchus. In Chassidus this is discussed at length: there is a level of zeh, “this,” and a level of ko, “thus.” Zeh indicates revelation: you can point to it and say “this.” Ko refers to something distant, something you cannot point to in that way. It refers to the sefirah of Malchus, which is therefore called ko. “Thus shall you bless”—ko sevarchu. There are several places where ko refers to the sefirah of Malchus. So “Your chassidim will bless You” also means that the chassidim draw blessing into ko. That is, they bring blessing into the level called ko, the sefirah of Malchus. What does all this mean? I’ll explain the point briefly. The Rebbe first explains “will thank You.” The works of Chassidus explain that acknowledgment is something beyond reason and understanding, beyond intellect. When you acknowledge something, you do not understand it; you simply accept it. You cannot yet grasp or comprehend it. We are speaking, then, of a level that cannot be approached through understanding, and that is why the word “acknowledgment” is used. You acknowledge: “I cannot understand this.” It is a very lofty level, beyond what we can—

05:12 grasp. At such a level, the term used is “acknowledgment,” as in “the Sages acknowledge Rabbi Meir’s view.” What does that mean? A person acknowledges it even though he does not understand it. He himself had thought the opposite, but he acknowledges that Rabbi Meir is right. Sometimes you may understand the argument, but you did not arrive at it yourself; on your own, you thought differently. That too involves setting aside your own opinion in deference to something higher. So acknowledgment is a form of bittul, self-nullification. That is how acknowledgment is discussed throughout Chassidus. What, then, does “All Your works will thank You, Hashem” mean? It speaks of Atzmus, Hashem’s Essence, which is beyond the realm of intellect—Hashem as He is infinitely beyond the created beings. In relation to His Essence, all created beings, all the worlds, are considered merely the work of His hands. Even the loftiest levels are like “action” in relation to His Essence. Therefore, their entire connection with Hashem is through acknowledgment. They cannot understand, grasp or comprehend His Essence; they can only acknowledge it. In other words, when the intellect of any created being encounters that infinitely transcendent level of His Essence, its response can only be acknowledgment. Yet the verse goes on to say, “And Your chassidim.” We’ll soon explain who “Your chassidim” are. The chassidim have the power to “bless You.” Blessing is the opposite of acknowledgment. Blessing means drawing something down. Acknowledgment is bittul in the face of what is beyond reason and understanding; it is self-nullification. Blessing is the opposite: drawing down. As Chassidus—

07:23 always explains, a blessing means drawing something down. “Your chassidim will bless You”: the chassidim have the power to bless and draw down that very level before which all the worlds and created beings can only say “will thank You.” For them, it is a matter of acknowledgment and bittul, beyond their comprehension. But the chassidim have the power to bless—to bring that level down into Malchus. This relates to “all Your works,” which is what we have been discussing all along. We are speaking here about Malchus, the level that relates to what is below, like a person putting on a garment. So “Your chassidim will bless You”: they draw from the level of the Essence, where nothing but acknowledgment is possible, down into the sefirah of Malchus, and thus into the garment as well. The Rebbe explains the great distinction of “Your chassidim.” There are two things we need to explain: first, the greatness of their drawing down, through blessing, the level of “will thank You”; and second, why chassidim in particular have this power. Why specifically chassidim? To understand the greatness of this, the Rebbe first explains the difference between drawing something down through a blessing and through prayer. Chassidus explains that there are two ways to draw abundance into the world: prayer and blessing. What is the difference? Each has an advantage. On the one hand, a blessing is more certain. When a tzaddik gives a blessing, it means: this is how it will be. When he says that you will have a blessing, he draws it down and brings about that result. With prayer, it is not so certain. The request may be granted, or it may not. In prayer, a person stands below and asks. The answer may be yes—

09:31 or it may be no. The person is asking for a change. Prayer rises from below to above, so it is not certain that the person will receive what he asks for. With a blessing, the one giving it stands above the matter and draws it down from above to below. That is why a blessing has the power to bring about its result with certainty. On the other hand, a blessing has a limitation: it cannot draw down something from beyond the order of hishtalshelus. A blessing can draw down something that already exists at its source. It is there already, but sometimes there are concealments and obstacles that prevent it from descending below—all kinds of accusations that keep the abundance from coming down. A blessing has the power to take what is there and bring it down. But it cannot bring about a new flow that was not there before. For example, when Yaakov blessed Menashe and Ephraim, he placed his right hand on the younger one and his left hand on the older one. Yosef said to him, “But this one is the older one, and that one is the younger.” What did Yaakov answer? “I know, my son, I know. He too will become a people, but his younger brother will be greater than he.” Now, you might say: do it the other way around! The blessing follows whichever way you place your hands. Why did Yaakov have to position them that way? He could have put his right hand on the older one, and the blessing would have gone to him. This teaches us that a blessing cannot create something new. It had already been determined at the source that Menashe would be less great, that he would have less success, and that the younger Ephraim would be greater. Yaakov Avinu could only draw down what was already there above. So that is how it was with a blessing. Prayer, too, has an advantage.

11:26 A special quality that can bring about a new flow. That power is specifically in prayer. That is why Hakadosh Boruch Hu desires the prayers of the righteous. With all the advantages of prayer, and the standing they have, we are saying that prayer has the power to bring about a new flow of bounty. What does “a new flow” mean? It means that prayer can bring about something that was not there even at its source, above the order of hishtalshelus. Even if, according to the order of hishtalshelus, this person would be ill, prayer can bring about something new: that he should be healthy. And conversely, even if the order of hishtalshelus calls for him to have a livelihood, that can change. So there is an advantage in both blessing and prayer. That is blessing and prayer in themselves. The advantage of “Your chassidim” is the explanation here of “All Your works shall thank You, Hashem, and Your chassidim shall bless You”: the chassidim draw down the flow brought about through prayer, which is the aspect of “shall thank You.” As we said earlier, that is above hishtalshelus, a revelation here. This aspect of “shall thank You,” above hishtalshelus, can only be drawn down through prayer. “Your chassidim shall bless You”: a chossid has the power to draw down that very aspect, which is above hishtalshelus, not through prayer but through blessing. In other words, it combines both advantages. The source of the flow is like the flow brought about through prayer, the flow of “shall thank You.” But how is it drawn down? Not by way of prayer, where one has to ask and it may or may not happen, but through a blessing: it is drawn down without any limitations or hindrance, with absolute certainty. There is the example of Honi Hame’agel. It says so about Honi Hame’agel, as the Rebbe explains in a sicha, and likewise [unclear]. There was the story of Honi Hame’agel. In the sicha there was

13:34 a story of Honi Hame’agel. People came to him to ask for rain. Honi Hame’agel drew a circle and prayed, but the rain still did not fall as he wanted. First there was too much rain, then too little—a whole series of difficulties before rain fell the way people wanted. It took several prayers. To begin with, he had to pray for it; it did not come on its own. And second, even when he prayed, it did not immediately fall as he wished. He had to make various changes and say, “That is not what I asked for, and that is not what I asked for,” until it fell as he wished. With Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, by contrast, he did not even speak about rain. People came to ask for rain, and he neither prayed nor issued a command. Not only did he not pray; he did not even command it. It was not even by way of a decree. Instead, he spoke about “Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell together in unity.” He explained the verse according to Kabbalah, and in the middle of his explanation, rain began to fall. It was similar with the Rebbe. For example, there were the maamarim the Rebbe would sometimes say on Purim, changing the usual order of things, particularly on Purim. Stalin, may his name be erased—that happened on Purim. [unclear] With the Rebbe, things came about through speech, without a command, without a decree, and without prayer—through praise, through the inner dimension of Torah. So the Rebbe explains that this combines the two things. This is the power of the inner dimension of Torah, and this is “Your chassidim.” Your chassidim. The Rebbe also explains “Your chassidim” in its straightforward sense: chassidim. They study Chassidus, and Chassidus is the inner dimension of Torah. The power of Chassidus is that the inner dimension of Torah is rooted in the Essence. The entire lengthy discussion of the inner dimension of Torah concerns the three highest sefirot of Atik, a revelation

15:23 [unclear]. This is the inner dimension of Torah, with both advantages together. On the one hand, the flow is like the flow brought about through prayer: a flow of holiness from beyond the order of hishtalshelus. It is therefore called a flow from His very Essence. And for that reason, it is drawn down in such a way that one does not even have to ask. It comes from the Ein Sof. Then the truth becomes revealed. It becomes clear that the entire existence of the worlds is [unclear], and all concealments fall away. So it has both advantages: the flow comes from above the order of hishtalshelus, and one does not have to request its revelation through prayer. Prayer would show that a person is still a separate entity, standing at a distance and needing to ask. But the moment he reveals the inner dimension of Torah, the matter becomes revealed down here without any command or prayer. If you want to see this point, look at how the Rebbe explains it in the maamar. And this is “Your chassidim”—specifically Your chassidim. What does “Your chassidim” mean? A chossid is someone who [unclear], who has bittul, who does not act for his own sake. First and foremost, he serves Hashem for a higher purpose. That is what a chossid is: someone who goes beyond the letter of the law, meaning that he serves Hashem. But [unclear]; that is not the whole idea of a chossid. It is about a close, enduring bond. I am bringing a few details that show what Chassidus is about. That is why a chossid specifically has the power to do both things together: to draw down matters of revelation, matters of the Ein Sof, which the rest of the world cannot reach except through [unclear] and bittul. The chossid brings it from the very essence of his Rebbe [unclear], and this causes the realm of malchus, together with all that surrounds it,

17:11 to connect with the Essence in the deepest possible way, so that it has both advantages. That is the Rebbe’s point as he explains this verse. If so, these are the two parts of the verse: “All Your works shall thank You, Hashem” refers to what the whole world can reach only through thanksgiving. That aspect of the Ein Sof is not revealed in the very essence of [unclear]. But “Your chassidim”—the idea of a chossid—means someone who can bring it into revelation, ultimately with both advantages together: a flow from the Ein Sof, and its arrival within the world in a way the world can receive. “They shall speak of the glory of Your kingship and tell of Your might.” We have time. “They shall speak of the glory of Your kingship and tell of Your might.” On the simplest level, the verse is now speaking about another way the created beings praise Hakadosh Boruch Hu. It says, “They shall speak of the glory of Your kingship”: they speak and tell of the glory of Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s kingship. “And tell of Your might”: they speak of Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s might. But again, the same question arises: What is he saying now that he did not say before? He has already spoken about this, and now he repeats the same thing. Chassidus explains this. There are maamarim in which the Rebbe explains at length that this verse describes the coming into being of the created beings of Beriah, Yetzirah, and Asiyah. It explains how the tzimtzum that Hakadosh Boruch Hu made came about, so that created beings could exist. After all, the truth is that “there is nothing besides Him”: nothing exists apart from Hakadosh Boruch Hu. And that remains the truth even now. So how did the existence of created beings suddenly come about—created beings that have a sense of their own existence? That was

19:28 The point is this: Hakadosh Boruch Hu wanted there to be a world, with a people under Him, where there could be accountability. So He brought about a separate existence. This verse, together with the next three verses, explains the sequence of descent through which created beings could come into existence. First it says, “They shall speak of the glory of Your kingship.” What is “the glory of Your kingship”? All the praise that created beings can offer reaches only the glory of His kingship. Kingship is the source of created beings, and even regarding kingship itself, the verse says its glory. The glory of kingship is its garment. We use “glory” in this sense in the physical world too. The Gemara calls clothing a person’s honor. Garments were called “my honor,” as the Gemara puts it, because clothing is what lends a person honor. Honor is something external; it is directed toward others, because it is only to others that a person reveals himself. So too with a king and his kingship: kingship is how the king reveals himself and reaches his people. The king clothes himself in royal garments, and that brings about the glory of his kingship. In other words, glory is like the garment the king puts on in order to have an effect on his people. That is the “glory of Your kingship”: a garment for kingship that makes this possible. If kingship were without a garment—if it were revealed without any covering, as described in Tanya, [unclear]—there would be no concept of the king’s glory. A king may be without royal garments in his own home, but when he appears before the people he must wear them. In spiritual terms, the revelation of kingship without garments would cause all created beings to be utterly nullified. What is wanted is not a revelation of the King Himself that would leave no room

21:44 for their existence. That is possible only through the glory of kingship, through a garment. He puts on a garment, a kind of parsa, as it is called in Chassidus. Through Hakadosh Boruch Hu’s enclothing of the supernal light in this garment of a parsa, a connection to the world becomes possible. Then the verse explains, “and they shall speak of Your might.” How does this garment, this parsa, come about? Above, in Atzilus, the light of Malchus—the light of Atzilus—is a light in which it is felt that He alone exists and there is nothing besides Him. There is no existence apart from Hakadosh Boruch Hu. How, then, does the glory of kingship, a garment, suddenly come about? The verse explains: “and they shall speak of Your might”—through the gevuros, Hashem’s attribute of gevurah. As it says in Chassidus, the construction of Malchus is from the gevuros. Through the gevuros and tzimtzumim that Hakadosh Boruch Hu brought about, the garment of kingship came into being. Rabbi Moshe [unclear][?] gives an analogy for this and explains it there at length. Take letters, for example. When a person grasps an idea, even when he is immersed in its deepest intellectual meaning, the letters are there, but they are not yet felt. When do you begin to feel the letters? As you move away from the idea itself. In other words, the letters become apparent through tzimtzum. As he constricts the idea and brings it down, its full light no longer shines, until the letters begin to emerge. That does not mean the tzimtzum creates the letters. The letters were there before as well, but they were subsumed within the idea. Through tzimtzum, they become revealed. The same applies to Malchus: the garment of kingship is, as it were, the letters, as explained in Eitz Chaim. And the proof is that this whole matter of a garment concerns the garments.

23:35 How do the letters themselves emerge? Through the gevuros, through descent and tzimtzumim. Why does the first part of the verse say “they shall say,” while the second says “they shall speak”? Chassidus explains the difference: speech conveys something stronger, harsher, than saying. That is also how it is understood in the straightforward meaning. Rashi says this too regarding “Thus shall you say to the house of Jacob and tell the children of Israel”: “say” is gentle language, while “tell” is forceful. “Saying,” then, emphasizes that the matter is still more spiritual and has not yet become so pronounced. In spiritual terms, saying remains close to the one conveying it, whereas speech involves greater tzimtzum. Speech thus emphasizes tzimtzum more than saying does. That is why saying can also take place in thought. We spoke about this once: “I said in my heart.” You see, saying can happen in thought, while speech specifically goes out to someone else. So in the first part of the verse, which speaks about the very existence of “the glory of Your kingship” but does not yet explain the tzimtzumim within it, it says “they shall say.” It does not yet emphasize a separate existence. But regarding His might—the gevuros and tzimtzumim whose whole purpose is to make a separate existence possible—the verse adds “they shall speak.” This emphasizes a further intensification of the tzimtzumim, to the point where there is “speech” and an actual separate existence. Then the next verse says, “To make known to mankind His mighty deeds and the glorious splendor of His kingship.” That speaks about the revelation that comes afterward. We’ll leave that for next time.