Draft. This siddur is waiting for a rav's review. For a halachic question, ask your rav.
The title names David and nothing more: no place, no event. Midrash Tehillim (the Sages' early teachings on the psalms) supplies a reason instead. David is not praising for nothing. He is answering what God promised to do for Israel in the psalm just before this one: sons growing tall like young trees, storehouses full, no outcry in the streets. Now listen again to the verse right before the title, about the people who have it like this.
It opens the last six psalms of Tehillim, said here in a row. Radak (Rabbi David Kimchi, around 1200) says all six are praise of God. The Tur (a law code from the 1300s) says they were set before the Amidah because you praise God first and only then pray.
Tehillim 144:12-15 and 145:1; Midrash Tehillim 145; Radak on Tehillim 145:1; Tur, Orach Chaim 51Hebrew, then English. Open "What it means" under any line for the explanation.
Say this psalm with attention, most of all the line "You open Your hand." Two verses come before it and one after.
אַשְׁרֵי יוֹשְׁבֵי בֵיתֶךָ עוֹד יְהַלְלוּךָ סֶּלָה.
Happy are those who live in Your house. They will go on praising You. Selah.
This verse is not part of the psalm. It is Tehillim 84:5. The Gemara (the rabbis' discussions built on the Mishnah) learns from its words "those who sit in Your house" that a person should wait "one hour" before praying. The Story section tells how that put the verse here.
Tehillim 84:5; Berakhot 32bאַשְׁרֵי הָעָם שֶׁכָּכָה לּוֹ אַשְׁרֵי הָעָם שֶׁיְיָ אֱלֹהָיו.
Happy is the people that has it like this. Happy is the people whose God is Hashem.
The last verse of Tehillim 144, the psalm right before this one. "Like this" points back to what that psalm just described: children growing up strong, full storehouses, no screaming in the streets. Radak (Rabbi David Kimchi, Provence, around 1200) reads the second half as the reason: they have all that because Hashem is their God.
Tehillim 144:12-15, with RadakTehillim 145 starts here. After the two-word title, every verse begins with the next letter of the alef-bet.
תְּהִלָּה לְדָוִד אֲרוֹמִמְךָ אֱלוֹהַי הַמֶּלֶךְ וַאֲבָרְכָה שִׁמְךָ לְעוֹלָם וָעֶד.
A song of praise by David. I will lift You high, my God the King, and I will bless Your name forever and ever.
The Gemara: whoever says this psalm three times every day is assured of a place in the World to Come. The Story section tells why this psalm. Metzudat David (a line-by-line commentary from the 1700s) explains the title "praise": the psalm asks for nothing.
Berakhot 4b; Metzudat David on Tehillim 145:1בְּכָל יוֹם אֲבָרְכֶךָּ וַאֲהַלְלָה שִׁמְךָ לְעוֹלָם וָעֶד.
Every day I will bless You, and I will praise Your name forever and ever.
Is this the first line over again? Radak splits it: "every day" is this world, and "forever and ever" is the World to Come. Metzudat David reads "every day" as each day in its own way, a blessing that fits what happened that day.
Radak and Metzudat David on Tehillim 145:2גָּדוֹל יְיָ וּמְהֻלָּל מְאֹד וְלִגְדֻלָּתוֹ אֵין חֵקֶר.
Hashem is great and greatly praised, and no one can get to the bottom of His greatness.
Ibn Ezra (a Spanish commentator who died in the 1160s): the greatness of every other king has a start and an end. This one does not. Then how can anyone praise it? Radak: a person will never reach it, however much he investigates, because it has no bottom. He praises as far as his own mind goes.
Ibn Ezra and Radak on Tehillim 145:3דּוֹר לְדוֹר יְשַׁבַּח מַעֲשֶׂיךָ וּגְבוּרֹתֶיךָ יַגִּידוּ.
One generation will praise Your works to the next, and they will tell of Your mighty acts.
Radak ties this to the line before. Even a long life would not be enough to take in God's greatness, and lives are short. So what can people do? The generation that is leaving tells the next one what it saw in its own days, and the next one praises God for things it never saw.
Radak on Tehillim 145:4הֲדַר כְּבוֹד הוֹדֶךָ וְדִבְרֵי נִפְלְאֹתֶיךָ אָשִׂיחָה.
The splendor of Your glorious majesty and the accounts of Your wonders: these I will talk over.
Watch who is speaking. In these lines "they" tell and "I" tell, back and forth. Ibn Ezra: the generations tell the mighty acts that anyone can see. "And I will talk it over with my own heart," he has David say, and that takes in the wonders the generations do not understand.
Ibn Ezra on Tehillim 145:5וֶעֱזוּז נוֹרְאֹתֶיךָ יֹאמֵרוּ וּגְדֻלָּתְךָ אֲסַפְּרֶנָּה.
They will speak of the power of Your awesome acts, and I will tell of Your greatness.
In Tanach the word for "Your greatness" is written here as a plural, "Your great acts," but read as a singular. Radak: to the people on the receiving end they are many. To God they are all one.
Tehillim 145:6, with Radakזֵכֶר רַב טוּבְךָ יַבִּיעוּ וְצִדְקָתְךָ יְרַנֵּנוּ.
They will pour out the memory of Your great goodness and sing out Your righteousness.
Two verbs for speaking. Radak: the first means to talk, and the second means to say it out loud in front of people. Ibn Ezra says the same of the second: in public. On the first half he writes: when a king is good, everybody talks about his goodness.
Radak and Ibn Ezra on Tehillim 145:7חַנּוּן וְרַחוּם יְיָ אֶרֶךְ אַפַּיִם וּגְדָל חָסֶד.
Hashem is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and great in kindness.
Close to the words Moshe heard after the golden calf: "compassionate and gracious, slow to anger." Radak takes the words one at a time. Gracious: He gives creatures what they need. Compassionate: He guards them from harm. Slow to anger: He does not punish the wicked right away. Great in kindness: He gives people more than they deserve.
Shemot 34:6; Radak on Tehillim 145:8טוֹב יְיָ לַכֹּל וְרַחֲמָיו עַל כָּל מַעֲשָׂיו.
Hashem is good to all, and His compassion is on everything He made.
The Gemara tells of Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi, who put the Mishnah together. A calf being led to slaughter hid its head in his robe and cried. He said: "Go. This is what you were made for." Suffering came on him for that. It left the day his maid was sweeping out baby weasels and he told her: "Leave them. It is written: His compassion is on everything He made."
Bava Metzia 85aיוֹדוּךָ יְיָ כָּל מַעֲשֶׂיךָ וַחֲסִידֶיךָ יְבָרְכוּכָה.
Everything You made will thank You, Hashem, and Your devoted ones will bless You.
How does everything thank? Animals cannot. Radak: a person who understands how they are built and fed gives the thanks, and it counts as theirs. The "devoted ones" are the people who keep looking at what God made and bless each time they notice. In the same way, he adds, the rabbis set a blessing for each kind of thing you see.
Radak on Tehillim 145:10כְּבוֹד מַלְכוּתְךָ יֹאמֵרוּ וּגְבוּרָתְךָ יְדַבֵּרוּ.
They will speak of the glory of Your kingship and talk about Your might,
"They" are the devoted ones from the line before. What do they say when they bless? Radak: that You are King over everything and made everything, and that all creatures exist by Your power. Ibn Ezra: their blessing is teaching the glory of Your kingship to people who do not know You.
Radak and Ibn Ezra on Tehillim 145:11לְהוֹדִיעַ לִבְנֵי הָאָדָם גְּבוּרֹתָיו וּכְבוֹד הֲדַר מַלְכוּתוֹ.
to let human beings know His mighty acts and the glorious splendor of His kingship.
In the middle of the sentence "Your" turns into "His." The Rashi commentary (Rashi is the classic commentator, France, died 1105) reads the line as what people say to each other: "It is good for us to tell human beings about His mighty acts." Radak: blessing God among themselves is not enough. They need to tell the people who do not know.
Rashi on Tehillim 145:7; Radak on Tehillim 145:12מַלְכוּתְךָ מַלְכוּת כָּל עֹלָמִים וּמֶמְשַׁלְתְּךָ בְּכָל דּוֹר וָדֹר.
Your kingship is a kingship for all time, and Your rule is in every generation.
This verse starts with mem. The next starts with samekh. The letter nun has no verse. Rabbi Yochanan in the Gemara: nun opens a verse about Israel's fall (Amos 5:2). The Story section and the third hard question tell the rest.
Berakhot 4bסוֹמֵךְ יְיָ לְכָל הַנֹּפְלִים וְזוֹקֵף לְכָל הַכְּפוּפִים.
Hashem holds up all who are falling and straightens up all who are bent over.
The Gemara goes on: even so, David came back and held the fallen up, in this verse. Metzudat David sees two people here: one still falling, caught before reaching the ground, and one already bent to the ground. Ibn Ezra: a human king raises one person and lowers another, because he cannot hold everyone up. God alone holds up all.
Berakhot 4b; Metzudat David and Ibn Ezra on Tehillim 145:14עֵינֵי כֹל אֵלֶיךָ יְשַׂבֵּרוּ וְאַתָּה נוֹתֵן לָהֶם אֶת אָכְלָם בְּעִתּוֹ.
The eyes of all look to You in hope, and You give them their food at its time.
"Their food" is plural, but "its time" is singular. The Gemara: this teaches that God gives each and every one its living at its own time. Radak says it of the animal world: some eat grass, some seeds, some other animals, and each kind has a set time when its food is ready. They look to God without knowing it. We are the ones who know.
Ketubot 67b; Radak on Tehillim 145:15Slow down for this line and think about what it says.
פּוֹתֵחַ אֶת יָדֶךָ וּמַשְׂבִּיעַ לְכָל חַי רָצוֹן.
You open Your hand and satisfy every living thing with what it wants.
The last word can go two ways. Radak and Metzudat David: You fill every living thing with what it wants, each one its own wish. The Rashi commentary: You fill each living thing, as much as it needs to live on, with Your goodness, Your goodwill and Your blessing. Ibn Ezra: with what is enough for it. The verse is also said after putting on the head tefillin.
Rashi, Radak, Ibn Ezra and Metzudat David on Tehillim 145:16צַדִּיק יְיָ בְּכָל דְּרָכָיו וְחָסִיד בְּכָל מַעֲשָׂיו.
Hashem is just in all His ways and kind in everything He does.
Which is it: exactly fair, or kinder than fair? Rav Huna asks this in the Gemara and answers: at first just, and in the end kind. Rashi explains "kind" as going past the line of the law, and "in the end" as the point when He sees that the world cannot last on strict judgment.
Rosh Hashanah 17b, with Rashiקָרוֹב יְיָ לְכָל קֹרְאָיו לְכֹל אֲשֶׁר יִקְרָאֻהוּ בֶאֱמֶת.
Hashem is close to all who call Him, to all who call Him in truth.
Close to whom? Radak: to anyone who calls, from whatever nation, as long as it is "in truth." He explains that as mouth and heart being the same. Metzudat David says it from the other side: the heart does not deny what the mouth is saying.
Radak and Metzudat David on Tehillim 145:18רְצוֹן יְרֵאָיו יַעֲשֶׂה וְאֶת שַׁוְעָתָם יִשְׁמַע וְיוֹשִׁיעֵם.
He does what those in awe of Him want. He hears their cry for help and saves them.
All through this psalm Ibn Ezra measures God against a human king. Here: a person who fears a king is satisfied if the king does him no harm. God does what those who fear Him want.
Ibn Ezra on Tehillim 145:19שׁוֹמֵר יְיָ אֶת כָּל אֹהֲבָיו וְאֵת כָּל הָרְשָׁעִים יַשְׁמִיד.
Hashem guards all who love Him, and He will destroy all the wicked.
The line before was about people who fear God. This one is about people who love Him. Radak ranks them higher: they love with no hope of reward and no fear of punishment. Ibn Ezra: the first group is rescued when trouble comes. The second is guarded so that it does not come. And when are the wicked destroyed? "In the end," he writes.
Radak and Ibn Ezra on Tehillim 145:20תְּהִלַּת יְיָ יְדַבֶּר פִּי וִיבָרֵךְ כָּל בָּשָׂר שֵׁם קָדְשׁוֹ לְעוֹלָם וָעֶד.
My mouth will speak the praise of Hashem, and all flesh will bless His holy name forever and ever.
Radak points out that the first verse of the psalm opens with the word "praise" and so does the last. The psalm began with one voice: "I will lift You high." It ends with "all flesh." The Rashi commentary: my mouth, and all flesh as well. Radak reads "all flesh" here as all human beings, and no other creatures.
Radak on Tehillim 145:1 and 145:21; Rashi on Tehillim 145:21The psalm is over. One more verse is added, from Tehillim 115:
וַאֲנַחְנוּ נְבָרֵךְ יָהּ מֵעַתָּה וְעַד עוֹלָם הַלְלוּיָהּ.
And we will bless God from now and forever. Halleluyah.
The Story section tells why a verse from another psalm is added here. In its own psalm the line before it says the dead do not praise God. "And we" is the answer.
Tehillim 115:17-18, with RadakThe Shulchan Aruch (the main code of Jewish law): at "You open Your hand" you must think about what you are saying, and if you did not, you say it again. The Mishnah Berurah (a commentary on daily law, around 1900) explains how: go back and say from that verse to the end of the psalm.
Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 51:7; Mishnah Berurah 51:15-16The Gemara makes a big claim about this psalm: whoever says it three times every day is assured of a place in the World to Come. Then it asks its own question. Why this psalm? Because it runs through the alphabet? Tehillim 119 does that eight times over. Because it says God feeds everyone? Tehillim 136 says "He gives bread to all flesh." The answer: this psalm has both. The first hard question below asks what the promise means.
Berakhot 4bAshrei is built on the Hebrew alphabet: a verse for alef, a verse for bet, and so on. Count them and you get 21 verses for 22 letters. After mem comes samekh. Nun is missing. Rabbi Yochanan (Land of Israel, 200s) explains in the Gemara: nun begins a verse in the book of Amos about Israel's fall, "Fallen, she will rise no more." Rashi (the classic commentator, France, 1000s) adds that David did not want to hint at it. The verse David wrote next: "Hashem holds up all who are falling."
Berakhot 4b, with Rashi; Amos 5:2The psalm is Tehillim 145. Its own first words are Tehillah LeDavid, "A song of praise by David." The two lines before it, the ones that start with ashrei ("happy"), come from Tehillim 84 and 144. The last line comes from Tehillim 115. The Tur (a law code from the 1300s) explains the ending in the name of Rav Amram Gaon (Babylonia, 800s): the five psalms that follow all open and close with Halleluyah. This one did not close with it, so a verse that does was attached.
Tur, Orach Chaim 51; Aruch HaShulchan, Orach Chaim 51:1Why open with "Happy are those who sit in Your house"? The Hebrew yoshvei can mean "live in" or "sit in." The Gemara reads it as sitting: a person should wait an hour before praying. It tells of the early pious ones, who waited an hour, prayed for an hour, and stayed an hour after. The Tur says that is why this verse was put in front of the psalm. The Aruch HaShulchan (a law code from about 1900) reads the verse in that order: first sit in the house, and then "they will keep praising You."
Berakhot 32b; Tur, Orach Chaim 51; Aruch HaShulchan, Orach Chaim 51:1The Tur writes that the main reason this psalm was set for every day is one verse: "You open Your hand and satisfy every living thing." It says that God watches over what He made and feeds it. The Shulchan Aruch (the main code of Jewish law) rules that you must concentrate on this verse, and that if you did not, you go back and say it again. The same verse shows up earlier in this siddur, in the prayers for putting on tefillin.
Tur, Orach Chaim 51; Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 51:7The three times are two in Shacharit and one at Mincha. Rashi says they match the three daily prayers. So why is there no Ashrei at Maariv? The Maharsha (Rabbi Shmuel Eidels, Poland, died 1631) asks exactly that. His answer ties the psalm to Torah study, which belongs mainly to the day. The Penei Yehoshua (Rabbi Yaakov Yehoshua Falk, 1700s) gives another: the psalm is aimed at the working day. From after Shacharit until Mincha is when people are busy earning a living, so those hours are where it was placed.
Rashi, Maharsha and Penei Yehoshua on Berakhot 4b; Meiri on Berakhot 4bThe Hebrew word kol ("all" or "every") comes up 17 times in the 21 verses of the psalm: every day, good to all, all who are falling, every living thing, all who call. Radak (Rabbi David Kimchi, Provence, around 1200) takes the word at face value. On "Hashem is close to all who call Him" he writes: from whatever nation they may be, as long as they call Him honestly, with mouth and heart saying the same thing.
Tehillim 145; Radak on Tehillim 145:18It sounds like a cheat code. Two minutes, three times a day, and the next world is guaranteed. The classic commentators saw the problem, and they did not read the Gemara that way.
Radak (Rabbi David Kimchi, around 1200) writes that anyone who looks closely at this psalm will see in it the Creator's wonders and how He deals with what He made, and that this is why the Sages said what they said. Then he adds: they did not mean someone who just says it. They meant someone who says it "with his mouth, his heart and his tongue."
Abudarham (a commentary on the prayers, written in Spain in the 1300s) makes two points. First, the Sages did not mean that this one act earns the World to Come by itself. They meant that when a person's record is evenly balanced, this tips the scale. Second, why three times? Because out of three, it is impossible that you will not mean it at least once.
The Penei Yehoshua (Rabbi Yaakov Yehoshua Falk, a Gemara commentator of the 1700s) explains how the psalm could change a person. Say it three times a day and mean it, and an idea takes hold: the God who feeds every creature can be trusted to feed me. Someone who believes that stops treating work as the center of his life. His job becomes the side thing and serving God the fixed thing. A person who lives that way, he says, is the one "assured of the World to Come."
The Ben Ish Chai (Rabbi Yosef Chaim of Baghdad, 1800s) says outright in his Gemara commentary that this is not easy. It depends on understanding in your heart what your mouth is saying. And at "You open Your hand" you have to really believe that what you have comes from God, and not think "my own strength and power did this."
So the promise is in the Gemara, and the commentators attach a condition to it: the words have to go in.
Berakhot 4b,Radak on Tehillim 145:1,Abudarham, Weekday Prayers,Penei Yehoshua on Berakhot 4b,Ben Yehoyada on Berakhot 4bThis is the one verse the Shulchan Aruch says you must concentrate on. It is also the one a thinking person trips over. Not everyone has enough to eat.
Start with what the verse claims. Its last word, ratzon, is read three ways. Rashi takes it as God's goodwill: God gives each creature enough to live on, out of His goodness, goodwill and blessing. Ibn Ezra (Rabbi Avraham ibn Ezra, Spain, 1100s) reads it as "what is enough for them." Radak reads it as what each creature wants, and he is looking at the whole living world: some eat grass, some eat seeds, each kind has its food and its time. He adds that the food reaches them "through a chain of causes."
Read that way, the verse is about how the world is built. It is not a claim that nobody ever goes hungry.
The Sages did not pretend food comes easily. The Gemara says a person's food is as hard as the splitting of the Sea of Reeds. It learns this from Tehillim 136, which has both "He gives bread to all flesh" and the splitting of the sea.
And they asked your question out loud. Rabbi Meir (a sage of the Mishnah) says an opponent can argue: "If your God loves the poor, why does He not feed them?" The Gemara says the Roman governor Turnus Rufus put exactly that to Rabbi Akiva (one of the leading sages of the Mishnah). Rabbi Akiva answered: so that we, through them, are saved from the judgment of Gehinnom (punishment after death). That is, part of the feeding was left for people to do.
A Midrash (the Sages' teachings on the verses of the Torah) has King David ask God to even the world out, rich and poor alike. God answers: if everyone were rich, or everyone poor, who could do kindness?
That explains why there is a job here for human beings. It does not explain every hungry child, and these sources do not claim to. The psalm itself knows that people fall. Two verses earlier it speaks of "all who are falling" and "all who are bent over."
Rashi, Ibn Ezra and Radak on Tehillim 145:15-16,Pesachim 118a,Bava Batra 10a,Midrash Tanchuma, Mishpatim 9,Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 51:7Ashrei walks through the Hebrew alphabet, one verse per letter. After the mem verse comes the samekh verse. There is no nun verse.
The Gemara asks why. Rabbi Yochanan answers: nun is the first letter of the verse about Israel's fall, in the book of Amos: "Fallen, she will rise no more, the maiden Israel." The Gemara cannot bring itself to say that straight. It writes "the fall of Israel's enemies" and means Israel. In the Land of Israel, it adds, they moved the pause to read the verse as good news: "She has fallen, and will fall no more. Rise, maiden Israel."
Then Rav Nachman bar Yitzchak, a later sage in Babylonia, points to the next verse of Ashrei. Even so, he says, David came back and held them up: "Hashem holds up all who are falling." The Maharsha (Poland, died 1631) hears a message in the gap itself. The nun is missing as if to say that the fall is missing something: it is not final. He adds that God holds up those who fall even when they have not earned it.
Is that the plain reason David skipped the letter? Two major commentators say they do not know. Radak writes: "He did not compose the nun, and we do not know why," and only then quotes the Gemara. Meiri (Rabbi Menachem Meiri, Provence, around 1300) writes: "We do not know the reason according to the plain meaning."
Either way, the verse you say right after mem is the one about being held up.
Berakhot 4b, with Maharsha,Amos 5:2,Radak on Tehillim 145:1,Meiri on Tehillim 145:1Short ideas from the Chassidic masters, the Kabbalah and the Mussar teachers.
The verse before "You open Your hand" says: "The eyes of all look to You." The Zohar (the central book of Kabbalah) takes that as a daily job. The whole world waits for God to feed it. People of faith, it says, need to ask God for their food every day, the way the manna fell one day at a time. Even someone who already has food needs to ask. Why? Because the asking brings blessing, that day, to the source everyone's food comes from. Whoever asks each day, the Zohar says, is called a faithful child.
וְאַף עַל גַּב דְּאִשְׁתְּכַח עִמֵּיהּ, בָּעֵי לְמִשְׁאַל קָמֵי קוּדְשָׁא בְּרִיךְ הוּא, וּלְצַלָּאָה צְלוֹתָא עַל מְזוֹנָא כָּל יוֹמָא
Zohar, Parashat Beshalach (2:62a)The Gemara (Berakhot 4b) says this psalm is special for two things together: the alef-bet, and the verse "You open Your hand." Rav Kook (the first Chief Rabbi of the Land of Israel, who died in 1935) explains why it takes both. The alef-bet stands for the light of Torah. But even a person whose mind is always clear, he writes, can be pulled off the straight path by the worries pressing on him. What protects you from that tangle is trust, and this verse wakes it up. Trust is not the goal either. It gives you the calm to come to know God.
והנה אף מי שאור שכלו תמיד עמו אפשר שיפשע ויטה מדרך הישר ע"י הטרדות המטרידות אותו, אמנם המשגב להנצל מסבך הטרדות הוא הבטחון.
Rav Kook, Olat Re'iyah, on Ashrei; Berakhot 4bAshrei goes through the alef-bet, but nun is missing. The Gemara (Berakhot 4b) says nun begins a verse about Israel falling. The Maharal (Rabbi Yehudah Loew of Prague, who died in 1609) says a word starting with nun is no reason. He counts the letters with the five final forms at the end: 27. Nun is number 14, the middle. Whatever is in the middle stands by itself, with nothing to lean on, and what stands alone can fall. That, he says, is Israel: a people that lives alone. So the next verse comes at once: Hashem holds up all who are falling.
וידוע כי כל דבר שהוא באמצע עומד בעצמו, ואין לו סמך, כי אין לו חבור לא לימין ולא לשמאל
Maharal, Netzach Yisrael, chapter 13, on Berakhot 4bRabbi Moshe Cordovero (a leading teacher of Kabbalah in Tzfat, who died in 1570) writes in Tomer Devorah (a short book on acting the way God acts) that a person's compassion should spread over every creature: do not look down on them, do not destroy them, do not kill an animal or uproot a plant without a need. He cites the Gemara told in the note on "Hashem is good to all": Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi suffered for showing a calf no pity. It ended when he took pity on some young weasels and quoted this psalm: "His compassion is on everything He made."
צָרִיךְ לִהְיוֹת רַחֲמָיו פְּרוּשִׂים עַל כָּל הַנִּבְרָאִים, לֹא יְבַזֵּם וְלֹא יְאַבְּדֵם.
Rabbi Moshe Cordovero, Tomer Devorah, chapter 3; Bava Metzia 85aRebbe Nachman of Breslov (a Chassidic master who died in 1810) describes something you may recognize. A person stands up to pray, and thoughts that do not belong there close in around him. He is left in the dark and cannot pray. Know, he says, that this darkness has many ways out. A person is just blind to them. Truth finds the opening. See that the words leave your mouth truthfully. Then God, who is the light, stays with you and shows you the way out. His proof is this psalm: "Hashem is close to all who call Him in truth."
וְדַע, שֶׁעַל־יְדֵי אֱמֶת זוֹכֶה לִמְצֹא הַפֶּתַח, כִּי עִקַּר אוֹר הַמֵּאִיר הוּא הַקָּדוֹשׁ־בָּרוּךְ־הוּא
Rebbe Nachman of Breslov, Likutei Moharan I:9The practical laws. For a final ruling, ask your rav.
Yes: Poteach et yadecha, "You open Your hand." The Shulchan Aruch (the main code of Jewish law) rules that you must concentrate on this verse, and if you did not, you say it again. The Mishnah Berurah (a law commentary, about 1900) explains: this verse is the main reason Ashrei was set for every day, because it praises God for watching over His creatures and feeding them. What to think? The Kitzur Shulchan Aruch (a short law guide, 1860s): what the words mean, and a silent prayer for your food and all Israel's.
Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 51:7; Mishnah Berurah 51:15; Kitzur Shulchan Aruch 14:2The Rema (Rabbi Moshe Isserles, who added Ashkenazi practice to the Shulchan Aruch) rules that today we do not repeat the Amidah for lack of concentration: you would probably not concentrate the second time either, so why repeat? The Magen Avraham (a 1600s commentary on the Shulchan Aruch) says Poteach is different because it is only one verse. The Shulchan Aruch HaRav (the law code of Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi, the first Chabad Rebbe) agrees: with a single verse, "he can easily concentrate when he wants to."
Rema, Orach Chaim 101:1; Magen Avraham 51:6; Shulchan Aruch HaRav, Orach Chaim 51:8The sources differ. The Shulchan Aruch says only to say the verse again. Peninei Halakhah (a modern guide to Jewish law by Rabbi Eliezer Melamed): go back to it even from other psalms, and by most authorities the one verse is enough. The Mishnah Berurah: say from Poteach to the end of the psalm, and if you have no time to go back, say that after davening. The Kaf HaChaim (a Sephardic law commentary, early 1900s): once you have gone on, you need not go back. Make it up in the Ashrei after the Amidah.
Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 51:7; Peninei Halakhah, Prayer 14:3; Mishnah Berurah 51:16; Kaf HaChaim 51:33Both are customs. The Shulchan Aruch mentions only concentration. The Ben Ish Chai (Rabbi Yosef Chaim of Baghdad, died 1909) records that in his city people opened their palms to the sky at this verse, a sign of receiving what comes from above. He is for open palms but, based on the Zohar (the central book of Kabbalah), against raising the hands. Ta'amei HaMinhagim (a book of reasons for customs, from Lemberg) records laying a hand on the tefillin: a hint that we ask for a living only to keep the commandments.
Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 51:7; Ben Ish Chai, Year 1, Vayigash 12; Ta'amei HaMinhagim, Miscellany 177It is the last psalm to go. For someone who arrives as the congregation is finishing these psalms, the Shulchan Aruch lists what to say: Baruch She'amar, Ashrei, Tehillim 148 and 150, then Yishtabach. The Rema adds: with even less time, only Baruch She'amar, Ashrei and Yishtabach. The Mishnah Berurah explains that Ashrei and the Halleluyah psalms after it are the core of this part of davening, so they come before everything else in it. The Baruch She'amar card covers what to do with no time at all.
Shulchan Aruch and Rema, Orach Chaim 52:1; Mishnah Berurah 52:4The Gemara (Berakhot 4b) speaks of saying this psalm three times every day. In practice that is twice in Shacharit, here and again after the Amidah, and once at Mincha, the afternoon prayer. The Kaf HaChaim quotes the Chida (Rabbi Chaim Yosef David Azulai, 1700s), quoting a manuscript of Rav Amram Gaon's siddur (Babylonia, 800s): what is needed is one time. Three were set in case a person slips up on one or two, so that one is still left. The Chida adds: today everyone says it three times, on Shabbat too.
Berakhot 4b; Od Yosef Chai, Vayigash 8; Kaf HaChaim, Orach Chaim 51:33; Peninei Halakhah, Prayer 14:3, note 5The Tur (a law code from the 1300s) says the line Ashrei yoshvei veitecha was put in front of this psalm because the Gemara learns from it that a person should sit for an hour before praying. The Shulchan Aruch rules: wait "one hour" before you stand up to pray, to turn your heart to God. The Mishnah Berurah: here that means a real hour, but that is for the especially pious. For everyone else a short pause before starting is enough, about the time it takes to walk eight handbreadths (less than a yard).
Berakhot 32b; Tur, Orach Chaim 51; Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 93:1; Mishnah Berurah 93:1אָמַר רַבִּי אֶלְעָזָר, אָמַר רַבִּי אֲבִינָא: כָּל הָאוֹמֵר ״תְּהִלָּה לְדָוִד״ בְּכָל יוֹם שָׁלֹשׁ פְּעָמִים, מוּבְטָח לוֹ שֶׁהוּא בֶּן הָעוֹלָם הַבָּא.
Rabbi Elazar said in the name of Rabbi Avina: whoever says "A song of praise by David" three times every day is assured of a place in the World to Come.
אָמַר רַבִּי יוֹחָנָן: מִפְּנֵי מָה לֹא נֶאֱמַר נוּן בְּ״אַשְׁרֵי״... מִפְּנֵי שֶׁיֵּשׁ בָּהּ מַפַּלְתָּן שֶׁל שׂוֹנְאֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל... אֲפִילּוּ הָכִי, חָזַר דָּוִד וּסְמָכָן בְּרוּחַ הַקֹּדֶשׁ, שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר ״סוֹמֵךְ ה׳ לְכָל הַנֹּפְלִים״.
Rabbi Yochanan said: Why is there no nun in Ashrei? Because the fall of "Israel's enemies" is in it... Even so, David came back and held them up, through the holy spirit, as it says: "Hashem holds up all who are falling."
נָפְלָה לֹא־תוֹסִיף קוּם בְּתוּלַת יִשְׂרָאֵל
Fallen, she will rise no more, the maiden Israel.
קוֹדֶם תְּפִלָּתוֹ, מִנַּיִן? שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר: ״אַשְׁרֵי יוֹשְׁבֵי בֵיתֶךָ״... חֲסִידִים הָרִאשׁוֹנִים הָיוּ שׁוֹהִין שָׁעָה אַחַת, וּמִתְפַּלְּלִין שָׁעָה אַחַת, וְחוֹזְרִין וְשׁוֹהִין שָׁעָה אַחַת.
How do we know to wait before praying? As it says: "Happy are those who sit in Your house"... The early pious ones would wait an hour, pray for an hour, and then wait another hour.
ויותר יכוין בפסוק פותח את ידך שעיקר מה שקבעוהו לומר בכל יום הוא בשביל אותו פסוק שמזכיר בו שבחו של הקב"ה שמשגיח על בריותיו ומפרנסן
Concentrate most of all on the verse "You open Your hand," because the main reason it was set for every day is that verse, which tells God's praise: that He watches over what He made and feeds it.
צָרִיךְ לְכַוֵּן בְּפָסוּק פּוֹתֵחַ אֶת יָדֶךָ, וְאִם לֹא כִּוֵּן צָרִיךְ לַחֲזֹר וּלְאָמְרוֹ פַּעַם אַחֶרֶת
One must concentrate on the verse "You open Your hand." If he did not concentrate, he must go back and say it again.
לא אמרו שמשום מצוה זו לבדה זוכה אדם לחיי העולם הבא אלא שאם היתה מצוה זו יתירה על מחצה זכיות מכרעת
They did not say that for this one commandment alone a person earns the life of the World to Come. Rather, if this commandment is the one that puts his merits over half, it tips the scale.
ולא חיבר את הנו"ן ולא ידענו למה... לא אמרו האומרו כך אלא בפיו ובלבו ובלשונו
He did not compose the nun, and we do not know why... They did not mean one who just says it, but one who says it with his mouth, his heart and his tongue.
אִם אֱלֹהֵיכֶם אוֹהֵב עֲנִיִּים הוּא, מִפְּנֵי מָה אֵינוֹ מְפַרְנְסָן? אֱמוֹר לוֹ: כְּדֵי שֶׁנִּיצּוֹל אָנוּ בָּהֶן מִדִּינָהּ שֶׁל גֵּיהִנָּם.
"If your God loves the poor, why does He not feed them?" Say to him: so that through them we are saved from the judgment of Gehinnom.
קרוב ה׳ לכל קוראיו. מאיזה עם שיהיה ובלבד שיקראוהו באמת שפיו ולבו שוים
"Hashem is close to all who call Him." From whatever nation they may be, as long as they call Him in truth, with mouth and heart the same.
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