The War in Israel Part 14: The Power of Ashrei V

The Ramchal explains that man’s greatest conception of Hashem is as a tov u’meitiv, the good One who seeks to bestow His goodness upon the world – especially upon His chosen nation, Yisrael. Our essential notion of Him is as a loving G-d. Everything else about Hashem, including His judgment and His discipline, are all in the service of this greater purpose. [Rabbi Yonah Sklare, The Breathtaking Panorama: A Sweeping Thematic Approach to Y’tzias Mitzrayim]

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גדול ה' ומהולל מאד, ולגדולתו אין חקר – Hashem is great and exceedingly lauded, and His greatness is beyond investigation.

דור לדור ישבח מעשיך, וגבורותיך יגידו – Each generation will praise Your deeds to the next, and of Your mighty deeds they will tell.

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When David HaMelech said “ארוממך–Aromimcha,” he was dedicating his life to “exalt” Hashem through his own personal recognition and praise of Hashem’s awesomeness and power, as well as through his expressing gratitude for Hashem’s abundant compassion and kindness. Additionally, David HaMelech commits to inspire greater recognition, praise, and gratitude to the masses. We see this play out in our current p’sukim, as well as in many of the other p’sukim in Ashrei.

“מעשיך–maasecha” refers to Hashem’s creations, like the Sun, the Moon, the multitude of stars, the waters, and millions of living species contained therein – and perhaps most awesome of all, our own human mind and body. Hashem’s creations reflect His awesomeness, power, wisdom, and much more.

“דור לדור ישבח מעשיך–Dor l’dor y’shabach maasecha” – Each generation will transmit its knowledge and recognition to the following generation. The current generation will then add to that recognition, based on their increased knowledge. That will lead to even greater praise, as more detail and new discoveries come to light. Rav Avigdor Miller points out that “shevach” is a word that connotes improvement. The new generation will improve upon the level of praise of the previous generation.

“וגבורותיך יגידו–u’g’vurosecha yagidu” – The previous generation will tell of Hashem’s power and might by relating the awesome miracles, such as the Makkos and K’rias Yam Suf.  G’vurah can also refer to Hashem sustaining His billions of creations. The coming p’sukim will highlight different aspects of Hashem’s chesed and g’vurah.

David HaMelech is following in the footsteps of Avraham Avinu. When we declare “Aromimcha,” we are doing the same. We should have in mind that we are accepting upon ourselves to follow in the path of Avraham Avinu and David HaMelech, utilizing Ashrei as well as so much more in our tefilah, to enhance our own recognition and appreciation of Hashem’s compassion, kindness, wisdom, and might. In addition, we are committing to inspire others, especially those closest to us, to greater recognition, appreciation, awe, and love of Hashem.

[Based on Tefilas Avigdor, Rabbi Yaakov Yehoshua Hamburger’s lashon kodesh version of Rav Avigdor Miller’s Praise, My Soul. Rabbi Hamburger is a talmid muvhak of Rav Miller.]

Ashrei 5

גדול ה' ומהולל מאד, ולגדולתו אין חקר – Hashem is great and exceedingly lauded, and His greatness is beyond investigation.

דור לדור ישבח מעשיך, וגבורותיך יגידו – Each generation will praise Your deeds to the next, and of Your mighty deeds they will tell.

Hashem’s greatness and His chesed to us are beyond our grasp, regardless of how much time and effort we would spend investigating it. We praise Hashem based on our level of understanding of His chesed and greatness and based on what the generation before us transmits to us. This is the flow of these two p’sukim. Any amount of investigation of Hashem’s greatness and His chesed to us will definitely fall short. That notwithstanding, we must transmit to the next generation (דור לדור), as eachדור  did before us, His “מעשים” (actions, creations, nature) and His “גבורות” (power, which transcends nature) that we have seen in our own lifetimes, in addition to that which has been transmitted to us from previous generations.¹

Pesach is certainly one such opportunity. The weekly Shabbos table, too, can be a very opportune time to discuss the chesed that Hashem bestowed upon us that week. In fact, every time we receive a gift or we experience success, we have the opportunity to attribute that gift or success to Hashem in the presence of younger generations. When we see the “small” daily chasadim in our lives, attribute them to Hashem, and speak of them, that brings us closer to Hashem. It will also train the next generation to do the same. So the next time we are fortunate enough to get that great parking spot, let us thank Hashem immediately in the presence of our families.

From the fact that we are told to praise Hashem according to our abilities, even though they fall short, we see a fundamental principle in our avodas Hashem. We must strive to serve Hashem according to the best of the abilities that Hashem has granted us. The challenge many of us have is that we sell ourselves short. We should ask Hashem, Who knows exactly what our abilities are, to enable us to recognize our full potential and to use all of that potential to do His will.²   HaRav Yerucham HaLevi Levovitz zt”l (mashgiach ruchani of the Mir Yeshiva in Poland, d. 1936) would say: Woe is to those who do not recognize their shortcomings, but far worse off are those who do not recognize their abilities.

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