Tefillah 022

41:
When we first started discussing the section of the morning prayers known as P^esuké d^eZimra we noted that originally pious people (who must have had a great deal of free time on their hands!) would preface their daily devotions by reading through the complete psalter of one hundred and fifty psalms! Clearly, that is beyond the capabilities of mere ordinary mortals who have lives to live, mouths to feed and jobs to do. But, nevertheless, that pious custom was not allowed to die out altogether. Gradually, it was replaced by the daily recital of the last six psalms of the psalter, psalms 145 – 150. A wild guess on my part is that it is possible that in those very early days when the ultra-pious still completed the whole psalter before the morning service began 'ordinary people' began to drift into the synagogue towards the end of that recital and began to join in reading the last few psalms.

42:
Be that as it may, it is now the firmly established custom to read the last six psalms every day before we begin 'the service proper'. (Just to clarify the matter and to leave no doubt: on ordinary weekdays Barukh She-amar and Hodu are followed immediately by Yehi Kevod without all the extra psalms that augment the service of Shabbat and Yom Tov – psalms which were the object of our study from Tefillah 016 to Tefillah 020.)

43:
Psalm 145 is colloquially known as Ashré. This psalm is recited three times every day: once during P^esuké d^eZimra , a second time towards the end of the morning service and a third time at the start of the afternoon service, Minĥah. (However, on days when the Torah is read the second recitation of Ashré precedes the return of the Sefer Torah to the ark, and on Yom Kippur it is postponed from the afternoon service to the start of the Ne'ilah service.) Ashré may be found in Siddur Sim Shalom on page 96 and in Siddur Va'ani Tefillati on page 49.

44:
Actually, Psalm 145 does not begin with the word Ashré. It is, in fact, preceded by two verses taken from other psalms, both beginning with the Hebrew word Ashré. Psalm 84:5 reads:

And then, Psalm 144:16 continues:

These two verses seem most appropriate for the start of a service – be it Minĥah or be it Ne'ilah; and, of course, on most days even when they form a part of P^esuké d^eZimra they are fairly near the start of the service. It is only on Shabbat and festivals that Ashré is rather removed from the start of the service.

45:
Ashré is discussed at some length in the Gemara [Berakhot 4b], where the fact that it is recited three times every day is taken for granted, so the custom is very ancient. The discussion starts off with a comment by the Amora from Eretz-Israel, Rabbi El'azar:

The Gemara now goes on to investigate this most enouraging teaching.

Psalm 145 is, indeed, an alphabetic acrostic. That is to say that each sucessive verse begins with the next letter of the Hebrew alaphabet (though the letter nun is missing, as we shall see). However, if that were the reason, why is it so commendable to recite Ashré three times every day? It would be even better to recite Psalm 119 where each letter of the alphabet is repeated eight times at the beginning of verses (and, moreover, the letter nun is not missing). So, having dismissed the suggestion that the great virtue of Ashré lies in its being an alphabetic acrostic another suggestion is offered:

This verse [Psalm 145:16] describes God's great generosity towards all earthly creatures. It will perhaps be more easily understood in its context:

But an objection can be raised to this suggestion as well: if it is mention of God's munificence and benelovence towards all creatures that gives the psalm its great virtue then Psalm 136 contains an even better verse [136:25]: "God gives food to all flesh, His steadfast love is eternal." So finally the Gemara suggests that Ashré is superior because it contains both the mention of God's great benevolence and it is an alphabetic acrostic as well.

46:
The Gemara also discusses the deficiency in the alphabetic acrostic, the fact that the letter nun is missing. The great teacher of Rabbi El'azar, Rabbi Yoĥanan, suggests that the verse was deliberately missed out because it would have been a dire one:

But the omission of the letter nun is probably just an accident of transmission: somehow or other the original verse was omitted by a copyist and the omission was perpetuated. At any rate, the 'explanation' of Rabbi Yoĥanan really does not hold water because, as the Babylonian Amora Rav Naĥman bar-Yitzĥak points out in the Gemara: the very next verse of psalm 145 gives the lie to the idea of "fallen, not to rise again", because happily it reads:

47:
Just as Psalm 145 is prefaced by verses from other psalms so it is concluded with a verse from a different psalm [Psalm 115:18]:

To be continued.

Because of the incidence of Yom Kippur there will be no shiur in this series next Tuesday. During the festival of Sukkot the Virtual Bet Midrash takes its traditional break, so the next shiur in this series will be, God willing, on Tuesday 17th October. Let me take this opportunity of wishing everybody well over the fast and then, "going from strength to strength", a most joyous Sukkot.