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Thought for the Day: Ashrei Three Times a Day -- Good for Your Soul, Good for Your Body

R' Elazar says that R' Avina says (Brachos 4b): Anyone who says תהילה לדוד (Psalms 145) -- fondly known as אשרי -- three times a day is מובטח/guaranteed to be a member of the Olam HaBah community. Note, by the way, this is not some kind of segula. The מעדני יום טוב in his elucidation of the Rosh explains that this thrice daily recital is like the cherry on top of your normal everyday mitzvah observance. It's the finishing touch to transform a person into a Ben Olam HaBah.

We are thrilled, of course, to have such a clear directive. The Gemara, though, wants to know why. Chazal again... always clouding the issue with facts. So the first special quality of אשרי  is that each verse begins with a letter of the alephbeis -- in order -- from א to ת. (Yes, we all know that נ is funky; we might get to that.) If that's what's so special, pushes back the Gemara, then we should say Psalms 119, which has eight verses for each letter of the alephbeis (and, I may add, nothing funky about נ!) Agreed, answers the Gemara, but אשרי  has פּוֹתֵחַ אֶת יָדֶךָ וּמַשְׂבִּיעַ לְכָל חַי רָצוֹן/(You) open Your Hand and satisfy the desires of every living creature. True enough, retorts the Gemara, but in that case, we should chose Psalms 136 (Hallel HaGadol), which contains everyone's favorite: נֹתֵן לֶחֶם לְכָל בָּשָׂר כִּי לְעוֹלָם חַסְדּוֹ/(He) gives food to all living things, for His Mercy endures forever. Indeed! But אשרי  has both.

Umm.... What just happened?!

Baruch HaShem, we have the Maharsha, who explains as follows: We need the alephbeis, because that is how we receive Torah. As simple as that, Torah is written with the alephbeis. We need that as the foundation of everything. Torah nourishes our souls. But we also have a physical body which also needs nourishment. Spiritual nourishment -- even an overload of eight times -- without physical sustenance won't work. Obviously physical sustenance with no guidance also won't go. A concept we have from Sinai and transmitted to use by the sages: אִם אֵין קֶֽמַח אֵין תּוֹרָה, אִם אֵין תּוֹרָה אֵין קֶֽמַח/If there is no food, there is no Torah; if there is no Torah, there is no (reason for) food. (Avos 3:17)

Three times a day, though? Rashi says, כנגד שלוש תפילות/corresponding to three prayers. We don't say אשרי   at each prayer service, though. We say it twice in the morning service and once in the afternoon service. Note, however, Rashi does not say "corresponding to the three prayer services"; just "corresponding to three prayers". This Gemara is coming right after R' Yochanan's statement that prayer as a response to redemption is also a hallmark of being associated with Olam HaBah (see my TftD on that statement). Perhaps Rashi means that אשרי  also needs to be said as a prayer that we merit to use our physical sustenance to support our Torah involvement.

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