PRAYER · ASHREI · 3 OF 5
An open hand
After declaring God's enduring kingdom, the psalm turns to those who fall, those who bend low and every creature waiting for food. Read the concrete images of his care.
In this lesson
From the kingdom to its care
In the previous passage, we read about Hashem's compassion and rule through every generation. Hashem, “the Name,” is our customary way of referring to God. These next three verses bring care into focus through support, lifting and nourishment.
The passage's shortness makes careful reading possible. Ask who acts, who receives the action, and what picture the words create. Then compare the psalm's words with a commentator's explanation and a teaching of our sages. Each contributes something different.
A word will keep returning: kol, “all.” Notice how its recipients change. “All who are falling,” “the eyes of all” and “every living creature” are related expressions, but they are not interchangeable phrases.
Read the three verses
סוֹמֵךְ יְהוָה לְכָל הַנֹּפְלִים
וְזוֹקֵף לְכָל הַכְּפוּפִים14. Hashem supports all who are falling
and straightens all who are bent down.עֵינֵי כֹל אֵלֶיךָ יְשַׂבֵּרוּ
וְאַתָּה נוֹתֵן לָהֶם אֶת אָכְלָם בְּעִתּוֹ15. The eyes of all look expectantly to you;
you give them their food in its time.פּוֹתֵחַ אֶת יָדֶךָ
וּמַשְׂבִּיעַ לְכָל חַי רָצוֹן16. You open your hand
and satisfy every living creature with favor.
English rendering by Messianic Yeshiva; editorial line breaks
Before opening a check, make three rows, one for each verse. Put an action in the first column and its recipient in the second. Include both actions where a verse has a pair.
1. What should your action-and-recipient notes include?
Verse 14: Hashem supports those falling and straightens those bent down. Verse 15: all look expectantly to him, and he gives them food. Verse 16: he opens his hand and satisfies every living creature. In verse 15, both the creatures' expectation and God's giving matter.
Verse 14 pairs two images of vulnerability with two actions of care. “Supports” answers falling; “straightens” answers being bent down. The second line develops the first through a different posture and action.
2. Why is “the strong remain strong” an inadequate account of verse 14?
The verse names falling and being bent down, not established strength. Its praise concerns Hashem's support and lifting in vulnerability. The invented summary removes the people and conditions that make its images meaningful.
Expectant eyes and an open hand
A worked reading of verse 15: the first half turns our attention toward creatures looking to God. The second answers with “you give.” The food is “their food,” given “in its time.” The verse holds dependence and provision together.
3. What does the second half add to the picture of waiting?
It names the giver, the gift and its time: “you give them their food in its time.” Expectation does not float without an object; the creatures depend on God for nourishment. A reading of only the first half would omit the giving.
Verse 16 brings the image closer: an open hand. The movement from expectant eyes to a giving hand helps us attend to generosity. These bodily images let the poem speak vividly about dependence and care; they are not measurements or a physical description of God.
4. How do “eyes” and “hand” help the two verses work together?
Eyes looking expectantly picture the recipients' dependence. The open hand pictures giving freely. Together the images make the relationship between need and provision memorable. The second image develops the giving already named in verse 15.
Read the explanation beside the verse
Ratzon, the final word of verse 16, is rendered “favor” here. Rashi, Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki, explains the line in terms of sustenance and the goodness, favor and blessing God supplies. Read his explanation beside the preceding verse's explicit mention of food.
כדי פרנסתו הוא משביע את טובו ואת רצונו ואת ברכתו
For its sustenance, he supplies in abundance his goodness, his favor and his blessing.
English rendering by Messianic Yeshiva
5. Which part of that explanation belongs to Rashi rather than the quoted biblical line?
The explicit explanation “for its sustenance” and the sequence of goodness, favor and blessing are Rashi's wording. The verse itself says that God opens his hand and satisfies every living creature with ratzon. Rashi helps us read its sense; his comment does not become an extra line of the psalm.
Keep the subject of the praise clear: God sustains life. “I will receive every object I want at the moment I choose” changes that praise into a different claim. The passage names food and its time; it does not set a personal timetable or explain the cause of another person's hardship.
Why our sages attend to this verse
The Talmud preserves our sages' discussions of Torah, prayer and Jewish life. In its tractate Berakhot, “Blessings,” the discussion on 4b asks what distinguishes Tehillah leDavid, Psalm 145. The reference names the fourth folio's second side.
The discussion tests two features: the psalm's alphabetical arrangement and its praise of sustenance in “You open your hand.” It notes that other psalms have each feature separately. Its answer brings the two together. We will follow the argument more fully in the final workshop.
6. Is “the Talmud values only the alphabetical pattern” an accurate report?
No. Berakhot 4b considers the alphabetical pattern and the sustenance verse together. A report that keeps only the pattern loses half the explanation; a report that keeps only the food verse does the same.
The psalm supplies the words. The Talmud discusses why this psalm holds a distinctive place. They are related sources, not the same kind of statement.
Test the reading yourself
Return to Psalm 145:9 in the previous lesson: “Hashem is good to all; his compassion rests upon all his works.” Compare that verse with two expressions from verses 14–16. Write a short paragraph explaining how these later verses give concrete images to the earlier praise.
7. What would make your comparison more than a repeated slogan?
Name particular images and recipients: support for those falling, straightening for those bent down, food for the expectant creatures, or an open hand satisfying life. Then connect these to goodness and compassion in verse 9. “God is good in both places” begins the comparison but has not yet explained what the later lines add.
Now repair this invented study note: “The open hand means that saying Ashrei obtains whatever I ask for immediately. Rashi says these exact words in Psalm 145.” Write three corrections. Then compose two sentences explaining what you would attend to when reading the actual verse.
8. Which corrections protect the meaning and the source?
First, verses 15–16 praise sustenance and generous giving, not an immediate transaction for whatever the reader requests. Second, Rashi's comment explains the biblical line; it is not part of Psalm 145. Third, his explanation names sustenance, goodness, favor and blessing, not the invented promise.
Your own two sentences might attend to the creatures' dependence and the giver's open hand. Use your own wording and name a phrase that supports it. Reading with attention begins with what the text actually says.
Read in context
Psalm 145:9, 13–16: compassion, kingdom and care; Rashi on Psalm 145:16: sustenance and favor; Bavli Berakhot 4b: the discussion of Tehillah leDavid's alphabetical form and sustenance verse.