The Book of Tehilim
Bold italic is the
passage in the Book of Tehilim. Regular text is commentary of Dovid Eidensohn.
Chapter One
1A. אשרי האיש אשר לא הלך
בעצת רשעים - Happy
is he [the man] who did not walk with the advice of wicked people. I do
not know the perfect English translation for the Hebrew word of ASHREI אשרי . I tried “secure” and “successful” but
these according to the Roget’s Super Thesaurus connote “secure from fear” and
“successful defeating others”. Happiness also fails in the Thesaurus because it
indicates “joy, gladness, contentment, bliss, delight, jubilation, pleasure,
cheer, high spirits, peace of mind, elation, rapture, euphoria, exuberance,
felicity, ecstasy.” In truth, ASHREI connotes all of these, but secure is
involved with a negative “fear” and successful is involved with “defeating
others”. Happiness has no negative quality so I chose it, although it fails to
go beyond the good feeling one has when happiness happens. But happiness can be
a fleeting thing, and who is happy in the sense of joy and rapture for long
moments?
Thus, the
correct translation of ASHREI must be an explanation perhaps with some words of
exactly what the Psalmist intended. The Psalmist intended to convey happiness,
secure and successful, but not in their transitory states and not in their
relation to fear and defeating others. It is a deeper word than all three. It
is a word that conveys a sense much deeper than joy and vastly superior to the
kind of happiness that comes along for a ride and then leaves. It is a word
much stronger than secure and much more positive than successful. When we use
joy to define ASHREI but only by stretching it into a lifetime feeling; when we
use “secure” not just as security from fear of failure and such negative
things, but security in locking our souls to heaven and our minds to Torah; if
we also combine “successful” as defeating others who are wicked, who defy the
Torah, and include in successful the constant war with the Satan and defeating
it, we are approaching the meaning of Ashrei. But I left it as “happy” so as
not to create many words to explain one word. Precisely because the many words
won’t do the job either. ASHREI is a word that conveys a Jew who has a soul
linked to heaven and a mind that knows this world. It is a word that warns us
about evil and encourages us to stay righteous.
Until we have a word that unites this world and the next, and G‑d with
our struggles to understand Torah, we are left with ASHREI!
1B. “who did not walk with the advice of wicked
people” is a past tense. It might seem more correct and more powerful
to say “who does not walk with the advice of wicked people.” If “did not walk”
is a past tense, it allows an understanding that as of now he no longer refuses
to walk with the advice of the wicked, which is surely not want the Psalmist
meant. But the Psalmist realizes that people who believe in Torah and two
worlds and good and evil are constantly struggling with the Evil
Inclination. There are times when such
people who are typical Jewish people win the fight with the Satan and sometimes
they fail. When a Jew fails he repents. Maybe today he is repenting about what
he did yesterday but tomorrow he may go back to his old ways. This is not
ASHREI. This is a sad failure that is not the glory of the book of Tehilim. The
glory of the Book of Tehilim is when the old evil is completely washed away so
that “who did not walk with the advice of wicked people” connotes a very long
period of piety. A sin here or there that is a rarity in one’s long piety is
one thing. But if the sins are frequent, that is not ASHREI.
1C. “who
did not walk with the advice of wicked people.” What is this about “walking”?
And what is this about “advice”? Let it just say “who did not go in the ways of
wicked people’?
The Talmud says,
“That which proceeds from an impure thing is impure. And that which proceeds
from a pure thing is pure.” )Bechorose 5b)The
advice of the wicked people does not mean that they are wicked in the sense
that they want to harm the righteous. We are talking about people who are
wicked but they are not intent on harming religious people nor do they want
them to do sins. Their advice here can be good advice. Otherwise, the Psalmist
would be talking about double trouble, walking with wicked people and getting
bad advice from them. No, the advice was good advice. Even an evil person, can,
if he so wishes, tell somebody good advice. Many people would say, look, he is
a smart man. His advice is usually sound. Let’s do what he suggests. But the
pious knows that “that which proceeds from the impure is impure.” He doesn’t
want good advice form a wicked person.
Now what is this
about “walking”? This means we know somebody who is not so religious, but he is
very smart. He tells us how to go about something, and we have no fear that he
hates us and wants to cause us harm. Probably, we assume, the advice is solid.
On the other hand, he is not so religious. To go and just accept his advice may
be a step away from Torah. So, the person makes a compromise with the wicked
man. He will “walk” doing the advice of the wicked man. But walking doesn’t
mean that he swallows the man along with his advice. No, his head, his heart,
his intellect, have nothing to do with the wicked. On the other hand, he does
follow the advice of the wicked men, and he convinces himself that he is far
removed from the wicked and their wickedness. He is only “walking” with his
feet in the advice of the wicked, but his head, his soul, his heart, his true
self, is not swallowing evil and wickedness. Only the feet are walking along in
the path suggested by the wicked person. And the wicked person himself did not
indicate in any way that he wants to contaminate the righteous person, who may
be a close relative. But that walk can be the process of “that which proceeds
from the impure is impure.” Somehow, this effects the piety of the good person.
We find in the
beginning of the Torah reading called AIKEV a lengthy discussion by one of the
great commentators, the Or HaChaim HaKodosh. AIKEV means “heel.” The Torah
reading of AIKEV begins “and it will be AIKEV” meaning according to the Or
HaChaim when the person’s spirituality is so perfect that it goes from the head
to the heels, a complete tsaddik whose entire essence is for Torah.
The Book of
Tehilim begins with a similar idea. A righteous person who “walks” according to
the “advice” of the wicked, is not completely connected to HaShem. The feet are
impure and that impurity damages the entire essence of the person who otherwise
is righteous. Now he is impure and damaged because the “heel” or “walking”
element in him follows the advice of the wicked, even if the wicked had no
intention of causing him any evil or impurity. “That which proceeds from the
impure is impure.”
