Wisdom & Wit

P'sukei d'Zimra: ASHREI The Message of Generations

Meaning: translation…
Every day I will bless You, and I will laud Your Name forever and ever. Hashem is great and exceedingly lauded, and His greatness is beyond investigation. Each generation will praise Your deeds to the next, and of Your mighty deeds they will tell.
Theme: An essential concept of the prayer
Passing It On
Each generation will praise Hashem’s mighty deeds and relate them to the next generation.
Insight: Deeper meanings…
A Resounding Message
In recounting Hashem’s greatness, why is it necessary to pass this knowledge on to the next generation? One of the most essential components of Judaism is called MESORAH, the transmitting of the Torah from the generation at Mount Sinai to the succeeding generations.
Kuzari explains that while other religions began with a purported revelation to a single prophet, Judaism states that G-d revealed Himself to the entire nation of 600,000 men at Mount Sinai. Although a single charismatic individual can perhaps create a religion based on his claim, is it possible for 600,000 men to agree on a fabrication? If the story of the Revelation at Mount Sinai were untrue, there would certainly have been many denying the story, and it could never have gained credibility.
When masses of people experience or witness something, and entrust the next generation with the knowledge of what happened, that is called history.
We know that there was an American Revolution, and that Napoleon was defeated at Waterloo, all by virtue of the fact that the events were witnessed by large numbers of people. Individuals can fabricate things, but masses cannot. For when many people claim that something happened to, or in front of them, if in truth it did not, others will stand up and heartily dispute the contention.
The historical tradition of the events at Mount Sinai could not have been fabricated, suddenly “made up” one day, because it involved hundreds of thousands of people whose children were solemnly entrusted with the account and sworn to entrust it in turn to their own children, and theirs to theirs… down to our own generation. As the Chinuch states: “Ein adam morish sheker l’vanav—a man does not transmit lies to his children.”
The passage of time does not weaken the historical veracity of this event. On the contrary, so powerful was the memory of the receiving of the Torah at Mt. Sinai, that it has been preserved through thick and thin, throughout the long and bitter exile up until today.
Visualize: Images that bring the prayer to life
For Posterity
A man possesses a silver Kiddush cup. It belonged to an ancestor from 20 generations ago, and is inscribed with his initials. The ancestor was a famous rabbi of his times, and although his writings had been lost, this Kiddush cup had survived.
The family passed it on from first-born to first-born throughout the generations. Each new owner received the heirloom with reverence and excitement, for it was not only a beautiful object, but a constant reminder of the holy ancestor whose initials it bore.
Likewise, our inheritance—our knowledge of Hashem and His mighty deeds—is passed down to each new generation with reverence and care, and received by each new generation with an understanding of the incredible beauty and value with which they have been entrusted.
Word to the Wise:
Meaning within the word
V’LIGDULATO EIN CHEIKER ...and His greatness is beyond investigation.
The Brisker Rav was once asked how the mitzva of EMUNAH will be expressed when Moshiach comes and the “land will be filled with knowledge of Hashem, just as water covers the sea.”  (Yeshayahu 11:9). If everyone knows the truth and recognizes Hashem, what will require belief?
He answered that there will always be a need for EMUNAH because Hashem is infinite, and therefore, there will always be aspects of His greatness that finite Man cannot comprehend.
(Adapted from Nefesh Shimshon, Gates of Emunah, Feldheim, p. 89).

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