Ashrei: The Curious History of Praising

Ps. 145:1

Today’s Psalm #145 is the only one that has the Hebrew word ‘Song of Praise’ in its title.

This is curious considering that the entire book is known today as ‘Books of Songs of Praises’ which is the meaning of the Hebrew word Tehillim. 

The role of the book as a collection of praise poems to God has mostly gone unnoticed by pious generations who do not read Hebrew and only know this book by its English name - derived from the Greek word ψαλμοί (psalmoi), meaning 'instrumental music' and, by extension, 'the words accompanying the music'. 

This curious fact has something to tell us about the evolution of these poems over time, in both Jewish and Christian traditions, and how these psalms of praise adjusted over centuries of faith and piety to become standard liturgies with their own unique role in religious lives and the development of some strange traditions associated with their recitation. 

Today’s chapter is known in Jewish context as ‘Ashrei’ - an Alphabetical acrostic recited at least once, and often three times a day.

The most prominent of these daily recitations is the opening of the Afternoon Prayer - the Mincha Service. 

I have a vivid memory of this afternoon prayer, in the middle of the day, in my Yeshiva middle school in Israel, as long lines of students stood in the hallway, each of us with our prayer book in hand, mumbling words of this chapter along with whoever got to lead on any given day. With time we all knew it by heart as I do to this day. 

How did this chapter become so central to Jewish prayer practices? Of the many acrostic poems that include praises and admiration to god for basically everything - why did #145 take central stage? 

Scholars suggest that it has to do with the fact that it IS the only of the 150 psalms that contains the actual word ‘Tehila’ - ‘Praise’ in its opening line: 

תְּהִלָּ֗ה לְדָ֫וִ֥ד אֲרוֹמִמְךָ֣ אֱלוֹהַ֣י הַמֶּ֑לֶךְ וַאֲבָרְכָ֥ה שִׁ֝מְךָ֗ לְעוֹלָ֥ם וָעֶֽד

A song of praise. Of David.

 I will extol You, my God and sovereign,

and bless Your name forever and ever.

Ps. 145:1

At one point in its early history, reciting Psalm 145 became an important feature of daily prayer life. 

The Babylonian  Talmud, in Tractate Berakhot 4b, cites this opinion:

“Rabbi Elazar in the name of Rabbi Avina said: ‘Anyone who recites ‘A Praise of David’ three times daily, will merit the world to come’.”

Rabbi Elazar isn’t mentioning the psalm’s number because that numerical system won’t happen for another centuries later. But he does name this as the only psalm that begins with praise and offers a reward to the pious -- a ticket to heaven! Just say these words three times a day. 

But it’s actually more surprising that the original statement of this pious sage was to only recite this psalm once daily. 

How did we get to three??? And how did the word Ashrei - from another psalm altogether - make it into this psalm to become the famous prayer?

A. J. Berkowitz details the progression: 

“How does Jewish prayer develop? 

Psalm 145, the core of ashrei, holds one of the answers. In our siddur, the prayer book, one says ashrei three times daily. By tracing the rise of this practice, we get a glimpse into one of the key dynamics that stimulates the development of Jewish prayer: the fluidity between reading a text as part of mandated Jewish prayer and reciting a text as a religiously and spiritually advantageous practice. In other words, in the movement between liturgy and piety. 

At one point in its early history, reciting Psalm 145 was an act of piety: “R. Elazar in the name of R. Avina, ‘Anyone who recites ‘A Praise of David’ three times daily, will merit the world to come’.” The promise of reward in this statement mirrors those for activities that go above and beyond mandated law. 

Here we witness the pitfalls of using a printed edition of the Talmud instead of its earlier manuscripts. Talmud manuscripts housed in the libraries of Oxford and Paris read “once every day.” The Florence manuscript presents a different situation. A scribe initially wrote “three times a day.” The manuscript’s corrector, however, erased it. He then wrote a comment in the margins of the manuscript noting that the erased text is not the original and should not be perpetuated. 

The manuscripts agree with the Geonim, the sages that followed the compilers of the Talmud. The prayer book of Rabbi Amram Gaon cites a responsum of R. Natronai Gaon that recognizes that the talmudic statement reads that one should say “A Psalm of David” once a day. It moves this statement, however, from the realm of piety to that of liturgy. R. Natronai suggests that the “later sages” demanded its repetition three times lest a Jew miss it once or twice and “not because there is a requirement to say it three times a day.” 

The story of ashrei highlights the porous borders between liturgy and piety. Reciting Psalm 145 began as a pious act. As time passed and reading the poem grew more popular, saying it as part of prayer once a day became mandatory. Repeating it three times was not required. As time continued to pass, the habit of repeating the poem three times stuck, and it became a fixed part of Jewish liturgy.  Eventually, this practice became so ensconced that some scribes and every printer could not imagine the Talmudic R. Elazar’s statement as anything but the repetition of ashrei thrice daily. Instead of preserving the Talmudic text, they changed it to fit their current experiences. 

Like the siddur, Jewish tradition is ever-evolving.”

I find this historical evolution both fascinating and infuriating. Human error, man-made rules that become dogma can steer us away from honest piety, from poetry that helps us ground, and offer gratitude - to endless recitation of words that obscure the point of spiritual awakening.

Those long hours standing in the corridors of my school or in so many synagogues in the following years did not arouse my sense of the sacred. They were the required recitations of long lists of alphabetical praise phrases that felt empty and rolled off the tongue with little thought at all. 

But as I learn more of how traditions evolve and manuscripts become books and suggestions become commandments, I also learn the other way around: How to peel away the layers of the law, like archaeologists, to discover and recover original layers, intentions and inspirational meaning. 

Just this one word today is all I need - not the entire Alphabetical poem, with all due respect: Tehilla. Praise. Even in the midst of so much anguish, rage and violence - can we find a way to praise what’s praiseworthy and use this ancient method to remind ourselves each day to not get lost in what is lost and painful?

What is one aspect of life that I can pause and ponder and respect today? To what or whom will I direct my gratitude and praise? 

Selah.

PSLAM FOR PEACE!

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