Bibbia Ebraica
Bibbia Ebraica

Chasidut su Salmi 145:16

פּוֹתֵ֥חַ אֶת־יָדֶ֑ךָ וּמַשְׂבִּ֖יעַ לְכָל־חַ֣י רָצֽוֹן׃

Apri la tua mano e soddisfa ogni cosa vivente con favore.

Torah Ohr

In a mystical sense, this happens in a manner alluded to by the verse (Psalms 145:16), “You [G-d] open Your hand and satisfy the desire of every living thing.” The Hebrew letter yud is frequently found in mystical literature as a symbol for contraction and concealment – specifically, G-d’s concealing His full revelation from our perception in order that we not be overwhelmed. It is identified with chochma, the intellectual faculty which conceives new ideas seemingly out of nowhere, since this faculty is characterized by the new ideas being contracted into a single, hard-to-define, point – the “germ” of an idea – which still requires elaboration and expansion to be fully understood. The degree of G-dliness “prior” to this condensation or concealment for our benefit may be identified with the faculty of “desire” or “will,” since these terms represent an aspect of a person which transcends chochma and intellect. (At the most basic level, a person “wants” something not for any intellectual reason, but just “because.”)
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Kedushat Levi

‎The author now reverts back to Yaakov’s blessing of ‎Yehudah in Genesis 49,10 where Yaakov said: ‎לא יסור שבט מיהודה ‏ומחוקק מבין רגליו‎, commonly translated as: “the scepter shall not ‎depart from Yehudah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his ‎feet.” According to our author, if I understood him correctly, a ‎King’s primary concern is the political freedom of the people ‎under his rule and to ensure that they have adequate food ‎supplies. Midrash Tehillim 80,2 alludes to this when it states ‎that the provision of an adequate livelihood is more important ‎than the provision of political freedom, ‎גאולה‎, as the former is ‎provided by G’d personally, whereas the latter has been entrusted ‎to one of His angels. The author of the Midrash bases ‎himself on Genesis 48,16 where Yaakov commands the “angel” ‎who ensures political freedom, i.e. ‎המלאך הגואל‎, whereas ‎concerning the provision of adequate food supplies, i.e. ‎livelihood, this is something that G’d personally is involved in, ‎based on David in psalms 145,16 speaking of G’d opening His ‎hand to all living creatures (to supply their needs). In Exodus ‎‎23,20 the Torah also writes of the angel that G’d will send ahead ‎of the Jewish people,‎הנה אנכי שולח מלאך לפניך לשמרך בדרך וגו' ‏‎, ‎whereas when it came to supplying the manna, the Israelites’ ‎food, no mention is made of an angel being involved. This is also ‎how we must understand Song of Songs 8,10, “then I was in his ‎eyes as someone who has found an abundance of peace.”‎אז הייתי ‏בעיניו כמוצאת שלום רב‎. According to the Talmud Pessachim, ‎‎87 the composer, Solomon, compares the “bride,” simile for the ‎people of Israel, as feeling secure in the house of her husband, i.e. ‎G’d. In this verse Solomon also distinguishes between the “bride,” ‎and her “breasts” as two different parts of herself, an allusion to ‎the Jewish people either serving the Lord as “recipients,” or as ‎having attained a level where they are entitled to also feel as ‎‎“donors” vis a vis G’d as we have explained . The bride’s father in ‎law’s house is a simile for the ‎עלמא דנוקבא‎, whereas when ‎mention is made by the composer of ‎בית אביה‎, “her father’s ‎house,” this is an allusion to the ‎עלמא דדכורא‎, “the predominantly ‎masculine domain in the celestial spheres.” When the “human ‎donor” has succeeded to provide his Heavenly Father with joy ‎through the manner in which he serves Him, then, in the words ‎of Rav Chisda, his daughters would provide enduring joy to their ‎husbands.‎
Having appreciated this concept, we can also understand the ‎verse in which ‎גאולה‎, “political freedom”, as we termed it earlier, ‎when discussing the comparison made between the relative worth ‎of political freedom and an adequate livelihood in the two verses ‎quoted in Midrash Tehillim, 80,2. This Midrash is based ‎on Bereshit Rabbah 20,9 where two verses are cited, i.e. ‎suggesting that ‎גאולה‎ “redemption” has to occur on two levels. ‎Man has to be redeemed from the repercussions of Adam’s ‎original sin, and we have to be redeemed collectively from the ‎exile in which we have waited for the redeemer for 2000 years.‎
In the book ‎ראשית חכמה‎, by the famous Rabbi Eliyahu ‎Vidash, the point is made that due to man’s original sin he had ‎acquired (sustained) a blemish on his soul as an integral part of ‎his being. Just as physical man consists of 248 limbs and 365 ‎tendons, muscular tissue, a total of 613 parts corresponding to ‎the 613 commandments in the written Torah, so there is a ‎parallel division between 248 plus 365 parts in the spiritual part ‎of man, his soul. The “damage” inflicted on our souls is known as ‎חלל‎. In other words, any sin committed by one of these 613 parts ‎of his body results in commensurate damage, or ‎חלל‎ in his soul. In ‎order to cleanse the soul of these “holes,” it has to spend a period ‎of time in gehinom, purgatory, until this damage has been ‎repaired. This is man’s fate if he has not repented for his sins ‎prior to his death, of course.‎
When Moses, in Deut. 32,18 says ‎צור ילדך תשי ותשכח ‏אלמחוללך‎, where the name for G’d as both ‎צור‎ and ‎א-ל‎ is repeated, ‎this is also an allusion to the two types of ‎גאולה‎, redemption, we ‎need in order to recapture the pure state in which original man ‎had been created. When describing the impending redemption ‎after the people have done teshuvah Moses says:, ‎ושב ה' ‏אלוקיך את שבותך ורחמך ושב וקבצך מכל העמים אשר הפיצך ה' אלוקיך שמה‎, ‎‎“and the Lord your G’d will return with your captives and have ‎mercy upon you; and He will return and gather you in from ‎among all the nations that he had scattered you to.” (30,3) The ‎word: ‎ושב‎, appears to have been repeated twice for no good ‎reason. Actually, this verse alludes to two separate “returns” from ‎‎“exile,” the physical as well as spiritual exile suffered by the souls. ‎We find that just as when it came to ‎פרנסה‎, two verses describe ‎that G’d looks after this directly, i.e. for the nourishment of the ‎body as well as that for the soul, so when it comes to ‎‎“redemption”, a prerequisite for our being able to serve the Lord ‎with maximum devotion, both the body and the damaged soul ‎will be redeemed separately. Alternately, the two verses allude to ‎the concept that G’d is both dispenser of largesse and recipient of ‎the joy and selflessness that some of His creatures display by ‎serve Him.”
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