시편 44:2의 Halakhah

If one has finished eating, he still should prolong his time at the table. And so our rabbis z”l said: “Whoever prolongs his time at the table, his days and years are prolonged for him.”¹³⁰B. Berakhot 54b. And the reason behind this statement is that the table in the house is like the altar in the Temple. Just as an altar atones, so also a table atones, when one feeds the poor on it. So by prolonging one’s time at the table, it is more likely that a poor person will come and he’ll give him a piece of food so he’ll be provided for.¹³¹Rashi’s commentary on B. Berakhot 54b. And his prolongation of his time at the table with this intention leads to the tzedakah about which it is written, “by way of tzedakah comes life;”¹³²Prov 12:28: Be-oreh tzedakah hayyim – “the road of righteousness leads to life” (JSB).thus his days and years are prolonged for him. And they said in tractate Berakhot: “’A wooden altar three cubits high and two cubits long, with edging; and its length and its walls were of wood. And he said to me, This is the table before the Lord.’¹³³Ez 41:22. This verse opens with an ‘altar’ and ends with a ‘table,’ which means none other than that just as an altar atones, so a table atones.”¹³⁴B. Berakhot 55a. Indeed, we have heard with our own ears, and many have told us,¹³⁵An allusion to Ps 44:2. that among the leading sages of Provence, and the people who owned and ran inns, that they practiced an especially honorable custom, which was prevalent among them from the earliest days. Their tables, upon which they feed the poor, when it was their time to go to the cemetery, were made into the coffins and slabs with which they were buried. And all this is to arouse and fix in their hearts, that humankind, though they reach the tip of the clouds¹³⁶A paraphrase of Job 20:6. and their wealth grows as high as the wealth of King Solomon, will take none of it with them, nothing from all they toiled for under the sun, ¹³⁷Eccl 1:3. except the good they do and the tzedakah they compassionately bestow upon the poor, just as it said, “Your righteousness [tzidkekha] will march before you.”¹³⁸Is 58:8.