Siman 132

And after the half-kaddish they shall say "Ashrei," and "Lamnatzeach ya'ancha," "Uva l'Tzion," "Ve'atah kadosh…". And the reason for "Ashrei" is because we say at the beginning of Berakhot (4b): Anyone who says "Tehillah l'David" three times every day is assured that he is a son of the World to Come. Therefore, they instituted it twice in Shacharit: once before the prayer, and once after the prayer; and in Mincha, once before the prayer. For just as in Shacharit there are two kedushot, aside from the kedushah of "Yotzer" which is nothing but a narration of how the angels say kedushah, therefore there are two times "Ashrei" in Shacharit. And in Mincha there is one kedushah—they instituted "Ashrei" once. And in Arvit there is no kedushah—they did not institute it at all. For in "Ashrei" as well there is the holiness of the Holy One, blessed be He, as it is written: "I will extol You…, every day I will bless You, great is Hashem, generation to generation, the glorious splendor of Your majesty, and the might of Your awesome acts"—to show that He, may He be blessed, is exalted above all blessing and praise, which is the matter of "Kadosh Kadosh." That is to say: holy and set apart from all creatures of above, and all the more so from creatures of below. And just as in the kedushah we say "the whole earth is full of His glory," meaning: even though He is holy and set apart, nevertheless the whole earth is full of His glory, so too in "Ashrei," that with all the greatness of His magnitude He is gracious and merciful, and good to all, and His mercy is upon all His works, and the eyes of all look to Him and He gives them their food in its time, opens… in the manner that they said: In the place where you find His greatness, there you find His humility…

And another reason for "Ashrei" is because we have prepared the sustenance of the soul through the reading of the Shema and prayer, and tallit and tefillin, and the unification of the Name and His love; therefore we request now that He bestow upon us in His kindness the sustenance of the body, that He give us our food in its time, that He provide for each and every man his sufficient livelihood. And this is "You open Your hand." And the two verses that are added before "Tehillah LeDavid" and one after "Tehillah LeDavid," namely "Ashrei yoshvei veitekha," "Ashrei ha'am shekakha lo," and the verse "Va'anachnu nevarekh..." — since in Pesukei D'Zimrah we added them for the reason we explained at the beginning of siman 51, see there. Therefore, they are added here as well to make them equal to one another.

And since we are requesting our sustenance, we therefore say the psalm "May the Lord answer you in the day of distress." And as they said at the end of Berakhot: Why is it written "May the name of the God of Jacob set you on high" and not "Abraham and Isaac"? From here [we learn] that the owner of the beam should enter into the thickest part of the beam. And Rashi explained: If he comes to move the beam from place to place. That is to say: Jacob, whose sons were all his and who labored in their upbringing—let him seek mercy for them. Thus far his words. For Jacob had the pain of raising children and labored to sustain them, and many troubles befell him from Esau and from Laban, and the Holy One, blessed be He, rescued him from them all; likewise, may He rescue us from our troubles. And in Midrash Shocher Tov they said regarding this verse: The Holy One, blessed be He, said: At the time when distress reaches Israel, and they seek Me... I answer them, and I am with him in distress. And for this reason we conclude "May the King answer us on the day we call." And there is in the initial letters of these three words the letters totaling 112, like the numerical value of Havayah-Adonai-Ehyeh, which are the primary names of Him, may He be blessed, from which our influence flows. And therefore we say beforehand "Some trust in chariots..., but we [trust] in the name...", that is to say: everyone else has sustenance from the side of nature, but we trust only in His name, may He be blessed. For from the side of nature, from the day the Beit HaMikdash was destroyed, we are like those suspended in the air. And it is further stated there in the Midrash, that David said this psalm after eighteen psalms, and likewise we say it after the eighteen blessings. (And in our books it is psalm 20, but our sages, of blessed memory, said that "Happy is the man" and "Why do the nations rage" are one.)

And afterward we say "And a redeemer shall come to Zion," in the manner that Isaiah the prophet said (59:19): "For he shall come like a narrow river... and a redeemer shall come to Zion." And we also, after "May He answer you on a day of distress," say "And a redeemer shall come to Zion." And afterward we say the verse "And as for Me, this is My covenant...", which Isaiah also said after the verse of "And a redeemer shall come to Zion." That is to say: that you should not fear that from the abundance of distresses, Torah will be forgotten from Israel. Not so, for "they shall not depart from your mouth...". And this we have seen empirically, that after the destruction of the Beit HaMikdash when the Romans decreed upon us harsh and evil decrees, then on the contrary, the Torah was strengthened in the time of the Tannaim and Amoraim...

And afterward they say "VeAtah Kadosh." And this is the "Kedushah DeSidra" that they spoke of at the end of Sotah: that from the day the Beit HaMikdash was destroyed, there is no day without a curse, and every day its curse is greater than its fellow, as it is said: "In the morning you shall say, would that it were evening..." But then how does the world endure? Upon the Kedushah DeSidra and upon "Amen, yehei shemeh rabba..." And Rashi explained: The order of Kedushah that they instituted so that all Israel would be occupied with the Torah in a small matter, as one says its reading and its translation, and they are like those occupied with the Torah... and there is here the sanctification of the Name and Torah study, and it is beloved. And likewise "yehei shemeh rabba..." Thus far his words. And it is not understood: how does this relate to the nullification of the curse? However, it seems to me that the matter is as follows: for behold, in the Midrash that we brought in section 3 it says: "May the Lord answer you in the day of trouble," this is what the verse said: "He shall call upon Me and I will answer him, I am with him in trouble." The Holy One, blessed be He, said: At the hour when trouble reaches Israel and they seek Me, let them associate My glory with them. At that hour I answer them, as it is said: "He shall call upon Me and I will answer him." When? "For I am with him in trouble." A parable of a pregnant woman who had anger with her mother, and her mother went up to the upper story, and at the time of her giving birth she was screaming from below and her mother heard her voice from above, and she too was screaming corresponding to her... even though I am in anger with her I cannot bear her screaming, the trouble of the daughter is the trouble of the mother. Thus far his words. And since the primary thing effective for salvation from troubles is to associate His glory, may He be blessed, with our pain, and also in the Gemara they said so: Anyone who associates the Name of Heaven with his pain—his sustenance is doubled (Berakhot 63a). Therefore, when the curse increased among us, and we prayed to Him, may He be blessed—we associate His great Name, may He be blessed, with our pains. That is to say: to Him, may He be blessed, pain reaches, as it were, for is not the whole earth full of His glory, and now His glory is not recognizable at all. And we are pained over the absence of Torah study, which is all His joy, may He be blessed. And for this we say "The Lord shall reign forever and ever." That is to say: when will His kingship, may He be blessed, be revealed? And we say "Yitgadal Amen yehei shemeh rabba," for this is entirely built upon the exile of the Shekhinah. And with this, the Holy One, blessed be He, as it were, screams corresponding to us, and removes from us the curse, and bestows upon us our sustenance.

And we first precede it with the verse "And You are holy, enthroned upon the praises of Israel." Meaning: even though You are holy, nevertheless You sit and wait for the praises of Israel. Therefore, everything that we add in prayer and in praises and songs—it is pleasing to You, as it were. And it is a preface for our preparing ourselves to say Kedushah a third time, for seemingly it is not the way of the world to repeat a matter a second and third time; for this we say that it is His will, may He be blessed. And that which we translate the Kedushah—it is so that everyone will understand, because they spoke the language of Targum in Babylon. And there are also higher reasons for this. And there is one who wrote that the Targum should be said in a whisper, and there is one who is not concerned for this (Pri Etz Chaim page 73a: my teacher was not concerned...).

And afterward we say "O Lord, God of Abraham... preserve this forever for the inclination...", because David said this verse at the end of the prayer in Chronicles (I 29:18). And the matter is thus: everything is according to the previous path, for that which the curse has increased upon us is because of our iniquities; for this we request that He preserve for us the order of kedushah that we performed, to bend our inclination therewith and to prepare our hearts for His service, may He be blessed. And regarding past iniquities: "And He, the Merciful One, atones for iniquity...", "For You, Lord, are good and forgiving...". And afterward we say "Your righteousness is an eternal righteousness...", and it is like a justification of the judgment upon us for the greatness of the curse since the time of the destruction. And afterward we are comforted and say: "You will give truth to Jacob...", meaning: we are certain that You will grant us the kindness that You promised to Abraham, and the truth that You promised to Jacob. And truth is applicable to Jacob because He had already promised Abraham, and it is incumbent upon Him, may He be blessed, to verify His word. And afterward we say "Blessed is the Lord day by day, He burdens us," meaning: we look forward to the future for great good, but even now we are assured that You will give us our sustenance every day. And we say these three verses: "The Lord of Hosts is with us," "The Lord of Hosts, happy is the man," "The Lord, save," because in the Jerusalem Talmud, chapter five of Berakhot, they said that these verses should never depart from one's mouth. And afterward we give Him, may He be blessed, praise and thanksgiving that He created us for His glory and gave us a Torah of truth. And afterward we pray for this: "That we may keep Your statutes, and merit...". And afterward we say verses of trust to strengthen us in our sustenance, that we should trust in the Lord and He will send us His help from the sanctuary. And we conclude with the verse "The Lord desired, for the sake of His righteousness, to make the Torah great and glorious." And it seems to me that this is for two intentions: The first: that behold, due to the brevity of our sustenance we are preoccupied with livelihood and nourishment, and we have no leisure to engage in Torah. But we must know that the desire of the Lord is to make the Torah great and glorious. Therefore, although we go immediately to engage in livelihood, yet we must remember that this is His primary will, may He be blessed, to make the Torah great and glorious. And therefore, one should raise his children for Torah study and support the hands of those who study Torah. And this is an obligation even upon those preoccupied with their livelihood. And the second intention is regarding that which is written in Isaiah (42:21) after this verse: "But this is a people robbed and spoiled... who gave Jacob for a spoil... is it not He against whom we have sinned...". And this is the explanation: behold, we complain about our lowliness; to this the prophet said, is not the purpose of creation that He make the Torah great and glorious? And this is how we sinned against Him, that we did not do so and did the opposite. And therefore "it is a people robbed and spoiled...". However, they did not institute saying these verses so as not to conclude the prayer with an evil matter. But the intention may be said to be so, as I have written. And the reason for "Aleinu" and the song of the day will be explained in siman 133, for the Tur also explained them there, see there. And with this the order of the prayer is completed. (There are also high and lofty intentions in the Kedushah DeSidra, for in essence the intentions are not similar to the kedushah of the Shemoneh Esreh. And we have explained according to their plain meaning, and those who enter the secret of the Lord will intend more. Examine and you will find it simple.)

And our teachers, the authors of the Shulchan Aruch, wrote: We translate the kedushah of "Uva LeTziyon." And one must be very careful to say it with kavvanah. Regarding whether an individual says it—its law is like the law of the kedushah in "Yotzer," and see above, siman 59 (and it was decided to permit it). And regarding the kedushah in the translation—an individual says it and not two. And one should not say it in a loud voice. And it is forbidden to leave the beit din before the kedushah de-sidra. Thus far their words. For anything that is in the Aramaic translation—one should not say it in public (Taz in the name of the Zohar). And there is a reason for this according to the secret, and your sign is: twice Scripture and once translation. And when making announcements—they should do so before "Ashrei," and not between "Ashrei" and "Uva LeTziyon." (Magen Avraham. And regarding what he wrote that an individual, upon arriving at the beit knesset at the time the congregation is saying the kedushah de-sidra, should say it with them, see there—our custom is not so, since we hold as the halakhah that an individual says it just as in the kedushah of "Yotzer." And the Levush and the Magen Avraham wrote here the customs of Kaddishim and their laws, and among us everyone says it together. And who takes precedence for the prayer at the amud, and which laws of Kaddish, were explained with the help of Heaven in Yoreh Deah at the end of siman 376, see there.) (It seems to me that it is good to say "Ashrei" and "Uva LeTziyon" while sitting.)