Today’s class is dedicated in the zechut of the BAHARESTANI children’s Torah growth. B’ezrat Hashem, their father’s dreams for them should come to fruition, and they should see Hatzlacha in their learning.
Today we will study chapter 34 of tehilim, pasuk ט
טַעֲמ֣וּ וּ֭רְאוּ כִּֽי־ט֣וֹב ה׳ אַֽשְׁרֵ֥י הַ֝גֶּ֗בֶר יֶחֱסֶה־בּֽו
Taste and see that Hashem is good, Fortunate is the man who seeks refuge in Him
We will discuss a few explanations for this pasuk.
Firstly, the Midrash explains that טַעֲמ֣וּ וּ֭רְאוּ כִּֽי־ט֣וֹב ה׳ Taste and see that Hashem is good, refers to eating.
When you eat something, you make a beracha, and see how good Hashem is.
Rabbi Shlomo Lasker, in his sefer Dibrot Shlomo explains further:
טַעֲמ֣וּ וּ֭רְאוּ כִּֽי־ט֣וֹב ה׳
When you eat something, and it’s delicious, you should stop and ask yourself what makes this food so delicious.
Think of your favorite foods -Ice cream, your favorite smoothie, a sizzling steak, a nice glass of wine- all of course, enjoyed in honor of Oneg Shabbat… delicious!
But hold on! Where does all of that delicious flavor come from? Who is the source of it all? Hashem!
This is how something physical and mundane tastes . If that is how delicious your favorite food tastes, imagine how delicious Hashem, the source of all goodness, is! He is delicious!
That’s what טַעֲמ֣וּ וּ֭רְאוּ כִּֽי־ט֣וֹב ה׳ means-
Taste, and once you taste, you will see “ki Tov Hashem!”
How delicious Hashem tastes!
We want to connect to the goodness itself. Not just the products of the goodness.
אַֽשְׁרֵ֥י הַ֝גֶּ֗בֶר יֶחֱסֶה־בּֽוֹ
Fortunate is the person that seeks refuge in Him. When you seek refuge in Hashem, you connect to Him- to the source of all goodness.
So when you sit down and eat that delicious food, it’s supposed to be a springboard to get you to connect to Hashem Himself.
That is the first way to read this pasuk. The second way of reading this pasuk works the other way around.
The Chafetz Chaim, in his sefer Shemirat HaLashon ( shaar ב, Perek יא) says that if you want to taste how good Hashem is, אַֽשְׁרֵ֥י הַ֝גֶּ֗בֶר יֶחֱסֶה־בּֽוֹ
Fortunate is the person that seeks refuge in Him.
When you seek refuge in Hashem, then you have bitachon, and then you will realize how good Hashem is. In the words of the Chafetz Chaim,
“Someone that has the trait of bitachon, recognizes how great Hashem is.”
These are two beautiful explanations on how to read this pasuk. The first goes from beginning to end, and the second goes from end to beginning.
It works both ways- either you taste the food and through that, you realize how delicious Hashem is and connect to Him, or through connecting to Hashem, you realize how delicious He is.
That should be enough for us, but there is another beautiful explanation from the Alshech. He ask about this pasuk,
Taste and see that Hashem is good,
How can it be? If Hashem loves people so much, why are there poor people that Hashem doesn’t make wealthy? They are still stuck with their problems.
He says that טעמו/ taste means “pay attention.”
If you really delve into understanding, you’ll see that Hashem is Tov-good.
He keeps the poor man ( or anyone else) in his misery because
אַֽשְׁרֵ֥י הַ֝גֶּ֗בֶר יֶחֱסֶה־בּֽוֹ
There is nothing more fortunate than seeking refuge in Hashem.
Fortunate is the one that seeks refuge in Him! Not in his wealth.
Therefore, says the Alshech, Hashem keeps the person in the challenging situation, because that way, the person is forced to constantly seek refuge in God, and that is the true fortune!
If a person becomes wealthy, then he will not have that.
Therefore, Hashem is good when He gives us a challenge, because the challenge brings us to seek refuge in Him, and there is nothing more fortunate than seeking refuge in Hashem. Therefore, Hashem is good.
That is an important lesson for us. Hashem is good. We have to always know that.
The Alshech reads into this pasuk that the greatest goodness of Hashem is that He gives us an opportunity to seek refuge in Him. But you only get that, if you taste it. You can’t just look at it on the surface. That’s what the commentaries say “taste” means here. When you taste something, you don’t swallow it whole. You chew on it again and again, and salivate, and then you get the real flavor of the food- like when people pour wine into a big glass, smell it, swirl it around in their mouths…and other such practices that people do, in order to get the real flavor of something. We have to work on a flavor to taste it. We want to really taste that Hashem is good, so we have put some effort into it, and realize that sometimes life’s biggest challenges are really giving us true goodness, which brings us to אַֽשְׁרֵ֥י הַ֝גֶּ֗בֶר יֶחֱסֶה־בּֽוֹ
Fortunate is the one that relies on Him.
The Midrash says that word here for “the one” is גבר, which comes from the same root as “גבור/strong,”
because a person has to be strong. The Yetzer Hara tries to bring us down. When we have difficulties, or problems, we may start questioning what God is doing with us and what is going on.
So it says, אשרי הגבר be a strong man! Say,This is good! What’s good about it?
I am connecting to Hashem and there’s nothing better than that.
Have a wonderful day.