We are finishing up the 7th of the qualities of one we can rely on, which is that His kindness is forever and He has never-ending mercy.
The Hovot HaLevavot brings the pasuk
פותח את ידך ומשביע לכל חי רצון
G-d opens His hands and satiates every individual based on his wants and needs
This is a very important pasuk which has the very important, fundamental belief that Hashem, in His tremendous kindness, takes care of every individual’s parnasa.
There’s a fascinating Midrash Rabah in Bereshit that tells us that the way G-d takes care of our parnassa and satiates us every day is greater than the redemption
גדולה מין הגאולה
How so? It says גאולה אל ידי מלאך
Redemption comes through an angel,
as it says in the pasuk המלאך הגואל אותי
Yaakov Avinu says “the angel that redeems me” but here we learn that parnassa comes directly from Hashem, as it says, פותח את ידך -G-d opens His hands...and satiates everyone ...
It’s hard for us to fathom but G-d Himself is nourishing us, as we eat and digest, directly. He didn’t give that task over to an angel. And it’s not just us. It says G-d takes care of the satiation of every little creature This is so important that the Gemarah tells us in Masechet Berachot that whoever says Ashrei three times a day is guaranteed to go to Olam Habah
כל האומר תהלה לדוד בכל יום שלש פעמים מובטח לו שהוא בן העולם הבא
Why?
Is it because Ashrei goes through the whole aleph bet?
Well, other pizmonim have that too, like perek 119 in tehilim. It has the aleph bet 8 times.
So the answer is no. It’s because of
פותח את ידיך. G-d opens His hands- which teaches us the lesson of G-d taking care of us.
But as we learned previously, the Hallel Hagaddol has that too. כי לעולם חסדו. says Hashem’s kindness is forever. That has the same lesson. So why is Ashrei different?
The Gemarah says it’s because Ashrei has both. It has the Aleph Bet as well as the lesson of פותח את ידך
Rabbenu Yonah says that we see from here that this lesson is so important that if a person didn’t have Kavana when he said פותח את ידך, he has to repeat it. This is because it’s a fundamental of our emunah that Hashem, in His never-ending kindness, takes care of our satiation every single day. Thus, say this every single day, 3 times a day, and in Bircat Hamazon as well.
The Bene Yehoshua says that when we do things 3 times, it’s a hazaka. (for example a cow that has gored three times is expected to gore again)
We say this pasuk three times a day because G-d wants to drill it into us three times a day. But it’s not just that pasuk on its own that will get us into Olam Habah. That’s not enough. It’s also that Ashrei has the the aleph bet, the letters that the Torah is made of.
The Bene Yehoshua and others explain that proclaiming these two factors three times a day is enough to go to Olam Habah because the letters of aleph bet make up the Torah. When we say פותח את ידך we should think: If G-d is taking care of my parnasa anyway, shouldn’t I use my time properly? I don’t have to devote all my time to work. I can leave some time for learning Torah because
G-d will open His hand and provide for me פותח את ידך. This thought is an added Kavana that we can have in our tefillot. It’s the background of פותח את ידך that G-d opens His hand to satiate me -
We should think:
Here I’m in the middle of the aleph bet, the letters that created the Torah, so I should realize that G-d is taking care of me and so I should use my time to learn Torah as well.
This is our final pasuk of our final fundamental. We will wrap up beH and move on to next chapter.