Translating the Word Ashrei

Have any questions, insights, or feedback? Send me a text!

Length: 1 hour 1 minutes
Synopsis: This Wednesday evening (6/11/25), in our last Tehilim shiur of the 2024-2025 season, we ended up doing a chaotically orderly experimental Chumash exploration instead of Tehilim. If you've ever looked at English translations of the siddur, you may have noticed that the word "Ashrei" is translated differently by different people in different contexts. Tonight, we conducted a survey of the various sources at our disposal to see if we might be able to get at "the real meaning." Our analysis focused on the first instance (or instances) of Ashrei in the Chumash, and we went through a ton of meforshim, classifying each of their interpretations. Did we arrive at a conclusion? Not exactly, but we DID walk away with a set of findings, some old and some new.
-----
מקורות:
תהלים א:א; פד:ה-ו; קמד:טו; קיט:א-ב
BDB
Artscroll
Koren
Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks
Robert Alter
JPS (1985)
Everett Fox
Klein Dictionary
מנחם בן סרוק
ר' יונה אבן ג'אנח - ספר השורשים
רד"ק - ספר השורשים
בראשית ל:יג
תרגום אונקלוס
פשיטתא
רס"ג תפסיר
ר' יהודה אבן בלעם
רשב"ם
אברבנאל
ספורנו
ר' נ"ה וויזל
ר' י"ש ריגייו
הכתב והקבלה
שד"ל
ר' ש"ר הירש
מלבי"ם
נצי"ב
ר' דוד צבי הופמן
רש"י - תהלים א:א
-----
Summer is almost here, and I’m planning to level up my Substack game. In addition to my weekly article on the parashah, I’ve got a ton of other topics I want to write about, many of which are experimental (or spicy) enough to keep behind the paywall. I’m looking for sponsors and I'm willing to offer an insane deal: for every WEEK of Torah content you sponsor, I’ll comp you a full YEAR of paid subscriber access to my Substack. This offer is good through the end of June or until all my summer content is sponsored, whichever comes first.
-----
If you've gained from what you've learned here, please consider contributing to my Patreon at www.patreon.com/rabbischneeweiss. Alternatively, if you would like to make a direct contribution to the "Rabbi Schneeweiss Torah Content Fund," my Venmo is @Matt-Schneeweiss, and my Zelle and PayPal are mattschneeweiss at gmail. Even a small contribution goes a long way to covering the costs of my podcasts, and will provide me with the financial freedom to produce even more Torah content for you.

If you would like to sponsor a day's or a week's worth of content, or if you are interested in enlisting my services as a teacher or tutor, you can reach me at rabbischneeweiss at gmail. Thank you to my listeners for listening, thank you to my readers for reading, and thank you to my supporters for supporting my efforts to make Torah ideas available and accessible to everyone.
-----
Substack: rabbischneeweiss.substack.com/
Patreon: patreon.com/rabbischneeweiss
YouTube Channel: youtube.com/rabbischneeweiss
Instagram: instagram.com/rabbischneeweiss/
"The Stoic Jew" Podcast: thestoicjew.buzzsprout.com
"Machshavah Lab" Podcast: machshavahlab.buzzsprout.com
"The Mishlei Podcast": mishlei.buzzsprout.com
"Rambam Bekius" Podcast: rambambekius.buzzsprout.com
"The Tefilah Podcast": tefilah.buzzsprout.com
Old Blog: kolhaseridim.blogspot.com/
WhatsApp Content Hub (wh