An exchange about Ashrei

One of my children challenged me this past Shavuos about a well-known Chazal and this is how it went.

Child: Tatty, how come the Ashrei is missing the letter "nun"? (Ashrei is in alphabetical order but the verse that should have started with the NUN is missing, so that we go directly form MEM to SAMECH).

Tatty: Well, Chazal say that it is because Dovid Hamelech did not want to mention "nefila" (Falling) and had Ashrei included the verse that started with NUN it would have had to say that word.

Why is there no nun in Ashre? Because the fall of Israel's enemies begins with it. For it is written: Fallen is the virgin of Israel, she shall no more rise. (In the West this verse is thus interpreted: She is fallen, but she shall no more fall. Rise, O virgin of Israel). R. Nahman b. Isaac says: Even so, David refers to it by inspiration and promises them an uplifting. For it is written: The Lord upholdeth all that fall (Brochos 4b).

Child: That doesn't make sense...oops..they taught us in the yeshiva never to say it like that.... I mean that I don't understand! In Eishes Chayl, in Tehilim 119 and 34, in brochos of Shema, we have the full alphabet and we have the letter NUN that starts verses without any mention of nefila.

Comment: Acrostics also occur in Psalms 111 and 112, where each letter begins a line; in Psalms 25, where each letter begins a half-verse; in Psalm 37, Proverbs 31:10-31, and Lamentations 1, 2, and 4, where each letter begins a whole verse; and in Lamentations 3, where each letter begins three verses.

Tatty: Well, In Amos it does say such a verse with a nun. It says: "  Fell (nofla), shall not arise, the young woman of Israel( Amos 5:7).

Child: But Amos is not alphabetical. What does that verse have to do with Ashrei?

Tatty: But it feels like something is missing in Ashrei, as we have it.

Comment: in Amos Chacham's
commentary in the Mossad Harav Kook edition of Tehillim. in a footnote,
he mentions that there is a Nun verse in the Septuagint: Neeman Hashem bidvarav ve-chasid bechol ma'asav (we have it in the blessings of the Haftorah).  The Qumran scroll has the same
verse, except that H' is replaced by Elokim.  This indicates that they also felt that something is missing and tried to replace it.

Tatty (thinking): I think I might be able to explain it. You know, when you read Ashrei you see that it breaks up into a series of themes, or domains. Each one consists of several lines and they repeat the same word or concept.

Child: How is that?

Tatty: like this ( I will put repetitions in bold) -

I. Praise

A Psalm of praise; of David. I will extol Thee, my G-d, O King; and I will bless Thy name for ever and ever.

Every day will I bless Thee; and I will praise Thy name for ever and ever.

Great is HaShem, and highly to be praised; and His greatness is unsearchable.

II. What will they say?

One generation shall laud Thy works to another, and shall declare Thy mighty acts.

The glorious splendour of Thy majesty, and Thy wondrous works, will I rehearse.

And men shall speak of the might of Thy tremendous acts; and I will tell of Thy greatness.

They shall utter the fame of Thy great goodness, and shall sing of Thy righteousness.

 

III.What justifies this praise?

 

HaShem is gracious, and full of compassion; slow to anger, and of great mercy.

HaShem is good to all; and His tender mercies are over all His works.

 

IV.Therefore:

All Thy works shall praise Thee, O HaShem; and Thy saints shall bless Thee.

They shall speak of the glory of Thy kingdom, and talk of Thy might;

To make known to the sons of men His mighty acts, and the glory of the majesty of His kingdom.

 Thy kingdom is a kingdom for all ages, and Thy dominion endureth throughout all generations.

IV. Verse out of place.

Now comes a lonely verse that seems out of place. It mentions the word "fall "noflim" that seems to be a repetition of the previous verse following the pattern tha twe have just seen... except that no such verse exists. This lonely pasuk is neither tied to the previous verse nor connected thematically or by repetition to the following verse. By reading closely, Chazal understood that there was a previous verse that started with NUN and and it contained the word "noflim", or falling, and intially made a unit of two verses with this verse. It must have been removed and left this verse standing by itself, and so, they said that a verse starting with NUN and talking about the fall of Israel was deliberately removed. The next verse is the only unti of one in Ashrei.

HaShem upholdeth all that fall, and raiseth up all those that are bowed down.

 

V. God sustains all beings

 

The eyes of all wait for Thee, and Thou givest them their food in due season.

Thou openest Thy hand, and satisfiest every living thing with favour.

 

VI.Hashem is gracious to all

 

HaShem is righteous in all His ways, and gracious in all His works.

HaShem is nigh unto all them that call upon Him, to all that call upon Him in truth.

 

VI.I trust and praise Him 

 

He will fulfil the desire of them that fear Him; He also will hear their cry, and will save them.

HaShem preserveth all them that love Him; but all the wicked will He destroy.

 VII. Conclusion

My mouth shall speak the praise of HaShem; and let all flesh bless His holy name for ever and ever.

 

Child: Wow... so Chazal really could read closely.

Tatty: Yes, Chazal really read and understood very well.

Comments

[S.]

>Child: That doesn't make sense...oops..they taught us in the yeshiva never to say it like that.... I mean that I don't understand! In Eishes Chayl, in Tehilim 119 and 34, in brochos of Shema, we have the full alphabet and we have the letter NUN that starts verses without any mention of nefila.

Impressive child

[zach]

Now show your child a copy of the oldest extant version that we know about - Ashrei from the Dead Sea Scrolls. The included nun verse there will really throw him for a loop (unless you want to just brush it off and explain that it must have been added later since it doesn't fit the various traditional analyses of Ashrei.)

[LazerA]

Finding a variant text in the Dead Sea Scrolls doesn't prove much. There are numerous reasons why such a variant might appear, the least likely of which is that it was broadly accepted as a legitimate version.

The existence of scribal modifications of ancient texts is an age-old problem.

Such modifications could occur due to honest error, misunderstanding a previous scribe's notes, a desire to "improve" or "fix" the text, support for an ideological point, or other reasons. In fact, the modification may not be a modification at all, it could be the result of our misunderstanding the function of the particular text (particularly easy with fragments - i.e. the bulk of the Dead Sea Scrolls).