Translating the Word Ashrei

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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.
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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
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