Ashrei 11
כבוד מלכותך יאמרו, וגבורתך ידברו – Of the glory of Your kingdom they will speak, and of Your power they will tell;
להודיע לבני האדם גבורתיו, וכבוד הדר מלכותו– To inform human beings of His mighty deeds, and the glorious splendor of His kingdom.
Most people, even those who are Torah observant, often do not recognize (or do not recognize enough) – and certainly do not contemplate – the hand of Hashem in nature and in ALL that happens in our personal lives. We become accustomed to nature and to “natural events” that occur constantly and, unless something occurs that is out of the ordinary, we do not really feel Hashem directing the “ordinary” in our lives and in the world.
The chasidim like David HaMelech, and those he spoke about at the end of the previous pasuk, see all of nature and EVERYTHING that happens in the world and in their personal lives as coming directly from Hashem. They ask Hashem for help before looking for a parking spot and thank Him when they receive one. They attribute EVERY breath, moment, occurrence, and event to Hashem.
This pasuk picks up where the last one left off, discussing the chasidim. They will speak (יאמרו) about כבוד מלכותך, which represents Hashem’s control over nature and all that happens that appears to us as ordinary. וגבורתך ידברו means that they will speak to others about Hashem’s actions that are extraordinary. These include miracles and outstanding unnatural events. They will tell others about these extraordinary events, להודיע לבני האדם גבורותיו, to make known to others Hashem’s power through recognizing these miraculous and unnatural events brought about by Hashem. וכבוד הדר מלכותו – Recognizing Hashem through His power in causing miracles and extraordinary events, the people who are not on the level of chasidim will now understand that the natural events and ALL that happens constantly is from Hashem as well.1
This is in fact what the Ramban says in his last piece at the end of Parshas Bo. Hashem does not perform open miracles in every generation. We therefore need to learn from יציאת מצרים and other open miracles that ALL that appears to be natural and mundane is controlled completely by Hashem. The Ramban goes as far as to say that one who does not believe this does not have a share in the Torah. Without realizing that everything is created by Hashem, for the service of Hashem, a person will not feel the responsibility to study and understand the Torah – the “instruction manual” for life (i.e., successful living) on this earth.
When we say this second pasuk (להודיע), we should accept upon ourselves to teach this to our children and to others around us.2 We can do this by attributing ALL of our successes – “natural,” mundane, extraordinary – to Hashem, in the presence of others.
Rabbeinu Yonah writes3 that the aveirah of chilul Hashem is so severe that it has no traditional atonement available as do other sins. However, if Hashem will assist the person to sanctify Hashem’s Torah to others ANDלהודיע לבני האדם גבורות [ה'] וכבוד הדר מלכותו, that will remove his sin. So what we have discussed in this last pasuk is actually an integral part of the formula for atonement of the most severe of sins, which has no traditional methods of atonement. May we be zocheh to sanctify Hashem’s Name and receive atonement for all of our transgressions.
1 משך חכמה בראשית ה"ד זה ספר תולדות האדם
יסוד ושורש העבודה שער ג' פרק ה' 2
שערי תשובה שער ד' אות ד', ה' 3