Q&A: You Open Your Hand
You Open Your Hand
Question
The Jewish law is that in order to fulfill one’s obligation in reciting Pesukei DeZimra, one must have intention when saying the verse, “You open Your hand and satisfy every living being with favor,” whose plain meaning is that the Holy One, blessed be He, cares for every person’s sustenance.
However, I haven’t found a way to have that intention when saying this verse. First of all, even according to the view that there is individual providence, throughout history there were many individuals who died of hunger—that is, the Holy One, blessed be He, did not provide for their sustenance. All the more so according to the view that there is no providence at all regarding food.
It is also hard to say something like, “The Holy One, blessed be He, created man in such a way that he knows how to produce food,” or something like that, because from the outset He could have created man so that he would not need food at all, and that would have solved the problem. If so, how can one have intention in this verse and fulfill the obligation of reciting Pesukei DeZimra?
Answer
That is not the plain meaning. The plain meaning is that the food we have comes from Him. There are those who do not have any. By the way, if they do not, that is also our fault for not making sure to give them from the food we received from Him.
But beyond that, I do not see any problem in giving thanks for the creation of a world that can provide our sustenance. The option of creating us without a need for food does not exist, because then the world would be different and we would be different. That would not be creating us without a need for food, but creating different creatures. That is not relevant to our giving thanks to Him. Presumably the Holy One, blessed be He, had His own reasons for creating beings that consume food, just as I argued regarding natural evil or suffering in the world.
Like everything in the language of the Hebrew Bible and the Sages, the description is at the level of principle and not of practice. The world operates in such a way that, generally speaking, there is a possibility for everyone to receive their sustenance. Sometimes that does not happen in practice for various reasons, but the principle remains.
It is like saying, “A welfare state provides all its citizens with free healthcare and education,” even though that does not always happen for various reasons.