Prior to
Thanksgiving I noticed that many friends attempted to write about 1 blessing
they had in their lives for thirty days.
The blessings were appropriately titled, one blessing each day for a
month. Initially I thought the exercise
was a good one. After all, how often do
we actually sit down to verbally acknowledge the good in our lives? When I had
time to reflect upon the process, however, I noticed that Judaism says we
should recite 100 blessings a day. Why
the large difference? Let’s take a look at the system of brachot in Judaism.
First there
are three categories of blessings : Brachot
Hanehenim, the blessings over eating, drinking, or smelling nice things; Brachot
Hamitzvot, the blessings over performing a mitzvah; and Brachot Hodaah, the blessings
that express praise and thanks to G-d.
Eating,
drinking, and smelling nice things…happen all the time especially when one
lives an existence that most of us at Tifereth Israel live. Being tied into a system of brachot related
to this category of blessings would require one to acknowledge the source of the
all too often taken for granted moments in our lives. This category ensures that even when an event
seems trivial, it still acquires a dimension of holiness.
The brachot
for performing a mitzvah such as studying Torah, affixing a mezuzah, lighting
Shabbat candles, all acknowledge that the purpose of doing the mitzvah is to
carry out G-d’s will. Once again, these
brachot attest to the holiness of the actions.
That’s why having one’s son circumcised as a medical procedure is
different than having one’s son circumcised as a means of entering him into the
covenant with G-d. Interestingly enough,
the only mitzvoth that are required to have a bracha recited prior to their
performance are the ritual mitzvoth.
There are no blessings recited prior to performing purely ethical
mitzvoth. Ethical behavior is incumbent
upon all human beings, not just Jews, so we cannot say “who has sanctified us
to perform the mitzvah of______” prior to honoring one’s parents or not
stealing.
Brachot over
nature’s wonders allow us to express our sense of awe as we experience G-d’s
creative powers. These blessings are to be recited upon seeing such a wonder
for the first time or after thirty days.
Expressing one’s sense of wonder in terms of a bracha, is part of
acknowledging G-d’s connection to all of life.
Brachot that express our gratitude for special times in our lives such
as birth, marriage, and death, acknowledge our connectedness to G-d as well.
Recently I
had a student who asked if it really wasn’t wrong for us to be teaching brachot
to young children. Afterall, isn’t wrong
for kids to think that G-d gave them bread?
I must say that question rather surprised me. It made me wonder if we gotten so far away from
thinking that there is a connection between food on our tables and the source
of all food? Is it possible that we can
only see the supermarket packaging and somehow think that humankind is
responsible for food being on earth at all?
Have we gotten so used to thinking that humans are really in control of
all that happens on earth and we have no connection to G-d as the source of all
being?
I think
it is important to reflect about the
times in your life when you’ve felt a connection to G-d and felt like offering
a bracha, but I think it is also important to recognize that uttering a bracha
reminds us to notice those connections even at times when we are likely to
forget them.
Yes, saying one
blessing everyday is laudable, as part of this Thanksgiving holiday season, but,
it really should be part of our Jewish psyches to think that one blessing a day
probably doesn’t adequately express all the times we should be acknowledging G-d’s
involvement in our lives. A system of
brachot uttered by Jews over the centuries has ensured that we know to whom we
are thankful and what our place is in the universe.
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