Subject: Jewish Prayer: The Blessings
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Subject: JUICE Siddur 4
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World Zionist Organization
Student and Academics Department
Jewish University in CyberspacE
juice@wzo.org.il birnbaum@wzo.org.il
http://www.wzo.org.il
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Course: THE PRAYER BOOK: A WINDOW ON JEWISH THEOLOGY
Lecture: 4/12
Lecturer: Barbara Sutnick and Rabbi Reuven Sutnick
* BEGINNING WITH BLESSINGS *
Up until now we have been involved in an overview study of Jewish
prayer. This has meant discussing prayer in general and looking
at the historical development of the Hebrew prayer book (siddur).
>From this point our method will turn to focusing in on specific
prayers or groups of prayers to study them in more detail and
discern their meanings.
Let us start with ritual prayer in the form of its most
basic building block: the blessing or "BeRaCHa". There are
several types of blessings in use today. We will look first at
the simplest form of beracha, the one used to express
appreciation or praise (in contrast to those that accompany
ritualistic acts). Typically, we see the following six (Hebrew)
word formula:
"BaRuCH ATaH A-DoNai E-LoHeiNu MeLeCH haOLaM..."
"BLESSED ARE YOU LORD, OUR GOD, SOVEREIGN OF THE UNIVERSE,
(WHO)....."
For each beracha, the ending is a "fill in the blank". It
changes to accommodate the particular context. (For example,
"...who creates the fruit of the vine"; "...who lifts up the
downtrodden"; "...who rebuilds Jerusalem"; etc.). Many people
have been taught to recite certain blessings by rote, without
giving much thought to the heavy statement they make. Contained
in these six opening Hebrew words is a vast amount of theology,
including some curious paradoxes. Let us take a moment to probe
this multi-purpose beracha formula and cut right to its
theological elements.
The first thing we learn when we look at berachot (plural of
beracha) about Jewish theology is that the possibility of direct
address from humans to God is assumed. This, of course,
presupposes that such a thing (mortal, finite humans actually
speaking to Immortal, Infinite God) is possible and even
desirable (after all, it could be viewed as presumptuous,
impertinent and even offensive for us to attempt to address God).
The pray-er's (remember, "person at prayer") subordinate status
with respect to the Divine is hinted at in the Hebrew word BaRuCH
("blessed"), since the same Hebrew root also signifies the word
"knee" (BeReCH). In other words, between the lines of each
beracha, God is figuratively approached "on bended knees".
On the other hand, the pray-er speaks to God in the 2nd
person, calling him "You". Hebrew does not distinguish between
intimate and formal moods, as do romance languages, Yiddish, etc.
However, the "You" addressed with each blessing is that aspect of
God that is imminent, a heartbeat away, even INSIDE the pray-er
somewhere. Next, He is called "our God", referring to the many
covenants of mutual allegiance between God and the people that
are recorded in the Bible. Following this, with the words "King
of the universe", we find an enthronement formula: The Jewish
belief in God's continued sovereignty over the entire created
universe, is acknowledged with each beracha. It is noteworthy
that the Hebrew word for universe, OLaM, implies both infinity of
TIME and of SPACE. Thus God's sovereignty is understood to
encompass all of this in the small Hebrew phrase MeLeCH haOLaM.
When we add the ending or "signature" of the beracha, a very
interesting thing happens. The beracha switches from the second
to the third person. (For example: "Blessed are YOU...who
brings forth bread from the earth"; "Blessed are YOU...who hears
prayer"; etc.) What are the implications of this switch? Just
as the imminent, approachable, personal aspect of God is
addressed with the opening of the beracha; the awesome, remote,
all-powerful aspect of God is acknowledged when the beracha
changes to the third person.
Thus, the six Hebrew words of the beracha formula, plus the
fact that the signature is always in the third person reveal a
significant piece of Jewish theology: Humans CAN address God;
God is at once imminent and transcendent; and God is the Master
of all space and all time. If we add to these theological
musings all the inarticulate emotion that a person might feel
seeing the flash of thunder, hearing terrible news, smelling a
fragrant rose or simply opening one's eyes in the morning (all
traditional occasions for uttering blessings) we round out the
idea of blessing even further. This is also only the beginning.
In the signature of the various berachot (plural of beracha), and
the paragraphs which accompany them we will see the story develop
further. Our next questions are, how did this formula come to be
standardized and where did it come from?
- FORM AND CONTENT -
Although we have established the biblical antecedents for
the activity of prayer in previous Lectures, we will soon see
that the specific formula of blessing we use today has been
deliberately changed from the most common biblical form. As with
most well-developed forms of literature, change of form implies
change of content. The rabbis ask whether a phrase which sounds
sort of like a blessing, but deviates from the six-word opening
formula -- Blessed, You, Lord, (our) God, Sovereign (of), (the)
Universe -- a little bit can still really be an official
blessing? Since each of the six words contains significant
theological principles, the absense of one word is not a small
thing. This question also relates to the issue of just how
connected today's Jewish prayer is to biblical prayer (a mode of
inquiry pursued in Lectures 2 and 3).
If we check our Bibles, we find something remarkable: there
are at least thirteen cases of "Blessed is God" without the
"YOU." (Remember, "YOU" signifies our turning with a sense of
INTIMACY to an imminent God.) By contrast, there are only two
cases in the entire Hebrew Bible of "Blessed are YOU God", the
form we do in fact use today(1)! It is remarkable that in
cannonizing the prayer book, the Rabbis ignored the statistically
popular biblical blessing form and enshrined the less
characteristic form in our ritual. Let us consider two examples.
In the first, Abraham's servant is looking for a bride for Isaac.
He is astounded that God seemed to immediately respond in causing
Rebecca to appear. He says:
Blessed be the Lord God of my master Abraham, who has
not left my master destitute of His love... (Gen. 24:27)
We see still another example without the "YOU" in the story of
Jethro, Moses' father-in-law. After Jethro hears of the
wonderful things done for the Jews in Egypt, he says:
Blessed is God who saved you from Egypt and from Pharoah.
(Exodus 18:10)
Professor Heinemann (p.55) explains that these are not
actually blessings, but rather "publications of awe" on the part
of Abraham's servant and Jethro, respectively. Confronted by the
power and wonder of the Lord, each one offered his response.
Technically, however, they were not reciting blessings.
Heinemann applies this theory to each of the eleven other
biblical cases in which a seeming blessing appears without the
"YOU." (For another more contemporary example, find an Orthodox
Jew in your town and ask him/her how s/he feels. A most probable
answer will be "BaRuCH Ha-SHeM" -- "praised be the Name [of
God]", i.e. "because of the grace of God, I am fine". This
person is not PRAYING in response to your question, but rather
acknowledging God's role in his/her well-being.)
By contrast, the biblical blessings that Heinemann cites
which do contain the "YOU" are:
"Blessed are YOU, God, teach me your statutes"
(Psalms 119:12);
and
"...David blessed the Lord before all the congregation: and
David said, Blessed are YOU, Lord, God of Israel our father,
forever and ever." (I Chron. 29:10ff)
So, what really is the big deal about the missing "YOU?" It
is a "big deal", since without it, the pray-er is talking ABOUT
God, and NOT TO God. Although many biblical prayers talked ABOUT
God, that is not the activity to which we are supposed to aspire
when we pray. The language of the siddur directs us to talk TO
God, and to retain a sense of intimacy in doing so. Thus, the
rabbis who shaped our prayer book (and in-so-doing shaped our
theology) deemed that it is preferable to insert a measure of
intimacy with God in our blessings, even at the expense of
linking the practice historically with the form used LEAST often
in the Bible. And why should we worry about linking it with the
Bible at all? We do because the Bible is traditionally viewed as
our oldest and most direct set of clues about how to relate to
God (refer to Lectures 2 and 3).
But wait a minute! Have you noticed a way in which Psalms
119:12 and I Chron. 29:10 (our biblical blessings with "YOU") are
also PROBLEMATIC models for us today? They too are missing one
of the key words of the six-word blessing formula. Here's a
hint:
Rav says: Any blessing which does not mention God's
Name (the Holy 4-letter Tetragramaton) is not a blessing;
Ravi Yochanan says: Any blessing which does not contain
mention of God's kingship (of the world) is not a blessing.
(Talmud Berachot 40b)
Neither of these last examples from the Bible contain the
necessary mention of God's kingship, "Sovereign of the world."
To our utter astonishment, according to rabbinic tradition, these
two blessings (i.e. the only two biblical blessings that do
contain "YOU") do not technically count as blessings either!
Does this mean that no one in the Bible prayed? Of course they
did -- but not in the same way that Jews do today.
In the final analysis, the six-word fixed blessing formula
appears to be a new creation drawing on a number of biblical
elements, but essentially overriding biblical forms. As early as
several centuries before the destruction of the Second Temple,
the Rabbis defined a new form for the "blessing" which was prayer
rather than publication, which retained both the intimacy of
direct address and a respectful distance in alluding to God's
attributes. This new creation acknowledged a number of biblical
elements, but favored none exclusively.
Phrased differently, prayer as we see it in the siddur
before us, simply was not a biblical activity. The definitive
prescription of formal elements that marks the rabbis'
contribution to Jewish prayer is absent in the Bible. The
biblical examples we considered were spontaneous; whereas our
liturgy is fixed. Each biblical prayer contained some but not
all elements of the accepted blessing formula; whereas our
liturgy requires that all the critical biblical elements are
represented each time a blessing is recited.
It seems to me that by way of defining formal elements the
Rabbis accomplished two critical innovations: a) the content,
message, intention and religious philosophy of prayer were
defined; and b) a new form of prayer activity was defined. In
this new form, verbal piety could be the result of DISCIPLINE
rather than INSPIRATION. What modern prayer may lack in terms of
inspiration it makes up for in terms of democracy: EVERYONE can
play (even the uninspired)! Thus, as a result of rabbinic
innovation, every person who is careful in his/her practice of
prayer, can reach the highest level of religious achievement.
- A "SIMPLE" BLESSING -
It is time to look at the way some of these ideas can be
applied to specific berachot in the siddur. *SIDDUR SEARCH*
Near the very beginning of most siddurim at the start of the
weekday morning service is a list of 14 relatively short
berachot. These are called BiRCHoT haSHaCHaR, or "Morning
Blessings". The list begins with "Blessed...who gives the
rooster wisdom to distinguish between light and darkness" and
ends with "Blessed...who gives strength to the weary." *EUREKA!*
Please read through BiRCHoT haSHaCHaR. It can be said that
the list is a slow-motion version of the process of fully
regaining consciousness after a night's sleep: one hears the
rooster (or alarm clock) crow; realizes who one is and is not;
begins to "inventory" one's physical capabilities; stretches;
pulls on clothes; etc.
Reciting this list of "Morning Blessings" minimally
discourages the reflective pray-er from taking any of these
capabilities for granted. At the more intense extreme, the pray-
er can aspire to the highest level of religious achievement
through these berachot. Let us see how one example might work.
The fifth beracha of Birchot Hashachar is:
Blessed are You Lord, our God, King of the universe, who
opens the eyes of the blind.
Upon opening one's eyes in the morning and evoking this
formula, a person can acknowledge some or all of the following
things from the first moment of cognition in the morning. First,
that the resumption of the ability to see comes from God. That
God can be spoken to directly (even before one brushes one's
teeth!). At the same time, as s/he rubs the sleep from his/her
eyes even before morning coffee, the pray-er verbalizes the utter
transcendence of God: even at 6:00 am, God is the Sovereign of
the World. And how is this relevant even at this early moment in
the day, and perhaps even more so? God restores the pray-er's
sight, contends this short prayer, just as He does each morning
to all members of humanity privileged to see another day. To
take this a step further, "sight" can refer not only to the
physical ability to see, but also to that of discerning meaning -
- "seeing" in all of its metaphorical depth of meaning. The
highly developed theology expressed by our tradition's greatest
liturgical geniuses, can be arrived at virtually in our sleep!!
(To say nothing of all our own ideas on the subject.) If the
pray-er should remain too lazy, unimaginative, indifferent or
sleepy to add his/her own insights to the prayer--not to worry!
To say the beracha simply as it is--is to say a mouthful!
- OTHER TRADITIONAL BLESSING FORMS -
The six-word (plus ending) blessing formula that we have
been talking about up to now is the briefest form of beracha that
can stand on its own. It is said in acknowledgement of a sensual
experience (eating, drinking, smelling or seeing something
special and even hearing certain types of news) or when
acknowledging God's powers (as with BiRCHoT haSHaCHaR, which we
just studied). A second type of beracha has the shorter form
"Blessed are You Lord, our God who..." followed by something God
did/does. This type of beracha is not self-contained but rather
appears at the end of an entire prayer. It is called the
"beracha signiture" of that prayer. (We will study example of
these in Lectures 7 and 8.) A third type of beracha is called
"beracha shel mitzvah -- beracha of a commandment." It is
recited just before performing a commandment, such as lighting
Shabbat candles, eating matzah at the Passover seder, or putting
on tefillin. It contains the added phrase:
"...ASHeR KiDSHanu b'MiTZVotav v'TZiVanu..."
"WHO MADE US HOLY WITH HIS COMMANDMENTS AND COMMANDED US..."
followed by a mention of the specific commandment being done at
the time. The theology behind saying such a beracha is to
acknowledge that one is performing the commandment out of a
desire to fulfill God's will. The pray-er is also praising God
for bestowing holiness on the people through the gift of the
commandments (the Torah). Thus the ordinary act of touching a
flaming match to a waiting wick is transformed by these words
into a religious activity or experience. Max Kadushin, in his
book, Worship and Ethics, calls this "normal mysticism" -- in
other words, the combination of blessing + ritual becomes a type
of mystical experience. It is a way of approaching God that even
ordinary people (i.e. non-mystics) can actualize.
* * * * *
APPENDIX - BIBLIOGRAPHY
N.B. This bibliography will NOT be repeated with each Lecture.
Since additions have been made, I am sending it out again.
CLASSICAL JEWISH SOURCES
- BIBLE. The full Hebrew Bible, which is composed of three
sections: the TORAH (Five Books of Moses), the PROPHETS
(historical and prophetic works) and the WRITINGS (historical and
literary works).
- MIDRASH RABBAH. The major compilation of the homilatic
material compiled on the biblical text during the 3rd - 19th
centuries. Includes BERESHIT RABBAH, AND SHIR HASHIRIM RABBAH,
which are quoted from in this course.
- MISHNA. Literally, "teaching". The early oral tradition,
mainly of a legal and ritual nature, codified in written form by
Rabbi Yehuda Hanasi in Israel at the end of the 2nd century.
- RAMBAM. Initials of Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon or Maimonides.
Born in Spain in 1135; died in Egypt in 1204. Renowned as the
greatest post-Talmudic authority (after c. 500) on Judaism. In
addition to being a world-famous medical expert, the RAMBAM wrote
extensively on Jewish law, the Mishna and Jewish philosophy. His
MiSHNeh ToRah -- HiLCHot TeFiLa and Guide for the Perplexed are
quoted in this course.
- RASHI. Initials of Rabbi Shelomo Yitzhaki (1040-1105), who
lived in France. RASHI remains the leading Bible commentator,
with no traditional edition of the Bible being complete without
his glosses. RASHI's commentary to the Bible was the first
Hebrew book to be printed in 1475. It is referred to in this
course.
- SEFER HA-HINUKH. Midevil companion to the Torah, by R. Aharon
Ha-Levi of Barcelona, which defines and elaborates on each
mitzvah (commandment) in the Torah in the order in which they
appear in the Torah.
- TALMUD. (BABYLONIAN) A commentary and discussion of the
MISHNA, as expounded in the academies of Babylonia from the
second to the end of the fifth century. The JERUSALEM TALMUD was
finalized a century earlier. It contains both legal and
legendary (midrashic) material, including numerous biblical
references and interpretations. Intensive study of the Talmud is
the major focus of the most traditional Jewish schools and
yeshivas today. Citations will include the page and the name of
the relevant section of Talmud.
MODERN BOOKS ON JEWISH PRAYER
- DONIN, Haim Halevy. TO PRAY AS A JEW. New York, 1980.
- HAMMER, Reuven. ENTERING JEWISH PRAYER. New York: Schocken,
1994.
- HEINEMANN, Yitzhak (1876-1957). Israeli scholar and
philosopher born in Frankfurt. His IYuNei TeFiLah (Hebrew) is
referred to in this course.
- KADUSHIN, Max. WORSHIP AND ETHICS. Evanston, Ill., 1964.
- PETUCHOWSKI, Jacob J. UNDERSTANDING JEWISH PRAYER. New
York:Ktav, 1972.
- PLASKOW, Judith. STANDING AGAIN AT SINAI. San Francisco, 1990.
- YAKOBSON, Yissachar. NeTiV BiNa. Tel Aviv, Sinai Publishing:
1978. (in Hebrew)
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