(א) וַיֹּ֤אמֶר יְהוָה֙ אֶל־אַבְרָ֔ם לֶךְ־לְךָ֛ מֵאַרְצְךָ֥ וּמִמּֽוֹלַדְתְּךָ֖ וּמִבֵּ֣ית אָבִ֑יךָ אֶל־הָאָ֖רֶץ אֲשֶׁ֥ר אַרְאֶֽךָּ׃ (ב) וְאֶֽעֶשְׂךָ֙ לְג֣וֹי גָּד֔וֹל וַאֲבָ֣רֶכְךָ֔ וַאֲגַדְּלָ֖ה שְׁמֶ֑ךָ וֶהְיֵ֖ה בְּרָכָֽה׃ (ג) וַאֲבָֽרֲכָה֙ מְבָ֣רְכֶ֔יךָ וּמְקַלֶּלְךָ֖ אָאֹ֑ר וְנִבְרְכ֣וּ בְךָ֔ כֹּ֖ל מִשְׁפְּחֹ֥ת הָאֲדָמָֽה׃
(1) The Eternal said to Abram, “Go forth from your native land and from your father’s house to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation, And I will bless you; I will make your name great, And you shall be a blessing. (3) I will bless those who bless you And curse him that curses you; And all the families of the earth Shall bless themselves by you.”
from this verse comes the mitzvah of birkat hamazon (grace after meals), whose form is ancient and is made up of four central blessings:
- Birkat Hazan (the blessing for providing food), which thanks God for giving food to the world,
- Birkat Ha-Aretz (the blessing for the land), which thanks God for bringing us forth from the land of Egypt, for making the covenant with us, and for giving us the land of Israel as an inheritance,
- Birkat Yerushalayim (the blessing for Jerusalem), which prays for the rebuilding of Jerusalem and the coming of the messiah; and
- Birkat Ha-Tov v'Ha-Maytiv (the blessing for being good and doing good), was added after the destruction of the Temple, although it existed before that time. It emphasizes the goodness of God's work, that God is good and does good.
מצות עשה מן התורה לברך אחר אכילת מזון שנאמר ואכלת ושבעת וברכת את יי' אלהיך ואינו חייב מן התורה אלא אם כן שבע שנאמר ואכלת ושבעת וברכת ומדברי סופרים אכל אפילו כזית מברך אחריו.
Mishneh Torah Hilkhot Brachot 1:1
It is a positive mitzvah from the Torah to bless [God] after eating satisfying food, as it is said: "When you have eaten and are satiated, you shall bless God, your Lord." The Torah itself requires a person to recite grace only when he eats to the point of satiation, as implied by the above verse, "When you have eaten and are satiated, you shall bless...." The Sages, however, ordained that one should recite grace after eating [an amount of bread equal to] the size of an olive.
Isaac blessing his two sons:
(28) “May God give you Of the dew of heaven and the fat of the earth, Abundance of new grain and wine. (29) Let peoples serve you, And nations bow to you; Be master over your brothers, And let your mother’s sons bow to you. Cursed be they who curse you, Blessed they who bless you.”
(3) May El Shaddai bless you, make you fertile and numerous, so that you become an assembly of peoples. (4) May God grant the blessing of Abraham to you and your offspring, that you may possess the land where you are sojourning, which God assigned to Abraham.”
(11) Therefore, observe faithfully the Instruction—the laws and the rules—with which I charge you today. (12) And if you do obey these rules and observe them carefully, the Eternal your God will maintain faithfully for you the covenant that God made on oath with your ancestors: God will favour you and bless you and multiply you; God will bless the issue of your womb and the produce of your soil, your new grain and wine and oil, the calving of your herd and the lambing of your flock, in the land that God swore to your anscestors to give to you.
Said Rabbi Chanina Bar Pappa: When someone derives enjoyment from this world without a Bracha, it is tantamount to stealing from God…
Berakhot recited before enjoying a material pleasure, such as eating, drinking or wearing new clothes, acknowledge God as the creator of the thing that we are about to use. The berakhah for bread praises God as the one "who brings forth bread from the earth." The berakhah for wearing new clothing praises God as the one "who clothes the naked." By reciting these berakhot, we recognize that God is the Creator of all things, and that we have no right to use things without first asking his permission. The berakhah essentially asks permission to use the thing.
Berakhot recited before performing a mitzvah (commandment), such as washing hands or lighting candles, praise God as the one "who sanctified us with his commandments and commanded us..." to do whatever it is we are about to do. Reciting such a blessing is an essential element of the performance of a mitzvah. In Jewish tradition, a person who performs a mitzvah with a sense of obligation is considered more meritorious than a person who performs the same mitzvah because he feels like it. Recitation of the berakhah focuses our attention on the fact that we are performing a religious duty with a sense of obligation. It is worth noting that we recite such berakhot over both biblical commandments and rabbinical commandments. In the latter case, the berakhah can be understood as "who sanctified us with his commandments and commanded us to obey the rabbis, who commanded us to..." do whatever it is we are about to do.
Berakhot recited at special times and events, such as when seeing a rainbow or a king or hearing good or bad news, acknowledge God as the ultimate source of all good and evil in the universe. It is important to note that such berakhot are recited for both good things and things that appear to us to be bad. When we see or hear something bad, we praise God as "the true Judge," underscoring the fact that things that appear to be bad happen for a reason that is ultimately just, even if we in our limited understanding cannot always see the reason.
The Hebrew word "barukh" is not a verb describing what we do to God; it is an adjective describing God as the source of all blessings. When we recite a berakhah, we are not blessing God; we are expressing wonder at how blessed God is.
One must understand that all of the enjoyments in the world have not actualized their identities unless they are used for the type of enjoyment that leads to ethical happiness, which is the knowledge of God. Therefore, one who benefits from the world without making a blessing and uses these things solely for the purpose of physical enjoyment is changing the identity of these things. It is actually parallel to using that which is consecrated to God, because those are things which are poised to help a person achieve spiritual completion, and instead one is minimizing their value and using them for physical pleasure, by misappropriating them and changing their identity.
Given the wide range of blessings included in the Jewish liturgy, we might be surprised that there are no blessings for performing ethical commandments, such as giving tzedakah, freeing hostages, or feeding the hungry. There are a few traditional explanations for this absence. First, poverty is understood to involve degradation. Since blessings are meant to celebrate the positive, there is a disinclination to recite blessings over degradation. Second, we generally say blessings over actions that we intend to complete immediately. Once we have lit Shabbat candles and recited the appropriate blessing, we have completed the mitzvah of lighting candles. We say a blessing over eating matzah on Passover and immediately fulfill the mitzvah of eating matzah. But we almost never discharge our obligations in regard to ethical mitzvot. No matter how muchtzedakah we give, we will probably never succeed in fulfilling the obligation to provide for all of the needs of the poor. Even if we feed the hungry this week, we have not solved the problem of hunger.
Rabbi David ben R. Yosef Aboudraham, a fourteenth-century Spanish liturgical scholar, offers one additional reason for not saying blessings before giving tzedakah. The poor person, he writes, has the option to accept or to reject the gift. Reciting a blessing indicates an assumption that the action will be completed. Since the recipient may reject the offered assistance, a person who gives tzedakah can never be sure that he or she will, in fact, complete the deed. This explanation acknowledges the agency of the poor in the practice of tzedakah….