Skip to main content

Thought for the Day: Tagging On To David haMelech's Bracha

Halichos Shlomo brings an interesting counsel to help one who is in a quandary about whether or not he needs to make a bracha.  That is to "tag on" to the bracha of Dovid haMelech recorded in Divrei haYamim and also recited in shacharis each morning:
Vayomer Dovid, "Baruch atah HaShem, Elokei Yisrael, Avinu mei'olam v'ad olam."  -- "Blessed/Praised are You, HaShem, G-d of Israel, Our Father from [this] world to the [coming] world."
That is, suppose you can't remember if you made a bracha on that yummy cake you are eating.  The eitza would be to say over that quote and then add one, "u'borei minei m'zonos."  That is, you are saying a pasuk (which you are always allowed to do) but with kavana also for the intent that Dovid has when he said it (a bracha), and then adding on additional praise, thus fulfilling your obligation to not benefit from this world without making a bracha.  Halichos Shlomo made several caveats -- which you should certainly know before actually trying this at home (as well as confirming with your local Orthodox Jewish rabbi) -- but two in particular stood out.

First, this advice should only be taken when there is a real safek about whether or not a bracha is required.  Meaning to say not in a case where the poskim have decided that no bracha is to be made because of "safeik brachos l'hakeil".  For example, taking lulav and esrog for the first time bein hashmashos.  Bein hashmashos is safeik yom safeik laila; therefore the p'sak is that one should take (ie, wave) the lulav and esrog (safeik d'oraisa l'chumra), but not make a bracha (safeik brachos l'hakeil).  The cake example above is not a situation where the poskim have bandied about that situation and come to a conclusion.  It is rather a case where one is simply stuck.  The reason we don't want to use this advice willy nilly is not to denigrate the concept of making a bracha.  Making a bracha is engaging the Creator of the world in a one on one conversation about how much you appreciate how much He does for you.  If you get in the habit if just saying a pasuk and adding some words before you eat, you have relegated the bracha to an incantation.  Not cool.

The other point seems small, but is really huge.  To be a bracha, the statement must include both HaShem's name (which this pasuk does) and malchus (which is ... ummm...).  Says Halichos Shlomo, malchus is there: Avinu -- our Father.  From here we see that a melech is not a ruler who has the approval of the nation.  A melech is a father who is running things for the benefit of his children.

We often note in halacha, "b'rov am hadras melech".  We need to constantly remind ourselves, "banim atem la'Shem."
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Thought for the Day: Pizza, Uncrustables, and Stuff -- What Bracha?

Many years ago (in fact, more than two decades ago), I called R' Fuerst from my desk at work as I sat down to lunch.  I had a piece of (quite delicious) homemade pizza for lunch.  I nearly always eat at my desk as I am working (or writing TftD...), so my lunch at work cannot in any way be considered as sitting down to a formal meal; aka קביעת סעודה.  That being the case, I wasn't sure whether to wash, say ha'motzi, and bentch; or was the pizza downgraded to a m'zonos.  He told if it was a snack, then it's m'zonos; if a meal the ha'motzi.  Which what I have always done since then.  I recently found out how/why that works. The Shulchan Aruch, 168:17 discusses פשטיד''א, which is describes as a baked dough with meat or fish or cheese.  In other words: pizza.  Note: while the dough doesn't not need to be baked together with the meat/fish/cheese, it is  required that they dough was baked with the intention of making this concoction.  That is, even th
Post a Comment
Read more

Thought for the Day: What Category of Muktzeh are Our Candles?

As discussed in a recent TftD , a p'sak halacha quite surprising to many, that one may -- even לכתחילה -- decorate a birthday cake with (unlit, obviously) birthday candles on Shabbos. That p'sak is predicated on another p'sak halacha; namely, that our candles are muktzeh because they are a כלי שמלאכתו לאיסור and not  מוקצה מחמת גופו/intrinsically set aside from any use on Shabbos. They point there was that using the candle as a decoration qualifies as a need that allows one to utilize a כלי שמלאכתו לאיסור. Today we will discuss the issue of concluding that our candles are , in fact, a כלי שמלאכתו לאיסור and not מוקצה מחמת גופו. Along the way we'll also (again) how important it is to have personal relationship with your rav/posek, the importance of precision in vocabulary, and how to interpret the Mishna Brura.  Buckle up. After reviewing siman 308 and the Mishna Brura there, I concluded that it should be permissible to use birthday candles to decorate a cake on Shabbo
Post a Comment
Read more

Thought for the Day: אוושא מילתא Debases Yours Shabbos

My granddaughter came home with a list the girls and phone numbers in her first grade class.  It was cute because they had made it an arts and crafts project by pasting the list to piece of construction paper cut out to look like an old desk phone and a receiver attached by a pipe cleaner.  I realized, though, that the cuteness was entirely lost on her.  She, of course, has never seen a desk phone with a receiver.  When they pretend to talk on the phone, it is on any relatively flat, rectangular object they find.  (In fact, her 18 month old brother turns every  relatively flat, rectangular object into a phone and walks around babbling into it.  Not much different than the rest of us, except his train of thought is not interrupted by someone else babbling into his ear.) I was reminded of that when my chavrusa (who has children my grandchildrens age) and I were learning about אוושא מילתא.  It came up because of a quote from the Shulchan Aruch HaRav that referred to the noise of תקתוק
Post a Comment
Read more