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Thought for the Day: What a Bracha Does for Us and Why We Need a Hundred Per Day

Even before I was religious, I knew very well there was such a thing as blessings. Anyone who has seen any Hallmark special about a holiday (or even not) has certainly heard of "saying grace" before eating. All that is true, yet we Torah Jews need a biblical and/or rabbinic source for anything we do. It isn't surprising, therefore, that our Chazal explored that topic. There is a famous drash (Brachos 35a):

R' Yehuda says in the name of Shmuel that anyone who benefits from this world without making a bracha is as if he has <illegally> benefited from consecrated property. R' Levi noted (and resolved an apparent contradiction) between two verses. One verse says that the earth and all that is in it belongs to HaShem. The other says that the heavens are the heavens of HaShem, but the earth He gave to people. The resolution is: One is before making a bracha, the other is afterward.

I -- and the few people with whom I have checked who had actually tried to process this statement of Chazal -- simply understood that somehow making a bracha transfers the property from HaShem to us. Like a fee. Make a bracha, get a candy. (Ok, I am oversimplifying, but not by much, actually.) The sefer וזאת הברכה thought, asks on this Chazal -- who says that the verse that HaShem owns the land and all that is in it is before the bracha?

Interesting... As we were learning וזאת הברכה this morning, the question hit home. I also noticed that while both verses mention the land, only one mentions what it produces.... and that belongs to HaShem. The author of וזאת הברכה gives a genius -- IMHO -- answer and turns the whole drash in a new direction. You know what the bracha does? It doesn't transfer the ownership of the property that always has and always will belong to HaShem. No, when I make a bracha, I acknowledge that I -- me, myself, and I belong to HaShem. Once I am a servant of the Almighty, of course I can eat from His property, as the Master always supports His servant.

There was no footnote nor reference, so it seems to be his own -- again, IMHO -- beautiful understanding.

This also gives a new appreciation of why we need to say 100 brachos a day. The land was given to man. Given for what? To give us the choice to acknowledge our Creator and King and Benefactor -- our Father in Heaven -- of our own free will. Each and every bracha is a new opportunity to internalize that reality that we are the servants of the Holy One, Blessed Be He.

Let's eat!

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