~ Note that all the "yous" here are in the singular, speaking to the individual.
~ What are the functions of manna, in this retelling?
~ What are the opportunities offered by manna, in terms of spiritual practice?
(5) And you will know with your heart that the LORD your God disciplines you just as a man disciplines his son. (6) Therefore keep the commandments of the LORD your God: walk in His ways and revere Him. (7) For the LORD your God is bringing you into a good land, a land with streams and springs and fountains issuing from plain and hill; (8) a land of wheat and barley, of vines, figs, and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey; (9) a land where you may eat food without stint, where you will lack nothing; a land whose rocks are iron and from whose hills you can mine copper. (10) When you have eaten your fill, give thanks to the LORD your God for the good land which He has given you.
~ How does keeping the mitzvot and revering God are connected?
~ What is the greatest fear expressed in this passage?
~How/why do we forget?
~ How does one remember that "God gives you power to get wealth"?
~ How often do you think people need to be reminded of this? Why?
תניא היה ר' מאיר אומר: חייב אדם לברך מאה ברכות בכל יום שנאמר (דברים י:יב) ועתה ישראל מה ה' אלקיך שואל מעמך
It was taught in a baraita, Rabbi Meir used to say: A Person must bless one hundered blessings every day, as it says (Deuteronomy 10:12): "Now Israel what (mah) does God as of you" - don't read "mah" rather "meah".
רבי לוי רמי כתיב: "לה‘ הארץ ומלואה" וכתיב "השמים שמים לה‘ והארץ נתן לבני אדם." לא קשיא! כאן קודם ברכה כאן לאחר ברכה...
אמר רבי חנינא בר פפא כל הנהנה מן העולם הזה בלא ברכה כאילו גוזל להקב“ה...
Rabbi Levi contrasted two verses. One states,“The world and all that is contained within it belongs to God.” Another verse says, “The heavens belong to God, but the earth He gave to man.” He resolved the contradiction by stating that one verse refers to the status of the world before reciting a Bracha and the other to after its recitation.
Said Rabbi Chanina Bar Pappa: When someone derives enjoyment from this world without a Bracha, it is tantamount to stealing from God…
~ Why not saying a bracha is like stealing?
~ What do we remember when we say a bracha?
When the soul is ready to descend to this world, the Holy One of Blessing makes it swear to perform the precepts of Torah and do God's bidding. And God gives each soul one hundred keys of blessings for each and every day, so that it may complete the supernal grades, which reach the numerical value of Lech Lecha (lit. 'Get you out') (equaling 100).
All of them are given to it so that it may cultivate the Garden, to till it and to keep it. "Your country" is the Garden of Eden. The verse, "and from your kindred" (means) from the body, that is called 'the Tree of Life'.
And it includes the twelve supernal tribes, which are the secret of the twelve borders.
The verse "and from your father's house" refers to the Shechinah. "Your father" means the Holy One, blessed be He. As it is written, "One who steals from one's father or one's mother, and says it is no transgression..." (Mishlei 28:24). "One's father" is none other than the Holy One of Blessing and "one's mother" is none other than the Congregation of Israel. The words, "to the land that I will show you," refer to this world, to which the soul is sent. (End of Sitrei Torah).
~ How does practicing saying 100 blessings makes you similar to whom?
~ How are we related to the Holy One and to the People of Israel?
The author, Rabbi Horowitz, mentions a book called Shaarei Orah from which he quotes the following passage about the relationship of the sockets in the Tabernacle to the source of heavenly blessings and the need to pronounce one hundred benedictions daily, as well as the negative fallout when one fails to do so. This is what he writes: "These one hundred sockets of the beams in the Tabernacle are symbolic of the one hundred blessings which they are filled with from the great בריכה, reservoir [here undoubtedly a double entendre connected with source of ברכה, blessing, Ed]. This בריכה /reservoir is called א-ד-נ-י [i.e. the attribute called א-ד-נ-י is that source Ed.]. Hence a person must utter one hundred benedictions daily in order to attract to himself all these one hundred different blessings. Should but a single one of these blessings be missing this would result in him injuring himself and becoming blemished. In the mystical dimension this is connected 1-10-100 / 2-20-200 and it is the relationship between kohen-levi-israel, which is also the relationship between nefesh, ruach and neshamah.
~ How is saying a bracha similar to jumping into a pool or a reservoir?
When we appreciate this relationship, we understand that when David said in Psalms 104:1: ברכי נפשי את ה', "Bless Ad-nai, O my soul (nefesh)," he indicated that bracha is connected to nefesh. This nefesh needs to pronounce one hundred benedictions, which correspond to the level of Israel. Of these hundred, ten i.e. ma'aser, penetrate up to the level of ruach, which corresponds to the levels of the Levites. Of these remaining ten per cent, one, i.e. 1% of the original total penetrates to the level of neshamah, corresponding to the level kohen. As a result, if the ordinary soul, nefesh, does not pronounce the one hundred daily benedictions every day, then the higher soul neshamah, will not benefit from even a single blessing, seeing that the next lower level, ruach, did not receive its share of blessings which it should have received as a result of the Israelites pronouncing the one hundred blessings. The Priests and Levites are viewed as recipients of blessings bestowed by the Israelites. This is the deeper meaning of the whole legislation of the respective tithes for the Priests and Levites. Israel and the Levites respectively fulfilling their obligations will trigger God's blessings to filter down to the nation from Heaven. The meaning of 1-10-100/2-20-200 is now clear. When there is no 100, there cannot be a 10; when there is no 10, there cannot be an 1. The one hundred blessings are like the one hundred silver sockets in the Tabernacle which serve as receptacles for God's bounty. Thus far says the Shaarey Orah.
הברכה הנאמרת קודם האכילה מבטאת את קבלת ההתחייבות שתוספת הכח שנזכה בה ע“י האכילה תנוצל לעבודת ה‘, ורק בזכות התחייבות זה נהיה ראויים לאכילה.
R' Samson Raphael Hirsch, Deut. 8:10
A Bracha said before partaking of any pleasure expresses the resolution that we will employ any renewed vital energy gained from this pleasure, to serve God’s purposes. Only if we make this resolution will we become worthy of enjoying that pleasure.
~ How is a bracha similar to a resolution? What does it do to our awareness of living between each meal?
וממה שיוסיף לו עריבות על עריבות שיברך תמיד...ההזדמנות להנאה והרגשתה ושיחשוב בהעדרה קודם לכן כופל ההנאה. וזה מתועלת הברכה למי שהוא רגיל בהם בכונה והכנה... כמו שאתה אומר ”שהחיינו וקיימנו“ וכבר היית מזומן למות... ויקל בעיניך החולי והמות כאשר יבא מפני שכבר חשבת עם נפשך וראית... שאתה ראוי להעדר ממך כל טוב בטבעך...ותהיה נהנה כל ימיך.
Kuzari, 3:13,17
The constant practice of Brachot will add
sweetness to sweetness…Readiness for receiving pleasure, as well as imagining its absence, together result in doubled pleasure. This is one of the benefits for those who are accustomed to saying Brachot with thought and mental preparation… For example, the Bracha “Who has given us life and sustained us” automatically entertains the possibility of the absence of life…and therefore illness and death are easier to bear, because they have already been considered…and you will ultimately realize that by rights you deserve no goodness…and then you will enjoy all your days on earth.
~ What benefits does the Kuzari see in having the practice of saying a bracha?
(ו) וכל הברכות כולן נאמרין בכל לשון והוא שיאמר כעין שתקנו חכמים ואם שינה את המטבע הואיל והזכיר אזכרה ומלכות וענין הברכה אפילו בלשון חול יצא.
All the blessings may be recited in any language, provided one recites [a translation of] the text ordained by the Sages. [A person who] changes that text fulfills his obligation nonetheless - since he mentioned God's name, His sovereignty, and the subject of the blessing - although he did so in a ordinary language.
"Indifference to the sublime wonders of living is the root of sin"
Abraham Joshua Heschel, God in Search of Man: A Philosophy of Judaism, 43
"Our goal should be to live life in radical amazement… get up in the morning and look at the world in a way that takes nothing for granted. Everything is phenomenal; everything is incredible; never treat life casually. To be spiritual is to be amazed." --Abraham Joshua Heschel
איך ובמה רואים את ה‘ ממש? בהכרת טובתו ובהודאה. מנפלאות תקנות חז“ל להעמידנו תמיד על יד היצירה. אין כלל עולם מגובש ועתיק לפנינו. אלא יום יום,
שעה שעה, בריאה חדשה. כל אשר עינינו רואות וכל הנאה שאנו טועמים- בריאה חדשה אשר הושיט לנו הבורא מהאין כדי שנכיר חסדו עלינו וחכמתו... עולם
כזה המתחדש לפני עינינו יום יום אינו מעלה חלודת שיגרה.
Rabbi Shlomo Wolbe
Alei Shur Vol. I, p.112
How does one come to “see” G-d? Through recognizing G-d's goodness and giving praise for it. One of the wondrous achievements of the Sages was to ensure the continued awareness of the “Hand of Creation.” The world before us is neither fully developed nor completed. Rather, day by day, hour by hour, creation is renewed. All that our eyes see and every pleasure we taste is a new creation which G-d has created from nothingness to bestow upon us, so that we realize G-d's kindness and wisdom… A world like this, which is renewed before our eyes day in and day out, ensures that we do not become rusty [in our acknowledgement of G-d] due to monotony.
Rabbi Jill Jacobs, Blessings and Prayers on Social Justice
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….