Is Judaism God-Optional? ג - Rabbinic

(2) On comets, and on earthquakes, and on lightning and on thunder, and on storms say, “Blessed [be Adonai] whose strength and might fill the world.” On mountains, and on hills, and on seas, and on rivers, and on deserts say, “Blessed [is Adonai] who makes the works of the beginning.” R’ Yehuda says, “One who sees the great sea says, ‘Blessed [is Adonai] who made the great sea,’ only if they see it occasionally.” On rain and on good news say, “Blessed is Adonai who is good and does good.” And on bad news say, “Blessed [are You] the true judge.”

(5) A person is obligated to bless upon the bad just as they blesses upon the good. As it says, “And you shall love the Lord your God, with all your heart and all your soul and with all that you have.” (Deut. 6:5) “With all your heart” – with your two inclinations, with the inclination of good and the inclination of evil.

(6) Take to heart these instructions with which I charge you this day.

Along the same lines, Rabbi Yoḥanan said in the name of Rabbi Yosei: From where is it derived that the Holy One, Blessed be God, prays? As it is stated: “I will bring them to My holy mountain, and make them joyful in the house of My prayer” (Isaiah 56:7). The verse does not say the house of their prayer, but rather, “the house of My prayer”; from here we see that the Holy One, Blessed be God, prays. The Gemara asks: What does God pray? To whom does God pray? Rav Zutra bar Tovia said that Rav said: God says: May it be My will that My mercy will overcome My anger towards Israel for their transgressions, and may My mercy prevail over My other attributes through which Israel is punished, and may I conduct myself toward My children, Israel, with the attribute of mercy, and may I enter before them beyond the letter of the law. Similarly, it was taught in a baraita that Rabbi Yishmael ben Elisha, the High Priest, said: Once, on Yom Kippur, I entered the innermost sanctum, the Holy of Holies, to offer incense, and in a vision I saw Akatriel Ya, the Lord of Hosts, one of the names of God expressing His ultimate authority, seated upon a high and exalted throne (see Isaiah 6). And He said to me: Yishmael, My son, bless Me.
I said to Him the prayer that God prays: “May it be Your will that Your mercy overcome Your anger, and may Your mercy prevail over Your other attributes, and may You act toward Your children with the attribute of mercy, and may You enter before them beyond the letter of the law.” The Holy One, Blessed be He, nodded His head and accepted the blessing. This event teaches us that you should not take the blessing of an ordinary person lightly. If God asked for and accepted a man’s blessing, all the more so that a man must value the blessing of another man.

“Rav Yehudah said in the name of Rav: At the time when Moses ascended to heaven, he found the Holy One, Blessed be He sitting and making crowns for the letters [of the Torah]. He said to Him, “Master of the Universe, what is delaying You?” He said to him, “At the end of many generations there will be a particular man named Akiva ben Yosef, who will explicate from each stroke (of the letters) mounds upon mounds of laws.” He said before Him, “Master of the Universe, show him to me!” He said to him, “Turn around.” He [Moses] turned around. He went and sat at the back of 18 rows [in Rabbi Akiva’s lecture] and did not know what they were saying…He came back before the Holy One, Blessed be He, and said before Him, “Master of the Universe, You have a person such as this, and you give Torah by my hand?” He said to him, “Be silent – such is My plan.” He said before Him, “Master of the Universe, You have shown me his Torah, show me his reward!” He said, “Turn around.” He turned around; he saw that they [the Romans] were weighing out his flesh in scales. He said before Him, “Master of the Universe, this is Torah, and this is its reward?!” He said to him, “Be silent – such is My plan.”

We learned in the mishna: One recites a blessing for the bad that befalls him just as he does for the good. This is to say that one recites the blessing appropriate for the present situation even if it is bad, despite the fact that it may develop into a positive situation in the future. The Gemara asks: What are the circumstances? The Gemara explains: In a case where a dam was breached and water flowed onto one’s land, despite the fact that this will ultimately be beneficial for him, for his land will be covered with sediment from the flowing water which will enhance the quality of his soil, it is nonetheless bad at present. One must recite a blessing for the good that befalls him just as for the bad. The Gemara asks: What are the circumstances? The Gemara explains: In a case where one found a lost object, despite the fact that it is ultimately bad for him because if the king heard about it, he would certainly take it from him. At that time, the law deemed all found objects the property of the king’s treasury and one who did not report such an object would be punished. Nevertheless, it is favorable at present. We learned in the mishna: One whose wife was pregnant and he said: May it be God’s will that my wife will give birth to a male child, it is a vain prayer.

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