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What is a Bracha?
By Rabbi Pesach Wolicki

This week's parsha contains the commandment to recite Grace after Meals. "You will eat, you will be satisfied, and you will bless Hashem, your G-d, for the good land that He has given you." (Deut. 8:10)

Grace after meals, bentching, is one of very few prayers that are biblically mandated. Almost all of Jewish liturgy is rabbinic not biblical. This verse commands us to bless G-d after we eat.

What does it mean to bless G-d? To say that someone is blessed usually means that the person in question has had something good bestowed upon them. Examples that come to mind are someone who is "blessed" with wealth or with a particular talent. Are we to understand that when we bless G-d we are bestowing something upon Him? The implication that there is some good that we could give G-d makes no sense. That G-d is complete and perfect is essential to His definition. To say that we could bestow anything upon Him implies that there is some way in which He could be improved. Furthermore, as G-d's creations, we cannot possibly possess anything to give G-d that does not come from Him to begin with. Obviously, when we talk about 'blessing' G-d we mean something other than the conventional use of the term.
 

Is it "Thank You"?

One might suggest that what we "give" to G-d when we bless is our thanks and appreciation. I mentioned that Grace after Meals is biblically mandated by the verse quoted above. The obligation to recite a blessing before eating food is derived from the obligation to bless after eating.

"The rabbis taught: What is the Torah source for Grace after Meals? [The Torah] states 'You will eat, you will be satisfied, and you will bless Hashem, your G-d, for the good land that He has given you. (Deut. 8:10)' ... This teaches us only [that we must bless] after food. From where do we know [that we must bless] before it? It is logical (lit. "kal vachomer"). If one must bless when one is satisfied [i.e. after eating], then when one is hungry how much more so [must he bless]?" (T.B. Berachot 48b)

The Gemara explains that it makes more sense to bless G-d when one is hungry than when one is satisfied. Therefore, if the Torah requires a blessing after food, it is only logical that a blessing is required before food as well. It seems from this Talmudic passage that a blessing's primary purpose is not the expression of thanks. If it were, the Talmud's logic would not make sense. Why would it make more sense to thank G-d when hungry than when satisfied?

Actualizing the Potential of Creation

Rashi's comment in the Talmud is as follows: "When he is hungry and he is about to alleviate his hunger with the creation of the Holy One Blessed is He, how much more so is he required to bless G-d even more." Obviously a hungry person who is about to eat intends to alleviate his hunger with "G-d's creation." What else could he possibly eat? What, if anything, is Rashi alluding to by this choice of words?

The Hebrew word for blessing is "bracha." The first time this word - or its verb root - appears in the Torah is on the fifth day of creation. "[G-d] blessed them [the fish] saying, 'Be fruitful and multiply and fill the water in the seas.'" (Gen. 1:22) G-d told the fish that there would be many of them. "Bracha" - blessing - implies abundance. G-d blessed the fish by saying, "May there be a lot of you." (see Rashi & Seforno on this verse) Blessing is the realization of potential for good. Two fish, or two people, may have the potential to reproduce. This is not a blessing. The blessing is the realization of this potential when a child is actually produced.

When we "bless" G-d we are not bestowing anything on G-d. We are attempting to draw out the hidden potential G-dliness in the world. When we say "Blessed are You, Hashem..." we are saying to G- d, "Let there be more of you in the revealed reality of this world."

Everything that G-d created can be used to reveal Him. Every one of G-d's creations contains latent G- dliness. This G-dliness exists in potential form. To reveal it is to bring it into perceptible reality. If I take an apple and eat it without recognizing the G-dliness within it - that it is one of G-d's creations - I have not revealed G-dliness. There is less G-d in the perceptible world. If, on the other hand, I recite a blessing and thus declare my recognition that this apple is an external manifestation of G-dliness, I have actualized the potential of this apple to be a vehicle for the revelation of G-d in the world. As a result, there is more G-d in the world.

When blessings are recited, there is more perception of G-d in the world. For this reason, there are blessings to be made on so many natural experiences. There is a blessing to say when one hears thunder, when one sees blossoms in the spring, when a Torah commandment is performed, and even after going to the bathroom. Every experience in life is an experience of an individual aspect of G-d's world. When we say blessings over one of life's experiences - however great or small - we actualize the latent G-dliness within that particular experience. We welcome God's presence into the world. In a revealed sense, there is more of Him. When we say "Blessed are You, Hashem" we are saying "Dear G- d, we want Your presence to be revealed in abundance."

There is a famous Chasidic anecdote that expresses this point. The students of Reb Mendel of Kotzk asked him, "Rebbe, where is G-d?" Reb Mendel replied, "Wherever you let Him in."

Shabbat Shalom!