rel="nofollow" href="#fb3_img_img_3b407f58-94fe-541e-810a-811a1053c035.png" alt=""/> Blessed are You: These blessings, itemised in the Talmud (Berachot 60b), were originally said at home to accompany the various stages of waking and rising. “Who gives sight to the blind” was said on opening one’s eyes, “Who clothes the naked” on putting on clothes, and so on. Several medieval authorities, however, held that they should be said in the synagogue.
Their purpose is to make us conscious of what we might otherwise take for granted. Praise is an act of focused attention, foregrounding what is usually in the background of awareness. “The world is full of the light of GOD, but to see it we must learn to open our eyes” (Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav).
Who gives the heart: This is the translation according to Rabbi Asher; Rashi and Abudraham read it, “the cockerel” According to Rabbi Asher’s reading, the first blessing mirrors the first request of the Amidah, for human understanding, as well as the first act of creation in which GOD created light, separating it from darkness.
Who has not made me a heathen, a slave, a woman: These three blessings are mentioned in the Talmud (Menachot 43b). They have nothing to do with hierarchies of dignity, for we believe that every human being is equally formed in the image of God. Rather, they are acknowledgments of the special responsibilities of Jewish life. Heathens, slaves and women are exempt from certain commandments which apply to Jewish men. In these blessings, we express our faith that the commandments are not a burden but a cherished vocation.
Who has made me according to His will: Women embrace their vocation positively, unlike the negative formula (“who has not made me”) used by men. Women (“the mother of all life", Genesis 3:20) are able to experience the Divine more closely than men by bringing new life into the world, the most profound of all creative acts. Whereas men thank GOD for the ability to act in accordance with God’s will, women thank GOD existentially: “who has made me according to His will”.
Who removes sleep from my eyes: Having thanked GOD for the blessings with which we are surrounded, we conclude by asking for His help in dedicating our lives to His service, undeterred by obstacles that may stand in our way. The prayer ends with thanksgiving for God’s kindness, reminding us of the verse from Psalms (92:3): “To proclaim Your lovingkindness in the morning and Your faithfulness at night.”
May it be Your will: A meditation composed by Rabbi Judah the Prince (late second-early third century), redactor of the Mishnah and leader of the Jewish community in Israel. We are social beings, influenced by our environment (Maimonides), therefore we pray to be protected from harmful people, events and temptations. The prayer reflects the “social fabric of faith” (Lord Jakobovits).
A person should always: This whole section until “Who sanctifies Your name among the multitudes” appears in the tenth-century Midrash, Tanna DeVei Eliyyahu (ch. 21). Some believe that it dates from a period of persecution under the Persian ruler Yazdegerd II who, in 456 ce, forbade the observance of Shabbat and the reading of the Torah. Jews continued to practise their faith in secret, saying prayers at times and in ways that would not be detected by their persecutors. This explains the reference to fearing GOD “privately” and “speaking truth in the heart” (that is, the secret practice of Judaism) and the recitation here of the first lines of the Shema, which could not be said at the normal time. The final blessing, “Who sanctifies Your name among the multitudes”, refers to the martyrdom of those who went to their deaths rather than renounce their faith. Martyrdom is called Kiddush HaShem,“sanctifying [God’s] name.”
Master of all worlds: This passage also appears in the Ne’ilah prayer on Yom Kippur. It expresses the paradox of the human condition in the presence of God. We know how small we are and how brief our lives. Fleeting breath – the Hebrew word hevel – the key word of the opening chapters of Ecclesiastes, from which this line is taken – has been translated as “vain, meaningless, empty, futile”. However, it literally means “a short breath". It conveys a sense of the brevity and insubstantiality of life as a physical phenomenon. All that lives soon dies, and is as if it had never been. Yet – You created us, made us, chose us. We are infinitesimally small, yet brushed by the wings of Infinity. We are dust; yet we are Your people, children of Your covenant, descendants of those You singled out to be witnesses to the world of Your existence and majesty.
It was You who existed: This prayer, with its emphasis on the changelessness of GOD, may have been incorporated at a time of persecution, expressing the refusal of Jews to abandon their faith. GOD does not alter or revoke His covenant, therefore we may not renounce our religion or identity: “I, GOD, do not change; so you, children of Jacob, are not destroyed” (Malachi 3:6).
You are the LORD our GOD: This second prayer, for the end of exile, culminates with the verse from Zephaniah (3:20) which speaks of the ingathering of Jews and of a time when “I will give you renown and praise among all the peoples on earth” This entire sequence of prayers is eloquent testimony to how Jews sustained faith and hope, dignity and pride, during some of the most prolonged periods of persecution in history.
OFFERINGS
There now follows a second cycle of study, with the same structure as the first, with passages from: 1. the Torah; 2. the Mishnah; and 3. the Talmud (see below). The passages from the Torah relate to the daily, weekly and monthly sacrifices because, in the absence of the Temple, the
Sages held that study of the laws about sacrifice was a substitute for sacrifice itself (Ta’anit 27b). The passage from the Mishnah (Zevachim 5) is also about sacrifices, Mishnah; and 3. the Talmud (see below). The passages from the Torah relate to the daily, weekly and monthly sacrifices because, in the absence of the Temple, the Sages held that study of the laws about sacrifice was a substitute for sacrifice itself (Ta’anit 27b). The passage from the Mishnah (Zevachim 5) is also about sacrifices, and was chosen because it does not contain any disagreement between the Sages, and thus accords with the rule that one should pray “after a decided halachah”, that is, an item of Jewish law about which there is no debate. Some congregations include additional passages; our custom is to follow the text as it exists in the earliest Siddurim, those of Rabbi Amram Gaon and Rabbi Saadiah Gaon.
THE INTERPRETIVE PRINCIPLES OF RABBI ISHMAEL
This passage is included as an item of Talmud, defined in its broadest sense as “deducing conclusions from premises, developing implications of statements, comparing dicta, and studying the hermeneutical principles by which the Torah is interpreted” (Maimonides, Laws of Torah Study 1:11). It was chosen because it appears at the beginning of the Sifra, the halachic commentary to Leviticus, which is the source of most of the laws of offerings. It also reminds us of the indissoluble connection between the Written Law (the Mosaic books) and the Oral Law (Mishnah, Midrash and Talmud). Rabbi Ishmael’s principles show how the latter can be derived from the former.
LAWS OF KADDISH
1. Kaddish requires the presence of a minyan, that is, ten adult males.
rel="nofollow" href="#fb3_img_img_3b407f58-94fe-541e-810a-811a1053c035.png" alt=""/> Blessed are You: These blessings, itemised in the Talmud (Berachot 60b), were originally said at home to accompany the various stages of waking and rising. “Who gives sight to the blind” was said on opening one’s eyes, “Who clothes the naked” on putting on clothes, and so on. Several medieval authorities, however, held that they should be said in the synagogue.
