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A Blessing, a Knee and a Pool of Water
What is a blessing? Who is worthy of one, and who can give blessings? In our Torah portion this week, Vayechi, Jacob gathers his and Joseph’s sons to his deathbed and gives them each a personalized final blessing. Some, like the blessing given to Ephraim and Menasheh, are so beautiful that they have been said (or sung) by parents to their children as part of the bedtime Sh’ma. Most of them, however, do not sound like any blessing you might imagine.
For example, how would you like your father to bless you with these words: “Dan shall be a serpent by the road, a viper by the path, that bites the horse’s heels so that his rider is thrown backward” (Genesis 49:17).His brother Naftali was compared to “a hind let loose which yields lovely fawns” (Genesis 49:21), and Benjamin, “is a ravenous wolf. In the morning he eats the enemy. In the evening he divides the spoil” (Genesis 49:27). Now call me old-fashioned, but those just do not sound like the kind of blessings I imagined my great ancestor giving his children, and if my parents came up with one of those at the Friday night table, I might wonder if they were hitting the Kiddush wine a little too hard.
So what is a blessing? The Hebrew word for blessing is
brachah
which comes from the same three-letter root as the word
berech
which is a knee. In biblical times, Jewish prayer was much more physical that it is today. Just look at Muslims getting down on their rugs. Even the Catholics get kneeling. Us, we do a little bend of the knees and polite tuck of the waist in the
Amidah
or
Aleinu
and make sure we don’t make too much of it! But our biblical ancestors weren’t shy to move. They bowed, got down on their knees, and even fully prostrated themselves to show humility or respect. So a
brachah
, a blessing, a bending of knees, needs to have something to do with showing humility or respect.
Another connected root of blessing is
breichah
, which means a pond of water. So many significant moments in Torah happen near a well or spring, a river or sea. Water is the source of our lives, which is why the Torah is often compared to water – without it we are separated from our Source. Water is sustenance, cleansing, cooling, powerful, musical and without it you would not survive. When you give a blessing you are connecting with your Source, the Source of all. You are honoring God for what She has made and continues to recreate, shape and form daily.
So, if we use these two closely-related words to shine some light on blessings, then a
brachah
has something to do with a humble show of respect and a connection to the Creator of all. If I were to choose the kind of blessing I would want to get from my parents, would I want one where they tell me how amazing I am, their wunderkind, who can do no wrong, or would it be one that humbly respected who I was and helped to connect me with God. Clearly the latter, although let’s be honest, a bit of praise does help things along.
Let’s get back to Jacob now. The blessings he gives his children are brutally honest, and one can only imagine how they took each one, as the text is silent on that. Clearly there was a great deal of thought and intention. Clearly each one was carefully crafted for the person it was given to and it clearly was not intended to flatter. The blessings are stark, but they are honest and would have left their recipient with a deep and stirring message of praise or rebuke.
One does not need to be a priest, holy person or patriarch in order to give a
brachah
. All you need is a willing recipient and the courage to be honest. Try it this Shabbat, and may yours be filled with blessing.
Click
here
to contact Rabbi Greg Alexander by email.
A Blessing, a Knee and a Pool of Water
What is a blessing? Who is worthy of one, and who can give blessings? In our Torah portion this week, Vayechi, Jacob gathers his and Joseph’s sons to his deathbed and gives them each a personalized final blessing. Some, like the blessing given to Ephraim and Menasheh, are so beautiful that they have been said (or sung) by parents to their children as part of the bedtime Sh’ma. Most of them, however, do not sound like any blessing you might imagine.
For example, how would you like your father to bless you with these words: “Dan shall be a serpent by the road, a viper by the path, that bites the horse’s heels so that his rider is thrown backward” (Genesis 49:17).His brother Naftali was compared to “a hind let loose which yields lovely fawns” (Genesis 49:21), and Benjamin, “is a ravenous wolf. In the morning he eats the enemy. In the evening he divides the spoil” (Genesis 49:27). Now call me old-fashioned, but those just do not sound like the kind of blessings I imagined my great ancestor giving his children, and if my parents came up with one of those at the Friday night table, I might wonder if they were hitting the Kiddush wine a little too hard.
So what is a blessing? The Hebrew word for blessing is
brachah
which comes from the same three-letter root as the word
berech
which is a knee. In biblical times, Jewish prayer was much more physical that it is today. Just look at Muslims getting down on their rugs. Even the Catholics get kneeling. Us, we do a little bend of the knees and polite tuck of the waist in the
Amidah
or
Aleinu
and make sure we don’t make too much of it! But our biblical ancestors weren’t shy to move. They bowed, got down on their knees, and even fully prostrated themselves to show humility or respect. So a
brachah
, a blessing, a bending of knees, needs to have something to do with showing humility or respect.
Another connected root of blessing is
breichah
, which means a pond of water. So many significant moments in Torah happen near a well or spring, a river or sea. Water is the source of our lives, which is why the Torah is often compared to water – without it we are separated from our Source. Water is sustenance, cleansing, cooling, powerful, musical and without it you would not survive. When you give a blessing you are connecting with your Source, the Source of all. You are honoring God for what She has made and continues to recreate, shape and form daily.
So, if we use these two closely-related words to shine some light on blessings, then a
brachah
has something to do with a humble show of respect and a connection to the Creator of all. If I were to choose the kind of blessing I would want to get from my parents, would I want one where they tell me how amazing I am, their wunderkind, who can do no wrong, or would it be one that humbly respected who I was and helped to connect me with God. Clearly the latter, although let’s be honest, a bit of praise does help things along.
Let’s get back to Jacob now. The blessings he gives his children are brutally honest, and one can only imagine how they took each one, as the text is silent on that. Clearly there was a great deal of thought and intention. Clearly each one was carefully crafted for the person it was given to and it clearly was not intended to flatter. The blessings are stark, but they are honest and would have left their recipient with a deep and stirring message of praise or rebuke.
One does not need to be a priest, holy person or patriarch in order to give a
brachah
. All you need is a willing recipient and the courage to be honest. Try it this Shabbat, and may yours be filled with blessing.
Click
here
to contact Rabbi Greg Alexander by email.