Rebbetzin Leah Gans
part two
The Purpose of a Blessing
What is the purpose of reciting a blessing? To proclaim and reveal the Glory of the Almighty. What do we mean by this? That all vegetables, fruits, wine and bread, thunder and lightning, pleasantly scented plants, and so on—none of these exist by chance. All of them were created according to His will by the Almighty, blessed be He. And He did not simply create the world once and leave it “to its own devices.” He continually creates the world anew.
Many blessings use the present tense: “Who creates the universe,” “Who creates many living beings,” “Who creates the fruit of the earth”… As we recite a blessing, we understand that the world is being created right now; this fruit is not merely the result of a natural process, but was accompanied by a miracle at every stage of its ripening.
Which Is the Cause, and Which Is the Effect?
The purpose of this fruit is not merely to satisfy our hunger. Its true purpose is to serve in establishing the Almighty’s kingship. By reciting a blessing, we help this fruit and ourselves fulfill the purpose for which we were created. We were created to sanctify the Name of Heaven, and this fruit was created so that the Name of Heaven would be sanctified through it. The fruit had the status of kodesh, and when we recite a blessing, it becomes permitted for us to eat.
Anyone who thinks that the entire purpose of a blessing is simply to make it permissible to eat and enjoy the other good things of this world is not entirely right. Human logic goes like this: “I am hungry, but I cannot eat without permission—I will ask (recite a blessing), and then I will be able to eat.” But to understand the true meaning of blessings, we must reverse cause and effect.
The Almighty created hunger within us so that we would recite a blessing. A brachah is something so sublime; it is the meaning of our lives.
After all, the Almighty created us so that we would bless His name. So it would be right to think the other way around: my task is to recite a blessing, and for that purpose I feel hunger and thirst; I have a sense of smell that helps me detect pleasant scents, hearing so that I can hear thunder, and sight so that I can see lightning, the sun…
to be continued
Prepared by Mrs. Zissi Skarzhinskaya