Shalom! Rabbi Jonathan Ginsburg. This video is about thanking God. Judaism says that “we have to thank God for everything we benefit from in the world otherwise, it is stealing”. We have to thank God in Judaism does that through the formula of Rajah blessing. Every Jewish blessing begins in the same way Barukh ata Adonai Eloheinu melekh ha olam. Barukh is blessed, ata is you, Adonai is one of the main names of God, Eloheinu our God, melekh is King, ha olam of the universe.
Now if were just going to thank God for something were going to enjoy like a piece of food, that is the formula and then we just thank out for what we are thanking God for, for example; when we are eating a meal with bread, we say Barukh ata Adonai Eloheinu melekh ha olam, ha motzi who brings forth. lehem bread, min from, ha aretz the land or for when we are going to drink wine or have grape juice or a grapes. Barukh ata Adonai Eloheinu melekh ha olam, bo're p'ri ha-etz or ha gafen for grapes and wine bo're p'ri ha etz for a food of the tree, bo're p'ri ha adama for food of the ground like a potato. It is always the same formula. Now, Bori is the creator, and p’ri is the fruit of and then you are saying Ha-gafen is the wine, Ha-etz is the tree, ha-adama is the ground.
Now, if it is a commandment we are doing and we are thanking God for that commandment, we have to add another phrase. After we say Barukh ata Adonai Eloheinu melekh ha olam. We add the words that are always the same formula; asher kid'shanu sanctifies us b'mitzvotav in the commandments. v'tzivanu in commanded us to do something. So, that formula would be barukh atah Adonai E1oheinu, melekh ha'olam, asher kid'shanu b'mitzvotav v'tzivanu. So, what do you thanking at, commanding us to do. Let us say it is lighting Shabbat candles. So, we you say l'hadlik to kindle, ner the candle shel Shabbat or for hanukah , it is l'hadlik ner shel hanukah or for a holiday it is l'hadlik ner shel Yom tov of the holiday. Except for Yom kippur , l'hadlik ner shel Yom kippur .
That is basically it. Now, there are other many other blessing for various phenomenon, if you see a rainbow which is thanking God sukhair lo for immuring of the covenant and other commandments and other blessings. We basically, the important thing is to learn the formula.
Now, certain Jews may be upset that I have used the main names of God here because they say “we should not use the name of God unless we are actually having a blessing”. And they would say this is a blessing in vain but for educational purpose is we believe it is okay to use the correct names of God. They might say to teach you Barukh ata sham Eloheinu melekh ha olam is kind of disguise God’s names but I think that for educational purpose, that is not a good idea.
Now, another important blessing is the she hechiyanu when we are thinking God for a special occasion. There are no real new rules in using it but the blessing is Barukh ata Adonai Eloheinu melekh ha olam. she hechiyanu who keep us alive, the v'kiy'manu which sustained us, the v'higi'anu in guide us la z'man ha ze to this occasion.
So, this is the way which we praise God and we also have a blessing before and after we eat, I told you some of the blessing before we eat. I do a separate video in singing the full blessing after we eat because it is lengthy but the basic idea that comes from my first in Deuteronomo which says the ahalta when you readth the sabbath and our satisfied with barakah and you should blessed the lord for the good food you liven in the land. That is the basis of the blessing Birkat Hamazon, a blessing of grace after meals. But the important concept here is to thank God and to bless God. In fact the many Jews when you ask them how they will say Barukh sham thank God because what we have, what we all the greatest gratitude we have is to great praise God and God does not need our praise but we need to praise God. To thank God the blessing of our life with the concept of Barukh
Now, in the daily services, there are many times we say berakhah and everytime we say that, you know there is a blessing. In fact except for the Sabbath during our daily prayer there is 19 several blessing just on a daily prayer what we ask God the various things that we thank God. Blessing berakhah Thank you God.
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