Questions tagged [blessing]
Questions about short prayers called b'rachos ("benedictions" or "blessings"), generally said to praise/thank God for specific events.
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Difference between רבון and אדון
In the Beracha of Elohai, we refer to God using a number of different descriptives. Towards the end, we give thanks to God as:
רִבּוֹן כָּל הַמַּעֲשִׂים, אֲדוֹן כָּל הַנְּשָׁמוֹת.
What are some ...
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Why does Mishneh Torah have Shem uMalchut for Yishtabach?
I was looking into the Seder haTefillot as well as other siddurim based on it, and something always bothered me about Birkat Yishtabach, which as most of you know "closes" the Pesuqei deZimra section ...
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Why don't we make a bracha on the sense of hearing?
Why don't we make a bracha on the sense of hearing, like we make on seeing פוקח עורים ?
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How does timing work for shechiyanu on fruits?
For purposes of reciting shechiyanu, how do we determine if I am having a fruit for the first time "this season"? Do I need to have gone a whole year (or some other period of time) without ...
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Wasn't Yaakov afraid to create envy between Ephraim and Menashe?
When Yosef took his sons to receive a bracha from his father, Yaakov switched his hands to put his right hand over Ephraim, the youngest brother. When Yosef questioned him about that, Yaakov said that ...
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What blessing would one have said on seeing Einstein for example?
The Oruch Hashulchan O Ch 224, 6 says
הרואה חכם מחכמי ישראל שגדול בתורה מברך: "ברוך אתה ה' אלהינו מלך העולם
שחלק מחכמתו ליריאיו,
Someone who sees a Jewish Torah sage makes the blessing “ ...
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Source of wishing "Titchadesh" - תתחדש on new clothes
What is the source for wishing someone "תתחדש" for a new item of clothing?
See the Rema OC:224 who brings a minhag to wish someone that bought new clothes "תבלה ותחדש". Literal translation is "You ...
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Use of speaking "Baruch HaShem" in 1492 Spain
I am writing a play that takes place during the Spanish Inquisition. A Rabbi is walking home from the King's court and his belongings are tossed to the ground by hooligans. A young Spanish girl picks ...
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What is the ruling for a bracha's usage being extended across different food forms?
There's a tricky halacha with brachos that I couldn't figure out.
It goes something like this: If you make a bracha on one food item without having others in mind, if more of the food item remains in ...
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How are Birchos Krias Shema blessings on Krias Shema?
The Ramban (Brachos 11b) writes that Birkas Kriyas Shema are blessings over the Mitzva of saying Shema.
What's in the text of Birkas Kriyas Shema that has to do with Shema? It talks about angels, ...
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Should one make a bracha on seeing geological arches, hoodoos or balanced rocks?
I am considering visiting Arches National Park in Utah. This park has several "arch" rock formations and a few hoodoos and a balanced rock.
Shulchan Aruch O.C. 228:1 states that one should make a ...
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Blessing on Immersing Vessels to Purify Them
A Mikvah can be used to purify humans or certain vessels which have contracted ritual impurity (Rambam Mikvaot 1 (English)).
When humans use the Mikvah to purify themselves they recite a blessing (...
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Answering "amen" to "Ahavas olam" in the evening but not in the morning
Mishna B'rura (61:16) cites a difference of opinion regarding whether one should respond "amen" to the shatz's (leader's) blessing immediately before "Sh'ma" or should, on the contrary, finish saying ...
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Halachic status of ישמך אלקים כאפרים וכמנשה
Yaakov blessed Ephraim and Menashe by stating that future generations would bless their children by saying "ישמך אלקים כאפרים וכמנשה" - "God make you like Ephraim and Manasseh" (Gen. 48:20). Was this ...
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Why do we say הנותן ליעף כח with Hashem's Name?
The Rema rules in OC 225:2:
יש אומרים מי שנעשה בנו בר מצוה יברך בא"י אמ"ה שפטרני מעונשו של זה וטוב לברך בלא שם ומלכות
Some say that one whose son becomes a Bar Mitzvah should make a blessing ...
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Don't rely on rov for general blessings, but do for tevila
The Mishnah Berurah (215:20) brings from the Chayei Adam (Kelal 5) and Pri Megadim (Pesicha LeHilchos Berachos) that even if there's sfek sfeka (a double doubt) telling you to make a blessing, we don'...
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Kiddush levana – intensity of moonlight required in areas of light pollution
The answer to this question
came from Mishna Berura 426:3 which defines the light from the moon on which one can make the blessing as follows:
ג) ונהנין מאורה - דהיינו בעת שזריחתה ניכרת ע"ג קרקע. ...
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Who decides whether it's normal to eat something in a certain fashion?
The Shulchan Aruch in several places writes that if something is eaten in an abnormal fashion, it gets a Shehakol rather than its usual bracha.1
What defines whether something is a "normal" way of ...
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We need ten consolers; why not ten mourners?
The mishna, M'gila 23 amud 2 as described by Rashi, says we don't say the mourners' outdoor blessing without the presence of ten people, and the mourners themselves don't count toward the requisite ...
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What bracha should be made when smelling soap?
I'm assuming that when one showers / bathes and uses a bar of soap but isn't concentrating on the smell, he would not need to make a bracha. (There is a similar M.Y. question about needing to make a ...
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What does "give a blessing on the face of the earth" mean?
The ninth blessing of the weekday Amida as recited between Pesach and the rainy season contains, in some traditions, the phrase:
ותן ברכה על פני האדמה
and give a blessing on the face of the earth
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Excluding water from blessing after food
One common scenario is for someone to make a berakha on water at some point in the morning and to drink the water throughout the day. Suppose during the day, the person decides to have a snack whose ...
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Two brachos one mikvah
If I made a bracha and immersed two vessels, and then someone came over and asked me to immerse their vessel as well, since I did not have their vessel in mind, do I say a new bracha?
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Beracha achrona on yogurt?
Do you make a boreh nefashot on yogurt according to sepharadim? Is it treated like a liquid, like ice cream, or as a solid? This is in relations to the time needed to eat it. If it's liquid, you ...
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Havdalah: mistake in the bracha
If a person saying havdalah began the last bracha (benediction) without mentioning sheim umalchus (God's name and dominion) i.e. he said ברוך אתה השם המבדיל בין קודש לחול וכו׳, skipping אלוקינו מלך ...
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Why Doesn't Rasag Mention Olives In The Five Fruits From Eretz Yisrael?
In his siddur, Rav Sa`adya haGaon (Rasa"g) mentions only four of the five species of peroth ha-ilan which are special to Eress Yisrael, leaving out zethim ("olives"). He does so in two places. Further,...
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Can minhag hamakom allow you to make what is for you a bracha levatala
I have a question about a specific case but it relates to a broad subject so I'm making the question less narrow.
Pesachim 101a presents a minhag they used to have to make Kiddush in synagogue. Even ...
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A medicinal drink turning into a pleasure drink mid-guzzle
I am not, to my knowledge, thirsty, but I need to take a pill with water, so I do so without a beracha (see Shulchan Aruch OC 204:7). As I swallow the pill, I realise that I am enjoying the water, and ...
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Does it still count as a Bracha if one stuttered and repeated words?
What if someone has a stutter and they tend to repeat words when doing a Bracha. As long as they said all of the words, does it still count as a Bracha?
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Where are the sources for 2 different ends for Al Hamichya?
Sometimes the bracha of Al Hamichya ends with the words "v'al hakalkalah", like it is shown here.
Sometimes those two words are left out, like shown here.
What are the reasons for this ...
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What bracha for a mixture of apple and grape juice?
If one is drinking a mixture of apple and grape juice, what bracha does one recite -- shehakol or hagafen? If it matters, I am interested in all three of the following situations:
Mostly apple juice ...
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A woman saying Shehechyanu on Channukah
I have been reviewing some discussions of a married woman's obligation to light Channukah candles. It appears that according to some, a married woman, whose husband is lighting at home does not light. ...
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Why does Rav Pappa not adjoin the bracha conclusions with a vav by Megillah?
I count four times where Rav Pappa notes differing opinions on how to conclude a bracha and rules to say both of them. In three of these cases, he uses a conjunctive ו to connect them, but not the ...
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Can one say both Meshaneh Habriyot as well as Shekacha .. B'olamo for the same creature, sequentially?
ברוך...שככה לו בעולמו is said upon seeing beautiful trees or creatures (animals or people).
O.C. 228 says (translation copied from this question
for seeing a person with a dark, very red, or ...
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What's the difference between making a blessing in vain and wearing a four-cornered garment without tzitzit vis-a-vis checking the tzitzit in advance?
R. Joseph Karo (Shulchan Aruch O.C. 8:9) codifies the following law:
קודם שיברך יעיין בחוטי הציצית אם הם כשרים כדי שלא יברך לבטלה
Prior to making the blessing [on the tzitzit] he should look at the ...
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Blessing on orange juice after eating an orange
Say someone ate an orange and now wants to drink orange juice. The regular blessing on orange juice is sheakol (see e.g., here) although there is some opinion it might be haeitz if the oranges were ...
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Can one use a clove-studded etrog for havdallah?
I have seen a few people encrust their "used" etrog with cloves and smell this during the havdallah service. Is this permissible?
The reason I think this is a problem:
The bracha on smelling the ...
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Hypothetical Halacha -- Is "Leishayv Basukkah" an interruption of a brocha on Shmini Ateres (if said by mistake)?
This case happened to me over the past Shemini Atzeres, and even though it's over now, I was still curious about the halacha.
I was so used to saying Laysheiv Basukkah the entire Sukkos, so on the ...
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Text of final blessing following haftarah of Yom Kippur
In my (nusach ashkenaz) machzor for Yom Kippur, the final blessing after the haftarah of shacharit concludes:
ודברך אמת וקיים לעד. ברוך אתה ה' מלך מוחל וסולח לעוונותינו וכו'
And Your word ...
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Should one say a bracha when observing extraterrestrial lightning?
Follow up to my related question on whether one can make a bracha on lightning observed through a telescope.
Assuming that one can do this, should he make a bracha when observing lightning occurring ...
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May one say the bracha on seeing lightning, meteors, or comets if viewed through binoculars or a telescope?
O.C. 227:1 indicates saying בא"ה אמ"ה עושה מעשה בראשית on seeing זיקין (Mechaber describes this as a meteor; Mishnah Berurah surmises that this may be a comet.) The same blessing is suggested for ...
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Speaking 30 minutes after hamapil
A person is discouraged from speaking after reciting the blessing of "Hamapil" before bed (Magen Avraham 239 s.v. ומברך המפיל explaining why the SA says to say Hamapil after Kriyas Shema).
Someone ...
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Do brachot speak of time or place?
In the formulation of a bracha we use the words "melech ha'olam" which is translated as "king of the universe" (Koren and Artscroll). But "olam" is used through tanach as "forever" (or at least a long ...
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Shavuah Tov or A Gutte Vuch on Motzai Shabbos
What is the earliest reference or source for wishing Shavuah Tov or A Gutte Vuch on Motzai Shabbos?
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What's the definition of "not now" for priority-of-b'racha purposes?
Orach Chayim 211 is about what food to recite a blessing over (that is, and eat) first when one wishes to eat two foods. It's clear that (except according to the Rambam cited in 211:2) one does not ...
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Al Hamichya in one room and al hagefen in another room
If you eat cake in Room A and then proceed to drink wine in Room B both bracha achronas must be made in the rooms in which the food was eaten. Where and how do you make a bracha achrona. Here are the ...
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Secular sources with Torah wisdom
Some secular books have a hefty amount of wisdom that we find in our Torah sources. For example, 7 Habits of Highly Effective People has a lot of almost verbatim lessons from Pirkei Avos, although ...
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What is the shitah of the Rambam regarding mevarekh mossi havero [מברך מוציא חברו]?
Before asking the question, I need to give some background information:
The Rambam in Hilkhoth Berakhoth 1:11 says,
כָּל הַשּׁוֹמֵעַ בְּרָכָה מִן הַבְּרָכוֹת מִתְּחִלָּתָהּ וְעַד סוֹפָהּ, ...
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Leaving the sukkah when it rains, making a bracha upon returning
Someone had started eating in a sukkah (and made a "leishev") then after some time it started to rain. They moved into their house and waited then for the rain to stop. When the rain stopped they ...
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Is the celebration of salvation affected by the deaths of those who were not saved?
There is a obligation to thank G-d when one is saved from a life-threatening situation. Some have a custom to publicly celebrate, often with a festive meal. Some even make it a yearly occurrence.
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