Berakhot 113

1:
The first three chapters of our tractate were devoted to the recitation of the Shema; the next two chapters were devoted to the recitation of the Amidah. The last four chapters are devoted to berakhot [blessings] in general. The topic of chapter six is blessings before eating food; the main topic of chapters seven and eight will be Grace after meals; and the last chapter will be concerned with an assortment of other kinds of berakhot.

2:
Before we consume any food we are required to recite the appropriate berakhah. The Gemara [Berakhot 35a] tries to anchor this requirement in the Torah – and fails! After considerable discussion, the conclusion is reached that reciting a blessing before enjoying any of the good things this world has to offer is purely logical. Simple human decency requires that when you benefit from something that is not your's that you say thank you for it! But the fact that we recite the berakhah before enjoying the food (and not afterwards – afterwards there is a different berakhah) has another more subtile message embedded within it.

3:
One of the verses put forward in the abortive attempt of the Gemara to create a Biblical basis for berakhot of this kind is Leviticus 19:24 – "…sacred for praising God", which is interpreted as "teaching that they [foodstuffs] require a berakhah before and after"; which prompts Rabbi Akiva to propose a rule that "a person is forbidden to taste anything before reciting a berakhah". But the connection between the verse quoted and the meaning derived from it is far from clear. The further discussion in the Gemara, however, sheds an interesting light on the question. The original Hebrew that we rendered "sacred for praising" is Kodesh hillulim. In some parts of Eretz-Israel that would have been habitually mispronounced Kodesh ĥillulim, (the letter Ĥet instead of the letter Heh) which could be rendered "sacred for profaning". The Gemara posits that "God says, 'first make it profane and then eat it'". Everything that there is in this world belongs to God [Psalm 24:1], who either made it or made the natural mechanism or process by which it is made. Everything that belongs to God is holy. Before human beings can benefit from it materially it must be 'profaned', voided of its holy status. This is done by praising God, acknowledging God's absolute supremacy in the universe, and recognizing that God is the ultimate source from which that which we are about to eat comes. It is not ours, it is God's. We all know the joke that nowadays if we ask a child "what does bread come from?" they will probably not suggest wheat, but rather the baker's or the supermarket or a wrapper. When the child habitually recites the berakhah "Blessed are You, Adonai our God, Sovereign of the Universe, Who produces bread from the earth" they become aware that the boon of bread comes from God. God endowed the human race with the intelligence to bake the flour that has been processed from the grain that has been cultivated from grasses … and so forth. Although the real etymology of the Hebrew word barukh [blessed] is connected with the word for "knee" [berekh], one medieval sage suggested that the origin comes from the word berekhah, a pool of water. Just as the waters of the pool well up, so do God's never-ending boons to us well up. (Actually, of course, the word for a pool is also derived from "knee" – the place where you kneel down to drink the water.) This kind of thinking ultimately will take us one stage further: if this world and all that is in it does not belong to me, at the very most my status in it is that of caretaker…

To be continued.

In Berakhot 110 David Bockman sent a critique concerning Divine Providence. Amelia McNellis now responds:

When Job questions God as to why a man such as he, who has done no sin, should be made to suffer God's answer is quite clear. "Who," God asks, "set the stars in the sky etc?". It is not for man to understand. I believe understanding evil in the world is not a matter of us understanding what God wills or what God allows. It is exactly this which we cannot understand. We, who are not the Creator, have limits to our understanding. Certainly some evil exists because we, after leaving Gan Eden, have choice. God allows us this choice and sometimes we choose evil. However, in a larger sense, a specific evil or a specific suffering cannot be understood. We have to have faith that God has a purpose without understanding what it might be. I believe this is the essence of faith. When Job responds to God with an understanding of this he is upheld as the most righteous.