Sunday, November 27, 2005
Why we make Brochos on Stuff--
A standard start for brochos that a jew says when he does a mitzvah is: Baruch atta Ado-noy Elo-hai-nu Melech ha'olam asher kid-e-sha-nu b'mitz-vo-tav v'tzi-vanu ....
which translated comes out like this: Blessed are you, Lord our G-d, King of the universe, who has sanctified us with His commandments, and commanded us ...
What is this saying? Everything seems pretty self explanatory except for the word sanctified. What does sanctified mean? It means seperated from the rest, in other words- chosen. In effect, when a jew is making this blessing he says: "... God who has chosen us (the jewish people as his chosen people)...".
At this point, after seeing what the word "sanctified" is saying in the blessing, other words in the sentence start looking very obvious where before they were just there. When there is a discovery of newfound obviousness, a secret is not far behind. Onwards to the secrets.
And how did God make this choice-- by giving Jews a whole list of jobs intended for the chosen nation which are known as the 613 commandments. Thus, in effect, when a jew makes this blessing he says almost redundantly: "... God who has chosen us the jews as his chosen nation by giving us commandments and commands us to ....". This almost redundant flavor to the line is a theme of performance, action. This will become significant and help us to justify a mystical trick to tease out the remainder of this secret.
Let's look at the first word of the blessing: Boruch. Here is the mystical trick I spoke of earlier: 1) The letter for B and V can be the same. So from a purely auditory approach, let's change the B into a V. It is typical to find v sound in the beggining of words to indicate "and". 2) The other part of the word boruch, is ruch. That sounds a lot like ruach! Ruach is spirit, as in when you do something in an energetic spirited way.
Let's look at another part of the blessing. Where it says King of the Universe, is actually an inaccurate translation. It is true that in hebrew olam means world and in english universe means world, but their roots are different and this is highly significant.
The root of Universe is latin to turn into one. For a word like that to be even spoken it was in the context of ancient western thinkers trying to come to grips with everything around them. Hence one sees in the latin roots of "Universe", the major technique of Western scientific thought: reductionism leading unification. Thanks to Aryeh Kaplan for this insight.
The root of Olam is to conceal! This is completely different. Whereas the english word for world is something that we made understandable to ourselves through finding what it's made out of, the hebrew word for world is something that is hidden to us and concealed.
Now we have a whole new understanding of this simple and often times rushed through line. I gurantee as a Jew, I will never think of making a brocha on a mitzvah the same way again.
When a Jew says the brocha on a mitsvah what he is really saying is. "And in a spirited obvious way I do the jobs given to me by one who rules all that is hidden."
This is super deep. That's why for example, in Torah, in regards to when us Jews put on teffilin God says: ".... and the other nations shall see the name of God is called upon you..".
Because a Jew makes obvious what is hidden! This little insight explains a lot of things about a who a Jew is, what effect a Jew doing a mitzvah has on the world, why if your a Jew being a Jew is important, it explains our reputation as a nation and why our precense elicits a wide variety of responses... because by our existence and by reaffirming our existence by what made us exist, we bring a new game into town.
which translated comes out like this: Blessed are you, Lord our G-d, King of the universe, who has sanctified us with His commandments, and commanded us ...
What is this saying? Everything seems pretty self explanatory except for the word sanctified. What does sanctified mean? It means seperated from the rest, in other words- chosen. In effect, when a jew is making this blessing he says: "... God who has chosen us (the jewish people as his chosen people)...".
At this point, after seeing what the word "sanctified" is saying in the blessing, other words in the sentence start looking very obvious where before they were just there. When there is a discovery of newfound obviousness, a secret is not far behind. Onwards to the secrets.
And how did God make this choice-- by giving Jews a whole list of jobs intended for the chosen nation which are known as the 613 commandments. Thus, in effect, when a jew makes this blessing he says almost redundantly: "... God who has chosen us the jews as his chosen nation by giving us commandments and commands us to ....". This almost redundant flavor to the line is a theme of performance, action. This will become significant and help us to justify a mystical trick to tease out the remainder of this secret.
Let's look at the first word of the blessing: Boruch. Here is the mystical trick I spoke of earlier: 1) The letter for B and V can be the same. So from a purely auditory approach, let's change the B into a V. It is typical to find v sound in the beggining of words to indicate "and". 2) The other part of the word boruch, is ruch. That sounds a lot like ruach! Ruach is spirit, as in when you do something in an energetic spirited way.
Let's look at another part of the blessing. Where it says King of the Universe, is actually an inaccurate translation. It is true that in hebrew olam means world and in english universe means world, but their roots are different and this is highly significant.
The root of Universe is latin to turn into one. For a word like that to be even spoken it was in the context of ancient western thinkers trying to come to grips with everything around them. Hence one sees in the latin roots of "Universe", the major technique of Western scientific thought: reductionism leading unification. Thanks to Aryeh Kaplan for this insight.
The root of Olam is to conceal! This is completely different. Whereas the english word for world is something that we made understandable to ourselves through finding what it's made out of, the hebrew word for world is something that is hidden to us and concealed.
Now we have a whole new understanding of this simple and often times rushed through line. I gurantee as a Jew, I will never think of making a brocha on a mitzvah the same way again.
When a Jew says the brocha on a mitsvah what he is really saying is. "And in a spirited obvious way I do the jobs given to me by one who rules all that is hidden."
This is super deep. That's why for example, in Torah, in regards to when us Jews put on teffilin God says: ".... and the other nations shall see the name of God is called upon you..".
Because a Jew makes obvious what is hidden! This little insight explains a lot of things about a who a Jew is, what effect a Jew doing a mitzvah has on the world, why if your a Jew being a Jew is important, it explains our reputation as a nation and why our precense elicits a wide variety of responses... because by our existence and by reaffirming our existence by what made us exist, we bring a new game into town.
// posted by Jonathan Silverman @ 6:24 PM 
Comments:
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I love it, Please expound! This is a great insight because it takes what on the surface seems straightforward and shows how it is actually cryptic. revealing hidden meaning through a rigorous analysis of language. Good job!
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