Moshe Ben-Chaim
The Talmud mentions many ideas concerning Birkat
HaMazone – the blessing recited after eating bread. The Birkat HaMazone is
comprised of four blessings. The Talmud in Berachot 48b teaches that Moses
formulated the blessing which expresses gratitude for food when God provided
the Jews with manna in the desert, Joshua formulated the blessing which praises
God for allowing the Jews to enter into and dwell in the land of Israel, King
David and King Solomon formulated the blessing which praises God for Jerusalem
and the Temple, and the Sages of the Mishnaic period formulated the blessing
praising God for the miracle He performed at Betar when He preserved the
unattended bodies of the Jews who were slaughtered by the Romans. The Talmud
then proceeds to teach that there is an order in which these blessings must be
recited. Of interest is that the order which the Talmud proposes happens to
coincide with the historical order mentioned in the previous teaching.
Before continuing we must ask several questions. The
first question is: why must there be an “order” to the blessings of the Birkat
HaMazone? The Talmud implies that a person who recites these blessings out of
order does not fulfill his obligation, despite the fact that he verbalized the
four requisite praises. The verse in the Torah from which the obligation for
Birkat HaMazone is derived does, indeed, allude to this order. Perhaps this same verse is also the source
for the order mentioned in the Talmud? Nevertheless, we must still ask: why is
“order” essential? What would a person’s Birkat HaMazone be lacking were he to
recite the blessings out of order?
Another question arises upon examination of these laws
in the Mishnah Torah. In Hilchot Berachot 2:1 Maimonides reverses the order of
the teachings of the Talmud. He first mentions the requirement of “order” and
only afterward mentions who instituted each particular blessing. Why did
Maimonides deviate from the order of teachings mentioned in the Talmud?
The Talmud then poses the question: “we only have the
source for the blessing after bread, but from where do we learn that one must
bless before one eats?” In its response the Talmud utilizes one of the 13
Principles through which the Written Torah is expounded. The principle used by
the Talmud is an “a fortiori” argument – a deduction from lesser to
greater. The Talmud answers, “if one must bless God when he is full, he
certainly must do so when he is hungry.” What is the Talmud’s reasoning? One could just as easily claim the opposite,
that there is more to praise God for when one is full than when one is hungry.
Furthermore, the Talmud seems to imply that the blessing before eating is of
primary importance, that there exists a greater need for a blessing before
eating than a blessing after eating. But if it is true that a blessing prior to
eating is primary in importance, why isn’t there a separate verse from which
this blessing is derived? Shouldn’t the more primary blessing deserve its own
mention as well?
Comparing the Birkat HaMazone to prayer, the Talmud
teaches that a partial structure for the former is found in the words of the
Torah, but we do not find any indication in Torah for the structure of prayer.
Why would the Torah provide a structure for the Birkat HaMazone but neglect to
provide a structure for prayer?
The Talmud teaches that there are other essential
features to the Birkat HaMazone besides order. One must mention the Brit –
God's treaty with the Jews – and Torah. What is the connection between Birkat
HaMazone, Brit, and Torah? Brit and Torah are important concepts, but so are
tefillin and mezuzah, yet they are not mentioned in these blessings after
eating. What is special about Brit and Torah?
There is one final question that needs to be
addressed. Moses knew the Torah's textual source for the blessing after eating.
This verse includes not only a requirement to recite a blessing praising God
for supplying food, but one must also bless God over the land of Israel, the
Temple, and God's goodness (specifically, the miracle He performed at Betar).
The question is: if Moses knew that these Divine acts of kindness demand
praise, though they had not yet occurred, why did Moses omit them from his formulation? Why did he only formulate praise for food?
In order to answer these questions we must first
address a question about blessings in general: why must one praise God for all
the good He does? Though the answer may be obvious, I wish to articulate it
here. Immediately following the injunction to bless God after satisfaction
derived from food, the Torah warns us, “Take heed less you forget Hashem, your
God . . . lest you eat and be satisfied, and you build good houses and settle,
and your cattle and sheep and goats increase, and you accumulate increased
amounts of silver and gold for yourselves, and everything you have will
increase – and your heart will become haughty and you will forget Hashem, your
God” (Devarim 8:11-14). The Torah
associates the fullness of one's stomach and subsequent wealth with the self
absorption that causes us to forget God. Man has an innate tendency to abandon
God when all is good. A friend of mine
suggested that perhaps the institution of Birkat HaMazone address this human
flaw. Man is commanded to direct his thoughts to God when in a state of
satisfaction, lest he forget God. Perhaps man – even religious man – desires to
flee from God. We are taught that "the Jews left Sinai like children
leaving school." They viewed the Torah and its demanding system of
commandments as a burden. A person with such an attitude demonstrates the fact
that he has little or no appreciation for God’s creation of man as an
intellectual being, one who is equipped with the ability to perceive the wonders
of God’s creation. Such a person desires only money, possessions, homes,
silver, gold, and cattle. In other words, man desires physical security. Why?
So that he can secure his life, his continued physical existence. Man seeks
assurance that he will continue to live. What daily activity gives him such
assurance? The daily activity of eating. When man eats, he feels secure – his
instinctual need is satisfied, and all of his other cravings temporarily
subside. This quelling of desires, however, can be dangerous, as the Torah
points out. God has another plan for us. He desires that we involve ourselves
in knowledge. By commanding man to bless God after eating, man never encounters
the pitfall of losing sight of his Maker, of His Provider. Thus, we can now see
how Birkat HaMazone aims to promote the greatest good for man.
What is the reasoning behind the Talmud’s a
fortiori argument that “if one who is full must bless, one who is hungry
must certainly do so”? Before eating, man is in a state of pain – hunger. Perhaps the blessing before eating is more
important because man has a greater obligation to bless God when in a state of
pain than when he is in a state of pleasure – satiety. Thus, the Talmud is really saying, “if one
whom God provides with a pleasure must bless, certainly one from whom God
removes a pain must bless.” Now the
Talmud’s reasoning makes sense.
Why did the Torah only provide a source for the
blessing after eating? Perhaps the Torah mentioned the source for one type of
blessing and omitted the source for the other in order to emphasize which
blessing is the greatest praise of God. What is a greater praise, blessing God
for the pleasure gained from eating an apple, or praising God for the
miraculous act of sustaining 2.5 million Jews in the desert with manna, for
Israel, the Temple, and the miracle of Betar? Perhaps the intent in omitting
mention of a specific source for the blessing before eating was in order to
emphasize that the blessing after eating is really the greatest praise of
God.
The Talmud says that Moses, Joshua, King David, and
King Solomon had formulated the four sections of the Birkat HaMazone, but only
after the events occurred. Moses did not formulate the praise over the land
because he had not conquered it – only Joshua was able to do so when he later
conquered the land. But if Moses knew
from the Torah's words that one is obligated to praise God for the land of
Israel then why did he neglect to formulate the blessing over Israel? I believe
the answer is that we must praise God for His continued providence over the
Jewish nation. I believe this is the central principle behind the
commandment of Birkat HaMazone. Reciting these four blessing out of order would
remind us of God's kindness, but only that He performed acts of kindness at
certain points in history. An out-of-order recitation would not bring to mind
His "continued" providence. Such recognition can only be accomplished
by reciting these blessings in the historical order in which they occurred.
Thus, Moses fulfilled this goal through his recitation of the Birkat HaMazone,
even though he didn’t recite the blessings over Israel, the Temple, or the
miracle at Betar – the blessing he recited was just as much a recognition of
God’s continual providence as the Birkat HaMazone we recite today. Perhaps this
is also why Maimonides mentioned the requirement for order before mentioning
the historical formulation of the Birkat HaMazone – the idea of “order” is
essential to the idea of Birkat HaMazone whereas the historical order of
formulation is only accidental.
I believe this is the underlying philosophy of
blessing after eating. We do not only bless God for food, but for all of the
good He has bestowed upon us. It is for this reason that we must also mention
Brit and Torah. Man must verbalize a "complete" praise of God, which
can only be accomplished by mentioning the concepts of Brit, Torah, and the
land of Israel. Food alone is not and ends in itself, but only a means. This
idea is demonstrated by the incorporation into Birkat HaMazone of God's primary
goal for man – Torah study. Wisdom is God’s primary goal for man, and food is
only a means enable man to achieve that goal.
Why did the Torah see fit to outline a structure for
blessing after eating, but not for prayer? I believe the reason to be based on
the very distinction between these two activities: Blessing after eating, which
praises God's continued providence, is a blessing over that which God does for
man. Therefore, the Torah must define what are those goods performed by God on
our behalf. Prayer, however, is man's approach to God. Perhaps the Torah’s
omission of a structure for prayer alludes to the fact that prayer is an
activity initiated by man. Man must be the one who comes before God with his
own structured supplications.