Blessings
Lisa writes about going to High Holy Day services with her (presumably Jewish) roommate. I wish I could come... (I haven't been since I was good friends with a Rabbi in Minneapolis.) Recently I've been upset with my own Church (Catholic) for political reasons, and deeply involved in reading scripture and commentary for other reasons -- in combination it leads me to tell people I'm going to convert.
I don't mean it, exactly. As a Gentile whose family has been various flavours of Christian for as long as anyone can remember, Judaism is pretty foreign to me. Certainly I have no claim on it (and would hate to offend anyone by any hint of pressing a claim). But it does attract. It is both ancient and practical. And like Lisa I find it entirely in tune with my liturgical soul.
At the moment I'm thrilling to the practice of blessing things. (I mean the short blessings that begin "Blessed are you Lord God King of the Universe, who ..." -- the one for seeing someone deformed from birth, for instance, is "who changes the creatures.") I have read somewhere (the Mishna?) that an observant Jew blesses things 100 times a day. (That must be about once every ten waking minutes.) I am sure this is more of an ideal than a rule, but a wonderful ideal.
Can anyone tell me more about these blessings? Specifically, where I can find the prescriptions for blessings on various occasions, in English?
3 Comments
Hi! I’m Lisa’s (indeed Jewish, though as I’m a convert in the Reform tradition, it depends on who you ask) roommate. Lisa showed me this post, and I just wanted to stop by and let you know about this site which is the home of an Online Transliterated Siddur (prayerbook). If you scroll down the table of contents, you will find links to various kinds of blessings, which are given in both English tranlation and in transliterated Hebrew.
From what I understand, if you are Orthodox, it is very easy to say 100 berachot in a day. When you consider all the blessings in the daily prayer services, and the blessings for meals, and the blessings for washing one’s hands, etc., they add up pretty fast.
Have you ever read Leo Rosten’s The Joy of Yiddish? It’s a delight to read and has all kinds of interesting information about customs as well as language. I’ve got a copy if you ever want to borrow it.
Nivchara, thank you … what a lovely site. I may have to get the physical version of this book. (And as to the “depends who you ask,” while I’m aware of this ultra-orthodox calumny, few people annoy me more than those who tell others that they are not real Christians/Jews/Buddhists, etc. Plenty of my brother and sister Christians (mostly brother, come to think) do this to me.)
Pat, that sounds like a great book. A sort of insider’s guide to outsiders through language? Yes, please, lend. Er, once I get your copy of “Holy Writ” and the dictionaries of Supersition back to you.