Tefilas Shabbos – Bircas HaMazon

Shiur 12 – Birchas Hamazon

Eating a piece of bread (and a cup of water according to the Yeraim!) brings a person to the chiyuv deoraissah of birchas hamazon.

We will not analyse the first beracho word by word, but we will comment on parts of it:

בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יְ-יָ אֱלֹקינוּ מֶלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם, הַזָּן אֶת הָעוֹלָם כֻּלּוֹ בְּטוּבוֹ בְּחֵן בְּחֶסֶד וּבְרַחֲמִים, הוּא נֹתֵן לחֶם לְכָל בָּשָׂר כִּי לְעוֹלָם חַסְדּוֹ.

Blessed are You, Hashem, our G-d, King of the World, Who sustains the whole world in His goodness with grace, kindness, and compassion. He gives bread to all flesh.

 We all eat food that sustains us on an individual basis. However, we do not look just at our personal benefits from this. Rather, we thank Hashem for providing food to the whole world.

Now we will analyse the second beracho:

נוֹדֶה לְךָ יְ-יָ אֱלֹקינוּ, עַל שֶׁהִנְחַלְתָּ לַאֲבוֹתֵינוּ אֶרֶץ חֶמְדָּה טוֹבָה וּרְחָבָה, וְעַל שֶׁהוֹצֵאתָנוּ יְ-יָ אֱלֹקינוּ מֵאֶרֶץ מִצְרַיִם וּפְדִיתָנוּ מִבֵּית עֲבָדִים, וְעַל בְּרִיתְךָ שֶׁחָתַמְתָּ בִּבְשָׂרֵנוּ וְעַל תּוֹרָתְךָ שֶׁלִּמַּדְתָּנוּ

We thank You Hashem Our G-d for having given to our fathers a desirable, good and wide land and for having taken us out from Egypt and having redeemed us from the house of slavery and for Your Bris that You sealed in our flesh and for Your Torah that You taught us.

We say birchas hamazon to thank Hashem for our food. If so, why are we mentioning Yetziyas Mitzrayim, Bris, and Torah here?

Another point that stands out in birchas hamazon is the frequently mentioned name, Hashem Elokim. Out of the 18 berachos of the shemoneh esrei (besides the beginning of the berachos- Baruch atah Hashem Elokeinu, etc.), we only say Hashem Elokim 8 times. In stark contrast, in 2 of the berachos of birchas hamazon, nodeh lecho and rachem, we say Hashem Elokim 6 times and an additional 3 on Shabbos when we say retzei.

Hashem Elokim is repeated so many times because when we eat we are involved in a great maamad. When we eat, we connect to an unbelievable chessed that Hashem provides the entire world with food. This chessed is Hashem’s etzem (the essence of His) ratzon of how He connects with the world. This is why we say Hashem Elokim– Shem Hashem is the essence of Hashem, and Elokim is how this essence is connected to us. When we eat, this kedushah of Hashem enters into us. (As far as why we mention yetziyas mitzrayim, etc, the explanation is to follow.)

Hashem normally gives things to people based on sechar veonesh. Hashem’s providing food to us is not dependent on this. The hashpaah of food is, in fact, so powerful that even goyim also derive benefit from food.

(Each time we say the shem Hashem Elokim, this connotes that a new sugyah is beginning in the bentching.)

Eretz Yisroel-the land where kedushah grows by itself!

נוֹדֶה לְךָ יְ-יָ אֱלֹקינוּ, עַל שֶׁהִנְחַלְתָּ לַאֲבוֹתֵינוּ אֶרֶץ חֶמְדָּה טוֹבָה וּרְחָבָה

We thank you Hashem, our G-d for having inherited to us a desirable, good and wide land.

In what way is Eretz Yisroel, a land of ‘chemdah, tovah urechova’? The way of the world is that kedushah diminishes. If something kodosh comes into contact with something tumah, there are two options of what might happen- the kedushah makes the tumah kodosh or the tumah makes the kedushah tomei. The reality of how Hashem created the world is that the tumah makes the kedushah tomei and not vice versa.

There is an exception to this—the Land of Eretz Yisroel! When one plants a seed in the land of Israel, terumah and maaser begin to grow. The seed begins to grow kedushas terumah and maaser. Eretz Yisroel is the one place in the world where Kedushah is on the increase and grows automatically. The nature of Eretz Yisroel is different in this respect from the natural running of the rest of the world. This is the eretz chemdah, tovah urechovah.

וְעַל שֶׁהוֹצֵאתָנוּ יְ-יָ אֱלֹקינוּ מֵאֶרֶץ מִצְרַיִם וּפְדִיתָנוּ מִבֵּית עֲבָדִים, וְעַל בְּרִיתְךָ שֶׁחָתַמְתָּ בִּבְשָׂרֵנוּ וְעַל תּוֹרָתְךָ שֶׁלִּמַּדְתָּנו

And for having taken us out from Egypt and having redeemed us from the house of slavery, and for Your Bris that You sealed in our flesh, and for Your Torah that You taught us.

Yetziyas Mitzrayim, Bris etc. Is how we are zocheh to such a land

Like we said above, when we eat, we internalize the abundance of chessed from Hashem. The name shemo hagodol captures this. So, when we eat, we are internalizing this kedushah. Where is the place for this kedushah of food in the world? Eretz Yisroel, where the kedushah of food grows by itself.

How are we zocheh to this place (Eretz Yisroel) where kedushah grows by itself? Yetziyas Mitzrayim, kedushas haguf of bris and Torah. This is why we include these things in our birchas hamazon.

Be compassionate to Yisroel, Your people and to Yerushalayim, Your city and to Tziyon, the Mishkan of Your glory and to the malchus beis Dovid and to the great house.

This is based on the word rechem-womb. Just like a womb has a special koach to contain, so too we ask Hashem to give us the capacity to be able to contain the changes that will happen in the world of leosid lovo-the rebuilding of the Mishkan, Malchus Beis Dovid etc.

In leosid lovo, we ask Hashem to remove all those who oppose His kedushah. Then, we will be able to connect with Hashem directly and without interference.

וּבְנֵה יְרוּשָׁלַיִם עִיר הַקֹּדֶשׁ בִּמְהֵרָה בְיָמֵינוּ

Rebuild Yerushalayim, the holy city, speedily in our days

We ask for the kedushah, which entered into the world, to emerge in the building of the Beis Hamikdash at the time of the Geulah.

רְצֵה וְהַחֲלִיצֵנוּ

Want and strengthen us

Hachalizenu refers to the strength of our bones. On the penimius day of the week, Shabbos, we ask Hashem that we should not just follow the mitzvos in an external way, but that the mitzvos should strengthen our inside (our bones). In other words, we ask that we be zocheh to the essential ratzon of Hashem that is there in His mitzvos.

כִּי יוֹם זֶה גָּדוֹל וְקָדוֹשׁ הוּא לְפָנֶיךָ

Because this day is great and holy before You

The day of Shabbos is great and Holy before Him. On the day of Shabbos, everything is in Hashem’s private realm. On this day, we enter into His realm.

It could have been that we ask Hashem to allow us to nullify ourselves to Him in His realm. However, we ask for more than this. We ask that our inner selves (our bones) should receive strength from His essential ratzon.

בִרְצוֹנְךָ הָנִיחַ לָנוּ יְ-יָ אֱלֹקינוּ שֶׁלֹּא תְהֵא צָרָה וְיָגוֹן וַאֲנָחָה בְּיוֹם מְנוּחָתֵנוּ

Set us aside, Hashem, our G-d, so that there will not be distress and groaning on our day of rest.

During the week, we ask Hashem ‘veharvach lonu’, to relieve us from our enemies. On Shabbos, we ask Hashem to make our opposition totally irrelevant. This is our request for menuchah.  

וְהַרְאֵנוּ יְ-יָ אֱלֹקינוּ בְּנֶחָמַת צִיוֹן עִירֶךָ וּבְבִנְיַן יְרוּשָׁלַיִם עִיר קָדְשֶׁךָ

And show us Hashem, our G-d, in the comfort of Tziyon, Your city, and the rebuilding of Yerushalayim, Your holy city

With this menuchah, we will be able to see the binyan of Yerusholayim directly. We ask for ‘vehareinu’, which means that we should see and be directly connected with binyan Yerusholayim.

וּבְנֵה יְרוּשָׁלַיִם

This berocho is for the ‘harugei Beitar’.

At the end of enjoying a nice meal, why are we remembering the 500,000 dead people of Beitar?

 The gemorah says that the berocho that they received was that their bodies did not smell. Why is this such a special berocho?

First, let’s understand why a dead body smells. The Rambam writes that the Ketores in the Beis Hamikdash was so that there wouldn’t be a bad smell from all the dead bodies of the animals. Everybody challenges the Rambam and asks how this could be the full extent of the reason why we bring the holy ketores in the beis hamikdash.

The Kotzker Rebbe commented that if we understood what a stench is, we would agree with the words of the Rambam.

The smell of dead animals and even more so from dead humans is due to the removal of kedushah from where it is supposed to be. This is why, for example, old, rotting leaves do not produce a bad smell since they do not possess kedushah.

Despite the harugei Beitar’s neshamas leaving their body, the special berocho made it so that there was no stench.

We began birchas hamazon deorraisah by thanking Hashem for the kedushah that He enters into us when we eat. Here we conclude bentching by saying that kedushah remains within Klal Yisroel, even when the neshamah leaves the guf.

_______________

Written by Rabbi Rapport