When I say Birchos Hashachar, the blessings we recite each morning at the beginning of davening, I am enveloped in the love Hashem has for me and the reassurance that He is with me in my daily travels.
The Birchos Hashachar are composed from two sets of blessings, those in Berachos 60b, relating to our daily arising, and those in Menachos 43b, defining who we are not (and, by extension, who we are). We first say one bracha from the first set, in which we thank Hashem for allowing us to see distinctions (as the rooster can distinguish the coming dawn). Then the second set of brachos is inserted. We thank Hashem for not being slaves but rather free men, for not being a non-Jew but rather a Jew with the opportunity of doing many mitzvos, and for not being a woman, who has fewer mitzvos, or for being a woman whose will is aligned more closely with Hashem’s.
We then return back to the first set of brachos, and I would like to focus on these. One way of interpreting these is as referring to stages of awakening each morning: opening one’s eyes, putting on clothing, becoming active, getting out of bed, having ground to walk on, and putting our shoes on so we can walk, putting on a belt, covering the head, and putting on tefillin. But in a more literal sense, they start by thanking Hashem for opening the eyes of one who cannot see. The brachos that follow thank Hashem for clothing the naked, for freeing one who is bound, and for making erect one who is bent.
Then we thank Hashem for creating a world for our habitation, and for providing all of our needs. We thank Him for giving us a choice in the path we want to walk in, and helping to guide us on this path. Finally, there are the brachos that Rav Schwab interprets as being directed toward Bnei Yisrael as a whole. We thank Him for girding Israel with strength, crowning Israel with splendor, giving us strength to go on (this bracha is from a later source), and removing sleep from our eyes, interpreted as allowing us a revelation of Hashem’s glory in the future.
But when I read these brachos each morning, I get a special sense of Hashem setting me on the right course, of being in a new world in which there are challenges but also great opportunities. I get this feeling from considering the first two brachos referred to in the previous paragraph. These are pokei’ach ivrim (opening the eyes of the blind) and malbish arumim (clothing the naked). These are the two gifts Hashem gave Adam and Chava on leaving the Garden of Eden.
Let me explain this more clearly. After Adam and Chava ate from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, they were in a new realm, in which choices between good and evil would have to be made on a continual basis. The Rambam says that after eating from the Tree, they got bechira, the ability to choose how to live their lives. This bothered me for many years. Bechira, as Rav Dessler sees it, is the crowning ability of man, which allows him to move forward in this world and attain the world to come. It seemed like a great gift, and I asked how a great gift could arise as a result of a sin (eating from the Tree). I came to realize, however, that bechira was in fact a necessary tool for navigating this world. Hashem gave Adam and Chava this tool so they could live in the world outside Gan Eden. This tool would allow them to move closer to returning to the holiness of the Garden by making correct choices.
The second gift Adam and Chava received on leaving the Garden were the clothes that Hashem made for them. In the outside world, it would be necessary to have clothing to distinguish themselves from animals and, according to Rav Schwab, to emphasize their unique ability to overcome their animalistic urges through free will.
Thus, each morning when I rise, I thank Hashem first for the gifts he gave mankind as they entered the world outside the Garden of Eden.* These two brachos emphasize the challenges but also the great possibilities of coming closer to Hashem. Hashem has given me free will and has clothed me; He is interested in my welfare, and renews this interest every day.
Janet Sunness is medical director of the Richard E. Hoover Low Vision Rehabilitation Services at the Greater Baltimore Medical Center. She gives classes and talks on a variety of topics in the Baltimore area for the Women’s Institute of Torah and Cong. Shomrei Emunah. © Janet Sunness 2018
*I have not found a source in Chazal for looking at the two brachos this way, though Rav Schwab does interpret the clothing one as related to Gan Eden. If anyone knows of a source for interpreting the two brachos as I have, please email me, jsunness@gmail.com, and let me know.
