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RABBI ARTHUR SEGAL:She-kachah lo-ba'olamo:U'gevurato malei olam:College Fjord
Shalom:
A while back, I received an email from a rabbinic colleague who described their trip to Alaska and the wonders of God that they saw. And in seeing those wonders, they said: the shehecheyanu (the prayer we say on seeing things for the first time) and she-kachah lo-ba'olamo (That thus it is in His world," the blessing we say upon seeing beautiful things of nature).
The email described the awe of seeing College Fjord, named by Edward Harriman in 1899. College Fjord.
The email further described how when the glaciers calved, splitting off ice, into the water, with ''white thunder.'' a prayer of:
"u'gevurato malei olam" "Blessed is the Lord our God, ruler of the universe, whose strength and might fill the world." The email from my rabbinic colleague said:'' This blessing is said when witnessing lightening and thunder and I thought the sages would have prescribed it upon hearing this sound and seeing this sight.""
"u'gevurato malei olam" "Blessed is the Lord our God, ruler of the universe, whose strength and might fill the world." The email from my rabbinic colleague said:'' This blessing is said when witnessing lightening and thunder and I thought the sages would have prescribed it upon hearing this sound and seeing this sight.""
I responded:
One Brachah which I repeatedly say when I travel internationally or when I leave my Island home is the Wayfarer's Prayer. These blessings are more than 2500 years old and are all listed in our Talmud Bavli's first tractate, Beracoth. I am pleased, my friend, that God 'lead you toward peace, placed your footsteps toward peace, and made you reach your desired destination for life, gladness and peace."
I am happy you got to Alaska. Ellen and I have been blessed to be there twice, the last time in June 06, and we were exactly where you were. The first time was 15 years ago. The mountains were snow capped, not covered with greenery. The Glaciers were tall and wide, and blue, and not receding, shallow and brown. I am glad you saw some blue ones and witnessed some calving.
( The Edward Harriman mentioned is the very same one that is mentioned in the movie Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid as the commercial baron who, annoyed by how frequently the eponymous bandits stole money from trains traveling Harriman-controlled frontier railways, sent bounty hunters after the pair. His son Averell, among other things, being a member of the Skull and Bones society at Yale, brokered the deal with the Anglo-Iranian Oil company, placing the Shah in power and was complicit in the '63 assassination of the Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem.)
King David told us to bless G!d at least 100 times a day. At one time this seemed like an impossibility to me but as a grew in love of God, the opportunity for blessings, thank, praising, and showing gratitude to God for his bounty is actually endless.
Shehecheyanu 's are not just for when we see things for the first time, but when we eat a fruit for the first time in that season, or when doing a mitzvoth for the first time that is tied to that season. We bless God for our first breath in the morning but in reality, we show gratitude to Him for each of our breaths all day. We praise God even when our bowels are functioning, because as anyone knows, if one of these organs or 'tubes' get blocked, we cannot stand before God to do His will. We praise God upon seeing unusual animals. Any trip to the zoo would have us reciting that prayer over 100 times. We praise God on seeing lightening or hearing thunder, or when we see a large lake, river, or ocean. We praise God when we see comets, beautiful people or nature, or odd looking people. We praise God when we meet a Torah scholar or a secular scholar as all wisdom comes from God. We all know we praise God before and after we eat, and before we study Torah and Talmud.
As Jews, the derivation of our very name comes from Leah calling her 4th son Judah, Yahuda, literally meaning, 'thanking God.' As Jews, what better thing to do each day, but to thank God and be grateful to Him for everything He has granted us. So there are brachoth opportunities for all of us, millions of times a day. Remember also that the word bracha is not derived from the word for prayer or blessing, but comes from the word for 'bending our knee'. As the book of Daniel (6:10) reminds us , we Jews prayed on our knees, thrice a day, as a sign of humility and knowing Who our Father and King is.
When you mentioned you were happy that you knew the brachoth ahead of time is important to me as well. But if one truly has love of God and understands everything flows from Him, and thanks Him every moment throughout the day with an attitude of gratitude, doesn't help us appreciate nature any more than we already have. This is clearly answered in Talmud Bavli Tractate Beracoth. Any reciting of a prayer by memorization is discouraged as there is no spiritual intention, called kavenah. The rabbis are so clear in this that they would rather one say a blessing to God in his own words, from his heart, in his own language, then mumble something in Evrit which he doesn't understand.
In other words, one saying sincerely, "Far out God, I am so grateful to You for creating these wonderful gorgeous whales and I will do my best to do Tikun Olam to try to maintain this Earth which You have given mankind dominion over to protect," is much better than trying to remember a prayer in Hebrew and losing what we are feeling in our hearts to God.
However, by studying Tractate Berachot, we can learn how our rabbis were teaching us to appreciate every little thing about life. That even in captivity in Babylon they were able to praise God. They are teaching us to look at the world not as a cup half empty, and not even as a cup half full, but as a carafe over flowing with God's divine never ending love and care for us.
Even in Alaska, Ellen and I dovened in Juneau with the Frozen Chosen. The opportunities for prayer and the places in this world we can do such, from our homes, to shuls in every corner of this earth, to watching a sunrise over the Grand Canyon, are endless. Can I get a Baruch Ha Shem?
Have a delightful Shabbat.
Rabbi Arthur Segal
Hilton Head Island, SC
Bluffton, SC
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