Pray and Mean It #15 -- Barech Aleinu -- Bless This Year

[Cant...@aol.com]

Dear Pray and Mean It recipient:

Thanks for your patience. I could never have imagnied how difficult
it might be to continue this work since my last posting. As I may
have said before, I have a clear idea of many of the things I wish to
share in this enterprise. But actually getting them down "on paper"
and sending them along in a proper framework? Apparently more of a
challenge than I had hoped.

I'm recently back from a short trip to visit with the Cuban Jewish
Community -- a wonderful journey that I can share in other contexts.
But for the purpose of Pray and Mean It, I'm grateful to at least
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so long in the future.

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Ohio.

Thanks and best wishes. . .

Cantor Jack Chomsky

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Thanks and best wishes – Cantor Jack Chomsky, Congregation Tifereth
Israel, Columbus Ohio

Pray and Mean It 15
This is the 15th installment in this series.

As we have just recited a b’rachah regarding personal health and
healing (r’fuah), we now turn our attention to the health of our
planet. Barech Aleinu is a b’rachah for rain, or dew and rain,
according to the proper season, and the hope that the provision of
appropriate rain will result in bountiful harvest.

בָּרֵךְ עָלֵֽינוּ, ה' אֱלֹקֵֽינוּ
Barech aleinu, Adonai
eloheinu
אֶת הַשָּׁנָה הַזֹּאת
Et hashanah
hazot
וְאֶת כָּל מִינֵי תְבוּאָתָהּ לְטוֹבָה
V’et kol minei t’vuatah
l’tovah
(spring/summer) וְתֵן בְּרָכָה
(Spring/summer:) V’tein
b’rachah
(fall/winter) וְתֵן טַל וּמָטָר לִבְרָכָה
(Fall/winter:) V’tein tal umatar livrachah
עַל פְּנֵי הָאֲדָמָה
Al p’nei ha-
adamah
וְשַׂבְּעֵֽנוּ מִטּוּבָהּ
V’sabeinu
mituvah
וּבָרֵךְ שְׁנָתֵֽנוּ כַּשָּׁנִים הַטּוֹבוֹת
Uvareich sh’nateinu kashanim
hatovot.
בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה ה
'Baruch atah
Adonai
מְבָרֵךְ הַשָּׁנִים
M’vareich
hashanim

Bless for us, Adonai our God,
this year, and all the kinds of good produce.
(Spring/Summer:) Grant blessing, (Fall/Winter:) Grant dew and rain for
blessing
on the face of the earth.
And satisfy us with its goodness.
And bless our year like the best years.
Praised are You, Adonai,
Blesser of the years.

I find myself relating to this prayer on a number of levels. First,
understanding the cultural context of the prayer’s history, it’s not
just about agriculture, but truthfully about the entire economy. The
prayer is the expression of a world in which a failed harvest could
bring disaster that is difficult for us to imagine -- though if we
look, we see this kind of disaster elsewhere in our world almost every
day of every year. So if we need a daily reminder about that
contribution we promised ourselves to make to hunger relief somewhere
on the globe, this is it.

Returning to the economic implications, when praying barech aleinu in
the modern world, one can really keep in mind not just rain and the
harvest, but also the general economy and well-being of our nation and
its workers. So I am praying for prosperity -- to an extent in a
personal sense, but even more so for the whole society.

At least as significant in my mind are the worries that we have of
global warming and its effect on world ecology. In this sense, this
paragraph makes a particularly good partner for the preceding
paragraph -- health of body followed by health of planet. If I have a
daily reminder to be concerned about this issue and about making sure
that I am somehow engaged in ameliorating the problem of global
warming -- whether by engagement politically, adjusting a thermostat,
choosing which car -- or avoiding the use of the car -- this is the
b’rachah that reminds me.

The language of this b’rachah is the language of birkat hamazon, the
blessing after meals. Sab’einu -- let us be satisfied -- content,
filled up with the food we eat, with the miracle of rain and sun, and
with the work we do, the job we perform.

The liturgical toggle switch in this paragraph also helps remind us to
pay attention in the middle of our prayers. One can easily lose track
of what one is saying in the Amidah. We recite it at least 3 times
daily, mostly unchanged. But those little change places help keep us
on track. In the middle of this paragraph, I come to a fork in the
road. What time of year is it, which do I say? After the beginning
of Pesach, “v’tein b’rachah” -- and send blessing. After December 4
or 5 (a complicated matter that I won’t discuss here), “v’tein tal
umatar livrachah” -- send dew and rain for blessing. Sometimes, I
find myself in the middle of a paragraph of the Amidah wondering how I
got there -- just like we sometimes find ourselves driving without
having noticed the last several blocks, etc. Having this fork in the
road helps remind me to pay attention. What time of year is it? Which
one do I say? (Do I remember saying the previous several b’rachot or
has my mind been wandering? Strictly speaking, when one realizes that
one has had a lapse in concentration and doesn’t know whether one has
recited certain passages, the halachic requirement is to return to an
appropriate earlier part of the liturgy and to repeat it. I
understand that idea -- but for my sake and perhaps yours, it may be
more valuable to make a mental note of the lapse in concentration, to
celebrate the return of concentration and to move forward.)

Recognizing this moment means recognizing that there are seasons.
Which means that we are in a position to acknowledge the wonder of
this planet on which we inexplicably and miraculously live our deeply
blessed lives (bringing us back once again to global warming. . . a
reminder that we have to try not to destroy that entity we are
blessing).

May our bodies (the previous b’rachah) and our planet enjoy healthy
years!

If you wish to respond, you may e-mail me at Cant...@aol.com.