Throughout the High Holy Days, both on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, there is a prayer that concludes, “Repentance, prayer, and tzedakah may avert the evil decree.” So important is tzedakah, which the Talmud tells us is the equal of all of the commandments of the Torah combined. (Tzedakah: The Gift of the Soul Selichot, 1997 by Harold M. Schulweis)
Dear Friends,
One of my favorite Jewish teachings instructs us to say 100 blessings daily. One hundred times each day, we are instructed to pause what we are doing and express gratitude for it… whatever “it” may be.
When we recite a blessing, we acknowledge that we are not entitled to the thing for which we are giving thanks, but we are grateful for it. Hopefully, by expressing gratitude, we recognize the source of all life’s blessings and resist the temptation to take such blessings for granted.
Imagine how much less we might take for granted if we disciplined ourselves to follow this ancient guideline. Imagine how our Jewish identity would permeate our day if we each paused one hundred times to recite Hebrew words of gratitude.
In Judaism, a blessing isn’t transformative of the object over which the blessing is said as it is, for example, in some Christian denominations. In the latter case, wine is blessed and transformed into Jesus’s blood. Similarly, bread is blessed and it is transformed into the body of Jesus. Not so in Judaism. When we welcome Shabbat, we say a blessing OVER the bread and wine and they remain bread and wine. The recitation of a blessing does nothing to them. Instead, the blessing is a chance to pause what we are doing, focus on the moment, and seek God’s presence.
As one scholar puts it,
“Berakhot (blessings) are our primary vehicle for ritualizing and concretizing our encounter with God.”
This morning, I found myself wondering: Why is there no blessing when we give tzedakah? Why is there no blessing when we do an act of gmilut chasadim—an act of loving kindness?
Unsurprisingly, as I dug deeper into that question, I discovered myriad answers. (You know how it goes—one Jew, ten opinions… one Jewish question, multiple Jewish answers.) One possible answer that resonated with me comes from Rabbi Harold Shulweis z”l. He writes,
“There are a hundred blessings to be recited a day over food, over drink, over rainbows, over oceans. But interestingly there is no blessing over tzedakah. Tzedakah is not to be interrupted or delayed, even with a blessing. Tzedakah is the blessing, it is intrinsic.”
In other words, when we give tzedakah or perform an act of kindness, the other person’s needs may be so great at that moment that even a brief pause before they receive relief might needlessly extend their pain and suffering. And because the needs of the other person or people take priority over our own at that moment, we are instructed to act without hesitation.
As philosopher Martin Buber put it, “To love God truly, one must first love people.”
As we approach the New Year, I am reminded that this is truly the essence—one might even say the blessing of Judaism.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Daniel Cohen