Morning Blessings

birchot hashachar

ברכות השחר

Israeli: ' marks a reduced vowel that Israeli speech drops (b'rachah); when the vowel is pronounced it is written e (lefanecha). - separates syllables that would otherwise run together.

How to read the transliterations

עֲטִיפַת טַלִּית

Putting on the Tallit

While reciting the meditation and the b’rakhah, it is customary to hold the tallit. After saying the b’rakhah we enwrap ourselves with it. Some have the custom of first wrapping the tallit around their head and body, symbolically surrounding themselves with the Presence of God, and then draping it around their shoulders.

Hebrew

בָּרֲכִי נַפְשִׁי אֶת־יְהוָה,
יְהוָה אֱלֹהַי גָּדַלְתָּ מְאֹד,
הוֹד וְהָדָר לָבָשְׁתָּ.
עֹטֶה אוֹר כַּשַּׂלְמָה,
נוֹטֶה שָׁמַיִם כַּיְרִיעָה.

Israeli

barachi nafshi et-adonai,
Adonai Elohai gadalta me-od,
hod vehadar lavashta.
oteh or kasalmah,
noteh shamayim kayri-ah.

English

Let me praise Adonai—for You, Adonai my God, are surely great; clothed in glory and majesty, wrapped in a cloak of light, You stretch out the heavens like a sheet of cloth.

Hebrew

בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵינוּ מֶלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם,
אֲשֶׁר קִדְּשָׁנוּ בְּמִצְוֹתָיו, וְצִוָּנוּ לְהִתְעַטֵּף בַּצִּיצִית.

Israeli

baruch atah Adonai Eloheinu melech ha-olam,
asher kidshanu b'mitzvotav, vetzivanu lehitatef batzitzit.

English

Barukh atah Adonai, our God, sovereign of time and space, who has provided us with a path to holiness through the observance of mitzvot and has instructed us to enwrap ourselves with tzitzit.

Hebrew

כְּשֵׁם שֶׁגּוּפִי מִתְעַטֵּף בַּטַּלִּית,
כֵּן תִּתְעַטֵּף נִשְׁמָתִי בְּאוֹר שְׁכִינָתֶךָ.

Israeli

k'shem shegufi mitatef batalit,
ken titatef nishmati be-or sh'chinatecha.

English

Just as I wrap my body in a tallit, so may my soul wrap itself in the light of Your Presence.

Hebrew

מַה יָּקָר חַסְדְּךָ, אֱלֹהִים,
וּבְנֵי אָדָם בְּצֵל כְּנָפֶיךָ יֶחֱסָיוּן.
יִרְוְיֻן מִדֶּשֶׁן בֵּיתֶךָ, וְנַחַל עֲדָנֶיךָ תַשְׁקֵם.
כִּי עִמְּךָ מְקוֹר חַיִּים, בְּאוֹרְךָ נִרְאֶה אוֹר.
מְשֹׁךְ חַסְדְּךָ לְיֹדְעֶיךָ, וְצִדְקָתְךָ לְיִשְׁרֵי־לֵב.

Israeli

mah yakar chasdecha, Elohim,
uvnei Adam b'tzel k'nafecha yechesayun.
yirveyun mideshen beitecha, venachal adanecha tashkem.
ki imecha mekor chayim, be-orecha nireh or.
meshoch chasdecha leyode-echa, vetzidkatcha leyishrei-lev.

English

How precious is Your kindly love, God, that human beings are sheltered in the shadow of Your wings! They are sated with the abundance in Your house; You give them drink from Your delightful streams. You are the source of life; in Your light do we see light. Pour out Your love to those who would know You, and Your righteousness to those whose hearts are true.

OUR RELATION TO OTHERS

Hebrew

הֲרֵינִי מְקַבֵּל\מְקַבֶּלֶת עָלַי מִצְוַת הַבּוֹרֵא:
וְאָהַבְתָּ לְרֵעֲךָ כָּמוֹךָ.

Israeli

hareini mekabel or mekabelet alai mitzvat haborei:
ve-ahavta lere-acha kamocha.

English

I hereby accept the obligation of fulfilling the Creator’s mitzvah as written in the Torah: Love your neighbor as yourself.

Commentary

PUTTING ON THE TALLIT. As explained in Numbers 15:39–40, the tzitzit, the fringes of the tallit, serve to remind us of the Torah’s mitzvot and of the ideal of holiness to which we are summoned.

LET ME PRAISE בָּרֲכִי נַפְשִׁי. Psalm 104:1–2.

HOW PRECIOUS מַה יָּקָר. Psalm 36:8–11. These verses speak of God’s protection. With their recitation, being enwrapped in the tallit becomes an embodiment of being enfolded in the wings of the Shekhinah. In Hebrew, the word for wing, kanaf, is the same as the word for corner (on which the tzitzit are tied). Thus, the corners of the tallit become symbolic of the wings of the Shekhinah, God’s Presence.

ABUNDANCE מִדֶּשֶׁן. This Hebrew word is primarily used in the Torah to describe the sacrificial elements burnt on the altar. Thus, to say that we are sated by God’s deshen, abundance, suggests that God gives us back the gifts we have offered—though in the hands of God they have been transformed: we offered a physical offering, which, rising to heaven, has been returned to us as spiritual nourishment.

LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR וְאָהַבְתָּ לְרֵעֲךָ. Leviticus 19:18. The mystic Isaac Luria (1534–1572, Safed) began each day with this reminder of the command to love, believing that this commitment to try to love others—even if we are as yet unable to fulfill it completely—is a necessary condition of our experiencing divine love.

Teach Me, God, To Bless and To Pray לַמְּדֵנִי אֱלֹהַי, בָּרֵךְ וְהִתְפַּלֵּל עַל סוֹד עָלֶה קָמֵל, עַל נֹגַהּ פְּרִי בָּשֵׁל, עַל הַחֵרוּת הַזֹּאת: לִרְאוֹת, לָחוּשׁ, לִנְשֹׁם, לָדַעַת, לְיַחֵל, לְהִכָּשֵׁל. לַמֵּד אֶת־שִׂפְתוֹתַי בְּרָכָה וְשִׁיר הַלֵּל בְּהִתְחַדֵּשׁ זְמַנְּךָ עִם בֹּקֶר וְעִם לֵיל, לְבַל יִהְיֶה יוֹמִי הַיּוֹם כִּתְמוֹל שִׁלְשׁוֹם, לְבַל יִהְיֶה עָלַי יוֹמִי הֶרְגֵּל. Teach me, God, to bless and to pray for the secret within the enfolded leaf, the glow of a ripening fruit, and this freedom: to see, to sense, to breathe, to know, to celebrate, to fail. Teach my lips how to bless and sing praises as Your time is renewed with the arrival of morning and evening, that my day today be not like my yesterdays, that my day not simply be habit. —LEA GOLDBERG …

Our Relation to Others Rabbi Ḥanina ben Dosa would say: One with whom people are pleased, the divine spirit is pleased; and one with whom people are displeased, the divine spirit is displeased. —PIRKEI AVOT …