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USCJ EC Staff Meeting Shiur - October 2007

Questions for Discussion:

1. Parashat Lech-lecha (the Torah portion Lech-lecha, Genesis 12:1-17:27) is full of blessings. God blesses Abram several times, even blessing him with a new name: Abraham (and his wife, Sarai, with a new name: Sarah)! King Melchizedek of Salem blesses Abram and his God, God blesses Hagar, foretelling the birth of Ishmael, and God blesses Ishmael, as well as foretells the birth of Isaac, promising that a covenant will be maintained with him. What does it mean to be blessed?
2. What are some blessings in your life? In the passage above, God tells Abram that he will be a blessing. How are you a blessing?
3. Most blessings start with the Hebrew phrase “Ba-ruch A-tah Adonai -Blessed are You Lord.” The word Ba-ruch/Bless has the same root as the Hebrew word Be-rech, which means “knee.” Sometimes when we say a blessing, we actually bend our knees when we say “Ba-ruch,” involving our entire body in the blessing. But even when we don’t bend our knees, how does this bless-knee connection change the meaning of the blessings we say?
4. The rabbis tell us we should say 100 blessings a day. Indeed, there are many standard times during the day for saying blessings, such as eating and during tefilla (prayer), as well as special times, such as during a thunder storm or upon seeing a flowering tree. When we engage in “God-talk,” referring to God (“Look at the beautiful flower God created”) or saying a blessing, we make a safe environment for young children to ask about God, thus creating their own relationships with God. What can we do if we happen upon a “blessable” moment but don’t know the traditional blessing to say?

Printable version

Maxine Segal Handelman
Consultant for Early Childhood Education,
United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism