Jewish Philosophy: The Hidden Message of a Blessing - Rabbi Yitzchak Botton

[Music] they will be discussing the concept of abraca blessings you know the different significance and ideas relating to them we'll start with the idea talked about in the Gemara bra hooked my locket a dispute between Roth and rabbi yohanan Rav says any blessing without mentioning God the name is not a blessing this approaches self apparent obviously the blessing is directed towards God without mentioning God something is missing the Oh Conan seems to argue and says that no any blessing without mentioning the mouthful the idea of the Gods kingship is not a blessing the commentators explained he's not arguing with Roth he agrees you need to mention God's name he's only CLE only comes to add the requirement of mentioning God's kingship as well so reap asking the halacha Lamar said brought in the Shannara the ruling is in accordance with rabbi Yochanan that every any blessing for it to be considered a proper blessing has to both mention God's name and God's kingship then it's a proper blessing so one might want to ask one wanna understand what are they arguing about why isn't why according to Rav is it enough to say just God's name and why according to rebuking on is that not enough but does it further require to mention God's kingship so this is what we want to try to appreciate and understand in order to get deeper into what's going on we wanna try to really put a get a clear understanding of what is the whole concept of making this blessing why is it so important to make a blessing why did the rabbi's Institute in so many cases to make blessings so for that we have to back up a little bit we have to back up and understand really the idea of the world that which God made and the manner in which he made this world so going back to Adam Adam Irish on the first person we know that God made Adam and God established a relationship with Adam and Eve of course and things were great until unfortunately we know the first sin occurred and at that moment things changed drastically one of the greatest changes one of the most you know unfortunate changes in the world after the first sin was that the presence of God left from this world and it went up to the world above to the more the spiritual heavenly realms and this world changed in nature that when you look around in the world and this is the way it is today one doesn't see the presence of Hashem one doesn't feel the presence of Hashem we call it in Hebrew it's called Esther punim a concealment of God's presence there was a God's presence is concealed and we see what we see nature we see a world that works and runs and we see people doing what they want to do wicked people are successful righteous people unfortunately sometimes are not successful almost the person who can convince himself that this chaos and there is no real person in that person there's no more longer a controlling force of force that's in charge of the world this story comes up a lot the we talked we're taught with with Avram Aveeno that our arena was born in a time of chaos and darkness most of the world was worshipping idols committing all kinds of you know disgusting type of behavior murder robbery rate we don't even at women and and more we're not going to get into all of the details but Avram he from the age of a young child as different opinions what age three you know Bar Mitzvah age but he started to study the world and he started to ponder on how the world works and he came to realize that there must be someone in charge of the world something that is in charge of the world and he came to recognize the existence of God and furthermore he came to recognize that not only does God exist but that God is present in the world and furthermore that God is running things that God is ultimately in charge of everything and in control of everything and it is through reaching these realizations that is why God part of why God chose him to be the beginning of the Jewish people in order to spread this faith and knowledge of God to his children and to the world so with this in mind you can appreciate now go back to the arguments between Roth and Rubio Kanaan and understand what they're really discussing we are involved in a lot of things in the world we eat ten times a day some people you know even more don't tell you how many times I eat each day but you know people either drink sometimes it's healthy sometimes it's not which really doesn't make any difference but when I thought about health right now but the rabbi's saw an opportunity for the Institute to make blessings every time we eat because a person every time he eats he interacts with the physical world he consumes part of the physical world and he his life depends on food and so they realized that if we enact these blessings when a person eats it's the best opportunity to constantly remind the person of reality while he you know cuz he'll eat so often what's the reality we want to remind a person of so we mentioned with the whole story of Abraham Rob says that we must remind ourselves constantly that God exists and that is represented in his opinion that you have to have God's name in a blessing because if we're not aware of God's presence and God's existence then we haven't we don't know we don't we're living in the world blindly so the the idea of making a blessing has to include God's name because that's going to remind us that God is real God exists because again after the original sin of man that idea became confusing so much so that subsequent generations after the Adam started to believe first of all they believed that God is not in control they also began to believe that God is not present and ultimately they believed that God doesn't even exist all this as a result of the of the head step on him God hiding himself guarding his presence from the world and creating a world where the question of whether God exists or doesn't exists is here so through the Brucker RAV tells us it's - it's to bring a person back to the original frame of mind that were meant to have that adam had in the beginning is that certainly God exists and God is here and every time you say baroque etat house Shan you are bringing that idea out from a concealed State you are strengthening that idea in a person's minds in a person's heart and affecting the world because the idea of a blessing is to also draw down divine revelation and so when you say Baruch Hashem blessed are You God you are revealing in a very real way the fact that God is real and that God exists and that he's present now you might think that's that's super and I would agree with you so the question is now on rabiot can ever be open on why aren't you so why aren't you happy with Rob's opinion why isn't it enough for you what Rob said that's great if the whole world could realize that God exists and that God is present we would have a much better world wouldn't we I think we could agree with that so whatsoever you're not arguing about why isn't he content with that so the answer is that it's only really half of the process that we need to go through recognizing God's existence there's only part one ultimately we have to understand that God is in control that God the kingship the kingship of Hashem God is the king God is in charge God is in control and we must be obedient to God we must follow God's Way we don't have the opportunity to do what we want especially if it's contrary to what Hashem said unfortunately there are many people in the world that recognize that God created the world you know if you ask a lot of people though if you do believe that God exists they'll say yes but they'll be reluctant to accept the God's rules so ultimately ribeirão hunter comes to tell us so what if you accept God's existence that's not enough that's actually more insulting to accept that God exists and I'd say but anyway I won't do what I want that's more of a slap in the face so to speak at least someone doesn't know that God exists he can I mean it's obviously worse but ultimately he's not going against Hashem willfully he thinks that there is no God it's unfortunate he's wrong but he's not rebelling against God knowingly actively but someone who says I believe that God exists and then does the opposite of what God wants he's rebelling against Hashem he's betraying Hashem more willfully ryokan and says just to make a blessing that says God is here it's not enough you have to also say that God is Melek God is the king of the world and God it's God is the one who creates and and the rules and it's our job to follow those rules we don't have that option to create our own rules like unfortunately you have in this modern world different philosophers and different philosophies that are the ultimate definition of truth is what man decides man is the ultimate of creation therefore he is the one who decides ultimately what is true and what is moral with leaving morality up to man to decide that what you're really saying is we're going to play ping pong with morality today it's on your side to meet OMA hearts on my side today this is allowed and this is moral tomorrow this is not moral because man's decisions can often be manipulated by his emotions and by his desires and therefore that's not going to be a truthful result but it's convenient you know because if a group of people want a certain thing and they want to live a certain way so they can convince themselves and others that this is the correct way tomorrow another group will come and say no you're wrong and convinced us all of a new way that what a new a new troop is truth is not up to me to decide it's for Hashem already decided what's true and our job as people in this world is to be loyal to the way of Hashem to be the Royal to Torah and to be loyal to the morality that the Torah teaches us and that is included in the idea of God's sovereignty every Rosh Hashana we accept God as our King and we proclaim that we will be obedient subjects to that King we also mention God as a father which is very beautiful because there's not only a king relationship but a father relationship as well God loves us like like a father loves a child but there are rules in this world and the world is not going to be a proper world it's not complete until we both accept the relationship that we have a God through love like a father and also that he's our King and we have to follow his ways when we commit to following God's ways and we make this world a world that that follows the limits vote that the way that God said so that's when we ultimately and in a full way invite God back into the world this goes back to what we said in the beginning when man sinned and also with the subsequent generations that that sinned further we pushed away God's presence how do we bring her shame back into this world when we invite Hashem back into the world through accepting him as our king and being loyal to what he says and not what we want we bring God back into the world we make the worldís Shems again and that is the ultimate power and message within a brothel when we say blessed are You God king of the world what we're really saying is that we need to recognize God's presence and God's control and God's sovereignty then it's a Shams world again then we get to partake and participate in our Shems world [Music] you [Applause]