Birchos HaShachar: The Morning Brachos

The moment. On opening the eyes (Berachos 60b). The words echo Tehillim 146:8, “Hashem opens the eyes of the blind”.

Inner meaning. We ask Hashem to remove our blindness to what is spiritual, so that we see the G‑dliness inside the world with the eye of the mind (Toras Chayim). The main difference between holiness and its opposite is this inner sight: recognizing the true nature of every situation (Meah Shearim).

The moment. On sitting up and moving the limbs, which were as if tied all night (Berachos 60b; Shulchan Aruch HaRav 46:2). The words come from Tehillim 146:7.

Inner meaning. Asurim also means “prisoners”. We ask not to be held by the material side of the body. Each morning the soul receives new strength to step out of the darkness, and a person should rejoice like a prisoner set free (Toras Chayim; Kuntres Pokeach Ivrim). The limbs stand for the emotions: a person is “bound” when his love and fear of Hashem cannot come out (Meah Shearim). And all these bodily actions mirror what happens Above, for odom, “man”, is read as “I resemble the One Above” (Yeshayahu 14:14); that is why our everyday acts draw G‑dliness down and are blessed (Likkutei Torah).

The moment. On standing up straight (Berachos 60b; 46:2). Matir Asurim must not come after it (46:5). The words are from Tehillim 146:8.

Inner meaning. We ask to be a man who stands upright, able to recognize his Creator, and not like the spirit of an animal that goes down (Toras Chayim). The upright body is also an order inside the soul: the head above, the heart beneath it, and the feet, which stand for action, at the base. The mind should rule the emotions all the way to deed, and the main thing is the deed itself (Meah Shearim).

The moment. On getting dressed (Berachos 60b). The first to be clothed by Hashem were Adam and Chava: “Hashem Elokim made for Adam and his wife garments of skin, and clothed them” (Bereishis 3:21).

Inner meaning. Clothes stand for the mitzvos, the way a person connects to G‑dliness (Meah Shearim). Our Sages call a person “naked” who lacks a mitzvah: “naked, without that mitzvah”. Without the light of the mitzvos a person is “naked”; by accepting the yoke of Heaven he puts on a garment that surrounds him from head to foot.

History. The one bracha not in the Gemara: the Geonim instituted it after the Talmud (46:6). Its words are from Yeshayahu 40:29.

Inner meaning. A weary person cannot use the powers of his soul in his body. So too a person can be spiritually weary, unable to bring out the powers of his G‑dly soul. Every morning Hashem gives fresh strength, enabling him to reach his spiritual potential (Meah Shearim).

The moment. On stepping down onto the ground (Berachos 60b). The words are from Tehillim 136:6: “Who spreads out the earth above the waters, for His kindness is forever.”

Inner meaning. Rabbi Shaul Yosef Leiter explains on Chabad.org: water flows from high to low, like a revelation from Above that one obeys automatically; eretz, “earth”, is linked to ratz, “ran”, the earth that ran to do Hashem’s will, a picture of service by choice. In the higher worlds “water” is above “earth”. Here Hashem spread the earth above the water: the light does not overwhelm our free choice, so we can serve Him willingly. On waking we should think about that kindness.

The moment. On beginning to walk (Berachos 60b). Where people walk barefoot at home before putting on shoes to go out, this bracha comes before the shoes; where they put shoes on first, the order is reversed. Each place follows its custom (46:5).

Inner meaning. The verse says: “From Hashem are the steps of man made firm, and he will desire His way” (Tehillim 37:23). Hashem directs a person’s will, so that he wants to do His will, and is moved to seek holiness and make it part of his life (Meah Shearim).

The moment. On putting on one’s shoes (Berachos 60b).

Inner meaning. Why should shoes be “all my needs”? The Mitteler Rebbe explains: every other garment is put on from above, but the shoe is a garment under the foot, and the whole body stands and walks on it. Holding the foot, it holds up the whole body, so it includes all the body’s needs (Maamarei Admur HaEmtzai). And the next two brachos go with it: shoes for the feet, a belt around the body, a covering for the head. These are the “encompassing” powers of our deeds, feelings and thoughts (Meah Shearim).

The moment. On putting on one’s belt or gartl (Berachos 60b; 46:2). Why do only this bracha and the next mention Israel? The Alter Rebbe explains: for other nations a belt and a hat serve only the body, but for Jews they also serve modesty and holiness. The belt separates the heart from the lower part of the body (46:2).

Inner meaning. The Tzemach Tzedek connects it with the verse “She girds her loins with strength” (Mishlei 31:17): through this strength comes “Who is mighty? One who conquers his inclination” (Avos 4:1) (Or HaTorah). The belt surrounds the body, which stands for the emotions (Meah Shearim).

The moment. On putting a hat on one’s head (Berachos 60b). The Alter Rebbe writes that covering the head is a mark of modesty and holiness, “for by doing so one causes a reverence for Heaven to abide over one’s head” (46:2, as translated on Chabad.org).

Inner meaning. With the shoes and the belt, the head covering completes the three garments. Meah Shearim relates it to the tefillin of the head: the encompassing light of the mind, as the belt was that of the emotions and the shoes that of action.

History. This bracha and the next two come from the Gemara (Menachos 43b), and the Alter Rebbe rules that they are said every day (46:4). The Kabbalists explain that they speak of the soul, which left at night and has returned.

Inner meaning. It is thanks for being able to live a life of closeness to G‑dliness, with faith at its core, and not only an ordinary material life (the Mitteler Rebbe, Ner Mitzvah). The Rebbe told that Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev was once seen dancing with joy during the morning brachos. Asked why, he said that when he reached this bracha he thought about the good fortune that had been given to him, and at once broke into a dance (Toras Menachem).

Meaning. The Alter Rebbe rules that even a captive says this bracha, because it was not instituted as thanks for freedom from slavery. It is thanks for our obligation in the mitzvos, for a bondman is obligated only in the mitzvos that a woman is obligated in (46:4).

Meaning. Like the bracha before it, this is thanks for the obligation of mitzvos: men are obligated in more mitzvos (46:4). The translators of the Alter Rebbe’s Shulchan Aruch add that, according to Chassidus, in the Time to Come the innate spiritual superiority of the feminine will be revealed (citing Likkutei Sichos, vol. 30, p. 144ff.).

For women. The Alter Rebbe writes that women customarily say she’osani kirtzono, “Who made me according to His will” (46:4). The translators note that he does not include it in his siddur, and that practice varies; they cite Kovetz HaRazash (p. 28) and a letter of the Rebbe (Igros Kodesh, vol. 20, p. 63). Ask your rav.

The moment. On washing the face, and one continues with Vihi Ratzon until its closing bracha (Berachos 60b; 46:2).

Inner meaning. Sleep is “one sixtieth of death”, and the dark of night stands for what is opposed to holiness. By removing sleep from our eyes, Hashem takes us out of it into holiness, and so the prayer continues at once: “make us at home in Your Torah and make us cleave to Your mitzvos” (Toras Chayim). In the same prayer we ask not to be brought to a test. The Rebbe explains: a person must never bring a test upon himself; even King David, who did, stumbled (Toras Menachem; Sefer HaMaamarim Melukat).