Birchos HaTorah: The Blessings over the Torah

Most brachos were instituted by our Sages. Of this one, the Gemara (Berachos 21a) asks: “From where do we know the blessing over the Torah before [learning] it, from the Torah itself?” And it answers with a verse from Moshe’s song in Haazinu (Devarim 32:3): “When I call out the Name of Hashem, give greatness to our G‑d.” Before the words of Torah are spoken, Hashem is blessed.

The same page compares the Torah to food. Just as we bless before eating and after, could we learn one from the other? The Gemara draws a line between them: food is for this life, but Torah is חַיֵּי עוֹלָם, “eternal life.” Keep this picture in mind; we will meet it again in the Tanya.

The prophet Yirmeyahu asked a question that no one could answer: “Who is the wise man who will understand this … for what was the land destroyed?” (Yirmeyahu 9:11). The next verse gives Hashem’s own answer: “because they forsook My Torah.”

But they did not stop learning! So the Gemara (Nedarim 81a; Bava Metzia 85b) explains, in the words of Rav Yehuda in the name of Rav: שֶׁלֹּא בֵּרְכוּ בַּתּוֹרָה תְּחִילָּה, “because they did not first say the blessing over the Torah.”

The Alter Rebbe opens the laws of these brachos with this very teaching (Shulchan Aruch HaRav 47:1): one must be “most vigilant” with them, for the land was laid waste only because they did not say the blessing before Torah study. Rashi, as quoted in our siddur’s commentary, explains why: “For they did not regard the Torah as sufficiently important to recite a blessing over it. Therefore they would treat its blessings with disdain. Accordingly, even though they were very occupied with Torah study, their Torah study did not protect them.”

And so, the Alter Rebbe concludes, every person should hold the Torah so precious, “G‑d’s precious vessel in which He takes delight every day”, that “he recites its blessings with a joy that surpasses his joy over all the pleasures in the world.”

What exactly was missing? The translators of the Alter Rebbe’s Shulchan Aruch bring, in their note to 47:1, the words of the Bach. The people studied, he writes, “for their own material benefit, so that they would know the laws needed for their business dealings, and also to proudly display their wisdom. They did not seek to fuse with the holiness and spirituality of the Torah and cleave to it, [thereby] drawing the Divine Presence down into this world.... They thus brought about a separation [in the universe] and caused the Divine Presence to retreat and ascend from this world.” The Torah they learned “was left merely physical, no longer pervaded by the holiness of the Divine Presence.”

The same note adds that, according to many maamarim of Chassidus (it cites Likkutei Torah on Devarim, p. 29a), the Sages’ words refer “not only to the blessings of the Torah per se, but also to each individual’s endeavors in the Divine service of prayer, for prayer generates a connection between the individual and the inherently Divine nature of the Torah.” I bring that reference as cited there.

Set the Gemara’s words beside our siddur and you will notice these differences:

• “to occupy ourselves with” or “concerning”? Shmuel’s wording in the Gemara is לַעֲסוֹק בְּדִבְרֵי תוֹרָה. Our siddur says עַל דִּבְרֵי תוֹרָה. The Alter Rebbe writes in his Shulchan Aruch (47:4) that the bracha is אֲשֶׁר קִדְּשָׁנוּ בְּמִצְוֹתָיו וְצִוָּנוּ עַל דִּבְרֵי תוֹרָה, and that the version in “these countries” is la’asok. The translators note: “in his Siddur the Alter Rebbe uses the version Al Divrei Torah, basing himself on the AriZal.” The Shulchan Aruch (Orach Chaim 47:5) also writes עַל דִּבְרֵי תוֹרָה.
• With a vav. The Alter Rebbe rules (47:5) that it is preferable to say V’ha’arev with a vav, “and”, joined to the first bracha; and that even according to the mystical tradition, in which V’ha’arev is a separate bracha and one answers Amen between them, “nevertheless VeHaarev should be read with a vav.” The translators add: “And so it appears in the Alter Rebbe’s Siddur.”
• Our children, and theirs. The Alter Rebbe mentions some who add “and the descendants of our descendants”, and writes: “This addition, however, is not necessary, for “our descendants” also includes grandchildren” (47:1).

And why does the bracha speak of “the words of Torah”? A Hebrew note in the siddur’s commentary brings the Previous Rebbe (Sefer HaMaamarim 5704, p. 108, as cited): Torah study is chiefly in speech, and therefore the morning bracha says עַל דִּבְרֵי תוֹרָה.

A few of the Alter Rebbe’s laws (Shulchan Aruch HaRav 47) show how wide these brachos reach:

• All of Torah. The bracha is needed for Scripture, for Mishnah, for Talmud and for Midrash, each alone, “for it is all Torah and was given to Moshe at Sinai” (47:2).
• Speaking, not only thinking. One who only thinks words of Torah does not need the bracha, because וְהִרְהוּר לָאו כְּדִבּוּר הוּא, “thought is not equivalent to speech” (47:2). This is the same point as עַל דִּבְרֵי תוֹרָה: the bracha is over Torah that is spoken.
• Before prayer. The Alter Rebbe discusses whether the bracha before the Shema, Ahavah Rabbah, can cover one’s learning, and concludes that “one should make a point of reciting the blessings over Torah study before the prayer service” (47:6). That is why they stand here, among the Morning Blessings.
• Once for the whole day. Some authorities hold that, like the Morning Blessings, these brachos were instituted to be said only once a day, so one does not repeat them after a nap or a break; the Alter Rebbe writes: “This has become the accepted custom” (47:7).
• Women also say these brachos (47:10).

I bring these to show the place of the brachos in the day, not as a guide for practice. For your own practice, ask your rav.

A bracha over a mitzvah should be followed by the mitzvah. Some authorities hold that with Torah study a break does not matter, since a Jew is obligated to learn at all times. But the Alter Rebbe writes (Shulchan Aruch HaRav 47:7) that it is proper to take into account those who disagree and to make no break at all, “as is the practice with regard to the other mitzvos. Thus it has become customary to recite the Priestly Blessing directly after the blessings over Torah study.”

He adds a detail: “Since [this passage] is being recited as study (and not as a remembrance of the Priestly Blessing) it may be recited even before the morning dawns, even though the Priestly Blessing is not conferred at night.” We say it as Torah, not as the kohanim’s blessing itself. The Shulchan Aruch (Orach Chaim 47:9) records the same custom: וכן נהגו לומר פרשת ברכת כהנים סמוך לברכת התורה, “and so it is the custom to say the passage of Birkas Kohanim right after the blessing of the Torah.”

Our siddur then adds Eilu Devorim. Here is what I notice, as my own observation: after the brachos we say verses from the Written Torah, then words of the Mishnah, then a teaching found in the Gemara; and the Alter Rebbe writes (47:2) that the bracha covers Scripture, Mishnah and Talmud alike.

The verses come from Bamidbar 6:22–27. Hashem tells Moshe to tell Aharon and his sons, the kohanim: “This is how you shall bless the children of Israel.” In the Beis HaMikdash, the Mishnah quoted in Berachos 11b tells us, the kohanim in the morning service “blessed the people with three blessings: Emes V’yatziv, the Avodah, and Birkas Kohanim.”

The last verse makes clear who really gives the blessing: “They shall place My Name upon the children of Israel, וַאֲנִי אֲבָרֲכֵם, and I will bless them.” The kohanim say the words; Hashem blesses.

The siddur’s commentary explains what is special here: “The Priestly Blessing is unique in that it combines both the advantage of prayer — that it draws down new influence from a level beyond all limitation and structure — and that of blessing — that the influence is drawn down directly to this material realm without interference.” In the Yiddish note behind this (Likkutei Sichos, vol. 39, p. 378) the Rebbe adds that this is why Birkas Kohanim is said every day before the prayers: as a preparation, so that what prayer draws down reaches this world without delay.

Count the words of the three blessings, as they stand in the siddur:

• יְבָרֶכְךָ יְיָ וְיִשְׁמְרֶֽךָ: three words;
• יָאֵר יְיָ | פָּנָיו אֵלֶֽיךָ, וִיחֻנֶּֽךָּ: five words;
• יִשָּׂא יְיָ | פָּנָיו אֵלֶֽיךָ, וְיָשֵׂם לְךָ שָׁלוֹם: seven words.

This is my own observation, not a teaching I am quoting: the blessing grows as it goes, and it ends with שָׁלוֹם, peace. Notice too the small vertical line after the Name in the second and third verses. It is a pasek, a sign of a short pause: we stop for a moment after the Name before going on to פָּנָיו.

The passage begins with the very first Mishnah of the tractate Peah: “These are the things that have no fixed measure: pei’oh, the corner of the field left for the poor; bikurim, the first fruits brought to the Beis HaMikdash; re’ayon, appearing there on the festivals; acts of kindness; and the study of Torah.” The Mishnah continues: “These are the things whose fruits a person eats in this world, while the principal remains for him in the World to Come”, and it lists honoring father and mother, acts of kindness, bringing peace between a person and his fellow, “and the study of Torah is equal to them all.”

Our siddur’s second list is longer. The Gemara in Shabbos 127a brings, in the name of Rabbi Yochanan, “six things whose fruits a person eats in this world”: welcoming guests, visiting the sick, concentration in prayer, coming early to the house of study, raising one’s children to Torah study, and judging one’s fellow favorably. The siddur takes four of these into its list (welcoming guests, visiting the sick, concentrating in prayer, and coming early to the house of study, to which it adds “morning and evening”). It also includes three that I did not find in either of these two texts: helping a bride to marry, escorting the dead, and peace “between a man and his wife”.

Small differences in wording, too: the Mishnah has פֵּרוֹתֵיהֶן, the siddur פֵּרוֹתֵיהֶם; the Mishnah says the principal remains “for him”, לוֹ, which the siddur does not have; and where the Mishnah, as printed in my edition, has “peace between a person and his fellow”, the siddur says שֶׁבֵּין, as the Gemara does when it quotes the Mishnah.

And the list ends where the morning began: וְתַלְמוּד תּוֹרָה כְּנֶֽגֶד כֻּלָּם. That the passage opens and closes with Torah study is my own observation; that Torah study is equal to them all is the Mishnah’s.