Now O Israel! What does Hashem ask of you?
Reading Rabbi Lazer Gurkow's article this week informs us as to the outcome of reciting blessings. What do the commentaries add to explain the injunction to say 100 blessings each day?
We read in our Parasha, the psukim known as ‘Parashat Hayirah’: the parasha of Fear of Hashem: (10:12-13 )’’Now, O Israel, מה: what does Hashem, your G-d, ask of you? Only to fear Hashem, your G-d, to go in all His ways, and to love Him, and to serve Hashem, your G-d, with all your heart and with all your soul, to observe the commandments of Hashem and His decrees, which I command you today, for your benefit.’
Rabbi Meir used to say (Menachot 43:2: A man is obligated to pronounce one hundred brachot every day, as we read:’Now, O Israel, מה: what does Hashem, your G-d, ask of you..’: do not read מה: what, but: מאה: one hundred, to teach that one hundred brachot each day are asked of you by Hashem.
The Maharsha comments :’According to its plain meaning, the exposition ‘not to read as מה, but as מאה, relates to the words ‘only to fear Hashem’, but this is difficult, as our Sages ask:’And is fear of Hashem a small matter…?
‘Therefore they expounded it as ‘do not read מה: what, but מאה, leading them to expound the words ‘What does Hashem ask of you’::as: one hundred brachot, which is indeed a big thing.’
Rav Moshe Sternbuch, on this teaching of our Sages - that our passuk obligates us to say one hundred brachot each day - elucidates:’The reason is that when a person trains himself to pronounce one hundred brachot each day, and mentions Hashem’s Name in awe and fear, he is awakened to remember before Whom he stands, and instills in his heart the fear of Hashem, meaning:’What Hashem your G-d asks of you; only to fear Hashem your G-d’.
‘Therefore it is a virtue to one who seeks to raise his level of awe of Hashem, to say one hundred brachot each day with the requisite intention.’ Rav Baruch Halevi Epstein adds: ‘Tosafot write, that the intention in the מה/מאה change, is that there are ninety-nine letters in this passuk, and added other allusions.
‘However, they did not explain what compelled the word being read, not as written, but as מה.
‘It can be said, that the reason that compelled their exposition, is because we find that the word מה connotes nuliification and dismissal, as the Psalmist says: ‘מה אנוש כי תזכרנו: What is man, that You should have him in mind’, and (Kohelet):’ מה יתרון לאדם: What benefit is there to man’, and many other instances’.
May I add, this is vividly illustrated by the disingenuous words of the master of duplicity, Efron, to Avraham (Chayei Sarah 23:15):’Four hundred shekel of silver’ - a very large amount - ‘between me and you מה הוא: what is it?’
In our psukim, it is not possible to expound the word מה as a diminution and minimizing, when related to ‘the fear of Heaven’. Our Sages therefore felt compelled to expound it in a way other than that in which it was written.
‘Further, we find in several places that our Sages expound a word, by adding the letter א, as in (Zot Habracha 33:4):’ Torah commanded us Moshe, מורשת: the inheritance of the Congregation of Yaakov’, and our Sages expound the word מורשה, as מאורסה, adding the letter א, to read bethrothed.
‘In the Torah itself, we find that the letter א is omitted, as in Parashat Toldot (25:24): ‘And her days to give birth were completed, and behold, תומים: there were twins in her womb’ - the א is omitted, as the word in question is normally spelled: תאומים.
As a result of these concerns, there is no query as to the style of this exposition of our Sages- מאה instead of מה.’
Rav Epstein, in his seminal work, תורה תמימה, adds:’As to the exposition ‘read as מאה, not as written: מה’, to me it appears to be because in this passuk there are one hundred letters less one, and therefore read it as מאה, meaning read as one hundred letters.
‘As we find in the passuk (Vayigash 46:27):’All the souls of the house of Yaakov who came to Egypt were seventy’, though in fact they were sixty-nine; and similarly (Emor 23:16):’Until the day after the seventh week, you shall count fifty days..’, yet we only count forty-nine.
‘This is the way of the Torah, that when the count approaches a multiple of ten less one, it is counted in tens, and is not strict on the missing one.’
Rav Zalman Sorotzkin brings the two expositions we have brought, as to reading מאה in place of מה, and comments:’This needs understanding, as we find that Rabbeinu Bachya has asked on (Eikev 810):’And you shall bless Hashem, your G-d’: ‘What does man’s bracha add to the Source of Bracha’, who is complete, and requires nothing from His creations?. Therefore, were they to bless Him all day and all night, what will this add to Him?
‘It seems to me’, elucidates Rav Sorotzkin, ‘that the objective in creating man was to improve him, and as this depends on the performance of Mitzvot that Hashem has commanded us, as it says: ‘If in My ordinances you shall go’, the Bracha that we bless the One who created man, is that all should recognize His rule and His mastery, to do His Will wholeheartedly, as, by this, there will be an abundance of blessing, as is Hashem’s Will.
‘We find this in the Gemara (Brachot 7):’The bracha of Rabbi Yishmael, the Kohen Gadol, to Hakadosh-Baruch-Hu: May it be Your Will that Your Mercy conquers Your anger, and your Mercy is revealed, and that You conduct Yourself with regard to Your sons in Your Attribute of Mercy.’.
We therefore see that the bracha is not a need of Hashem, but is a need of man.
‘At Matan Torah, Bnei Israel heard from Moshe Rabbeinu ninety-eight curses, ‘if you do not heed’, to soften and nullify these ninety-eight curses in the Torah, we are obligated to pronounce ninety-nine brachot each day, so that the curses will be nullified by the greater number of brachot.
‘Therefore our passuk contains ninety-nine letters, to remind us that it is incumbent on us to pronounce ninety-nine brachot each day, to nullify the ninety-eight curses.
However, there is yet another curse:’(Ki Tavo 28:61) :’Also, the Lord will bring upon you every disease and plague which is not written in this Torah scroll, to destroy you’, and it too needs to be nullified, so, in any case we need to pronounce one hundred brachot each day.
‘As this curse is not written in the Torah, there is an allusion to a bracha which, also, is not written, as there are ninety-nine letters in our passuk, and only by the exposition ‘do not read מה but מאה׳, we add one more bracha ‘which is not written’, as there is no letter which alludes to this bracha, just as the curse is not written.
‘By the one hundred brachot, all of the curses will become blessings.’
These erudite expositions serve as an introduction to the wondrous drasha of Rav Pinchas Friedman - the ‘Shvilei Pinchas’.
The Rav brings the teaching of our Sages, to read מאה instead of מאה, obligating us to pronounce one hundred brachot every day, as well as the exposition that adduces the obligation to pronounce one hundred brachot as alluded to by there being ninety-nine letters in the passuk, to which, as Rabbeinu Bachya expounds, when we add the letter א adds up to one hundred, alluding to the obligation of one hundred brachot each day.
Asks the Rav:’Why did Hashem come to teach us an obligation to pronounce one hundred brachot each day, by omitting one letter in our passuk, it having ninety-nine letters, compelling us to add the letter א by the oral law?
‘We also need to contemplate the sayings of our Midrashim, that: ‘David Hamelech instituted the obligation to pronounce one hundred blessings every day’, as learned from the words (Samuel 2, 23:1):’And these are the last words of David.. and the saying of the man הוקם על: raised on high - על in gematriya is one hundred, as every day one hundred of his men perished, for an unknown reason, until he enquired and understood in his ruach hakodesh, and instituted that they say one hundred brachot each day.
Therefore our Sages established tha custom of saying one hundred brachot each day.’
‘Rabbeinu Bachya reconciles these Midrashim - that the saying of one hundred brachot each day, was instituted by David Hamelech, with the commentaries on our parasha, that it was Moshe Rabbeinu who instituted this practice - saying: Moshe instituted them initially, but they were then forgotten, and David re-instituted them. ‘We need, then, to understand why, when the practice was forgotten in the days of David, Bnei Israel were punished in such a harsh manner, that one hundred perished each day.
‘A further query: on Shabbat, in the shmoneh-esreh, we say twenty less brachot than in the weekday prayers, so how are we to fulfill the obligation of one hundred brachot?
Answers the Chatam Sofer - from his teacher, the Panim Yafot - that there are two ways to rectify the shortfall: one is to eat many fruits, and smell many redolent products, on Shabbat, so as to pronounce brachot on them, therby reaching the requisite one hundred brachot; the second, is to pay full attention to the blessings of those called up to the Torah, and the brachot of the Haftara, and to answer Amen, as they will then be credited as brachor he pronounced.
‘Let us now savor the wondrous drasha of the Siftei Kohen, as to why each day, one hundred men died, because they did not pronounce one hundred brachot each day (as, at that time, as we have brought, that obligation had been forgotten).
‘To atone for this, continues the Siftei Kohen, Bnei Israel had to pay a מ׳ס: a fine, as it were, to Hashem, the fine commensurately being, to say one hundred brachot each day.
‘The explanation is, that when the first luchot were shattered, after the sin of the golden calf, the letters מ׳ם and סמ’ך, which had miraculously ‘stood’ in the luchot, flew away.
‘To atone for this, we need to ‘repair’ this, through the one hundred brachot, as the numerical value of these two letters is one hundred.
‘This obligation of one hundred brachot is a מ׳ס: a ‘fine’, to Hashem, being commensurate numerically to the ‘offence’ which led to the letters מ׳םֶ and סמ׳ך ‘leaving’ the luchot.
‘This is because, as our Sages teach, when the luchot were intact, we became free - as our Sages expound: don’t say חרות: engraved on the luchot, but חירות: free from the מלאך המות: death.
‘Alas, the drug of life turned to a drug of death, as we learned, in the case of David Hamelech’s men.
‘Our Sages teach this in the Gemara: (Avoda Zara):: ‘This is the Torah that Moshe שם: placed before Bnei Israel’, they merited, that it was סם חיים: an drug of life, they didn’t merit, it became סם מות: a drug of death’.
‘Therefore, before the first luchot were shattered, in the merit of these two letters ס׳ם, the Torah was to Bnei Israel a drug of life; after the sin, when these two letters flew off, it became a drug of death, and the earlier decree of death returned.
‘This is why Moshe Rabbeinu established that Bnei Israel pronounce one hundred brachot each day, saying:’Now, O Israel, what does Hashem..ask of you?’, to pay to Hashem the מ׳ס: the impost, as atonement for the ‘offence’ to these two letters, the numerical value of which is one hundred, which atonement had been forgotten in the days of David, leading to one hundred deaths each day, until David established the obligation once again.’
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