What Happens When a Jewish Child Makes a Blessing? 10 Facts About Blessing with Intention

1. The path to receiving abundant blessing - The Zohar in Parshat Vayechi: "Anyone who blesses Hashem - is blessed, and one who does not bless - does not merit any blessing, as it is said 'For those who honor Me I will honor,' and besides this, they will merit long life." In the book "Mitzvot Zmaniot": "Know, my son, that the greatest of all commandments, and the strongest of all services are the matter of blessings. For every believer must bless our Hashem for everything with its appropriate blessing."

2. Angels answer 'Amen' – In the book 'Kav HaYashar' chapter 96: "With every mitzvah that is blessed, those angels (belonging to that mitzvah) gather around the one making the blessing and listen to the blessing and answer Amen."

3. One who blesses is as if they fulfilled all commandments - Similarly explained in the Midrash: "Taste and see that Hashem is good, Hashem said: 'Fulfill all the commandments I gave you in the Torah, if you eat from the fruits of the land or from the tree, bless them,'" and in the commentary "Zayit Ra'anan" it says: "Meaning: if you blessed everything, it is as if you fulfilled all the commandments." (Yalkut Shimoni, Psalms 34)

4. Through blessing, it is as if one eats from their own - In another Midrash: "You said to Hashem, You are my Lord", Hashem said: If you ate and said blessed are You Hashem, "My goodness is not upon you" do not feel indebted for eating from what is Mine, rather you ate from your own. And it is as if you fulfilled the entire Torah as it is written 'you shall eat and be satisfied and bless,' and next to it all the commandments. And so did the forefathers of the world, as it is said: 'To the holy ones who are in the earth'. (Yalkut Shimoni, Psalms 16).

This Midrash emphasizes three points: a. That through blessing it is as if you eat from your own. b. As if you fulfilled the entire Torah. c. That this is what the forefathers of the world did, and by saying the blessing one adheres to the deeds of the forefathers, in the sense of 'when will my deeds reach the deeds of my forefathers,' whom Hashem desired for this reason.

5. A Jewish child blessing benefits all worlds - Rabbi Yitzchak Zev Soloveitchik sent two of his students to establish a yeshiva in Or Yehuda for children from broken families. After a period of hard work and investment, the heads of the institution felt they were not seeing blessing in their efforts. They approached Rabbi Soloveitchik and asked if there was justification for maintaining the institution. Rabbi Soloveitchik replied: "It is enough that you succeed in getting a Jewish child to say a blessing once! If you knew the great importance of helping a Jewish child say 'shehakol' just once, you would never think of closing the institution." He added: "Go see in the book 'Nefesh HaChaim' how great is the power of a blessing in all the worlds."

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6. For one blessing a day, it's worth enduring suffering and pain - The book 'Derech Sicha' relates that Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky was asked about a sick woman whose entire body suffered pain and who lay like a stone that couldn't be turned, whether to pray for her long life or for her not to suffer. The questioner added the story of the Mahril Diskin, who came to bless a suffering widow with 'Shana Tova' (Happy New Year). The widow needed full nursing care and couldn't move her limbs. She asked the Mahril - 'Rabbi! Bless me with long life,' and to the surprise of those present why she wanted long life when her suffering was so difficult, she answered: "Once a day a woman comes to wash her, and afterward she manages to say one blessing in purity. And it's worth being in suffering for a whole day to merit saying one blessing." Rabbi Kanievsky replied: "The woman was right. One should pray for the sick person to be healthy with long life and years."

7. Blessings: a pleasing aroma to Hashem - Blessings and prayers are a great foundation of our Torah. Our Sages said: "Prayers were established corresponding to the daily offerings" (Berachot 28a), meaning that just as the sacrifice is a fire offering to Hashem and is pleasing, so too prayers and blessings are fire offerings to Hashem.

8. The bread should dance with joy because through it the great and awesome Name is blessed - It is told that Rabbi Baruch Ber Leibowitz once shared with his students about the excitement that seized him when he heard from one of the Jews of Slutsk, when pointing to a loaf of bread, who said: 'If bread had intellect and a brain, and could speak, how happy would it be? It would dance with joy, knowing that through it and upon it they will now bless the great and awesome Name'. (The Rabbi Who Resembled an Angel, p. 273)

9. How can one bless with intention? 4 tips from Torah giants - The book "Notrei Bracha" presents advice from three leading Torah authorities who were asked: How can one bless with intention?

The advice of Rabbi Shmuel Halevi Wosner: "It's true that this is difficult work, but the advice is: to say every blessing from a written text."

The well-known words of Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky: "Think about the words of the blessing. If you practice this, it's not difficult! And to practice, you need to concentrate for thirty days without interruption, and then you're accustomed."

The proven advice of Rabbi Yehuda Tzadka, head of Porat Yosef Yeshiva, is to divide the blessing into three parts: Blessed are You Hashem, our God, King of the universe, etc...

The commitment of Rabbi Yisrael Salanter: "Get used to concentrating on the first two blessings of Grace After Meals and contemplate them." (From Rabbi Yisrael Salanter's commitments)

10. The main way to achieve divine inspiration - Rabbi Chaim Vital writes about the matter of blessing, that he was greatly warned about this, and that this is the main power to achieve divine inspiration. These are his words: "The main achievement of divine inspiration for a person depends on their intention and carefulness in all blessings over enjoyment. Because through them, the power of those impurities that cling to material foods and attach to the person eating them is nullified, and through the blessings said with intention, one removes the impurities from them, and purifies their material, becoming pure and prepared to receive holiness. And I was greatly warned about this." Rabbi Chaim Vital concluded by saying: "Therefore, a person needs to pay attention to these things whenever they bless, in order to bless with great intention, word by word with great joy." (Kaf HaChaim, Orach Chaim, 158-76)

What is a blessing? What are the differences between blessings? What is the meaning of the word blessing and what is its root? Rabbi Zamir Cohen in a fascinating lecture explains the whole subject of various blessings in Judaism, their importance, their meaning, and what they actually give and provide to a person: