ברכות התורה | Blessing for Torah Study, interpretive translation by Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi

Contributor(s):

Zalman Schachter-Shalomi and Unknown Author(s)

Shared on:

10 September 2017 under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) 4.0 International copyleft license

Categories:

Birkhot haTorah, Torah Study

Tags:

North America, Late Antiquity, Jewish Renewal, Amoraic prayers, Prayers before Torah Study, Tannaitic prayers, Antiquity, talmud torah, ecoḥasid, interpretive translation, devotional interpretation, English Translation

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Source (Hebrew)	Translation (English)
בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יְיָ אֱלֹהֵינוּ מֶלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם, אֲשֶׁר קִדְּשָׁנוּ בְּמִצְוֹתָיו, וְצִוָּנוּ עַל דִבְרֵי תוֹרָה:	You commanded us To exercise our awareness In your Torah; For this instruction We offer You our appreciation, Yah, our God.
וְהַעֲרֶב נָא יְיָ אֱלֹהֵינוּ אֶת דִּבְרֵי תוֹרָתְךָ בְּפִינוּ, וּבְפִי כָל עַמְּךָ בֵּית יִשְׂרָאֵל. וְנִהְיֶה אֲנַחְנוּ וְצֶאֱצָאֵינוּ, וְצֶאֱצָאֵי כָל עַמְּךָ בֵּית יִשְׂרָאֵל, כֻּלָּנוּ יוֹדְעֵי שְׁמֶךָ וְלוֹמְדֵי תוֹרָתֶךָ לִשְׁמָהּ. בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יְיָ הַמְלַמֵּד תּוֹרָה לְעַמּוֹ יִשְׂרָאֵל:	We ask that we may find Zest and delight In the words of your teaching. May we and our children (and their children, too ) Become intimate with You. And, with pure intent– Immerse ourselves in the Torah. Barukh attah Yah, You mentor your people In Torah.
בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יְיָ אֱלֹהֵינוּ מֶלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם, אֲשֶׁר בָּחַר בָּנוּ מִכָּל הָעַמִּים, וְנָתַן לָנוּ אֶת תּוֹרָתוֹ. בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יְיָ נוֹתֵן הַתּוֹרָה:	Barukh attah Yah, I offer You thanks, Cosmic Majesty, And worship You For selecting us Among all nations, To reveal to us, The Torah meant for us. Barukh attah Yah, You keep gifting us With your Torah.
	Now, study Torah where your heart prompts you

This English translation of the blessing for Torah study by Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi z”l, was first published in his Siddur Tehillat Hashem Yidaber Pi (2009). Versification according to the Nusaḥ ha-ARI z”l by Aharon Varady.

Source

The discussion and formula for the blessing preceding Torah Study can be found in the Talmud Bavli, Berakhot 11b.

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Source (Hebrew)	Translation (English, the William Davidson Talmud at Sefaria, lightly adapted)
מאי מברך אמר רב יהודה אמר שמואל אשר קדשנו במצותיו וצונו לעסוק בדברי תורה	The Gemara clarifies: What formula of blessings does he recite (for studying Torah)? Rav Yehuda said that Shmuel said: The formula of this blessing is like the standard formula for blessings recited over other mitsvot: Blessed are You, YHVH our elo’ah, cosmic majesty, Who sanctified us with their mitsvot and commanded us to engage in matters of Torah.
ורבי יוחנן מסיים בה הכי הערב נא ה׳ אלהינו את דברי תורתך בפינו ובפיפיות עמך בית ישראל ונהיה אנחנו וצאצאינו וצאצאי עמך בית ישראל כלנו יודעי שמך ועוסקי תורתך ברוך אתה ה׳ המלמד תורה לעמו ישראל	And Rabbi Yoḥanan concludes the blessing by adding the following: Please help, YHVH our elo’ah, make the words of your Torah sweet in our mouths and in the mouths of your people, the house of Yisra’el, so that we and our descendants and the descendants of your people, the house of Yisra’el, may be those who know your name and engage in your Torah. Blessed are you, YHVH, Who teaches Torah to His people Yisra’el.
ורב המנונא אמר אשר בחר בנו מכל העמים ונתן לנו את תורתו ברוך אתה ה׳ נותן התורה אמר רב המנונא זו היא מעולה שבברכות	And Rav Hamnuna said an additional formula: Who has chosen us from all the peoples and given us his Torah. Blessed are you, YHVH, Giver of the Torah. With regard to this formula, Rav Hamnuna said: This concise blessing is the most outstanding of all the blessings over the Torah, as it combines thanks to God for giving us the Torah as well as acclaim for the Torah and for Yisra’el.
הלכך לימרינהו לכולהו	Since several formulas for the blessing over Torah were suggested, each with its own distinct advantage, the Gemara concludes: Therefore, let us recite them all as blessings over the Torah.

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“ברכות התורה | Blessing for Torah Study, interpretive translation by Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi” is shared through the Open Siddur Project with a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International copyleft license.

Zalman Schachter-Shalomi

Rabbi Dr. Zalman Meshullam Schachter-Shalomi, affectionately known as "Reb Zalman" (28 August 1924 – 3 July 2014) was one of the founders of the Jewish Renewal movement. Born in Żółkiew, Poland (now Ukraine) and raised in Vienna, he was interned in detention camps under the Vichy Regime but managed to flee the Nazi advance, emigrating to the United States in 1941. He was ordained as an Orthodox rabbi in 1947 within the ḤaBaD Hasidic movement while under the leadership of the sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe, Yosef Yitzchok Schneersohn, and served ḤaBaD communities in Massachusetts and Connecticut. He subsequently earned an M.A. in psychology of religion at Boston University, and a doctorate from the Hebrew Union College. He was initially sent out to speak on college campuses by the Lubavitcher Rebbe, but in the early 1960s, after experimenting with "the sacramental value of lysergic acid", the main ingredient in LSD, leadership within ḤaBaD circles cut ties with him. He continued teaching the Torah of Ḥassidut until the end of his life to creative, free and open-minded Jewish thinkers with humility and kindness and established warm ecumenical ties as well. In September 2009, he became the first contributor of a siddur to the Open Siddur Project database of Jewish liturgy and related work. Reb Zalman supported the Open Siddur Project telling its founder, "this is what I've been looking forward to!" and sharing among many additional works of liturgy, an interview he had with Havurah magazine in the early to mid-1980s detailing his vision of "Database Davenen." The Open Siddur Project is proud to be realizing one of Reb Zalman's long held dreams.

Unknown Author(s)

Sometimes the best we can do in attributing a historical work is to indicate the period and place it was written, the first prayer book it may have been printed in, or the archival collection in which the manuscript was found. We invite the public to help to attribute all works to their original composers. If you know something not mentioned in the commentary offered, please leave a comment or contact us.

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ברכות השחר | Blessings at your Dawn of Wakefulness, translated by Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi

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Learning torah in a circle in an old charpit at Isabella Freedman (CC BY-SA, 2013)

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ויהי נעם אדני אלהינו עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננה עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננהו "May the pleasantness of אדֹני our elo’ah be upon us; may our handiwork be established for us — our handiwork, may it be established." –Psalms 90:17