הברכה שמח תשמח | Blessing for Joy: A Poetic Rendering of Sheva Brakhah no. 6 (Same’aḥ T’samaḥ), by Daniel Kieval

Contributor(s):

Daniel Kieval

Shared on:

ל׳ בתשרי ה׳תשע״ט (2018-10-09) under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) 4.0 International free-culture license

Categories:

Marriage

Tags:

blessings, ברכות brakhot, interpretive translation, North America, תחינות teḥinot, 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., wedding day, English vernacular prayer, devotional interpretation, wedding blessings, שבע ברכות sheva brakhot

This is a poetic rendering of the sixth blessing (of the Sheva Brakhot/7 Blessings) for a wedding. It riffs off of themes and language in the Hebrew text of joy, love, and companionship, and invocations of the Garden of Eden, creation, and eternity. Written originally for the wedding of friends; I hope you’ll feel free to adapt and rework it however suits your needs!

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Source (Hebrew)	Translation (English)
שַׂמֵּֽחַ תְּשַׂמַּח רֵעִים הָאֲהוּבִים	May you bask in outrageous joy in the radiant glow of your companion, your beloved, your friend — pure and perfect each moment in each other’s presence as if you were just created tasting eternity looking into his face, looking into her face
כְּשַׂמֵּחֲךָ יְצִירְךָ	May you laugh all of your laughter, and also cry all of your tears
בְּגַן עֵֽדֶן מִקֶּֽדֶם.	May you know the joy of gardens: gardens of flowers and fruit of bees and butterflies of vines and hummingbirds and clear ponds gardens of surprise and delight of challenge and struggle of growth and birth and death
	From the garden may you learn to be rooted in the good Earth to weather the stormy rains and calm sunny skies to make friends with those that crawl down below, those unseen ones who maintain the very foundations
	May you dance and work and love and cry and look deeply until you can no longer tell the difference between this moment and paradise
‏בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יְיָ מְשַׂמֵּֽחַ חָתָן וְכַלָּה׃‏	and give gratitude to the Source that renews your rejoicing over and over

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“הברכה שמח תשמח | Blessing for Joy: A Poetic Rendering of Sheva Brakhah no. 6 (Same’aḥ T’samaḥ), by Daniel Kieval” is shared by the living contributor(s) with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license.

Daniel Kieval

Daniel Kieval works with children and families of all ages and trains educators in the curriculum and pedagogy of experiential Jewish environmental education. He joined Teva Learning Center in 2011, having previously taught at the Pearlstone Center's Jewish educational farm and at Glen Helen Outdoor Education Center. Daniel studied Biology at Wesleyan University and Permaculture and Ecovillage Design at Kibbutz Lotan in Israel.

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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