Pearls of Wisdom from the Parshah
Now, Yisrael, what does Hashem your G-d ask of you? (Devarim 10:12)
לָם עַקֻה – “Established upon” – has the numerical value of 100. This corresponds to the 100 blessings. Because every day, a hundred Jews were dying, so David came and enacted the mitzvah of reciting 100 blessings a day. “Now, Yisrael, 'what' does Hashem your G-d ask of you?” Read the word מה, “what,” as מאה, “a hundred.” These are the 100 blessings. Once David enacted them, the plague stopped. (Midrash Tanchuma, Korach 12)
The pasuk of “What does Hashem your G-d ask of you?” alludes to the mitzvah of reciting 100 berachos a day. And in addition to the allusion cited by the Midrash Tanchuma above, the Baal Haturim finds more allusions to it in the same pasuk.
Furthermore, on an earlier pasuk, “And you who cleave to Hashem your G-d, you are all alive today,” the Baal Haturim writes that the tagim on top of the letter kuf in the word הַדְבֵקִים allude to the 100 blessings we need to recite every day.
We see that reciting 100 berachos is an important matter that the Torah emphasizes. If we want to know what Hashem asks of us, the answer is 100 berachos. Let’s understand why.
The main reason why human beings were created in the first place is to attach themselves to Hashem and attain closeness to Him. There are countless places in Torah sources where the giving of the Torah is compared to a marriage and a covenant of love.
And we know that in married life, the shalom bayis and love depend mainly on proper communication between the couple. It is common to hear spouses say to one another, “I don’t need anything. Just talk to me nicely, that’s all.” Happiness in the home has a lot to do with saying “Good morning” and “Thank you” nicely.
The same applies, so to speak, in our relationship with Hashem. “What does Hashem your G-d ask of you?” All He asks is that we speak to Him nicely, at all times, which is what 100 berachos is all about. It means saying thank you throughout the day. Thank you for my eyes – Pokeiach ivrim. When you drink a glass of water, you say thank you – Shehakol nihyah bidvaro. This is proper, natural attachment to Hashem at all times, throughout the course of life. About this it says “And you who cleave to Hashem your G-d, you are all alive today.” This verse alludes to 100 berachos, as mentioned above.
Now we can understand why David Hamelech instituted 100 blessings when he saw a hundred Jews dying daily. It may be compared to two people who love each other very much, but they have grown angry with one another. This type of anger can reach dangerous proportions. However, if you can get them to at least talk nicely to one another, the intensity of their anger will subside. It is no longer a dangerous situation.
This is what David Hamelech did. He said to the Jewish people: Just speak nicely to Hashem. That’s all. Say thank you for the bread, say thank you for the water, a hundred times a day.
When they started reciting 100 berachos, the Divine anger subsided.
As the Ramban said, “Whatever is more holy is more destroyed.” We could almost say that out of the 620 mitzvos – 613 Biblical mitzvos and 7 Rabbinic mitzvos – there is none that people step on and disregard more than this one. People tend to swallow the words and don’t say them properly.
It is for sure that if a person recites each berachah word by word, and even pays a little attention to what he is saying, that the verse “You are all alive today,” will apply to him. It’s just a matter of getting in the habit. Saying berachos properly opens for us the gates of blessing.
