What is our most repetitive blessing?
Without doubt it’s the brachah we recite over a rainbow. In Parshat Noach, the Torah tells us that immediately after the flood Hashem placed a rainbow in the sky to be an everlasting sign of the fact that never again would He bring about global destruction. Therefore when we see a rainbow, we recite this beautiful blessing and it brings us a lot of reassurance.
The wording is as follows: ברוך אתה ה' אלקינו מלך העולם - Blessed are You, Lord our God, King of the Universe, זוכר הברית – who remembers the Covenant, ונאמן בבריתו – and Who is faithful to His Covenant, וקים במאמרו – and who fulfils His word.
We can see three statements in this brief blessing, and they all seem to be saying the same thing.
The origin of the blessing is in the Gemara Masechet Brachot. There the Gemara asks what is the blessing we recite over a rainbow. The answer given is that it’s a blessing with the conclusion, “זוכר הברית - Hashem remembers His Covenant,” and that’s all.
Rabbi Yishmael however has a different tradition; that we conclude the brachah with the words, “ונאמן בבריתו וקים במאמרו - Hashem is faithful to His covenant and He keeps His word.”
When Rav Papa heard these two different traditions he struck a compromise formula. He brought both endings together to keep both traditions, and that’s how our brachah came about, a brachah with these three statements in it.
When you come to think of it, they are not completely repetitive. First of all we say, “זוכר הברית - Hashem remembers the Covenant.” Remembering could mean recalling without necessarily doing anything about it, and that’s why in addition we say, “ונאמן בבריתו - He is faithful to His covenant,” that is, He cares about it, He will recall it properly for the sake of the future, but even that isn’t sufficient. We need the third statement, “וקים במאמרו - and who fulfils His word.” Hashem will act on His word to guarantee in practice that He will deliver.
When it comes to our commitment to a Jewish way of life I believe that similarly, there are three levels. First of all we have “זוכר הברית” – it’s so lovely and wonderful when Jewish people remember their Jewishness, their upbringing, their roots, their Bar or Bat Mitzvah. It is part of what they are about.
But in addition to that, we need a higher level as well –נאמן בבריתו, faithfulness to the covenant, support for Judaism. We need to be loyal to our synagogues and communities, to be there for the sake of our nation, to participate generously in charitable activities, to be one of those seeking to guarantee the continuity of our faith.
But even that is not the highest level we can reach. We need the third level as well: “וקים במאמרו” – קיום המצוות, the fulfilment of the word of Hashem. This means being observant, to guarantee that on a practical level in our lives we are true to the word of the Almighty.
So therefore we find within this ever-so-repetitive blessing a key to guaranteeing the continuity of the Jewish nation. Let’s continue our Jewish tradition, pray with all our hearts for the healing of all those injured, for the safe return of those taken as hostages, as well as Divine Protection for our brave IDF soldiers, Police officers, medical professionals, Firefighters, ZAKA members, security personnel and all those citizens protecting us in Israel as well as around the world, and for those who need healing, shidduchim, children or parnassah and may we be blessed to have the most awesome, gorgeous, beautiful, peaceful, healthy, amazing, relaxed, spiritual, safe, quiet and sweet Shabbat.
NUMBER OF MITZVOT: None
NUMBER OF PESUKIM: 153
NUMBER OF WORDS: 1861
NUMBER OF LETTERS: 6907
HAFTORA:
Ashkenazim: Yeshayahu 54:1 - 55:5
Sephardim & Chabad: Yeshayahu 54:1-10
