Bending Our Knees in Gratitude
Blessing Hashem
Now, what’s the result of saying that His Name—it means what He shows us of Himself in the world—is what we get excited about?
So Dovid says, ה’ מְבֹרָךְ מֵעַתָּה וְעַד עוֹלָם י ְ ה ִ י שׁ ֵ ם – The Name of Hashem should be mevorach, blessed, forever and ever.
Now, that sounds like something important, something very significant: His Name should be mevorach forever! And it is important. Only that we have to know first what that word mevorach means. Otherwise it’s empty words, empty promises.
Bend the Knee
Mevorach comes from the word berech, a knee—it means to be bent-kneed. Anytime you find a form of the word ‘Baruch’ in connection to our relationship with Hashem, it comes from the word berech, knee. And so when we say בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה, baruch means a knee is bent, atah, only to You. You're the only One to Whom we bend our knees—we don't bend our knees to anybody else in the world.
And even though it’s true that after we have that word established then we use it sometimes for human beings too as a secondary meaning, to thank somebody, to bless him; but originally baruch means only that: We bend our knees, our berech, to You.
Now, why do we bend our knees? In hachnaah, humility. In ancient times when somebody did you a favor, you bowed down to him; you made yourself low before him. That's a sign of gratitude. I’m humbled, bent-kneed before You because of all the benefits You give me. You're the Nosein and we can't give anything back to You in return. What can I give back to You, Hashem, for all the good that You've done for me? I can’t give back anything! All I can do is bend my knees in gratitude. And so רוֹמְמוּ ה’ אֱלוֹקֵינוּ – we elevate Hashem, וְהִ שְׁ תַּ חֲווּ – by making ourselves low.
The Mevorach Program
And so ‘Hashem should be mevorach’ means that ‘we should make Hashem the One to Whom everyone is bent-kneed in gratitude.’ It means we have to talk about what He does for mankind. Otherwise, what does it mean, “His Name should be blessed”? It means other people should do it. It doesn’t cost you any money to say it so why not, you’ll say it. But to actually do it? It’s the last thing to enter his mind. Oh no! ה’ מְבֹרָךְ י ְ ה ִ י שׁ ֵ ם means you have to talk about what He does for us. That’s a good program to think about on Rosh Chodesh. This month I’m going to speak about Hashem’s kindliness to us, what He does for mankind. And if nobody will listen, so listen to yourself. You’re your best audience, your most important audience. You’re talking primarily to yourself. You’re encouraging yourself, “Wake up sleepyhead! Another month of your life just went by. Are you going to waste now another month of life?”
Ten Thousand Hallels
And so you say, “Ooh ah! It’s good to be alive. And there’s so much to thank for. When I was born there were ten thousand things that had to be exactly right.”
Ten thousand?! A hundred thousand things! And every one of them was in place. Otherwise you wouldn't be normal. If one thing of one hundred thousand details wasn't exactly right, you wouldn't be normal. Did you ever walk on the street and see a mother pushing her sick child in a wheelchair, a profoundly impaired little boy? Oy, a rachmanus! It’s from one little thing that went haywire, one detail. I’ll speak about the sun and the wind. I’ll speak about eyes and kidneys and the heart. There’s so much to thank for, that a month is not enough.
But I’ll do whatever I can to make sure that יְהִי שֵׁם ה’ מְבֹרָךְ. I’ll talk and talk and talk and I’ll make Hashem mevorach. I’ll make it my business to thank Hashem for every detail and never stop thanking Him. We can’t walk around all day with bent knees; we have to go to work, we have things to do. But ideologically we are bent-kneed to Him always.
