Asher Yatzar

It never says what it is about

Blessings normally say what they are for. Over bread you say "who brings bread out of the earth." This one is said after using the bathroom and never mentions it. The Aruch HaShulchan (a code of Jewish law from around 1900) noticed this. One reason he gives: the rabbis did not think the act was a dignified thing to put into a blessing. So they wrote about how a human being is formed, and left the rest understood.

The ending is a compromise

The Gemara gives this blessing without naming an author, then records an argument about its last line. Rav said to end with "who heals the sick." His colleague Shmuel objected: you have just made the whole world into sick people. Say "who heals all flesh." Rav Sheshet preferred "who does wonders." Rav Papa settled it: so let us say both. Rav and Shmuel taught in Babylonia about 1,800 years ago, so the blessing was already being said by then.

A fact-check from the 1200s

"Even for one hour." Really? Rabbi Meir of Rothenburg (the leading rabbi of Germany in the 1200s) said to drop those words: a person can keep his mouth shut for hours and live. The Tur (a law code from the 1300s) kept them and tied them to birth. The Gemara says a baby in the womb has a closed mouth and an open navel. At birth they switch, or it could not live one hour. The Mishnah Berurah (a commentary on daily Jewish law from around 1900) reports a custom to skip the words. This siddur says them.

What people used to say on the way in

In the Gemara, Asher Yatzar is the second half of a pair. On the way in, a person spoke to the angels that go with him everywhere: guard me, help me, wait for me until I go in and come out, because this is how human beings are. Hardly anyone says that now. Rabbi Yosef Karo (author of the Shulchan Aruch, the main code of Jewish law) suggests why. An earlier view held that only an unusually holy person should say it, since from anyone else it would look like showing off. The way out is the half that lasted.

"With wisdom": whose wisdom?

The Shulchan Aruch's first explanation is simple: the making of a human being shows wondrous wisdom. Tosafot (medieval Gemara commentators) bring a Midrash: the wisdom was the order. God got the food ready first, then created the person who would need it. The Maharsha (Rabbi Shmuel Eidels, Poland, died 1631) has a third reading: the wisdom is the human's. People got understanding and animals did not. The Aruch HaShulchan ties that to this moment: an animal has no shame about where it goes, and a person does.

Why say it in the morning if I did not go?

By the Gemara's rule, this blessing is only for after the bathroom. But the Rema (Rabbi Moshe Isserles of Krakow, whose notes on the Shulchan Aruch record Ashkenazi practice) reports a custom to say it every morning after washing hands, even if you did not go. The Shulchan Aruch HaRav (the law code of Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi, the first Chabad Rebbe) gives a reason: every day a person becomes a new creation. So every day it fits to say "who formed the human being with wisdom."

Two borrowed words

Abudarham (a commentary on the prayers written in Spain around 1340) points out that umafli la'asot, "who does wonders," is a phrase from a verse. It is in the book of Shoftim (Judges), in the story of the angel who tells a woman who could not have children that she will have a son, Shimshon. Abudarham then gives his first example of the wonder. A person stuck for one day in a dark, cramped place cannot stand it. A baby spends nine months in the womb and is fine.

The part of you that you do not run

Rav Kook (the first Chief Rabbi of the Land of Israel, who died in 1935) starts with animals. They do everything by nature, with no free choice, so it is no surprise that their bodies run with precision. The surprise is us. A person has free choice, and where a person chooses, the laws of nature hold less tightly. So in what keeps a person alive, God gave free choice no power at all. You do not control when the organs inside you open and close. That is what is "revealed and known" to God: if you did, you could not last an hour.

במה שנוגע לעצם שמירת החיים, לא נתן הבורא לרצון החפשי של האדם שום כח להניא את המהלכים העקריים ממסלולם.

Two opposites that fit

Rav Kook explains the wonder at the end of this blessing. A person has a mind and a spiritual side, with rules far above animal life. The same person is tied to eating and digesting like any animal. He writes that the highest goals, "with all their height and purity," are bound exactly to the physical ones, "with all their triviality and ugliness." Two opposites meet in one body, and they fit. That fit, he says, is the wonder.

המטרות האציליות, עם כל הגובה והטוהר שלהן, הנן אחוזות בדיוק עם כל המטרות החמריות, עם כל הטפלות והכיעור שלהן... ומתוך הפגישה של ההפכים באה ההקבלה היותר מופלאה, ומפליא לעשות.

Putting out a person's light

The Gemara says that everyone who goes down to Gehinnom (the place of punishment after death) comes back up, except three. One of the three is a person who humiliates someone in public. The Maharal (Rabbi Yehudah Loew of Prague, who died in 1609) ties this to the words of this blessing. The person in front of you was formed "with wisdom." Shame them, he writes, and you drain the color from their face and "put out the light of a person, whom God created with wisdom."

ומי שמלבין פני חבירו פוגם במדריגה הזאת שהרי מלבין פני חבירו ומכבה אור של אדם שברא אותו בחכמה

The wonders never stopped

In the Song at the Sea (Az Yashir), the Torah says God "does wonders." An early midrash, the Mekhilta, notices the tense: not "did" but "does." The Sefat Emet (Rabbi Yehudah Aryeh Leib Alter, a Chassidic leader in Ger, Poland, who died in 1905) reads the end of this blessing the same way: God does wonders all the time. All of nature, he writes, is attached to wonder the way a body is attached to a soul. The physical side hides it. The wonders are always there. "Only the eyes are closed."

כי באמת כל הטבע וכל הבריאה מדובקת בשורש הפלא כמו הגוף בנפש ונשמה. רק הגשמיות מסתיר... שהנפלאות הם לעולם רק שהעינים סגורים ואינם יכולין לראות הנפלאות.

A mill runs without its builder

The Kuzari is a classic book of Jewish thought by Rabbi Yehudah HaLevi, a poet who lived in Spain about 900 years ago. He points out that a small child talks without knowing which part of the body does the talking. A craftsman builds a mill and walks away, and the mill keeps turning. Creation is not like that, he says. God gives the parts of the body their powers and keeps supplying them, moment by moment. A few lines later he comes to this blessing: "How great this blessing is in what it says, and how well chosen its words."

כִּי הָאֻמָּן כְּשֶׁהוּא עוֹשֶׂה רֵחַיִם, עַל הַדִּמְיוֹן, וְיֵלֵךְ לוֹ, וְיַעֲשֹוּ הָרֵחַיִם מַה שֶׁבַּעֲבוּרוֹ נַעֲשֹוּ, וְהַבּוֹרֵא יִתְבָּרֵךְ בּוֹרֵא הָאֵבָרִים וְנוֹתֵן לָהֶם כֹּחוֹת וּמַמְשִׁיךְ לָהֶם עִם הָרְגָעִים

Do I really say this every time I use the bathroom?

Yes. The Shulchan Aruch (the main code of Jewish law) rules: all day long, every time you relieve yourself, whether you urinated or had a bowel movement, you say Asher Yatzar. There is no minimum. Even one drop requires it, because if that drop were blocked from coming out it would be hard on you, so you owe thanks. The Ben Ish Chai (a book of practical law by Rabbi Yosef Chaim of Baghdad, published in 1898) adds that women must say it too, and that every person needs to understand the plain meaning of its words.

Do I have to wash my hands before I say it?

The Shulchan Aruch says the blessing comes when you leave the bathroom, and the Kitzur Shulchan Aruch (a short guide to daily Jewish law from the 1860s) says to wash your hands with water first. The Mishnah Berurah (a central commentary on daily Jewish law, published between 1884 and 1907) says washing three times is only for getting out of bed. The Ben Ish Chai requires three times after the bathroom too. No water? The Mishnah Berurah rules that you still have to say it. Clean your hands on anything that cleans.

I forgot to say it. Is it too late?

The Mishnah Berurah rules that even if a long time has passed, you still have to say it. Two Sephardic authorities set a limit. The Ben Ish Chai rules that after more than half an hour you no longer say it with God's name, and the Kaf HaChaim (a Sephardic law commentary from the early 1900s) rules the same. And if you forgot and then went again? The Shulchan Aruch rules that you say it twice. Many later authorities disagree, and the Mishnah Berurah concludes that you say it once. His advice: say it right away.

I haven't used the bathroom yet this morning. Do I say it?

The custom is to say it every morning anyway. To cover every view, the Shulchan Aruch HaRav (the code of law by Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi, the first Chabad Rebbe) advises using the bathroom first and saying it once for both. The Kaf HaChaim brings a different ruling, following the Arizal (Rabbi Yitzchak Luria, the 1500s Kabbalist): in the morning, say it only if you used the bathroom.

I stayed up all night on Shavuot. Do I still say it in the morning?

Only after you use the bathroom. The reason given for the morning Asher Yatzar is that each morning a person is like a new creation. The Mishnah Berurah quotes the Pri Megadim (a commentary on the Shulchan Aruch by Rabbi Yosef Teomim, 1700s): someone who was awake all night did not become a new creation that morning, so he cannot say it unless he used the bathroom. For Shavuot night the Mishnah Berurah advises: use the bathroom before davening, then say the blessing on washing hands and Asher Yatzar.

What if I have to go in the middle of davening?

It depends where you are up to. In the morning songs of praise (Pesukei DeZimra, from Baruch She'amar to Yishtabach), the Mishnah Berurah rules that you may say Asher Yatzar. Peninei Halakhah (a modern guide to Jewish law by Rabbi Eliezer Melamed) notes that some say to push it off until later, and concludes that it is right to say it at once, because otherwise you may forget. In Shema and its blessings, the Mishnah Berurah rules differently: wash your hands, and say Asher Yatzar after the Amidah.

I used the bathroom right before washing for bread. What now?

Now you need two things: Asher Yatzar, and the hand washing for bread with its own blessing. The Shulchan Aruch rules: wash twice. After the first washing say Asher Yatzar. After the second say the blessing on washing hands. The Kitzur Shulchan Aruch adds that the first time should be only a little water rubbed over both hands and dried well, not a full washing for a meal. If you already did one full washing, the Mishnah Berurah rules: say the blessing on washing hands first, and then Asher Yatzar.