Barchu

Barchu at the dinner table

In the Mishnah (the core collection of the Sages' teachings, edited around the year 200), the call "Barchu" appears in a chapter about the blessing after meals. When people eat together, one person invites the others to bless, and "Barchu," "you all bless," is one of the ways to say it. Then Rabbi Akiva (one of the greatest sages of the Mishnah) points to the synagogue: there, whether the crowd is big or small, the leader says "Barchu et Hashem." So by his day this was already the set call in shul.

A bow that needed a reason

The common custom is to bow at Barchu. That is odd, because the Shulchan Aruch (the main code of Jewish law) calls bowing where the Sages did not set it "improper." The Biur Halacha (by the author of the Mishnah Berurah, around 1900) notes that an earlier commentator struggled to find a reason for the custom. The Biur Halacha finds one in Tanach. In the scene behind Vayevarech David, King David tells the crowd, "Bless Hashem your God," and they bless and bow. His last words on it: a custom of Israel is Torah.

You hear it at every aliyah

Barchu is not only said here. Each person called up to the Torah opens with the same words, and the people give the same answer, as the Rambam (Maimonides, who died in 1204) lays out. The Shulchan Aruch adds that after the people answer, the person called up says the answer again himself, to count himself among those blessing.

What the small print says

Above Barchu this siddur has a note: the plain custom everywhere is to say Barchu before "perisat Shema," and never with fewer than ten. It points to Abudarham (a commentary on the prayers, Spain, around 1340). The phrase comes from the Mishnah's list of things that need ten. Abudarham reads it as saying the blessings of Shema, from an Aramaic word for blessing. He adds that some read it as prusah, a slice: someone arrives after the group said Shema, and one person repeats Kaddish, Barchu and the first blessing.

Your soul waits at your nose

The Zohar Chadash (a companion book to the Zohar, the central book of Kabbalah) says your soul leaves you every night. In the morning it comes back and rests in your nose. It does not go in and settle until you bless God. A few lines later it says where that happens in the service: the leader says Barchu, the people answer, and from there is the start of prayer. Now say your answer again.

וְלָא עָאלַת וְלָא אִתְיַישְׁבָא בְּמֵעוֹי, עַד דִּמְבָרֵךְ לְהַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא

The one who answers heard the Name

The Maharal (Rabbi Yehudah Loew of Prague, who died in 1609) explains why the people answer with more than the leader said. The leader says "Barchu et Hashem hamevorach." The answer adds "forever and ever." His reason: the leader only heard the Name from his own mouth. The people heard it said. If they added nothing, he asks, what would separate them from a leader who never heard it at all? Now notice the two words the answer adds.

ויוסיף העונה בשבח המקום ממה שאמר המברך

Not a report, a statement

Rabbi Kalonymus Kalman Shapira (the Rebbe of Piaseczno in Poland, killed in the Holocaust in 1943) says the heavens only "tell" God's glory, the way you tell a story to someone who did not know it. A Jew praises God even alone in the innermost room. With Barchu, he writes, as with the angels' "holy, holy, holy," we tell no deed at all. We say only what God is. As you speak, a spark of holiness in you grows and spreads. Now say those four words as a statement, not a story.

לא פעולה מספרים עתה רק עצם גדלותו יוצא עתה על ידינו ורק מה שהוא הוא אומרים

Where the songs meet the thought

Rav Kook (the first Chief Rabbi of the Land of Israel, who died in 1935) writes about the passage that carries you from the psalms of Pesukei DeZimra into the blessings of the Shema. Two worlds meet there, he says: the world of song, with its feeling and imagination, and the world of high thought. The soul is on fire and also calm and strong. It wants to say its joy and its thanks and to bless "Hashem, who is blessed." Then it rises above every limit of time and measure, and the passage ends with the answer: "forever and ever."

ובכל לב חפצה היא להביע את רגשי גילתה והכרת תודתה, ברב זיו וחסד פנימי מקורי

In heaven, "Israel" leads it

At Hashem Melech we met Heichalot Rabbati, an early mystical text about the palaces of heaven. There Rabbi Akiva says an angel starts "Hashem is King" every day. The same passage says what happens when it reaches Barchu. A heavenly creature named Israel, with the words "My people are Mine" cut into its forehead, stands in the middle of the sky and says "Barchu." The ministers on high answer, "Blessed is Hashem, who is blessed forever and ever." Then each one says to it: "Hear, Israel."

ברכו את ה' המבורך וכל שרי מעלה עונין אחריה ברוך ה' המבורך לעולם ועד

I'm in the middle of davening when the chazan says Barchu. Do I answer?

It depends where you are. In Pesukei DeZimra (the psalms before this point), the Mishnah Berurah (a central commentary on daily Jewish law, around 1900) says you may certainly stop to answer. In the Shema or its blessings, the Shulchan Aruch (the main code of Jewish law) says you stop even in the middle of a verse, and the Rema (who added Ashkenazi practice to it) says to give only the answer. In the Amidah you do not answer. You stay silent and listen, and that counts as if you answered.

I walked in late and only heard everyone else answer. Can I answer too?

Yes, by the main view. The Mishnah Berurah rules: if you missed the chazan's Barchu but heard the congregation answer, say Baruch Hashem hamevorach le'olam va'ed with them. If you only caught the chazan repeating that line, just answer Amen. Some said only Amen there too. The Shulchan Aruch HaRav (the code of law by the first Chabad Rebbe) explains the main view: if nine heard him and are answering, ten are already saying it together. The Ben Ish Chai (Rabbi Yosef Chaim of Baghdad, 1800s) agrees.

The chazan says our answer right back. Do I say Amen to it?

On Amen, the Mishnah Berurah brings two views: answer it, or skip it, since you just said the same words. It ends that the choice is yours, but at a point where you may not stop, skip it. The Aruch HaShulchan (a code of law from around 1900) says no Amen, and those who say it are mistaken. The Mishnah Berurah and the Kitzur Shulchan Aruch (a short guide to daily law, 1860s) agree the chazan does not answer Amen to you.

Do I have to stand for Barchu?

Customs differ. The Rema writes to stand when answering Kaddish and every holy response, and Barchu is one. The Mishnah Berurah notes that some say you need not, but says to take the stricter view seriously (the Kaddish DeRabbanan page gives his reason). Peninei Halakhah (a modern guide to Jewish law by Rabbi Eliezer Melamed) says most Sephardim do not stand up for it, but if already standing, stay standing. For most Ashkenazim, it says, it is proper to stand.

Can I talk or do something else between Barchu and the next blessing?

No. The Rema rules that from the Kaddish before Barchu you may not stop for anything, and all the more so after the chazan says Barchu, until the first blessing of the Shema starts. The Mishnah Berurah adds: not even for a mitzvah or a community need. The Aruch HaShulchan says the same.

I got there after Barchu. Did I miss my chance?

Not completely. The chazan says Barchu again after the last Kaddish, so latecomers can answer. The Shulchan Aruch skips it on Shabbat and holidays, and the Rema explains: on those days everyone comes before Barchu. Peninei Halakhah says Nusach Sefard and Chassidim always say it, following the Arizal (Rabbi Yitzchak Luria, the Tzfat kabbalist, 1500s), who taught each service needs two Barchus. The Kaf HaChaim (a Sephardic law commentary, 1900s) reports it was said even on Shabbat in the Land of Israel and Egypt.