Birkot HaShachar

A blessing for every move you make

These were not written to be said in one run. The Gemara gives each one its own moment as you get up: you hear the rooster, open your eyes, sit up, get dressed, stand, put your feet on the floor, take a step, put on your shoes, tie your belt, cover your head. Ten small actions, ten blessings, each said right then. Most of the list in your siddur is that morning routine, recorded in the Gemara about 1,500 years ago, with a thank-you attached to every step.

The Rambam called our custom a mistake

The Rambam (Maimonides, who wrote his code of Jewish law in the 1100s) reports that in most of the cities he knew, people said the whole list in shul, whether or not they had done each action. He called it a mistake. The Tur (a law code from the 1300s) explains how the custom grew: hands are not clean when you wake up, and many people did not know the blessings, so they were arranged in shul. The Rema (Rabbi Moshe Isserles of Krakow, 1500s) ruled that this is the custom and it should not be changed.

Rooster or heart?

The first blessing borrows a verse from Iyov (Job): "Who gave the sekhvi understanding?" The Gemara says sekhvi means a rooster: Reish Lakish, a Sage of the 200s, visited a region where that was the everyday word for one. The Rosh (Rabbi Asher ben Yechiel, a leading authority around 1300) says that in the language of Tanach it means the heart, which is what understands. So, he adds, you can say this blessing even if you never hear a rooster. It is thanks to God "who gave us understanding."

One of the three used to be different

The three "who has not made me" blessings are taught in the Gemara in the name of Rabbi Meir, a Sage of the Mishnah over 1,800 years ago. (Other early sources name Rabbi Yehudah.) The third was "who has not made me an ignoramus." A later Sage, Rav Acha bar Yaakov, heard his son say it and objected: "This much too?" Rashi (the classic commentator, France, 1000s) gives two readings. You are praising yourself. Or: an ignoramus is still obligated in the commandments, unlike the other two. "A slave" took its place.

"Everything I need" is about shoes

It sounds like the biggest blessing on the list. The Gemara attaches it to putting on your shoes. Abudarham (a commentary on the siddur from Spain, around 1340) explains: barefoot, a person cannot go out and take care of anything. Once his shoes are on, it is as if all his needs have been done.

Only two of them say "Israel"

Sight, clothes, standing up, solid ground, walking, shoes: any person could give thanks for these. Then two blessings name Israel: "who wraps Israel in strength" (the belt) and "who crowns Israel with glory" (the head covering). The Mishnah Berurah (a guide to daily Jewish law, around 1900) explains. The others are for benefits that all people share equally. These two are about how a Jew dresses out of modesty: a belt that divides the upper body from the lower, and a covered head, out of awe before God.

"Strength to the tired" is not in the Gemara

"Who gives strength to the tired" comes from Yeshayahu (Yeshayahu), and it is not in the Gemara's list. The Tur found it in Ashkenazi siddurim: at night you hand over your soul worn out and get it back rested. Rabbi Yosef Karo, author of the Shulchan Aruch (the main code of Jewish law), ruled against a blessing that is not in the Gemara. The Rema answered that Ashkenazim say it. The Kaf HaChaim (a Sephardic law commentary, early 1900s) records that the Arizal (the kabbalist of 1500s Tzfat) held it is right to say.

A new choice every morning

The Chiddushei HaRim (Rabbi Yitzchak Meir Alter, a Chassidic leader in Ger, Poland, who died in 1866) said the first blessing here is thanks for something inside you: the power to tell good from bad and choose. His grandson, the Sefat Emet (Rabbi Yehudah Aryeh Leib Alter, who died in 1905), adds that this power is given new each day. After a person does wrong, he writes, the power to choose slips away. But God renews creation every day and gives every person a new choice every day: a chance to be good all over again.

ונראה פי' היום שיש בכל יום בחירה חדשה... הקב"ה מחדש בכל יום מ"ב ונותן בחירה חדשה לאדם בכל יום שיוכל להיות טוב מחדש

One good point

Rebbe Nachman of Breslov (a Chassidic master who died in 1810) taught that when you look at yourself and see nothing good, you have to keep looking until you find one small good point, and bring yourself back to life with it. His student Rav Natan read the whole list of morning blessings that way. At a low, you are like someone asleep: blind, tied up, bent over. God opens your eyes so that you find one good point in yourself, and through it you are untied and you stand up. These blessings, he writes, are praise for that help.

וְכָל בִּרְכַּת הַשַּׁחַר מְרַמֵּז עַל זֶה שֶׁמְּשַׁבֵּחַ לְהַשֵּׁם יִתְבָּרַךְ שֶׁעֲזָרוֹ לִמְצֹא בְּעַצְמוֹ נְקֻדּוֹת טוֹבוֹת כְּדֵי שֶׁיִּתְעוֹרֵר מִשֵּׁינָתוֹ וּנְפִילָתוֹ

A different kind of strength

Rav Kook (the first Chief Rabbi of the Land of Israel, who died in 1935) explains the strength in the blessing that God "wraps Israel in strength." Israel's strength, he writes, is a special kind. It does not show in conquering other people, beating them down or destroying them. At its root it is the strength of conquering yourself: the higher spirit in you ruling the body's rough, stormy urges. He borrows the words of Mishlei (Mishlei): slow to anger is better than mighty, and ruling your own spirit is better than capturing a city.

גבורה המצטינת לא בכבושים שמכבשים את אחרים, מכניעים אותם או מאבדים אותם, אלא גבורה שבעקרה היא קשורה בכבוש שהאדם כובש את עצמו

Why your feet took you there

The blessing about a person's steps takes its words from Tehillim (Psalms) 37:23: "A person's steps are set by Hashem." The Baal Shem Tov (the founder of the Chassidic movement, who died in 1760) explained the verse with an example. A merchant travels to a far-off country, sure he is going for the money. God has other thoughts. Sometimes there is a loaf of bread in that country that is tied to him, and to complete his soul he has to eat it in exactly that place at exactly that hour. For that, his steps were set to carry him hundreds of miles.

ולפעמים יש לו לאדם ככר לחם בארץ מרחקים הנוגע אל בחינתו והוא צריך לאכול אותו ככר דייקא באותו מקום ובשעה הזאת

The rooster at midnight

The Zohar (the central book of Kabbalah) tells of two rabbis learning Torah at night. A rooster crowed and they said the blessing. Commentaries say it was the rooster blessing that opens this list. Then Rabbi Elazar began to cry. Until this moment, he said, God has been shaking the heavens and crying over the destruction of the Temple, and remembering His children through the tears. The Zohar goes on: the rooster crows at the exact middle of the night, and that is when God enters the Garden of Eden to delight in the souls of the righteous.

אַדְּהָכִי קָרָא גַּבְרָא, בְּרִיכוּ בִּרְכָתָא... בָּכָה רִבִּי אֶלְעָזָר וְאָמַר, תָּא חֲזֵי, עַד הַשְׁתָּא קוּדְשָׁא בְּרִיךְ הוּא אִזְדַּעְזָע, תְּלָת מְאָה וְתִשְׁעִין רְקִיעִין, וּבָטַשׁ בְּהוּ, וּבָכָה עַל חָרְבַּן בֵּי מַקְדְּשָׁא... וְאַדְכַּר לִבְנוֹהִי מִגּוֹ בִּכְיָה.

I have never heard a rooster. Do I still say that blessing?

Yes, in practice. The Shulchan Aruch (the main code of Jewish law) rules that if you did not do an action, such as hearing a rooster or putting on a belt, you say its blessing without God's name. The Rema (Rabbi Moshe Isserles, who added Ashkenazi practice to it) brings another view: the blessings are not only about you. They thank God for creating what the world needs. He calls this the custom. The Arizal (Rabbi Yitzchak Luria, the Kabbalist of Tzfat) taught the same, and Sephardic practice follows him here.

What do girls say?

Almost the same blessings. Peninei Halakhah (Rabbi Eliezer Melamed's modern law guide) rules that women are obligated in them as men are. In place of "who has not made me a woman," the Shulchan Aruch has women say she'asani kirtzono, "who made me as He wished." Ashkenazi women say it with God's name. The Ben Ish Chai (Rabbi Yosef Chaim of Baghdad, late 1800s) rules to say it without, since authorities disagree. Sephardic women also say the feminine forms goyah and shifchah in the two blessings before it.

I woke up late. Is it too late to say them?

No. The Rema rules that someone who davened without them still says them. The Mishnah Berurah (a central commentary on daily Jewish law, written around 1900) explains: after davening. He adds: try not to delay them past a third of the day (four halachic hours). If you did, you can say them until midday. After midday, no one should object to a person who says them, since several authorities allow the whole day. The Vilna Gaon (Rabbi Eliyahu of Vilna, 1700s) allowed them even at night, until you go to sleep.

I was up all night. Do I still say them?

Yes. The Arizal taught that they are said even by someone who did not sleep, and the Kitzur Shulchan Aruch (a short law guide from the 1860s) rules the same. The doubt is about blessings next to this prayer, among them Elokai Neshama and Hamaavir Sheinah. The Mishnah Berurah advises hearing those two from someone else. The Aruch HaShulchan (Rabbi Yechiel Michel Epstein's code of law, around 1900) rules to say them yourself. The siddur of the first Chabad Rebbe, Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi, adds: wait until dawn.

Do I say them at home or in shul?

The sources describe both. In the Gemara, each blessing was said at its moment: opening your eyes, sitting up, getting dressed. The Shulchan Aruch records a later custom to say them all in shul, because hands are not clean on waking and many people did not know them. They answered amen, and that counted for them. The Mishnah Berurah notes that in his day each person says their own and the prayer leader does not cover anyone. The Aruch HaShulchan describes each person saying them at home, after washing hands.

What if I say them in the wrong order?

Usually it does not matter. The Shulchan Aruch HaRav (the first Chabad Rebbe's code of law) rules that a mistake in the order changes nothing, with one exception, from the Shulchan Aruch. If you said zokef kefufim, "who straightens the bent," before matir asurim, "who frees the bound," you skip matir asurim, because standing straight already includes moving your limbs. The Mishnah Berurah notes that some disagree, and cites advice to hear it from someone else. The Ben Ish Chai: say it without God's name.

Why is one blessing skipped on Tisha B'Av and Yom Kippur?

She'asah li kol tzorki, "who has given me everything I need," was set for putting on shoes, and on those two days leather shoes are forbidden. The Arizal taught that it is not said on those days, "when the whole world is barefoot." The first Chabad Rebbe's siddur and the Aruch HaShulchan say the same, and this siddur follows them. The Mishnah Berurah differs: many later authorities agreed that you can say it then too. Peninei Halakhah reports that Ashkenazim and some Sephardim do say it.