Birkat HaGomel and Baruch Shepetarani

The man who taught the rule

Rav Yehuda, a teacher in the Gemara (the main collection of rabbinic discussion, finished around the year 500), passes on the rule that four kinds of people must give thanks. The Gemara also tells that he once got sick and recovered. Rav Chana of Baghdad and other rabbis visited and said, "Blessed is the Merciful One who gave you to us and did not give you to the dust." He told them, "You have excused me from thanking." The Gemara asks how, since thanks needs ten people. Ten were there, and he answered Amen.

Four stories in one psalm

The rule rests on Tehillim 107, a psalm with four short scenes: lost in a desert, locked in a dark prison, near death from an illness, caught in a storm at sea. Each scene runs the same way. They cry out in their trouble, they are brought out, and then comes the line "let them thank Hashem for His kindness." The Gemara quotes each scene as proof. The psalm starts with the desert. The Gemara starts with the sea.

A hidden word

To remember the four, the Shulchan Aruch (the main code of Jewish law, from the 1500s) gives a memory trick. The first letters of the Hebrew for sick, suffering (meaning prison), sea and desert spell chayim, "life." The memory phrase it ties this to is "and all the living will thank You, selah."

A teaching about twins

The father's blessing comes from Bereishit Rabbah, an early collection of rabbinic teachings on the book of Bereishit. On the verse "the boys grew," about Jacob and Esau, Rabbi Levi says they were like a myrtle and a thorn bush growing side by side. Both went to school until 13. Then one went to the study halls and the other to the temples of idol worship. Rabbi Elazar adds that a father must look after his son until 13, and after that say the line we say today.

Where the word gomel comes from

Abudarham (a commentary on the prayers, written in Seville, Spain, in the 1300s) says the blessing is named after a line in Tehillim: "I will sing to Hashem, for He has dealt kindly with me" (ki gamal alai). It is the same root, g-m-l, that is in Hagomel.

The room answers

After you bless, the listeners answer Amen and then say, "May the One who has given you good give you every good, forever." The Prisha (Rabbi Yehoshua Falk, a Polish scholar who died in 1614) points out that this reply is not in the Gemara. The Rambam (Maimonides, who wrote his code of law in Egypt in the 1100s) writes out a shorter form of it. The Aruch HaShulchan (a code of Jewish law from around 1900) calls it a kind of comfort, and a blessing for a soul that suffered.

Give good things to the guilty

The Tanya (the central book of Chabad Chassidut, by Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi, who died in 1812) describes how a person working on himself acts when someone wrongs him. He does not get angry and does not pay the person back as he deserves. He does the opposite. The Tanya calls this "to give good things to the guilty," the same words as our blessing, and points to Joseph and his brothers. The Zohar (the central book of Kabbalah) says Joseph did not want to repay evil to his brothers when they fell into his hands.

לִגְמוֹל לְחַיָּיבִים טוֹבוֹת, כְּמוֹ שֶׁכָּתוּב בַּזֹּהַר, לִלְמוֹד מִיּוֹסֵף עִם אֶחָיו

Why thanks is called "walking"

Rabbi Nachman of Breslov (a Chassidic master who died in 1810) says that thanksgiving is called halakhah, a word that comes from walking. His reason comes from the body. In danger, the heart pounds and the blood rushes to it. When you get out of the trouble, he writes, the blood goes back to flowing in order through the body. In his picture, saying thanks is the moment the walking starts again.

וְאַחַר כָּךְ כְּשֶׁיוֹצְאִין מֵהַצָּרָה, אֲזַי חוֹזְרִין תַּהֲלוּכוֹת הַדָּמִים לֵילֵךְ כַּסֵּדֶר

999 against, one for

Rabbi Eliyahu de Vidas (a Kabbalist in the Land of Israel in the 1500s) says that of the four people who must give thanks, kindness shows most in the one who was sick and got well, because that person came close to the gates of death. He then recalls the Gemara's teaching on Shabbat 32a: even if 999 speak against a person and only one speaks in his favor, he is saved.

ומקום גילוי החסד יותר מכולם הוא במי שהיה חולה ונתרפא, כי יגיע לשערי מות

At thirteen, a second voice arrives

The Zohar says the evil urge is with a person from the day he is born. The good urge comes when a person begins to be purified, at age thirteen. From then on, it says, a person has two companions with him all the time, one on the right and one on the left: the good urge and the evil urge. Now read Baruch Shepetarani, the father's blessing for this same birthday, again.

ואימתי אתי בר נש לאתדכאה, כד איהו בר תליסר שנין, כדין אזדווג בר נש בתרווייהו

Do I say it after a flight?

Rabbis disagree. Many say yes: Rav Moshe Feinstein (a leading American authority on Jewish law in the 1900s) explains that staying up in the air is not natural, so landing safely is a rescue. Some require a flight of at least 72 minutes. Others say a flight is no riskier than a car ride, after which no one blesses. Peninei Halakhah (a modern guide to Jewish law by Rabbi Eliezer Melamed) says it is better not to bless, especially if you fly often, unless you rarely fly and were really afraid.

What about a long car ride?

The Shulchan Aruch (the main code of Jewish law, by Rabbi Yosef Karo, 1500s) says that in Ashkenaz and France people did not bless after a trip between cities; only desert travel counted. In Spain they did, except for a trip under a parsah (about 72 minutes). Some who follow Sephardi custom still bless after a 72-minute drive. Peninei Halakhah rules that today you do not, because long drives on paved roads are routine. Surviving a really dangerous crash is different: you bless.

Do I say it after being sick?

The Shulchan Aruch says yes after any illness that put you in bed. The Rema (Rabbi Moshe Isserles, who added Ashkenazi custom to it) says only after an illness that threatened your life, and Ashkenazim follow him. The Mishnah Berurah (a central commentary on daily Jewish law, written around 1900) adds that even by the Shulchan Aruch's view, a headache or sore throat does not count. Peninei Halakhah says that today everyone should bless only after an illness serious enough to justify breaking Shabbat.

Do I need a minyan to say it?

Yes. The Shulchan Aruch says to bless in front of ten people, two of them Torah scholars, so the custom is to say it after the Torah reading. If you said it with fewer than ten, some say you did not fulfill it, so say it again in front of ten without God's name. The Mishnah Berurah counts the person himself among the ten, and allows blessing without ten if you know you will not find ten. Peninei Halakhah says most authorities require the ten, but not the two scholars.

Can I say it a few days late?

Yes. The Shulchan Aruch says that if you waited, you can still bless whenever you want, though it is proper not to wait past three days. The Mishnah Berurah says not to hold off for the Torah reading: if you recover on Monday after the reading, bless in front of ten without a scroll and do not wait for Thursday. Peninei Halakhah adds that the clock starts when the danger is fully over, so after an illness you wait until you have recovered.

Do women say it?

Peninei Halakhah says yes. The Mishnah Berurah reports that women usually did not bless, because it is said before ten people and that felt improper for a woman, but adds that some say a woman should bless at least before women and one man. Peninei Halakhah rules that a woman who owes it says it herself: she tells the gabbai (the person running the services), the congregation waits quietly, and she says it from the women's section. After childbirth she blesses once she has regained strength.

Does Baruch Shepetarani use God's name?

This siddur prints it without God's name, as the Rema says is best. The Mishnah Berurah explains: this blessing is not in the Gemara. The Gra (the Vilna Gaon, a great Torah scholar of the 1700s) says to use the name, because a Midrash (an early collection of Torah teachings) mentions it. The Aruch HaShulchan (a code of law from around 1900) says many use it when the boy is called to the Torah. The Mishnah Berurah says the custom is to wait until he leads the prayers or reads Torah.