HaMaavir Sheinah

It was a blessing for washing your face

In the Gemara, each morning blessing went with something you did as you got up. This one was for washing your face. Abudarham (a classic commentary on the prayers, written in Spain in the 1300s) explains why you are still thanking for waking up at that point. Passing your hands over your eyes clears away some of the sleep, and for that you say "who opens the eyes of the blind." But it is not all gone until you wash your eyes with water. Today all of these blessings are said together, in one list.

It has a twin at bedtime

On the same page of the Gemara is HaMapil, the blessing for going to sleep: "who drops the cords of sleep on my eyes and drowsiness on my eyelids." The morning blessing runs it backward: "who removes the cords of sleep from my eyes and drowsiness from my eyelids." (Our siddur has just "sleep.") Both then make the same requests: do not bring me to sin, to a test, or to disgrace. You go to sleep and wake up asking for the same things.

One blessing, not two

It looks like a short blessing followed by a separate prayer. It is one blessing, from the first Baruch to the last. Rabbeinu Tam (Rashi's grandson, a leading Talmud scholar in France in the 1100s) said so. The Tur (a code of Jewish law from Spain in the 1300s) gives the proof: a separate blessing would open with Baruch. That is also why it begins "vihi ratzon," with the letter that means "and." It continues the sentence. So the Shulchan Aruch (the main code of Jewish law) rules: no Amen until the end.

It starts with "my" and switches to "us"

In the Gemara the whole blessing is singular: my eyes, my God, make Your Torah my habit. Our siddur keeps "my eyes" and then says "us." The Mishnah Berurah (a central commentary on daily Jewish law, written around 1900) rules to say the plural. The model is the traveler's prayer, where the Gemara says a person should always include himself with the community. The Aruch HaShulchan (a code of Jewish law from around 1900) prefers the singular for one person's blessing, but notes that siddurim print "us."

A request to be liked

Near the end you ask to find favor, kindness and compassion "in Your eyes and in the eyes of all who see us." Abudarham connects this to a verse in Mishlei (Mishlei): "Find favor and good sense in the eyes of God and of people." He sums up the request in a few words: that I be loved by Heaven and by people. So wanting other people to think well of you is on the list of things to ask for, every morning.

The last line explains the first

The blessing opens with waking up and closes with "who does good kindnesses for His people Israel." What connects them? Tosafot (the medieval notes printed on the Gemara page) answers that waking up is the kindness. The Rosh (Rabbi Asher ben Yechiel, a leading authority in Germany and then Spain, who died in 1327) quotes a midrash that spells it out. At night a person is worn out from the day's work and leaves his soul with God. In the morning God removes the sleep, returns his soul and renews his strength.

Used to it, and still new

The blessing asks God to make Torah a habit for us. Rabbi Yaakov Leiner of Izhbitz, a Chassidic master in Poland in the 1800s, points to the problem with that: when a person gets used to something, it becomes old to him. But words of Torah that come from God, he says, are always new. So he reads this request as asking for both at once: that we be used to it, and that it still always be like new to us. Now read the request again.

כשהאדם מורגל נעשה אצלו ישן, אבל הד"ת מהשי"ת לעולם הם חדשים, וזהו שתרגילנו בתורתך, שאף שנהיה מורגלים יהיה אצלנו תמיד כמו חדש.

Not only the sin. What leads to it.

Our translation says "do not bring us to sin." Word for word, the Hebrew says "do not bring us into the hands of sin." The Maharal of Prague (a major Jewish thinker who died in 1609) explains this phrase in his commentary on Pirkei Avot (Ethics of the Fathers). Hands are the first thing to bring something to a person. So "the hands of sin" means the cause that leads to the sin. He quotes this blessing and says that is what it asks: that God not bring us to the cause.

כי הסבה נקרא 'לידי' מפני שהידים הם ראשונים להביא הדבר אל האדם... 'אל תביאני לא לידי חטא ולא לידי עוון' כך פירושו, שאל יביא אותו לסבה הגורמת החטא

Why ask not to be tested?

Rabbi Yaakov Leiner of Izhbitz (a Chassidic master in Poland in the 1800s) asks: a person rises mainly through being tested, so why pray not to be? His answer: before a test, you cannot feel whether the holiness in you will be enough, so you ask to be spared. God knows how far it reaches. When He does test a person, He wakes that holiness up, and the person sees he can stand with what was already in him. That is why we add "and not into disgrace": if a test comes, help me stand in it.

שאף שכל עיקר התנשאות האדם בא לו על ידי נסיון, ולמה יתפלל שלא יבא לידי נסיון, אכן מפני שאינו מרגיש עוז בנפשו קודם הנסיון... אזי מבין האדם עצמו שיוכל לעמוד בנסיון בזו הקדושה עצמה.

Is there a kindness that is not good?

The blessing ends by asking for "good kindnesses." Is there a kindness that is not good? One Chassidic answer comes from Rabbi Shlomo of Radomsk, a Chassidic master in Poland who died in 1866. Sometimes, he says, God sends a person exile or suffering in order to do him seven times as much good afterward. That is a kindness, but nobody can see it. The person is crying out in pain, and only God knows. So we ask for kindness that is good on both sides, the hidden one and the one we can see, the kind we are able to receive.

וכי יש חסדים שאינם טובים... ולכך אנו מבקשים שיגמלנו חסדים טובים משני עבריהם בנגלה ובנסתר שנוכל לקבלם.

I stayed up all night. Do I still say it?

The Mishnah Berurah advises: hear it from someone else, and mean it to count for you. The reason given: you say "from my eyes," and you did not sleep. The Arizal (the 1500s kabbalist), the Shulchan Aruch HaRav (the first Chabad Rebbe's law code) and the Aruch HaShulchan rule that you say it yourself, and Sephardic Jews follow the Arizal. If you slept "sixty breaths" that night, all agree you say it. That length is disputed. The Kitzur Shulchan Aruch (a short law guide) says about half an hour, and other views run from about three minutes to three hours.

I got up at 4 a.m. and I am going back to bed. Do I say it now?

The Mishnah Berurah rules: if you get up after the middle of the night and plan to go back to sleep, you may say the morning blessings then, but this one without God's name. When you get up for the day, say it in full. If you already said it in full the first time, he concludes that you do not repeat it. The Kaf HaChaim (a Sephardic law commentary from the early 1900s) records a different custom, following the Arizal: say them all in full the first time, even if you plan to sleep more, and none again later.

I got to shul late and skipped it. Can I still say it?

Yes. The Rema (Rabbi Moshe Isserles, who added Ashkenazi practice to the Shulchan Aruch) rules that someone who came late and went straight to davening still says the morning blessings afterward. This blessing is not among the exceptions that later authorities list. The Mishnah Berurah gives the time: try not to delay past four hours into the day, and if you did, say it until midday. Some allow the whole day. He adds a rule for this blessing alone: once sleep has overtaken you again, you can no longer say it.

Do I answer Amen after "drowsiness from my eyelids"?

No. The Shulchan Aruch rules that there is no Amen until "His people Israel," because it is all one blessing. The Kitzur Shulchan Aruch (a short guide to daily Jewish law from the 1860s) rules the same. The Aruch HaShulchan rules that the next words, "vihi ratzon," must be said with the "and," because they continue what came before.

The Gemara says "me." My siddur says "us." Which is it?

The Mishnah Berurah records "us," and this siddur and the Chabad siddur print it. The Gemara (the Gemara, Berakhot 60b) has the whole blessing in the singular. The Magen Avraham cites a view that the requests should be in the plural, like the traveler's prayer. The Aruch HaShulchan calls the singular the main version, but notes that siddurim print the plural and people are used to it. The Ben Ish Chai (Rabbi Yosef Chaim of Baghdad, a Sephardic authority of the 1800s) rules: all in the singular, as in the Gemara.

It was meant for washing my face. Do I have to do that first?

Not at that moment. The Shulchan Aruch first records the Gemara's order, in which this blessing is said on washing your face. In the next paragraph it says that the custom now is to say all the morning blessings together in shul. The Shulchan Aruch HaRav explains why that works: a blessing on a mitzvah has to come right before the act, but these are praise and thanks, so they can also be said afterward. He adds that where you can, it is good to actually do the things the blessings mention before you say them.