Yotzer Or

Twenty-two words, one for each letter

In the middle sits a poem called El Baruch. Twenty-two words in a row, from El to tamid, begin with the Hebrew alphabet in order. Abudarham (a commentary on the prayers, Spain, about 1340) gives a reason: heaven and earth only stand because of the Torah, and the Torah is built from those twenty-two letters. He backs it with Yirmeyahu 33:25: without God's covenant of day and night, He would not have set the laws of heaven and earth.

Peace comes first

The blessing says God "makes peace" and then "creates everything." An early collection of rabbinic teachings, Avot DeRabbi Natan, reads that order closely. A man named Avnimos asked Rabban Gamliel (an early rabbi) what the glory of the world is. Rabban Gamliel said: peace. His proof was this line, quoted the way the blessing says it and not the way the verse does. Once God had created peace, He went back and created everything.

A plea for mercy in a blessing about the stars

Halfway through, the text suddenly asks: "in Your great compassion, have mercy on us." Why here? Abudarham quotes an older book of customs for one answer. The Gemara says people fasted on Wednesday, the day the lights were made, so a throat illness (askara) would not strike children. The Yerushalmi (the Gemara of the Land of Israel) notes that "lights" in Bereishit 1:14 is spelled short, and ties it to that illness. So, the book says, a plea for mercy was set into this blessing about the lights.

Two blessings before, one after

The Mishnah (the core collection of the Sages' teachings, edited around the year 200) already says that in the morning a person says two blessings before the Shema and one after. This is the first of the two. It also sets a rule: where the Sages fixed a long blessing you may not shorten it, and where they fixed a short one you may not lengthen it.

Darkness is just less light

The prayer says God creates darkness. Rav Kook (the first Chief Rabbi of the Land of Israel, who died in 1935) asks what darkness really is. He says it is a small amount of light that feels dark only next to a much bigger light. The same goes for bad: it is a smaller amount of good, measured against a bigger good. We keep the words "creates darkness" because that is how people picture it, but he says we should end on the truth: there is no absolute evil.

אלא שלפי הרגשת חסרון האור הוא נקרא חשך

Darkness as a dimmer

Rabbi Yaakov Leiner of Izhbitz (a Chassidic teacher of the 1800s) passes on a teaching from his father, Rabbi Mordechai Yosef Leiner, author of the Mei HaShiloach. The first light was so bright that creatures could not take hold of it. So God narrowed it, and that narrowing is what the verse calls "darkness." In this reading, darkness is not the opposite of light. It is light made small enough for creatures to take in.

שהשי"ת צמצם את האור הראשון, אשר מפני רוב בהירותו עד שלא היה להברואים תפיסה בו נקרא חשך כדי שיהיה להברואים תפיסה

The words are still holding up the sky

The Baal Shem Tov (the founder of Chassidut, 1698 to 1760) read the verse "Forever, Hashem, Your word stands in the heavens" to mean that the words God spoke at creation are still there, giving the heavens life. Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi (the founder of Chabad, in his book the Tanya) quotes this and says that if those letters left for even a moment, the heavens would be nothing. In another of his books, Torah Ohr, he quotes this blessing's words "renews every day the work of creation" and says everything is renewed from nothing daily.

אילו היו האותיות מסתלקות כרגע חס ושלום וחוזרות למקורן, היו כל השמים אין ואפס ממש

New light, new understanding

Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev (a great Chassidic teacher of the late 1700s) quotes this line of the prayer. He says that as God renews creation each day, God gives new clarity and new kindness each day. A person who serves God, he writes, receives new clarity and understanding each day, things he did not know yesterday. Now ask what you know this morning that you did not know yesterday.

ואדם העובד שמו יתברך מקבל עליו בכל יום בהירות ושכל חדש מה שלא היה יודע אתמול

Peace does not mean sameness

The Maharal (Rabbi Judah Loew of Prague, a Jewish thinker of the late 1500s) says the world is full of opposites, like fire and water, and it could not last unless God made peace between them. Peace, he says, does not make them alike. God gives each what fits it, and the heart of peace is that this one does not take what that one gets. He adds that the Midrash weighs peace against everything, because everything needs it.

עיקר השלום הוא מצד שאין זה מקבל מה שזה מקבל

Can I answer someone in the middle of this?

Inside the blessing, the Shulchan Aruch (the main code of Jewish law) lets you answer Kaddish, Kedusha and Barchu, and greet someone you must respect, like a parent or teacher. Between this blessing and the next you may also answer anyone's greeting. But the Mishnah Berurah (a central law commentary from around 1900) says that today, since people do not greet each other during prayers, do not greet or answer at all.

Is there a pause in "Yotzer Or"?

Yes, a short one. The Mishnah Berurah says to pause between "yotzer" and "or" so it is not heard as one word, "yotzeror." The Kaf HaChaim (a Sephardic law commentary from the early 1900s) says the same and adds that later authorities write it too.

Can I just listen to the leader instead of saying it?

The Shulchan Aruch says to say this blessing quietly, along with the leader. The Rema (Rabbi Moshe Isserles, who added Ashkenazi practice to the Shulchan Aruch) adds that if you only listened, you still fulfilled it, but only with ten people present. The Aruch HaShulchan (a code of law by Rabbi Yechiel Michel Epstein, from around 1900) says not to rely on that: say it yourself, quietly, and finish before the leader so you can answer Amen.

What if I start with the evening wording by mistake?

Evening has its own opening, "asher bidvaro maariv aravim." If you say it by mistake, catch it right away, and then say "yotzer or" and end with "yotzer hameorot," you are fine. If you skip "yotzer or" or end wrong, you have not fulfilled it and must go back to the start. If you notice only after starting the next blessing (Ahavat Olam in this siddur; the Mishnah Berurah calls it Ahavah Rabbah, its name in the Ashkenazi siddur), finish it, then say Yotzer Or before Shema.

Why does my siddur say to touch my tefillin here?

Rabbi Chaim Vital (who wrote down the teachings of the Arizal, the great kabbalist of Safed) writes in Pri Etz Chaim to grab the tefillin and touch the hand one at the start of Yotzer Or. This siddur's note adds the head tefillin at "uvore choshekh" (creates darkness). The Kaf HaChaim rules that the head tefillin waits until the Amidah begins, and notes that Pri Etz Chaim leaves out the head tefillin here.

Do girls say this?

Women are exempt from Shema, the Shulchan Aruch rules, because it is tied to a set time (the early Shema page covers what it says women should still say). Peninei Halakhah (a modern guide to Jewish law by Rabbi Eliezer Melamed) adds that women are exempt from its blessings too, and that some women make a point of saying Shema and its blessings every day, and many schools have that practice.

I woke up late. Can I still say it?

The deadline for Shema is the end of a quarter of the day (the early Shema page explains how those hours are counted). The Shulchan Aruch rules that after that you may still say Shema with its blessings, Yotzer Or included, until the end of the fourth hour, but without the reward of saying it on time. After the fourth hour, Shema is said without the blessings.