The Jewish Experience is Rooted is Gratitude

 What do we call the prayer we recite after we eat a meal?

(For those who answered the Motzi, that’s the prayer we recite before we eat.)

In fact, there’s a joke about that. A woman complained to the Rabbi about how religious and even zealous her brother had become, saying “It’s crazy.  He makes a blessing after everything he does.” The Rabbi responded, “if he was really so religious, he would make those blessings before he did anything.”

Now back to the correct answer.  The prayer recited after we eat is the Birkat HaMazon.  Literally, it means the blessing after the meal, though in our Christian influenced culture it’s often called the Grace after Meals. In fact, the scriptural basis for it appears in the first Aliyah of tomorrow morning’s Torah reading of Parshat Ekev: “you shall eat, and you shall be satisfied and you shall bless the Lord your God.” (Deuteronomy 8:8)

Birkat HaMazon is one of the 613 commandments from the Torah. I’m sure we all understand its value and utility. Cultivating gratitude is good for our mental health, and is a significant part of our religious responsibilities. In fact, at the root of the Hebrew word ya’hadut, which is Judaism in Hebrew, is the Hebrew word l’hodot, which means to thank. This reminds us that at the heart of the Jewish experience is gratitude. Birkat HaMazon, like many other mitzvot, are designed to help us cultivate awareness and gratitude.

But it also contains an important psychological insight that we need to undertand. Why is it that poor people (survey after survey have confirmed this) are more religious than wealthy people? Why is it that ethnic and religious communities on the lower end of the socio-economic scale are generally more attached to religion and religious institutions than those on the higher end? Theories abound, but ultimately the religious experience is rooted in need. So, when we have our needs fulfilled, as so many in our nation fortunately do, we are good at the “eating and being satisfied” part of the verse but are not on a regular basis getting around to the “thanking the Lord your God” part. That’s why I’ve always thought the genius of Judaism was to couch uplifting behavior in the language of mitzvah.  If we only observed our religious obligations when we felt like it, we would do them less often. But when we understand that there’s no let-up ever in God’s demand for righteous conduct and behavior, the hope is that we will stick with it. Even when it’s tough. Even when it’s difficult.

The modern mind tends to blame God for our problems, but fails to give God credit for our blessings. But we know we can’t have it both ways. So let this simple verse and psychological insight help better understand this aspect of our lives, and our Judaism. Let’s eat, let’s work to be satisfied on both the physical and emotional basis. But let’s push ourselves to go one step further. Let’s make sure that we demonstrate the gratitude that is key to our ability to appreciate all we have accomplished.

 

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