{"id":89450,"date":"2021-02-27T19:41:07","date_gmt":"2021-02-27T17:41:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=89450"},"modified":"2021-02-27T19:41:07","modified_gmt":"2021-02-27T17:41:07","slug":"a-simple-formula","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/a-simple-formula\/","title":{"rendered":"A Simple Formula"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"entry-content\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[],"acf":{"old_id":"89450","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":49163,"related_cahpter":"686","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"","content":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u05d1\u05bc\u05b8\u05e8\u05d5\u05bc\u05da\u05b0 \u05d0\u05b7\u05ea\u05bc\u05b8\u05d4 \u05d4&#8217; \u05dc\u05b7\u05de\u05bc\u05b0\u05d3\u05b5\u05e0\u05b4\u05d9 \u05d7\u05bb\u05e7\u05bc\u05b6\u05d9\u05da\u05b8\u05c3<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Blessed are You, O LORD; train me in Your statutes<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Psalm 119:12 opens with a phrase well known in Jewish prayer: Blessed are You, YHVH. What is the significance of this phrase, and how might it reflect our view of prayer?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In the context of Psalm 119, our phrase is an introduction to a plea to God: \u201cTeach me Your laws.\u201d In some versions of the Talmud (Berakhot 11b), this verse was said as a blessing before studying Torah.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is striking to \u2013 in one breath \u2013 praise God, and then make a request of God. Rashi claims that when David wrote this line, he wrote it to primarily reflect a request, not a praise: \u201cGod, who is blessed, teach me\u2026\u201d (Rashi to Berakhot 11b, s.v. <em>Barukh<\/em>).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The phrase \u201cBlessed are You, YHVH\u201d appears only one other time in the Bible. There, this phrase is clearly a praise of God: <\/span><b>\u201c<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Blessed are You, YHVH<\/span><b>\u2026<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> for everything in heaven and earth is yours\u2026 Wealth and honor come from you\u201d (I Chronicles 29:10-12).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">David has just built the Temple, with untold riches and resources. But immediately after recounting these precious items, David ascribes to God everything, including all wealth. \u201cBlessed are You, YHVH,\u201d in this context, is a recognition that despite all appearances, God \u2013 not us \u2013 is actually the source of our riches.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In Jewish liturgy, then, every time one says \u201cBlessed are You, YHVH,\u201d one may be indicating a praise OR a request. The basic human instincts of prayer \u2013 praise and request \u2013 are found in this simple formula: Blessed are You, YHVH.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This is an excerpt of R. Elie Kaunfer\u2019s (president and CEO of the <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.hadar.org\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hadar Institute)<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> forthcoming book about the daily amidah prayer.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","image":false,"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"\u05d1","main_caption":"A Simple Formula","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"12. Blessed are You, O LORD; train me in Your statutes","preview_embedded":"","preview_image":false,"preview_video":"","external_link":"","link_for_pay":false,"tile_gallery_items":false,"credits":""},"alternate_tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"","hide_media":false},"tile_group":{"preview_image_url":false,"main_caption":"","sub_caption":"","":null,"popup_package_extra_content":"","read_time":""},"home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo":{"seo_title":"","seo_description":"","seo_default_title":"","seo_default_description":""},"links":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89450"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89450"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89450\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":89451,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89450\/revisions\/89451"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}