Reb
Zalman’s Birkat HaMazon (Blessings after the Meal)
A
Reaching Up Song:
We dream[1]
how God will bring us back to Zion.
Then shall we laugh again.
Then shall we sing again.
Then people will say:
“How great it is!
Look at what God has done for them!
If God had done the same for us,
We too would be glad.”
Oh God! Why don’t You bring us back?
As you bring back water
To the dried-up Negev streams?
Yes, we will trust. We sowed with tears,
We will reap with song.
Those who go, casting out seeds.
Sometimes feel like weeping.
Yet on they go, always trusting,
That they shall come back singing.
Bearing in the harvest sheaves. (Psalms 126)
Remove all pain, all wrath take wing.
Then even ones who are mute will sing.
Guide us aright and far from sin
As we join in praising with Aaron’s kin.
Invitation and Consent:
Leader:
Haverai n’va-rekh.
Friends, let us give
praise.
Response:
Y’hi sheym YAH m’vorakh me’ata v’ad olam.
Barukh [Eloheynu] sh’akhalnu mi-shelo.
Barukh [Eloheynu] sh’akhalnu mi-shelo uv’tuvo hayinu.
Barukh Hu/Brukhah Hi, u’varukh sh’mo/sh’mah!
May God’s name be praised, now and forever.
With your consent, friends:
Let us praise our God,
whose food we have eaten.
Leader:
Barukh [Eloheynu] sh’akhalnu mi-shelo uv’tuvo hayinu.
Praised be our God
of whose abundance we have eaten
and by whose goodness we live.
Together:
Barukh hu, u’varukh sh’mo.
Praised be God and praised
be God’s name.
Thanking God for the Food and
its Nourishment:
Praise, yes, praise is
Yours, Oh God.
Ruler of all time and space
Who every day invites the world
to the feast of love, goodness and compassion.
You feed us and You sustain us
and the whole world
with Your goodness
Your grace and compassion.
Food You provide for all Your creatures
Whom You love so abundantly.
And because You are so good to us,
We have never lacked sustenance in the past
And we trust that we will never lack food in the future.
This You do for Your own repute
That You may be known as:
The One who sustains.
The One who supports.
The One who provides food for each
creature’s needs.
You know well what each one needs.
For You did create us all.
Therefore do we praise and thank You,
The One who nourishes all.
Barukh attah YAH, hazzan et hakkol.
Thanking God for the Exodus,
the Torah, the Holy Land –
and for the Joy of Eating:
We thank You, YAH, our
God,
because you settled our ancestors
in a land desirable and good and wide.
You extricated us, YAH our God,
from the straits and narrow places of Mitzraim,
and freed us from being at home in servitude.
We thank You for the promise sealed in our flesh,
For the Torah teaching which You impart to us,
For the rules You made us know;
for life,
for beauty,
for love,
with which you are generous.
And we thank You for the joy of eating
which You grant us
while You nurture us,
every day, every moment.
Thanking God for the Good
Earth and Her Produce:
For all this, Our God.
We worship and thank You.
Whose Name is praised
By ever new expressions of life.
We do this to fulfill Your command, which states:
“Eat your fill, praising YAH, your God,
for the earthy goodness which God
so freely gave to you.”
Therefore we say:
Praise to You YAH
for the Earth and for her food.
Barukh attah YAH al
ha’aretz v’al hamazzon.
As a Mother Wombs Her Children
in Mercy:
Have pity, Oh God, on
Israel Your people,
Jerusalem Your city,
Zion Your glory’s shrine
and on David’s messianic world order.
And pity the Holy House
The Temple of Grandeur
Where it was so easy
To call upon You.
Our God, Source of our being,
Mother, Father, Provider, Sustainer,
You nourish and support us,
Yet still allow us our independence.
God, keep us free from needs that enslave us.
Permit us not to depend
on gifts, handouts or loans.
For even when others offer help,
what they give is little
and the indignity is great.
But may we only rely
On Your full, broadly open hand,
So we never lose self-respect,
Nor suffer shame or disgrace.
[On Shabbat:]
We Also Give Thanks for the Shabbat’s Rest:
In commanding us You share
Your will with us.
In commanding us You impart in us the strength
to fulfill the commandment.
We thank You for the commandment of the seventh day,
the great Shabbat, the holy Shabbat, this Shabbat.
A great day it is, holy it is, a day in which we live Your Presence.
We rest on it; we relax on it, according to Your will.
On this day of rest – may there be no pain,
no worry, no anguish, stress or sighing.
On this Shabbat day open our eyes to the vision
for the consolation of Zion,
and the upbuilding of Jerusalem, Your holy city.
For You are the Source of liberation and consolation.
We Celebrate the Holy Season:
Our God and God of our ancestors,
May this prayer we offer to You,
Rise and come and reach You.
Be noted and accepted
and heard by You;
Be remembered and acted upon:
As You become aware of us,
As You remember us. You remembered our parents.
You will remember the Messiah, David’s heir,
You are mindful of Jerusalem Your city.
You are mindful of Israel Your people.
Allow them all to find their way
To Goodness, to grace, to kindness
To mercy, to life and to peace.
On this Pesah/Shavuot/Succot
Think well of this day
Be mindful on it for our blessing,
Grant us the good life on it.
And as concerns such matters as salvation and mercy
Pity us, be kind; save us, be gentle,
For our eyes look to You – Divine, Majestic One,
Who is also Kind and Gentle.
We Remember Others as We Remember Jerusalem:
We ate and drank
Yet we forget not
that there is exile, destruction,
famine, fear and want.
Please, forget us not,
But in remembering us, remember all in want.
Make this world a place of holiness,
Now in our lifetime, as You rebuild Jerusalem.
Praised are You, YAH
Who in building up mercy
Builds Jerusalem.
Barukh attah YAH, boneh b’rahamav Yerushalayim:
Amen – do as we believe!
We Thank You for Thanksgiving
and for All that You Are To Us:
Praise, yea praise to You, Oh God.
Source of our being
Merciful Mother, Mighty Father;
Powerful Ruler, Redeeming Creator;
Holy Artist, Jacob’s Sanctifier;
Guiding Shepherd, Israel’s Shepherd;
Sovereign who is good to all.
In Your goodness You do not discriminate.
Doing good day by day
according to that day’s needs.
So You did act out of goodness in the past,
And so will You deal with us in the future.
You give of Your Self. You gave of Your Self
freely and completely, kindly and mercifully,
generously and abundantly.
To save us, to prosper us, to bless us,
to redeem us, to console us,
to sustain and support us –
in mercy, life and in goodness,
while not diminishing the good You hold in store for us
for eternity.
We Pray for the Messianic Age and Times of Peace
Invocations for the Future:
Harahaman Hu....
Kind-hearted One! Rule over us always.
Caring One! Be involved with our heaven and on our earth.
Feeling One!
You who are praised from one generation to the next,
Take pride in us always.
May our lives honor You in this world and in the next.
Merciful One! Grant us an honorable livelihood.
Warm-hearted One! Break the restraints that make us strangers,
lead us home with dignity.
Generous One! Send abundant blessing
to this home and to this table.
One who grants pleasant surprises!
Send Elijah the prophet, of the blessed memory,
to bring us good news of liberation and consolation.
Compassionate One!
Bless and protect all of us, our loved ones and our families,
our endeavors and our possessions.
May we all be blessed
like Abraham – with everything;
like Sarah – with faithfulness;
like Isaac – by everyone;
like Jacob – in every way;
like Rachel – with warmth;
like Leah – with love.
And to all this, let us say – Amen!
Compassionate One! Help us
so that we may be worthy of being alive
when the Messiah time finally arrives.
Grant strength and loving-kindness to the Messiah,
to David’s descendants, to the very ends of time.
Oh God! We know that You can make peace on high –
That is not too difficult.
Grant peace to us and to all Israel – that is more difficult:
Grant us peace!
Sublime One!
Interpret our act as prompted by
good intentions, as an act of
surrender, worthy of blessing from You.
And even if we are not deemed worthy,
then accept our act of thanksgiving
as a kind favor on Your part. Oh Helping God!
May we ever be found pleasant and wise by You God
and by all our fellow human beings.
We Encourage One Another Before Leaving the Table:
Fear Our God, you who make God holy!
Fearing only God, what will you lack?
Those who are self-sufficient, like young lions,
May starve in relying on their own strength.
But those who seek Only God
Shall not lack all that is good.
Give thanks to God who is so good,
Whose kindness is ever aware
of the needs of the world.
Blessed are they who trust in God,
For God will ever be their protector.
I was young, now I’m old
yet never saw a Tzaddik so forsaken
that their child seeks only bread.
How can this be? How could this happen?
Surely blessings will be heaped on those
who are really righteous, fair and just.
May what we ate be a source of satisfaction;
What we drank, a source of health;
What we left, a source of blessing.
According to Scripture:
“The host set food before them, they ate and left enough for others,
As God has spoken.”
God will surely give strength to our people,
God will bless our folk with SHALOM!