Page 12 - HaMizrachi_Tu_Bishvat_2020_USA_HP_Neat

Rabbi Shalom Rosner

Count your Blessings

and Make your Blessings Count

hen the average non- bless before a pleasure, so too we bless to achieve G-dliness, that is the matir,
farmer thinks of Tu before each mitzvah.” that is what allows us to then perform
WBiShvat, his thoughts are the mitzvah.
generally limited to the omission of Why does the Rambam link these
tachanun and the realization that we last two? He could have just listed all Thus, it is exactly parallel to berachot
are a month away from Purim. But three, and it seems as though these on food and aromas. Just as we require
as we know, every special occasion two are so different from each other. a matir to partake of the pleasures of
in Judaism has special meaning and A beracha on a pleasure is described the physical world, so too we require a
purpose, and thus it behooves us to by the commentaries as a matir, a matir to partake of the spiritual bliss
uncover and glean a message for our declaration which then allows me which is an outgrowth of each and
urban society as well. to partake of the item. Really, the every mitzvah.
Tu BiShvat, as we know, has halachic entire world belongs to G-d. Once I Someone once came to Rav Shlomo
ramifications for laws of orla and acknowledge His dominion, I am then Zalman Auerbach, asking for a segula
ma’asrot, laws related to the fruits allowed to partake of His world. What for salvation. How many fast days?
of the Land of Israel. There is a does that have to do with a beracha How many repetitions of Tehillim?
fascinating comparison found in the before a mitzvah? That seems to have He replied, “I am not a segula man. I
Rambam that can give us a meaningful nothing to do with the matir idea?! cannot tell you about non-halachic
insight into each and every mitzvah we It’s just a preparation to perform the strategies. But what I try to do when
perform. The Rambam writes that mitzvah! I need salvation is to say my berachot
1
there are three types of berachot. with kavana (intention).” He knew the
Rav Yosef Dov Soloveitchik presents
The first is ה ָ א ָ ד ֹוה ְ ו ח ַ ב ֶ ׁש ת ַּ כ ְ ר ִּ ב, berachot an ingenious and breathtaking secret of each and every beracha.
of praise and thanksgiving. These answer. Yes, even berachot on mitzvot On this Tu BiShvat, let us renew our
are all reactionary to an amazing function as matirim. After all, who energies to focus and improve our
Divine event or experience. Hearing are we, finite human beings of flesh kavana when we recite all types of
thunder, seeing a rainbow, using the and blood, who presume to draw berachot, and let us allow ourselves
bathroom, are all events which require close to the Infinite through physical to be shaped not only by the mitzvot
the Jew to acknowledge the Divine actions and verbal speech? What that we do, but by the berachot which
involvement in all of the above. The gives us the audacity to try to close precede them.
second type, ןיִנ ֲ הְנ ַ ה ת ַּ כ ְ ר ִּ ב, are berachot the gap between the created and the
recited before we indulge in pleasure Creator, between one whose days are
– eating, drinking, smelling. Finally, numbered and the One who created 1 Hilchot Berachot.
the Rambam presents the third type days? It seems presumptuous to even
of beracha, those recited before try!
performing a mitzvah. But instead of
just listing this third type, he links That’s the function of a beracha. Once
category three with category two. I acknowledge the relationship between
commanded and Commander, and Rabbi Shalom Rosner is a Rebbe at Yeshivat
ְ
לֹ ּ כ ל ַ ע ןי ִ כ ְ ר ָ ב ְ מ ך ָּ כ ,היינהה ל ַ ע ןי ִ כ ְ ר ָ ב ְּ מ ֶ ׁש ם ֵ ׁש ְ כּו I express my recognition that this is Kerem B’Yavneh and Rabbi of the Nofei
ּ ה ָ תֹוא ה ֶ ׂש ֲ עַי ּ כ" ַ ח ַ א ְ ו ה ָ ו ְ צ ִ מּו ה ָ ו ְ צ ִ מ. “Just as we His will that we perform His mitzvot HaShemesh community

12 |