Birkat Hamazon: Blueprint of Jewish Destiny (Part 10)
“Anyone who recites Birkat HaMazon is blessed through it.”
(Zohar HaKadosh to ParshatTerumah)
The Third Blessing concludes: “Rebuild Yerushalayim, the Holy City, soon in our days. Blessed are You, Hashem Who rebuilds Yerushalayim in His mercy. Amen.”
Yerushalayim is the holiest and most elevated place in the world. The Midrash teaches us (Ber. Rabbah 59) that Yerushalayim is the source of light in our world – “Yerushalayim Oro Shel Olam.” As the Prophet Yeshayahu says, “From Zion will come forth the Torah, and the Word of Hashem from Yerushalayim.”
Tosafot (Bava Batra 21a) asks why it states that the Torah comes forth from Yerushalayim. Tosafot explains that when people would come to Yerushalayim and to the Holy Temple, they would be inspired by seeing the Kohanim perform the Temple Services. Experiencing this elevated experience motivated them to become better people. They became more spiritually aware, to the point of being more careful in their mitzvah observance. Rabbi Aharon Kotler, in Mishnat Rebbi Aharon, writes that because we have no Temple today, each individual needs to look at themselves as a living Temple. Just as the Kohanim inspired others and embodied the essence of the Temple, so too should we inspire others and embody the essence of the Holy Temple.
It is truly a tragedy that we do not have the Temple. Our Sages teach (Ta’anit 30b), “Whoever mourns over [the destruction] of Yerushalayim will merit to witness its joy.” Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak Kook (1865-1935), the first Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of British Mandatory Palestine, asks why the Talmud uses the phrase “witness its joy.” If anything, it would seem to be more appropriate to say that they will “merit to see its rebuilding.” How is the concept of joy connected? Rabbi Kook offers a poignant answer. Even after Yerushalayim will be rebuilt, not everyone will merit to “see” the depths of its joy. To see its joy will require a special spiritual insight not possessed by everybody. Our Sages are teaching that only someone who truly mourns the destruction of the Holy Temple and Yerushalayim will merit to see its joy.
Yerushalayim is the epicenter of the universe (Yoma 54b). Yerushalayim is the place that every Jew turns towards in prayer. Yerushalayim is the heart of the Jewish People.
Rabbi Mordechai Yoffe (1530-1612), the Chief Rabbi of Posen in Poland, was one of the greatest scholars of his generation. He was an expert in all aspects of the Torah and its esoteric dimensions. In his all-encompassing work Levush Malchut, he writes that our blessing closes with an appeal for mercy even though it is not directly linked to the theme of Yerushalayim and the Holy Temple. This is because the blessing’s conclusion parallels its beginning, which begins with the words, “Have mercy, Hashem, our
Our blessing concludes in what seems to be an unusual manner. As a rule, we do not answer “Amen” to our own blessings. It is actually a mistake to do so. Yet, here we do so. Our Sages explain (Berachot 45b) that since this is the final blessing of Birkat HaMazon that is mandated by the Torah, it is correct to have an indication that the blessing which follows is of Rabbinic origin and not from the Torah. Therefore, our Sages instructed us to add the word “Amen” to the end of the third blessing. This makes the differentiation clear. It also ensures that we won’t make the mistake of thinking we must always say “Amen” to our own blessings. Our Sages teach that we should pause before saying the word “Amen” at the end of the third blessing as a reminder that we are saying “Amen” at this point for a specific reason.
To be continued…
