Everyday

The rabbis of Talmudic times taught: "Say one hundred blessings a day!" On this page we discuss everyday rituals and practices that can help you to cultivate and sustain a sense of deeper meaning and connection in the midst of your daily activities.

To access the CLAL Everyday Archive, click here.

Hearing Good News…

How automatically our words celebrate the blessing of hearing good news. "Oh my God!" we say, "Thank God!", "I can’t believe it!" Later, with more deliberation, more reflection, our hearts and minds acknowledge the divine source of blessing that our words so readily locate.

Meditation

"Whoever says the blessing over a full cup is given an inheritance without bounds, as it says in Zecharia, ‘And full with the blessing of the Lord, you shall possess the sea and the south.’" (TB:Brakhot 51a)

Ritual

Fill a beautiful cup with wine or grape juice, letting it overflow into the saucer below. This is the cup of abundant blessing. Raise it up, fixing your eyes on it, and share the wine with people who share your good news.

Blessing

Kos yeshuot esaH, u’v’shem Hashem ekra; Barukh atah hashem, eloheinu melekh ha-olam, borei pri hagafen.

I raise the cup of abundant blessing and invoke the name of God. Blessed are You who created the fruit of the vine.

Barukh atah hatov v’ha-metiv.

Blessed are You for this good news. L’chaim!

Blessed are You, who does good and makes better.

Teaching

Why did the Rabbis connect their discussion of the blessing we say for good news with their discussion of the blessing we say for rain? ‘Because hearing good news is like cold water to a thirsty soul.’" (TY:Brakhot 9b)

"You have changed my grief into dancing! You have taken off my sackcloth and dressed me with celebration." (Psalm 30)

Dishanta b’shemen roshi kosi r’vaya.

You annoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.

(CLAL Faculty)