ברוך אתה ה'....רוקע הארץ על המים.."
"Blessed are you Hashem.. who spreads out the earth upon the waters"
This is reminiscent of day 2 of creation, when God separated the water and sky. As in, after "day" 2 there was now a land part and a sea part.
This was all part of fixing the chaos that used to exist.
So I'm trying to blog about this but I'm at a blank.. I can't think about how this is so important. What do you guys think?Why do we say a bracha every day to thank Hashem for this? What is the higher significance? Or do you not think that this bracha has to do with Bereshit?
Well, I've been searching the web and prayingwithfire.org said the following about the bracha: "The nature of water is that it tends to spread and flood everything in its path. In His great compassion, G-d overrode water’s nature, confining it to its designated place and leaving dry land for man, plants and animals to inhabit. One need only view images of the devastation brought by a tidal wave or tsunami to understand what happens when, for just a few hours, G-d releases his hold on the waters." This is very insightful, but do you think it connects to bereshit?
Well, imagine where we would be if the whole world were under water? It wouldn't exactly work out. When things flood it is devastating, and it would be horrible if all of the earth were flooded. Can you imagine one big ocean? That would be terrible.
ReplyDeleteI think the "higher significance" is really just that even though we might read the perek and say that it's just kind of weird to say G-d separated the heavens from the water and then gathered all the water together, but really it is the best thing G-d could have done. The world was actually once covered in water- there is proof of this, such as farmers complaining about whale bones in a state that I forgot but is not near any ocean- so yay for us that now there is dry land!
On the praying with fire thing, when it says G-d releases His hold, I don't actually think G-d is releasing His hold. I think G-d set up a system and He let's it run naturally without dictating every rainfall or hurricane.
Racheli, what an insightful question! I really enjoyed reading your post. I do think the answer that prayingwithfire.org gives is connected to Bereshit because I think it highlights the hierarchy. Thank G-d, Hashem separated the heavens from the water and then gathered all the water together. However, I think, that G-d is in control of that water because He created it! It's hard to think that G-d brings terrible hurricanes and tsunamis to the world and, at the same time, constricts rainfall in Israel. This, again, illustrates that we do not understand or know the reason why G-d does/allows certain things. I think it is important that we do not know everything about G-d because it emphasizes the hierarchy and reminds us of our place. This topic reminds me of what I did with my BYSY group this week! We talked about water and how Israel doesn't have enough of it. One kid expressed to me that maybe the reason why there's not a lot of water because when it rains it shows that G-d is mad at the Jewish people. This is something we hear about when we are younger. What do you think about it? I think a way to argument that that idea is not true is that in sefer devarim we are constantly told that if we don't follow in the ways of Hashem, there will be no rain and the crops will be destroyed. So therefore, rain is a sign of the Jewish people following in the ways of Hashem.
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