Eikev: Count Your Blessings

It is natural for Jews to bless G-d. We are raised from childhood to see G-d’s hand behind everything that happens in life. So, when good things happen, we thank G-d, when bad things happen, we pray to G-d. We bless G-d before we eat, and after, upon waking and going to sleep. When we buy a new home, eat a new fruit, or see a friend we haven’t seen in a long time. We have a blessing for everything.

The Talmud tells us to recite at least one hundred blessings every day. We pray three times daily, and there are 19 blessings in each Amidah, which brings us to 57. The 18 blessings we add each morning to thank G-d for everything from opening our eyes to putting on our shoes bring us to 75. The additional 9 blessings in the morning and evening services and the 5 blessings we say before and after a full meal bring us to 89. The blessings before each Mitzvah including Torah study bring us to nearly 100. Add whatever blessings we might say over additional meals and snacks, and we are easily at 100.

At first blush, this didactic search for blessings to reach a quota seems artificial. Shouldn’t blessings be genuine and from the heart? Why does it matter how many blessings one says? Besides, doesn’t casting about for some fruit just to add another blessing seem contrived?

Let’s back up and tell the story behind this tradition. During the reign of King David, he was informed of a strange plague that had gripped the nation and was claiming precisely 100 lives daily. David searched for a cure until it was revealed to him prophetically that the plague would lift if Jews would recite a hundred blessings daily. Accordingly, David enacted this tradition.

The Talmud supports this tradition with a passage from the Torah portion we read this week. Moses said, “And now Israel, what does G-d your G-d ask of you, just to fear Him” (Deuteronomy 10:12). The Hebrew word for what is mah. If we add an alef to mah, it becomes meah, Hebrew for one hundred. Says the Talmud, “Don’t read mah, read meah. G-d asks you to recite meah—a hundred blessings daily.

But why a hundred? Isn’t that an artificial number? Also, why play with the word and act like it says meah when it says mah. Moreover, they are opposites. Mah is nothing, meah is everything.

Your Everything
A hundred is a complete number. By endeavoring to say a hundred blessings daily, we endeavor to give ourselves to G-d completely. To suspend our ego and be sublimated and subsumed by G-dliness. This is implied by the word mah, what are we—a rhetorical question that answers itself. Without G-d, we are mah—nothing. With G-d we are meah—part of everything.

The death of a hundred Jews daily was virtually like the death of an entire Jewish community G-d forbid. This terrible plague shook the nation to its core, thus revealing their core—their utter connection and dependence on G-d. As a result, they surrendered completely to G-d and spent their entire day looking for ways to bless Him until they reached their fill. One hundred blessings.

Contrived?
We asked earlier if it is somewhat contrived to grab a snack just to say a blessing. Now that we realize that blessings are a method to connect with G-d, we can reverse the question. Isn’t it somewhat contrived to invoke G-d’s name in a blessing just to eat an apple?

Rabbi Aharon of Karlin once sat at his table surrounded by many followers. He took an apple from a bowl and recited a blessing with great fervor before taking a bite. One of the assembled thought dismissively that this rabbi is not so pious after all. Could he not curb his desire for an apple while teaching Torah?

Rabbi Aharon sensed this man’s thoughts and proclaimed: Some people crave an apple, but can’t eat it without reciting a blessing, so they bless G-d to eat an apple. Some people are moved to bless G-d but can’t say G-d’s name in vain unless it is part of a blessing. So, they eat an apple to bless G-d.

So, eating an apple to say a blessing is not contrived. It is sacred, beautiful, and uplifting.

Protect A Nation
By reciting a hundred blessings, the Jewish people stopped the plague. Today, our people are in danger again. It is not a plague of illness but one of hatred and violence from our enemies. If we recite a hundred blessings every day, we, too, can protect our nation. How does this work?

Rabban Gamliel once fined someone ten gold coins for grabbing a Mitzvah that belonged to another. The Talmud asked if the fine was for stealing the Mitzvah or for the blessing to be recited before the Mitzvah. The Talmud concluded that it was for the blessing. Thus, the value of a blessing is ten gold coins.

In the Talmudic era, a gold coin was the equivalent of twenty-five silver coins. A silver coin was equivalent to six ancient coins called maah. The maah was equivalent to two pundyons and the pundyon to two issars. If you crunch the numbers, you will see that a hundred times ten gold coins is six hundred thousand issars—precisely the number of Jews that left Egypt. These were the original Jews, and their souls became the root souls of every Jew in every generation.

Thus, when we recite a hundred blessings daily, we connect with and pray for every Jew around the world every day. It is not just a method of forging a personal connection with G-d. it is a method of forging a connection with every Jew and bringing the entire nation into our core connection with G-d. Moreover, when every Jew recites a hundred blessings, the connection multiplies exponentially by factors of six hundred thousand times six hundred thousand!

Count Your Blessings
We are often told to count our blessings. It is meant to remind us to appreciate what we have before being disappointed by what we don’t have. The hundred blessing tradition gives this phrase an entirely new meaning. Count your blessings. Center your day around ensuring you have blessed G-d enough times to fill your entire day. You might not want an apple but eat it anyway to give G-d yet another blessing.

If you want to know how this translates fiscally, let me tell you. 100 blessings amount to 1000 gold coins or 25000 silver coins. A Talmudic silver coin was 4.8 grams of pure silver. 25000 silver coins amount to 120 kilos of pure silver. At today’s prices, 100 blessings amount to nearly USD 110,000 daily. So, go out and recite, collect, and count your blessings for you, your family, and the entire Jewish nation.