Nine Words With the Master of the Universe

A friend of mine was teaching a class. He said something quietly and took a sip of water. Someone in the room noticed and asked, “What was that?” “A blessing.” “For water?” “I was praising the Master of the Universe for the water I’m about to drink.”

It takes only a few seconds to say a blessing over a glass of water. From the outside, almost nothing has happened. But in those few seconds, an ordinary drink can become an act of service and a moment of connection to the One who gave you the water.

You have probably held a glass of water thousands of times. For some of us, even the blessing itself has become familiar. That is what makes the opportunity so easy to miss: while we might imagine that an encounter with G-d should require some extraordinary moment, the opportunity has been available all along.

The blessing itself is an act of service: praise offered to the One who gave you the water. The water in your hand becomes evidence of Someone beyond it. For a few seconds, you are not merely preparing to drink; you are aware that you are speaking to the Creator, and that awareness itself begins to change the moment.

A moment earlier, the pleasure was going to come from the cold water. Now there is another pleasure available before you even take the first sip: the pleasure of knowing whom you are speaking to.

The blessing over water has only nine words, and six of them begin every blessing. Yet inside those few words is an extraordinary possibility: in the middle of an ordinary day, holding an ordinary glass of water, you can stand before the One who created everything.