BLESS (ELUL 3)


What         do we bless
I ask        and you point:
first flames    then goblets
then bread        braided smooth
my lips        brush your forehead

d'var acher        another view:
Blessed is        the One
who opens doors        into holiness
and implants         meristem cells            
into grape vines        coiling

Blessed is        potential
curled tight        in the kernel
of every grain        we mill and bake
bless infinity        translated into cosmos
creation's atoms        persist in us

"D'var acher" means "another viewpoint" (literally it means either "another word" or "another thing.") It's a common rabbinic way of shifting from one opinion to another.

I'm interested in our common parlance about blessings -- we say that we bless candles, juice, bread, though in truth our blessing formula teaches that we bless God Who makes and sanctifies these.

Shabbat shalom to all who celebrate!

I'm participating again this year in #blogElul, an internet-wide carnival of themed posts aimed at waking the heart and soul before the Days of Awe. (Organized by Ima Bima.) You can read last year's and this year's #blogElul posts via the Elul tag; last year's posts are also available, lightly revised, in the print chapbook Elul Reflections.