[Avodah] New Brachos

[Arie Folger]

R'nCL replied to RAM:
> And note that hanosen l'ayef koach would seem to violate both of
> your questions: - does the situation call for a beracha? - no it would
> seem according to the gemora, which does not mention it.  Is it an
> established nusach?  Not at the time of the gemora.

I don't think that both blessings are of a kind. Birkot hanehenin are
seen as necessary before enjoying teh world. Hanoten laya'ef koa'h is
of a different breed, a pure sheva'h. What did you mean to say that
according to Ashkenazi siddurim, we are not allowed to feel rested
without a blessing? That sounds implausible. Rather, as we pasqen like
the Rosh, that birkot hasha'har are birkot hasheva'h and not hanehenin
(hence they are recited even without following a direct benefit, i.e.,
even if I stay all day in pijamas, and do not get dressed anew, I
still make a malbish 'arumim), so, too, is hanotein laya'ef koa'h a
birkat hasheva'h.

Sheva'h does not necessarily depend on a situation the way birkot
hanehenin and birkot hamitzvot do, and hence, the situation upon which
we react by praising G"d, is more fluid. Thus, I would argue that you
will sooner encounter a berakha levatalah in birkot hanehenin and
birkot hamitzvot, than in birkot hasheva'h. This is confirmed by the
fact that we do not hesitate to praise G"d by singing poems that
include His Name (a.k.a. zemirot*)



* = And don't tell me of that strange "minhag" of not pronouncing His
Name in zemirot, a minhag that I am intimately familiar with, for it
is inherently contradictory. If one praises "HaShem", one has praised
a word, not G"d. We use that word when mentioning texts by way of
demonstration, in order to abstain from mentioning His Name, but
surely, when praising Him, we should address Him, and not play acting
out games.



Kol tuv,
-- 
Arie Folger,
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