[Avodah] One Hundred Percent

[Cantor Wolberg via Avodah]

It has been taught that a man must recite 100 b’rachot daily.
There are different explanations why 100 and the following are a few:

Rabbi Mayer said: a person is obligated to recite 100 Brachos each day. In the Jerusalem Talmud we
learned: it was taught in the name of Rabbi Mayer; there is no Jew who does not fulfill one hundred
Mitzvos each day, as it was written: Now Israel, what does G-d your G-d ask of you? Do not read the
verse as providing for the word: “what” (Mah); instead read it as including the word: “one hundred”
(Mai’Eh). King David established the practice of reciting one hundred Brachos each day. When the
residents of Jerusalem informed him that one hundred Jews were dying everyday, he established this
requirement. It appears that the practice was forgotten until our Sages at the time of the Mishna and at the
time of the Gemara re-established it. 

There is an additional hint to the need to recite 100 blessings each day from the Prophets as it
is written, Micah, Chapter 6, Verse 8: What does G-d ask of you (Hebrew: mimcha). Mimcha in
Gematria is 100. There is also a hint to the need to recite 100 blessings from Scriptures as it is written in
Psalms, Chapter 128 Verse 4: Behold, thus shall the man be blessed who fears the Lord (the Hebrew
words: Ki Kain appear in the verse. The letters in those words total 100 in Gematria). 

I’d like to proffer another explanation. In most tests you take in school, a perfect score is 100 or an A+.
Hence, when reciting a hundred brachot a day, we come as close to perfection as possible. 


“If sin becomes an abomination to you, you will have a hundred percent victory over it.”