<div dir="ltr"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; border-collapse: collapse; "><p style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Consolas; font-size: medium; ">On areivim, after saying I was in </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Consolas; font-size: medium; ">the newly rebuilt Churva shul in the Old City I</span></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Consolas; font-size: medium; ">cited the following halacha:</span></p><p style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; ">
<font class="Apple-style-span" face="Consolas"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br></span></font></p><p style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; "><font size="3" face="Consolas">Haroeh batei Yisrael b'yishuvan omer "Baruch... matziv gvul almana". See OCh 224:10, and MB there ot 14, who quotes the Rif that "batei Yisrael" refers to batei knesset.</font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Consolas"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br></span></font></p><p style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; ">
<font class="Apple-style-span" face="Consolas"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">RGD responded</span></font></p><p style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; ">
<font size="3" face="Consolas"></font> > <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Consolas; font-size: medium; ">Don't leave us hanging: did you make the beracha? Beshem umalchus?</span></p><div><font size="3" face="Consolas"><br>
</font></div><div><font size="3" face="Consolas">I was tempted to respond (Jewishly :)) why not? What do you see in the source cited,</font></div><div><font size="3" face="Consolas">or any other source, that would make you doubt that one should make this bracha</font></div>
<div><font size="3" face="Consolas">under the circumstanced I described ?</font></div><div><font size="3" face="Consolas"><br></font></div><div><font size="3" face="Consolas">However, I am aware that such a response begs the question. There is a strong sense about certain brachot, despite the obligation to say them being clearly delineated in SA OCh, that "the SA and poskim can say whatever they want. It doesn't matter. We simply don't say these brachot, certainly not </font><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Consolas; font-size: medium; ">b'shem umalchut".</span></div>
<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Consolas; font-size: medium; "><br></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Consolas; font-size: medium; ">Indeed the MB does say something like this about some of the "rare, unusual" brachot, and the Rama says that a certain bracha instituted by chazal is not now said. However, when the poskim do not say our practice is not to say a certain bracha, </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Consolas; font-size: medium; ">we may assume </span></div>
<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Consolas; font-size: medium; ">by implication that they felt it *should* be said.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Consolas; font-size: medium; "><br>
</span></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Consolas"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Part of the problem is that some the obligation to say certain brachot seems to be a subjective feeling, a concept some are uncomfortable with; it seems, if not antinomian,</span></font></div>
<div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Consolas"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">at least non-nomian. Chazal instituted a bracha, "oseh maase b'reishit" on "natural wonders", a concept </span></font><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Consolas; font-size: medium; ">difficult to define precisely. Rivers are mentioned as being in this category; I find it </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Consolas; font-size: medium; ">difficult to imagine getting so excited about the Hudson River that it would inspire in </span><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Consolas"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">me a need to make a bracha on it. OTOH I do think the stalactite cave near Beit Shemesh is so stunning does "deserve" a bracha" as a natural wonder . Where does one draw the line? If we can't define the chiyyuv precisely, some feel the bracha is better off not being said, explicit unequivocal </span></font><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Consolas; font-size: medium; "> statements in the SA notwithstanding.</span></div>
<div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Consolas"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br></span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Consolas"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">I find the following autobiographical passage by RYBS, quoted in "The Rav" by R.Aharon Rakefet-Rothkoff, Vol II, p 165-6, relevant to this topic</span></font></div>
<div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Consolas"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br></span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Consolas"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">"I remember how enthused I was the first time I saw the Baltic Sea. I was born in Russia, and never saw a major body of water in my youth. It was a beautiful sunny day in the month of Iyyar, after Pesach, when I went with a cousin to the Baltic Sea in Danzig [Gdansk, Poland].</span></font></div>
<div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Consolas"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br></span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Consolas"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">I remember that the water was blue, deeply blue. From afar it looked like a blue forest. It resembled the aboriginal forests near Pruzhanam where I was born. When I came close and realized it was the Baltic Sea, I was overwhelmed by its beauty. Spontaneously, I began to recite the Psalm [104] "Borchi Nafshi". I did not plan to do this, but the words flowed from my lips "O lord, my God, You are very great; You are clothed with glory and majesty" "There is the sea, vast and wide" It was a religious reaction to viewing the majesty of God's creation. When I recited the brocho upon seeing the sea, I did so with emotion and deep feeling. I deeply experienced the words of the brocho "oseh maase b'reishis'. Not all the brochos I make are made with such concentration. It was more than simply a brocho, it was an encounter with the creator. I felt that the Shechinah was hidden in the darkness and vastness of the sea. The experience was unique and unforgettable; the brocho welled out of me.</span></font></div>
<div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Consolas"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Since then, I have seen the ocean many times. I still recite the brocho if thirty days have elapsed since I last saw it. Nevertheless, since that first time, it has become a routine blessing, a kalte, misnagdishe brocho." </span></font></div>
<div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Consolas"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br></span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Consolas"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Saul Mashbaum</span></font></div>
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