Prayer III: Upon Arising תפילה (ג): השכמת הבוקר

Because a person’s hands are busy, and it is impossible not to touch one’s dirty flesh at night, they enacted a blessing [on hand-washing] before one recites Shema and prays.

One can say that because at dawn we are made like a new creation, as it is written, “New each morning, great is your faithfulness” (Eicha 3:23) …. We need to give thanks to Him, may He be blessed, for creating us to honor Him, to serve Him, and to bless in His name. For this reason, they established at dawn all the berachot we recite every morning. And therefore, we need to sanctify ourselves in His holiness and wash our hands from a vessel, like a kohen who sanctifies his hands from the kiyor(ritual basin) prior to his Temple service.

There are those who say also [to recite first thing in the morning] Asher Yatzar, even if he did not relieve himself, and this practice has been adopted.

Also Asher Yatzar – The reason is that in the morning one becomes like a new creation and we need to thank Him, so the berachotElokai Neshamaand Asher Yatzar were enacted upon the creation of the body.

When he awakens, he says, “My God, the soul You have given me is pure…Blessed are You Who returns souls to dead carcasses.”

And the opening of our prayer, which the women know, and how much more so the sages, is “Elokai Neshama.”

Rav Yehuda said in the name of Shemuel: [One who has] awakened early to review [Torah], as long as he has not recited Keri’at Shema, he must bless [birchot ha-Torah].

For Rav Yehuda said in the name of Rav: What is written, “Who is the man who is wise and will understand this? [And that the mouth of God spoke to him that he may relate for what the land was lost, burnt up like a wilderness without passerby]” (Yirmiyahu 9:11)? This matter was asked of the sages and the prophets and they did not explain it until God Himself explained it, as is written, “And God said, ‘for their deserting my Torah that I set before them and they did not obey my voice and did not follow it [the Torah]’ (ad loc., 12).” ‘They did not obey my voice’ is the same as ‘they did not follow it’! Rav Yehuda in the name of Rav: [They did not follow it means] that they do not make a beracha on the Torah at the beginning [of study].

Whence [do we learn] that the beracha recited before [learning] Torah is from the Torah? As it is written, “When I call out the Lord’s name, give greatness to our God” (Devarim 32:3).

Every day a person must recite these three berachot and afterwards read a little from words of Torah.

For we are commanded to praise His name, may He be blessed, whenever we read the Torah, for the great good that He did for us in giving us His Torah and telling us of desirable deeds before Him, through which we may merit life of the world to come…In the third chapter of Berachot(21a), they said: “Whence [do we learn] that the beracha recited before [learning] Torah is from the Torah? As it is written, ‘When I call out the Lord’s name, give greatness to our God’ (Devarim 32:3).”…What arises from this is that birchat ha-Torah before [reading from] Torah is a positive Torah-level mitzva.

(14) Women bless the Blessing of the Torah

Rather the fundamental [law of women in birchot ha-Torah] is according to what Tosafot wrote and there they explained that women recite a beracha over every positive time-bound commandment.