Talmud Torah: The 3 Blessings

Rabbi Moshe Ben-Chaim

Blessed are You, God, our God, King of the Universe, Who sanctified us with His commandments and commanded us to engage in words of Torah.

God, please make the words of Your Torah pleasant in our mouths and in the mouths of Your people Israel. And may we and our descendants, and the descendants of Your people the House of Israel, all  know Your Name and study Your Torah for its own sake. Blessed are You, God Who teaches Torah to His people, Israel.

Blessed are You our God, King of the Universe Who chose us from among all the peoples and gave us His Torah. Blessed are You God, giver of the Torah.

The blessings refer not only to us, but to 1) our children, 2) all of Israel, and that 3) God teaches the nation Torah. Plus, Maimonides says the mitzvah of Torah study is to teach others as part of the very command. What is the central theme running through all these?

Torah’s inception was “transmission” to masses. Thus, Torah’s very nature is a “shared” entity. Just as we cannot conceive of kingship without a kingdom, the very nature of Torah too exist for the world. To suggest Torah is to benefit a small group denies the universal benefit Torah offers all mankind. Torah came into existence as a shared communication. We must fulfill that form of sharing Torah in our very fulfillment of the command to study it. This explains the final blessing, “Blessed are You God, giver of the Torah.” God gave Torah to the world…not just the Jews.