Les Psaumes 134:2 Halakha : Shulchan Shel Arba, Mishneh Torah, Prayer and the Priestly Blessing, Kitzur Shulchan Arukh & Sefer Chasidim

The first blessing is al netilat yada’im -“over the washing of the hands”. Our rabbis z”l specifically fixed the form of this blessing with the word “netilah,” which literally means “raising high,” as the Targum translates “then a spirit lifted me up [va-tise’ni]”²Ez 3:12. – “raised me up” [va-nitaltni]. These two verbs are also used synonymously when it is written “He raised them and lifted them up [va-yitlem va-yinas’em] all the days of old.”³Is 63:9.It is necessary to raise up one’s hands when saying this blessing. Moreover this would include the point of raising hands in prayer, to concentrate one’s mind on them (i.e., the ten fingers of one’s hands) to be made holy by them from the ten sefirot. It is like someone who raises their hands upward to concentrate on opening the source above, pulling and drawing down the divine energy flow. This is what Scripture means when it says, “I reach up for your commandments which I love.”⁴Ps 119:48. This verse teaches you that in some of the commandments there is an imprint or picture above, which a person needs, in order to follow them below, so you should raise your hands toward them above. Even here over the table when you are eating, you ought to lift up your hands and raise them above.⁵Or “ought to perform the ritual of al netilat yada’im raising his hands upward …;” the Hebrew can mean either, or most likely, both. You should concentrate on the ten sefirot when you lift (or wash) before you eat, and likewise after you eat with the mayim aharonim [i.e., the washing after the meal]. Scripture talksabout this when it says, “Lift your hands toward the sanctuary and bless the Lord.”⁶Ps 134:2Similarly with the ten things that are necessary for a cup of blessing, according to the custom of those in the past.⁷R. Bahya is referring to b. Berakhot 51a:
Rabbi Zeira said in the name of Rabbi Abahu – others say it is taught in a beraita: “Ten things were said to have been required for of a cup of blessing: (1) washing and (2) rinsing it before use, (3) undiluted, (4) a full cup (5) closing it [itur] (6) covering with a cloth [ituf], (7) lifting it up with two hands and putting it in the right, and (8) elevating it at least a handbreadth from the ground, (9) looking at it; and some say, (10) sending it as a gift to household members.” Rabbi Yohanan said, “we know of only four: Washing, rinsing, undiluted, and full.”
Though R. Yohanan’s view became the accepted practice, R. Bahya is suggesting that there nevertheless was an ancient custom that did associate the rituals concerned with blessing a cup of wine with the ten sefirot. That is why Rabbi Zeira et al. specified ten, according to R. Bahya’s interpretation of his rationale. So Chavel in his notes explains R. Bahya’s reference to “the custom of those in the past.” See below, where R. Bahya discusses in more detail the ten things connected with the cup of blessing. See also the Zohar 2:157b. All this is to hint that the purpose of concentrating on our eating at the table is only for our body to be sustained and be able to serve theCreator so that our soul will merit to stand among “the ten,” and that the brilliant light be her food and hover protectively over her. And know the truth, that the structure of the body with ten fingers on the hands that can be raised above, and ten toes below, with our body in the middle – was designed this way, to get us to visualize the connection between heaven and earth. Just so, our body links our upper and lower ten digits.⁸In other words, the connection between our 10 toes and fingers with our body in the middle is analogous to the connection between our 10 fingers lifted up in netilat yada’imdown here on earth and the 10 sefirot in the upper world. This is the “imprint” of the cosmos in the human body to which R. Bahya just referred. Perhaps R. Bahya’s particular wording here to introduce this analogy, “Know the truth [ha-emet],” is an allusion to Ps. 85:11: “Truth [emet] will spring up from the ground.”

Right after washing the hands comes the blessing, in other words, whoever has washed their hands for mayim ahronim ought to say birkat ha-mazon immediately.¹⁷⁶B. Berakhot 42a. And so you will also find in the Jerusalem Talmud: “Rabbi Zeira said in the name of Rabbi Abba, ‘There are three pairs of things that need to be done in immediate succession: the 18 Benedictions prayer has to follow the blessing for redemption without a break, kosher slaughter has to follow the laying on of hands without a break, and the blessing has to follow hand-washing without a break. The 18 Benedictions prayer has to follow the blessing for redemption without a break, as it is said, “The Lord is my Rock and my Redeemer,’ to which immediately is connected, ‘May the Lord answer you in time of trouble.’¹⁷⁷Ps 19:15 (last verse) and Ps 20:2 (first verse after the ascription). Kosher slaughter has to follow the laying on of hands without a break, as it is said, ‘He shall lay his hand…He shall slaughter.’¹⁷⁸Lev 1:4, 5. The blessing has to follow netilat yada’im without a break, as it is said, ‘Lift your hands toward the sanctuary and bless the Lord.’¹⁷⁹Ps 134:2. Rabbi Yosi the son of Rabbi Abin said, ‘Everyone who connects ge’ulah to tefilah without a break, Satan cannot accuse for the whole day; and everyone who connects the blessing to netilat yada’im without a break, Satan cannot accuse him during that meal. And likewise, everyone who lays his hand and slaughters without a break, there will be nothing invalid about that sacrifice.” So says the Jerusalem Talmud.¹⁸⁰Y. Berakhot 1:1.

Following the way of the old-timers and strict interpreters of the halakhah, one should be careful about doing the ten things³⁰⁸See B. Berakhot 51a. R. Bahya says ten, but then lists eleven. Chavel says that the last is not really part of the ten, and notes that R. Bahya in Kad Ha-Kemah lists the ten things mentioned here in a different order. R. Bahya more or less paraphrase this discussion of the ten things required for the cup of blessing from b. Berakhot 51a-b, though he adds some kabbalistic interpretations, such as the tradition from the Book of Bahir, that are not from the original Talmud passage. required for the cup of blessing. And they are: (1) “rinsing”; (2) “washing away”; (3) “undiluted” wine; (4) that the cup be full; (5) “crowning;” (6) wrapping; (7) holding the cup in two hands; (8) grasping it with the right hand; (9) raising it a hands’ breadth; (10) setting one’s eyes upon it; and (11) passing it on to members of one’s household. The interpretation: “rinsing” inside the cup, “washing away” the outside.³⁰⁹The Hebrew words hadahah –“rinsing” and shetifah “washing away” are in this context virtually synonymous, thus the need to make the distinction. “Undiluted” – hay: the wine should be pure and undiluted until the blessing “ha-aretz” in birkat ha-mazon; at that point water is put in it. There are some who interpreted “undiluted” – hay – to mean that it came out of a vessel right next to the meal, as in the expression mayim hayyim, that is water drawn from a nearby spring. And there are those who interpreted hay – as “live,” referring to cup that is whole, unbroken, because vessels that are broken are called “dead.” One does not say the blessing of the cup of birkat ha-mazon until water is put in it, because we need the mitzvah to use only the finest, which would be mixed wine, since pure “undiluted” wine is harmful, and the point of the blessing is to be thankful for something that is not harmful. And thus they said, “the cup of blessing is not blessed until he puts water in it, especially the blessing of birkat ha-mazon. However one can say the blessing Boray pri ha-gafen over it, for making Kiddush is analogous to the wine libation, as it written, “a libation offering to the Lord of an intoxicating drink to be poured,”³¹⁰Nu 28:7. – we need wine that intoxicates,³¹¹B. Sukkah 49b. and like this they said, “something like this required to say a blessing over it, or to say the Great Hallel.”³¹²B. Pesahim 107a.And you already knew that wine hints at midat din, whose number is seventy, for in the realm above seventy ruling angels are nourished by the sefirah of Gevurah, and all of them are drawn from Compassion in the form of Jacob, the third in the heavenly chariot, out of whom came seventy souls.³¹³A mystical interpretation of Ex 1:5. Din and Gevurah are more or less synonymous terms for the Divine aspect of Judgment. Rahamim – “Compassion” and “Jacob” are other names for the sefirah Tiferet – “Beauty” which is connected directly to the sefirah Gevurah. For this reason they put a ban on the nazirite, to separate himself from wine and anything that came from the “grapevine of wine,”³¹⁴Nu 6:2-4: “If anyone, man or woman, explicitly utters a nazirite’s vow to set himself apart for the Lord, he shall abstain from wine and any other intoxicant; he shall not drink vinegar of wine or of any other intoxicant, neither shall he drink anything in which grapes have been steeped, nor eat grapes fresh or dried. Throughout his term as a nazirite, he may not eat anything that is obtained from the grapevine of wine, even seeds or skin.” because he is attached to Compassion, as it said, “if anyone explicitly utters a nazirite’s vow.”³¹⁵Ibid. 6:2. Therefore our sages z”l required that the cup for birkat ha-mazon, which is from the Torah, should not have the blessing said over it until water is put into it, because the intention of the blessing is basically for Compassion. And “full”: R. Yohanan said, “Whoever blesses over a full cup of blessing is given a boundless inheritance, as it is said, ‘full of the Lord’s blessing, take possession west and south.’³¹⁶Dt. 33:23. R. Yosi bar Haninah says he earns and inherits two worlds: this world and the world to come, as it is said, “take possession west and south.”³¹⁷Dt. 33:23. R. Yohanan used to prove “boundless inheritance” from the expression: yam ve-darush yerashah, and R. Yosi concurred with him on this, adding, “from what is written, ‘let him take possession [yerashah] west and south;’ it did not say “rash” – “take possession” because the world to come was created by the letter Yod, and this world was created by the letter Hay.³¹⁸Hence, the letters Yod and Hay have been “added” to the word “rash,” to hint at this. This is what the Book of Bahir was talking about when it said, “It should have said RaSh but instead it is written YeRaShaH – everything is given to you. And provided that you keep His ways, this is an inward, hidden matter, for “west [lit., “sea”] and south” – yam ve-darom – are intended to hint at Peace and the Covenant, which are the sefirot Hokhmah – ‘Wisdom’ and Binah – ‘Understanding.’” So understand this! “Crowning:” the cup is “crowned” by the disciples of the person saying the blessing. R. Hisda crowns it with other cups. Wrapping: R. Pappa said he wraps himself in his robe, ³¹⁹The verb for wrapping ‘ataf may connote wrapping oneself in a tallit, since it is the root of the verb in the expression le-hitatef ba-tzizit “to wrap oneself in the fringed garment – i.e., a tallit.sits, and then says the blessing. R. Ashi put a scarf on his head and take up the cup with two hands, as is it is said, “Lift up your hands in holiness and bless the Lord.”³²⁰Ps 134:2. And then he would grasp it in his right hand without any support from his other hand at all. And he would raise it a handbreadth from the ground, as Scripture said, “I will lift up the cup of salvation, etc.”³²¹Ps. 116:13. And he would set his eyes upon it, so his attention won’t be distracted from it. And he hands it over to his wife, for thus his wife may be blessed. So you see these are the ten things which were said about the cup of blessing. But R. Yohanan said, “We have only four, and they are: undiluted, full, rinsing, and washing. And here’s a acronym for them: HaMiShaH –“five”: Het – Hai – “undiluted;” Mem – male’ – “full;” Shin – Shetifah – “rinsing;” and Hay – hadahah – “washing.” Or if you’d prefer it, say SiMHa”H – “joy”, because it is written, “wine gladdens [yiSMaH] the human heart.”³²²Ps 104:15. The letters of hamishah can be rearranged to spell simhah.