Yeah, it's working. Okay. The subject tonight is brachot, which are blessings. We talk about blessings, everyone know what it means. We're not talking about one person blessing another, but we're talking about brachot, blessings that we make thanking Hashem, which starts with the words ברוך אתה ה' אלקינו מלך העולם, etc. When we talk about blessings, brachot, generally, there are three categories of brachot. The mitzvah of making a brachah is divided into three categories. And they are, there is ברכות הנהנין, ברכות המצות, and ברכות שבח והודאה. ברכות הנהנין means brachot that we make for pleasure: before we eat something, before we drink something, before we have pleasure from a nice smell, make a brachah; even before we have pleasure from sleeping, we make a brachah, which is Hamapil. It's all included in ברכות הנהנין. Second category is ברכות המצות. These are blessing that we make before we do a mitzvah. Before we put on tefillin, we make the ברכה, ברוך אתה ה' אלקינו מלך העולם אשר קדשנו במצותיו וצונו להניח תפילין. Before we eat matzah, we make a ברכה, אשר קדשנו במצותיו וצונו על אכילת מצה. Before we eat maror, before any mitzvah we do, we make a brachah. And then there are ברכות שבח והודאה, blessings that we make at different opportunities just praising Hashem. And they're not for a mitzvah, they're not for pleasure, but they are opportunities that we take to bless Hashem. For instance, when there is a thunder and lightning, we make a brachah. That's not a mitzvah, we're not making the brachah for a mitzvah; we're not making the brachah for pleasure, there's no pleasure involved. But we take the opportunity to thank Hashem: ברוך אתה ה'... עושה מעשה בראשית, for making the world. There were different feats of nature take place in the world, that's opportunity to thank Hashem. Many of the brachot that we say in davenen are included in that category. A lot of things that we say in davenen are ברוך אתה ה', and then we say whatever the ברכה is, and it's not one of the first two: it's not a ברכת הנהנין, not a ברכה for pleasure; it's not a ברכה for a mitzvah; but it's a bracha for שבח והודאה. And there are many things like that that go into that category of ברכות, ברכות שבח והודאה. First I want to explain where what's the source of making a bracha. Making a bracha, all the types of brachot, are not mid'oraita. They're not from the Torah. In the Torah we don't find an obligation to make a bracha. It's a מצוה מדרבנן. It's one of the mitzvot that our Chachamim, our sages, established, and that is that we have to make a bracha whenever it's time to make a bracha. They are also the ones that made the נוסח הברכה. The wording of the bracha were made by the Chachamim, and we cannot change it. There is a halacha that says: כל המשנה ממטבע שטבעו חכמים בברכות, anybody who changes from the wording the Chachamim made in the ברכות, אינו אלא טועה, is mistaking and he is not yotzei the bracha, he didn't fulfill the mitzvah of bracha, because brachot are miderabbanan. Brachot are mitzvot that derabbanan is a mitzvah that derabbanan made. We know that generally speaking there are seven מצוות דרבנן, seven. There are many things that we do that are miderabbanan, not mid'oraita, that derabbanan made and it's not from the Torah. Many prohibitions that we keep, isurim, are איסורים דרבנן, are things that derabbanan made. But there is a group of seven mitzvot which are considered the seven מצוות דרבנן, the seven mitzvot that derabbanan established. That's a special group of positive mitzvot that derabbanan made which are not connected to a mitzvah of the Torah. All other things that the Rabbanan said not to do are all because of mitzvot of the Torah. Just to use an example: the prohibition of touching muktzeh on Shabbos, for instance. It's not from the Torah. The Rabbanan made it. Why? Many reasons: first of all, we shouldn't come to carry, we shouldn't come to do a real prohibited melachah on Shabbos. So it's all like a precaution, like a fence to a de'oraisa, to a din of the Torah. But there are seven mitzvot that derabbanan made which on their own they decided to make these mitzvot. The siman to remember which are the seven mitzvot, I think I must have mentioned it once before in the shiur, There is a word, two words, which is the siman of these brachos: נע בשמחה. נע, נון עין, בשמחה. נע means to move. נע בשמחה means move with happiness. It's just a word, two words that the abbreviations, the letters of these words are abbreviations of the seven mitzvot: נון, עין, בית, שין, סין, מם, חת, הא. Now if you go through these seven letters, you'll see the seven mitzvot derabbanan. The נון is netilat yadayim, that we wash our hands before a meal. עין is eruvin, to make an eruv, whether it's an עירוב חצרות to be able to carry in certain areas, whether it's עירוב תבשילין, when we make an eruv we should be able to cook from Yom Tov to Shabbos, or a עירוב תחומין, that we make an eruv so we should be able to walk outside of the city more than 2,000 אמה, but all the mitzvot of eruvin are included in the word eruv. So it's נון עין is נטילת ידים, עירוב. Then בשמחה: בית is brachot. שין, סין שין is Shabbos, or what it means is the Shabbos candles, נרות שבת. מם is Megillah, which is Purim. חת is Chanukah. And the הא is Hallel, that we say Hallel on Rosh Chodesh, or we say Hallel during Yom Tov, or Chanukah we say Hallel. The mitzvah of Hallel is one of the seven mitzvot. So, one of the seven mitzvot is to make brachot. So, it's not a מצוה מדאורייתא, it's mitzvah that Rabbanan established. There is one type of bracha which is מדאורייתא, which is from the Torah. Then there's another one which there is an argument whether it's the Torah or not, and that is ברכת המזון. To make the bracha after the meal, grace after meal, the bentshing, is a mitzvah of the Torah. Pasuk says, we mention it in the bentshing, we bring that pasuk, as we say שנאמר, as it says, ואכלת ושבעת וברכת את ה' אלקיך על הארץ הטובה אשר נתן לך. You will eat, you will be satisfied, you will be full, וברכת, and you shall bless ה' for the land that He gave you. So, here we see a pasuk in the Torah, which makes it a din of the Torah, מדאורייתא, that we have to bentsch. There is another bracha which many many poskim hold it's also from the Torah, and that is ברכת התורה, to make a bracha before we study Torah. The din is that before we study Torah, we have to make a bracha. That's actually what we do every morning. Every morning, in the ברכות השחר, in the brachot that we make in the morning when we wake up, we include ברכת התורה. There are actually three brachot for Torah. One is אשר קדשנו במצותיו וצונו על דברי תורה, or some say לעסוק בדברי תורה. Then we have והערב, and we finish ברוך אתה ה' המלמד תורה לעמו ישראל. Then we say ברוך אתה ה' אשר בחר בנו, ברוך אתה ה' נותן התורה. These are three brachot for Torah. The reason we don't make a bracha every time we sit down to learn, because the bracha we made in the morning goes for the mitzvah of learning Torah all day. But we have to make a bracha before we learn Torah. If we wouldn't make a bracha in the morning, then we couldn't learn Torah later on. In addition to that, when a person gets an aliyah, then he makes a specific bracha before and after he gets the aliyah as a ברכת התורה. Now, the Gemara does say that ברכת התורה is from the Torah, meaning that the Torah, it's a דין דאורייתא. The Gemara says, מניין לברכת התורה מן התורה? Where do we see that to make a bracha before we study Torah is a din of the Torah? And the Gemara quotes a pasuk. The pasuk says in האזינו, כי שם ה' אקרא הבו גודל לאלקינו. If I will call Hashem' 's name, give greatness to Hashem'. Now, when do we call Hashem' 's name? Every time we study Torah, we're calling Hashem' by His name, because the whole Torah is made up of Hashem' 's names. So, the pasuk says, when you will call Hashem' 's name, give Him greatness, which is make a bracha. So, the Gemara does refer to it as a mitzvah of the Torah. Nevertheless, there are different commentaries who claim that what the Gemara meant was not that this is actually one of the mitzvot of the Torah, but this pasuk that the Gemara quotes is only an asmachta. Asmachta is that sometimes rabbanan established certain laws which was not from the Torah, they established it themselves, but they found a pasuk to connect it to, they found a hint in the pasuk. That's where the word asmachta comes from, asmachta comes from סמוך. They made it rely on a certain pasuk. So, there is an argument whether making a bracha before we study is actually a mitzvah of the Torah, or just an asmachta. But bentshing is definitely a mitzvah d'oraita. This is the one mitzvah that is definitely a, a one bracha I mean, which is definitely a bracha that the Torah commanded us to do. The other things, birchot hanehenin, the bracha to make before we eat food, is not in the Torah, the rabbanan taught us, established it. And their reasoning was, they said like this, if the Torah said that you have to make a bracha after you eat, certainly you have to make a bracha before you eat. Because after you eat, you're finished. Before you eat, you're asking Hashem for permission to eat. And they said even more than that, if a person doesn't make a bracha before he eats, כאילו גוזל אביו ואמו, it's like you're stealing from your father and mother. You're stealing from Hashem. And the reason is because everything belongs to Hashem. The pasuk says, להשם הארץ ומלואה, the earth and everything in it belongs to Hashem. So how could I go and take and eat it or have any pleasure from it when it belongs to Hashem? So what we need to do is ask permission, or if somebody use other words, pay for it. And how do we pay for it, or how do we ask permission? By making a bracha, that way we get permission. Actually, the Gemara does more than that. The Gemara asks a contradiction between two pesukim. One pasuk says, להשם הארץ ומלואה, that the earth and everything in it belongs to Hashem. Then there's another pasuk that says just this opposite. There's a pasuk that says, השמים שמים להשם והארץ נתן לבני אדם. The heaven belongs to Hashem, but the earth was given to human beings. So here it says clearly that the earth and everything in it obviously was given over to people. So why does the other pasuk say, להשם הארץ ומלואה, that the earth and everything in it belongs to Hashem, when it says he gave it away to us? And the Gemara answers, there's no contradiction. כאן קודם ברכה כאן לאחר ברכה, it depends whether you made a bracha or not. Before the bracha, it's להשם הארץ ומלואה, and everything the earth and everything in it belongs to Hashem, and you can't use it. But if you make a bracha, then והארץ נתן לבני אדם, then he gave it over to people. That's how we get it. When we say Hashem gave us the right to use the different things that we have, when do we get that permission? When do we get that right? Only after we make a bracha. So that's concerning ברכות הנהנין. Then the Chachamim also established that before we make a we do a mitzvah, we have to make a bracha. The mitzvah, any mitzvah that we do, is fulfilled whether we make a bracha or not. In other words, if a person will put on tefillin and for some reason didn't make a bracha, he still fulfilled the mitzvah of tefillin. Nevertheless, the Chachamim said that before you do the mitzvah, I want you to make a berachah, we want you to make a berachah. They gave us a a mitzvah of derabbanan to make a berachah before we do the mitzvah, thanking Hashem for giving us the mitzvah. And we make this berachah whether we do a mitzvah of the Torah or we do a mitzvah of derabbanan. Even if we do a mitzvah that the Rabbanan told us to do, we'll still make a berachah thanking Hashem for giving us the mitzvah. The best example would be Purim, we're getting close to Purim. Before we read the Megillah, we make a berachah, אשר קדשנו במצותיו וצונו, it's ברוך אתה השם אלוקינו מלך העולם, Blessed are you השם, our God, the King of the universe, who command who made us holy and commanded us to read the Megillah. Even though, as we said before, reading the Megillah is one of the seven mitzvot derabbanan, so it's not a mitzvah that Hashem commanded us to do. Nevertheless, we make a berachah before we do this mitzvah of derabbanan, thanking Hashem for giving us the mitzvah. Now the question is how do we do that? After all, Hashem never told us to read the Megillah, or never told us to bentsch Chanukah licht, never told us to say Hallel, and all the other mitzvot, how do we make a berachah, אשר קדשנו, we say, Hashem, you made us holy and you commanded us. The answer is that the Chachamim command the Torah commanded us to listen to the Chachamim. The Torah told us whatever the Chachamim say, we must do. There's a pasuk that says, you shall do ככל אשר יורוך, everything that they will teach you. There's another pasuk that says, לא תסור מכל אשר יורוך, do not turn away from what they say to you, what the chachamim say. So we have an obligation of the Torah to listen to the chachamim. So when the chachamim told us to light Chanukah candles or to read the Megillah, then ultimately it goes back to the Torah. The Torah told us, listen to the chachamim, to whatever mitzvah they gave you. So basically, when we make a bracha for bentching Chanukah licht, what we say is thank you Hashem for commanding us to listen to the chachamim who commanded us to light the Shabbos the Shabbos candles or Chanukah candles or Megillah, or whatever other mitzvah derabbanan we made. So we make this bracha of the mitzvah by a derabbanan also. And also by a de'oraita, any mitzvah that we do from the Torah or from derabbanan, we have to make a bracha before we do the mitzvah. The reason The reason for this is why we have to make a bracha before we do a mitzvah, after all, doing the mitzvah itself is the best thing we could imagine. Meileh, if we make We have to make a bracha before we eat, it makes sense. Hashem's food and we're going to have pleasure from it, so we have to make a bracha to thank Hashem for giving us the food. That's the way we get our permission. That's the way we paid, so to speak, for it. But why is it important to make a bracha before we do a mitzvah? The mitzvah itself is not something that we have pleasure from. The mitzvah is doing Hashem's will. So isn't that enough? Why did the chachamim decide that in addition to doing the mitzvah, we want you always to make a bracha before? So the sefarim explain that making a bracha before we do a mitzvah is in order for us to put ourselves in the mood of having the proper kavanah, the proper intention when we do the mitzvah. Because every time we do a mitzvah, the real way to do it is not only the act, just the mere act of doing the mitzvah, even though that's the most important part. We say פרקי אבות, המעשה הוא העיקר. The act is the most important part. Kavanah If a person would have all kinds of ideas in his mind concerning the mitzvah and about the mitzvah and surrounding the mitzvah, and wouldn't have done the mitzvah, he did not fulfill the mitzvah. You could have all kinds of kavanot about tefillin, and if you don't put on tefillin, you didn't do the mitzvah. On the other hand, if you put on tefillin without having all kinds of kavanot, you did do the mitzvah. But still, doing a mitzvah without the proper kavanah is not really sufficient. You did the most important part, true, but that's not enough. You have to do the mitzvah with the proper kavanah. You have to realize that you're doing the mitzvah of Hashem. You have to do it lishmah, for the sake of Hashem, for the sake of the mitzvah. The proper way to do a mitzvah is with the feeling of Ahavat Hashem, with the feeling of loving Hashem, and of Yirat Hashem, and having fear of Hashem. If a person does a mitzvah without Ahavah v'yirah, it says that the mitzvah doesn't really fly up to Hashem. The Zohar says that Ahavah and Yirah, love and fear of Hashem, are like two wings of a bird. Without the wings, the bird is there, the bird exists, the bird is alive, but it can't fly up. So too, mitzvot that are done without Ahavat Hashem and Yirat Hashem, without love and fear of Hashem, do not fly. לא פרחא לעילא, do not fly up to Hashem. So we have to do a mitzvah with the proper feeling and the proper ahavah veyirah. Just remind you of the story of the Baal Shem Tov, when he once came to a shul, he was invited to come to speak someplace, and he came to a shul, and he opened the door, and he was going to go in, and he pulled back and didn't go in. And he stopped for a second, and they asked him, \"Rabbi, what happened?\" So he says, \"I couldn't go in. The shul is full of Torah and mitzvot. I had no place to go in.\" And they thought it was a compliment: the shul is full of Torah and mitzvot. So they said, \"Rabbi, so, yes?\" He said, \"No. All these people who do Torah and mitzvot here don't do it with the proper kavanah, so it doesn't fly up, it stays down here. So the shul gets filled up, I can't go in.\" He said, \"I came to teach them that they have to have the proper kavanot.\" So again, without the kavanah, the mitzvah is a mitzvah, but you're still missing the kavanah, which is the depth behind it. In order for a person to have the proper kavanah when you do a mitzvah, you have to think about it before you do the mitzvah. You have to sit down and think about it, think what's happening, think what the mitzvah means, what the mitzvah is going to accomplish, and all around it. And that's the idea of making a berachah. The chachamim said you have to make a berachah before you do a mitzvah, that is to make the person understand that what he's doing now, what he is going to do now is coming from Hashem. השם, אשר קדשנו במצותיו, you made us holy He made us holy with His mitzvot, He commanded us. So what I'm going to do is going to be a commandment of Hashem. Imagine, a commandment of Hashem! Hashem Himself came down from His holy throne and came down and asked me to do a mitzvah for Him! When you start thinking about it, you get into the mood, you get the feeling of the greatness, the importance of doing a mitzvah. That's the idea of making a berachah before you do the mitzvah. That's why the chachamim said before you do the mitzvah you have to make a berachah. There's actually see the din is that when you make a berachah before a mitzvah, by a mitzvah, you have to make it before you do the mitzvah. The din is, the Gemara uses the term, you have to make it עובר לעשייתן, before you do the mitzvah. And the reason is, like I said, the purpose of the berachah is to get you into the mood and put your kavanot, your mind to the mitzvah, so by the time you get to do the mitzvah you will do it in the right way. So that's why you have to make the berachah before. But there's actually an argument amongst the commentators, the Rishonim, that if a person did a mitzvah and for some reason did not say the berachah, whatever reason, he forgot, a mistake, Can he make the berachah afterwards? And the Rambam says no, it's too late, unless you're still in middle of the mitzvah. Sometimes a mitzvah takes longer, then you could stop and make the berachah. But if you finished with the mitzvah, you cannot make the berachah anymore. You have fulfilled the mitzvah, because like I said before, not making the berachah does not invalidate the mitzvah. The expression is ברכות אין מעכבות, it doesn't hold back the fulfillment of the mitzvah, but you still missed out the berachah. And that's the opinion of the Rambam. There are opinions of other Rishonim, they hold no, that even after you finish the mitzvah, if you didn't make the berachah, you can make the berachah afterwards. And the reason is, because even though the purpose of the berachah is to get you into the mood and the feeling, so at least if you didn't have the feeling before you did the mitzvah, then why not try to get that feeling of the mitzvah at least after the mitzvah? Even though the mitzvah was done, but the effect the mitzvah is supposed to have on the person, the cleansing, the purification, the elevation, or whatever words we're going to use that the mitzvah is supposed to affect on the person. So even if I didn't manage to do it before, for whatever reason, why shouldn't I do it later? And that's the reason for the other opinion that you could do the berachah, make the berachah even after the mitzvah. But the Rambam says the main idea is that the mitzvah should be done with the proper kavanah, and therefore, if the mitzvah was done already, you can't do it anymore.

The reason for Birkat HaTorah, we said before that the berachah before we learn is even more important than the berachah before any other mitzvah. As I said before, there are opinions that this is a mitzvah of the Torah. To make a bracha before we light Shabbos candles or before we put on tefillin, that was established by the chachamim. But to make a bracha before learning, we said before, many opinions hold it's from the Torah. And the expression of the Gemara seems to indicate it's from the Torah. Why is it so important? What's the idea of making a bracha before we study Torah? Actually, when you study Torah, you are studying the words of Hashem. What more do we need than that? Why do we need a bracha before? And not only that, the bracha is so important, the bracha before we study Torah is so important, that the Gemara says, על מה חרבה הארץ, why was the בית המקדש destroyed? על שלא ברכו בתורה תחילה, because they didn't make the bracha before. Imagine! The Ran, one of the commentators, explains that at the time of the בית המקדש, right in the time of the destruction, a lot of Torah was studied. Imagine, a lot of Torah was studied! It wasn't a lack of studying Torah. A lot of Torah was studied. But why was the בית המקדש destroyed? One of the reasons, there are other reasons like שנאת חנם, other reasons, but one of the reasons why was the בית המקדש destroyed, because they didn't make the bracha before they studied Torah, just not making the bracha. And the question is, why is that bracha so important that by not making the bracha, that's a reason to have the בית המקדש destroyed? And number two, why didn't they make the bracha? What was it? It wasn't like it took much time. We all know that making a bracha takes one moment. So why wouldn't the people make a bracha? If the people study the Torah, then what do they care to make a bracha? So the Talmidei Rabbeinu Yonah, one of the commentators, explains, what it means is, making a bracha before you study Torah is similar to what I said before concerning mitzvot, is the realization that the Torah that I'm going to study is the Torah of Hashem, is the wisdom of Hashem. And when you make that berachah, you're affirming it. You're recognizing it. What is the berachah? ברוך אתה השם אלקינו מלך העולם, thank you השם, אשר קדשנו במצותיו וצונו, you commanded us, על דברי תורה, to study Torah. Or the other ברכה, אשר בחר בנו מכל העמים, you chose us and you gave us the Torah. What do we mean when we say that? That I'm going to sit down now and study Torah. Torah is something that my physical mind understands. Torah is a very deep concept. A lot of, you know, things of Torah are very deep thoughts. So, one might think it's a very fine, nice, deep chochmah. It's a nice subject. But it could be, chas v'shalom, a subject like other subjects. And that's wrong, that's not the way to study Torah, to think so as Torah is a subject like other subjects. There are even places that when they study in school, they have different subjects. You know, they have different periods. So they have one subject math, then you have Chumash, then you have science, and then you have Mishnah, because it's, chas v'shalom, like a subject, any other subject. And everyone recognizes the Torah is a very smart subject. There's even a pasuk that says, כי היא חכמתכם ובינתכם לעיני העמים. This is your chochmah, your wisdom in the eyes of the nations, even the goyim recognize that the Torah is very deep. So when you study Torah and you understand with your mind, you might come to think this Torah is very smart, and the chances for a person to feel that way are stronger than when it comes to do a mitzvah. When it comes to do a mitzvah, there's less chance to think that I'm doing it for because it's a very smart thing to do. Before I put on tefillin, less When I put on tefillin, it's less chance to think I'm doing it because it's a very good thing to do. I know people wake up in the morning to do exercise, that makes sense. But to get up in the morning and strap yourself with black boxes, it makes no sense. What What's the idea behind it? Or to eat matzah on Pesach, to sit down and lean back and eat crackers, I mean it sounds pretty it's pretty stupid. There's no reason for it or any other most of the mitzvot that we do. So why do we do it? Well, obviously we do it because it's Hashem's mitzvah, there's no other reason we put on tefillin in the morning. Sometimes we don't think about it because we're so used to it, so we have to start thinking about it by making a berachah. But the chances that we will forget that this is the mitzvah of Hashem are much less. But when it comes to studying Torah, then there is more chance. When you study Torah, the idea of studying is to understand it. And not only understand it, you ask a question and then they say to you, well, come up with a good ex- an explanation. And sometimes you think, oh, I have a good under- a good explanation. You come up with your own interpretation. And then it gets you to think and you feel, oh, it's something that my own mind figured out, and it's my own thing, and you could forget. The expression is you could learn Torah, but forget on the נותן התורה. You could forget on the one who gave the Torah. Which is one of the reasons why the Torah starts with a ב'. Torah starts with a ב', not with an א'. בראשית. The Torah should have started with an א'. After all, א' is the first letter of the אלף בית, so the Torah should have started with an א'. As we see that the עשרת הדברות, the Ten Commandments, start with an א'. Starts with אנכי ה' אלקיך, with an א', I am God your God. The Torah starts with a ב'. Why does the Torah start with a ב'? To tell us that the study is the second step. A ב' is number two. There is something that comes before that, and that is the recognition that this is the these are the words of Hashem. So it starts with a ב'. The Gemara starts with דף ב', with the page The first page of Gemara is not page א', but page ב'. Because what's expected of a Yid is a Yid to recognize that the study itself is number two, it's the second step. The first step is the recognition that this is the words of Hashem. See, from a goy, you can't expect that. Because a goy doesn't have a connection to the kedushah, to the holiness of the Torah. A goy could study Torah. There are many goyim who study Torah, there are even goyim who studied Gemara, and if they had good heads, they understood it. But to them, the Torah was a chochmah, that's all it is, a chochmah like other chochmot. As the famous Midrash, everyone knows this Midrash, the Midrash says if someone is going to tell you חכמה יש בגוים, that there is chachmah by the nations, תאמין, believe it. תורה יש בגוים, they tell you there is Torah in the nations, אל תאמין, don't believe it. And the commentaries ask, what do you mean? There are some goyim who study Torah. What do you mean, goyim don't have Torah? The answer is, when it says here believe that they have chachmah, that means Torah. Even the Torah to them is a chachmah. But to say that they have Torah as we know Torah, the words of Hashem, the kedushah, that the goyim don't have. And that's why it's interesting that when the Torah was translated for the goyim, we know the story in Gemara that Ptolemy the king got the 70 Sanhedrin, the members of the Sanhedrin, to translate the Torah in Greek, and he wanted to make sure that they're not going to trick him, so he had them all set up in separate rooms and made each one translate it separately, and he was going to see. And Hashem put into their minds that they all made the same changes in order for the goyim not to make mistakes. And the first change that they made was, instead of starting the Torah with בראשית ברא אלוקים, they said that people might make a mistake. בראשית ברא אלוקים means in the beginning God created. But someone else might say it means בראשית is a name of something, ברא אלוקים, בראשית created אלוקים. Maybe there's some other creature that created a god. So they all changed it, and they wrote אלוקים ברא בראשית. אלוקים created in the beginning heaven and earth. But interesting is that the way they changed it for the goyim, it started with an א', because it started with the word אלוקים ברא בראשית, so it started with an א'. And the reason is, because the way the Torah is by the goyim, the Torah is the study itself, the topic, the subject matter is number one. There's They don't have anything before that. But we know it's it's not like that. And that's why it's very important to make a berachah before we study Torah, because making that berachah gives us the feeling of recognizing that the Torah comes from Hashem. And that's why for not making ברכת התורה, for not making that bracha, the בית המקדש was destroyed. That means, because the Jews studied a lot of Torah then, but if they didn't have that ברכת התורה, they didn't recognize that all this comes from Hashem, and the Torah is the wisdom of Hashem, then they were missing a very, very important ingredient. It wasn't like a small thing. So they didn't do that one mitzvah. For not doing that one mitzvah the בית המקדש should be destroyed? No, that's not a lack of once one small mitzvah. It's a lack of recognition of what the Torah is. That's a major, major fundamental point. And therefore this was a good enough reason for the בית המקדש to be destroyed. So that's concerning the second type. So we discussed ברכות הנהנין, ברכה for pleasure, that is to get permission from Hashem to have pleasure. Bentching after eating, that's a mitzvah of the Torah. Then the mitzvah of ברכות המצוות, to make berachos before we do a mitzvah, that is to get the feeling of the mitzvah. And the same is with ברכת התורה, even more, to get the feeling of the Torah. And then we have the third category, which is ברכת שבח והודאה, the bracha of praising Hashem. And that's a side thing that from time to time, when certain opportunities come up, Hashem, the chachamim gave us a commandment that we shall thank Hashem for different things that he did for us, or different things that he gave us, or different things he did he did within us, or different things we want from him. For instance, Shemoneh Esrei, the whole Shemoneh Esrei made up of 18 berachos. Then you have the middle berachos are בקשת צרכיו, asking Hashem for our needs. The last three berachos are berachos thanking Hashem for what he gave us. The first one is סיפור שבחיו, to tell us the greatness of Hashem, and the end is to thank Hashem. But they're all not ברכות הנהנין, ברכות for pleasure, and they're not ברכות המצוות, but they're berachos asking Hashem. And the same is, like I said before, thunder and lightning. It says when you see the ocean, if you didn't see it for 30 days, you have to make a ברכה, עושה מעשה בראשית. It's one of those berachot that, for some reason, people are not so careful with, but it's one of those berachot. Even when you get married, and we know you have to get a rabbi who performs the ceremony, that's the rabbi who does what we call סידור קידושין, what does he do? All he does, he takes a cup of wine and makes a bracha. So first, you make הגפן, which is the bracha over the wine, but then you make another bracha, the bracha over the marriage. What is the bracha over the marriage? It's thanking Hashem for making the Jewish people holy, for sanctifying the Jewish people through the mitzvah of marriage. So, some hold that this is like a bracha for a mitzvah, since getting married is a mitzvah, so it's like before you make a bracha, before you do any mitzvah, you make a bracha, like tefillin and matzah and shofar, etc., so you make a bracha before the marriage. And the chatan really was supposed to do it, because he's the one who's going to do the mitzvah, but he makes a שליח that someone else says it for him, but really it's his bracha. But the truth is we don't say אשר קדשנו במצותיו וצונו על הקידושין. We don't say thank you Hashem for commanding us to get married. We say thank you Hashem for making us holy and allowing us to get married, that whole And then we finish off, thank you Hashem for making his nation holy through חופה וקידושין. So most of the commentaries, most of the codifiers, the poskim learn that this is a not a mitzvah for a a bracha for a mitzvah, this is a bracha of שבח והודאה. We take the opportunity at the time of the marriage, we take the opportunity to thank Hashem for sanctifying us, for giving us the mitzvah of of making us holy, so we're able to do חופה וקידושין. And the same is many times, when different things come up, we say berachot that thank Hashem. That's the other category of berachot.

Now, to get a little bit deeper in the wording of the berachot, the bracha starts with the word baruch. All berachot start with the word baruch. ברוך אתה השם אלקינו מלך העולם. All the brachos start with the same words. And then brachos hanenin continue with whatever you say, בורא פרי העץ, המוציא לחם מן הארץ, whatever it is. Brachos hamitzvos continue with אשר קדשנו במצותיו וצונו, you command he made us holy, he commanded us, etc. etc. But they all start with ברוך אתה השם אלקינו מלך העולם. So in Chassidus, it explains that the word baruch, which we keep on translating as blessed are you, or baruch comes from the word thanking, baruch has another meaning. The word baruch means to bring down, to be mamshich, to bring down. And we find that in different places that the word baruch means hamshachah, bringing down. In Chumash, we find an expression And it says by Eliezer, the slave, the servant of Avraham, when he traveled to get a wife for Yitzchak, he went with camels, and it says ויברך את הגמלים, he made the camels sit down. So the word is ויברך, means they went down, so it means to bring down. In the Mishnah we find an expression when it speaks about taking a branch of a vine tree and bringing it down and pushing, putting it through the ground and replanting it, so the expression is המבריך את הגפן. If someone is מבריך the vine, what does מבריך mean? He brings it down. So the word baruch means to bring down. So when we say in the bracha, ברוך אתה השם אלקינו מלך העולם, what it really means: baruch, we bring you down. So every time we make a bracha, we, so to speak, recognize or say that by doing the mitzvah, we will bring down You, Hashem. And that's why we have these three expressions, four expressions, actually: atah, baruch, atah, Hashem, we say Hashem's name which is Hashem, Elokeinu, and מלך העולם. Baruch, blessed, or bring bringing down. Atah, you. Who are you? Hashem, Hashem, י-ק-ו-ק, Elokeinu, our God, מלך העולם, the King of the universe. What we're saying here is that we're bringing down Hashem and we're mentioning the four different levels of Hashem the way He is connected to the world. We know that every time we use a name, it is really a description. A name describes something. Number one, a title always describes something. When you say someone is smart, it's a description. When you say someone is nice, it's a description. A name of an individual, we tend to think not a description. Whether the name is Avraham, or Yaakov, or Sarah, or Rivkah, Rachel, Leah, whatever, it's just the name of a person. It's not so. The name describes the person, too. When we spoke about names, I explained it, that a name describes a person. And the parents, when they give a name to the child, Hashem puts into their mind, it says a נבואה קטנה, a small prophecy, and the name describes the person. Gemara says רב מאיר דייק בשמא, רב מאיר used to always look into the name of people. And from the names, he would recognize what the people are. Famous story in Gemara that he once came to a place, him and other chachamim, and they wanted to stay overnight in a place. Told this story last time when we spoke about this. Came, wanted to stay overnight. So before they stayed, he asked the owner, \"What's your name?\" And he said his name is Kidor. So Rav Meir said, \"I'm not staying here. I don't like his name.\" So he didn't stay there. The other chachamim stayed there, and he robbed them that night. The next day, they came to him, and said, \"How did you know?\" He says, \"Well, there's a pasuk that says כי דור תהפוכות המה. It says this is כי דור, this because they are a generation of mixed up. So when he had the name Kidor, I knew that there is something mixed up here, and I didn't like it. So I didn't want to stay here.\" And so Rav Meir used to look into the names, and from there he would know. Certainly, when we talk about Hashem, the name represents a description of the way Hashem is. And we have the main two names, Havayah and Elokeinu. So we know Havayah is, first Elokeinu, which is our God, that refers to Hashem, that describes Hashem, so to speak, the way He is already connected to us, the way He is already within this world. Because the name Elokim is the גימטריא הטבע. The name Elokim adds up to the same numerical value as the nature. It's Hashem the way He is in the world, the way He is in the nature. And that's why, as I mentioned many times, is I think one of the classes just lately that the name Elokim is the only name that you could put something else into the name. Elokeinu, we put us into the name. We don't say אלקים שלנו. Elokeinu means in the in one word, we put ourselves and Hashem. Any other name, you can't do that. If you want to use the name Havayah, and we want to say our Havayah, we would say הוי׳ שלנו. You can't connect in one word us with Hashem, because Elokim is already the name of Hashem the way He is within us. Elokim also means koach. The word Elokim means strength. Our strength, He is our strength. Havayah, which is י-ק-ו-ק, is made up of three words: היה, הווה ויהיה, past, present, and future, all in one word. That's beyond nature. But it's still a name. It's a name of Hashem that represents or describes Hashem the way He is beyond nature. But the name the word אתה, which is not a name, אתה is beyond any name, beyond description. That's Hashem the way He is in His essence. That's how we speak to Him, we say אתה, You. essence, that's beyond Hashem's name. Similar to the עשרת הדברות, in the Ten Commandments, we also have the three expressions, but from Hashem's side. Hashem says אנכי, הוי' אלקיך, I am Havayah' your God. So He uses the name אנכי, I, which is the essence of Hashem, beyond any name, that's what the Zohar says. And Havayah' is already the lower level, the way Hashem is not in His essence, but still beyond nature. Then אשר אלקיך, which is the name Elokim. And the same thing when we make a bracha, we say ברוך אתה, you, from you comes down to a lower level of Havayah', from the Havayah' comes down to the lower level of Elokeinu, our God. But still when we say Elokeinu, it's our God. Who are we? We're the Jews. So the way God is connected to us is still a higher level than the way God is connected to the rest of the world. That's why we go on to the next step: מלך העולם, you're even the King of the world. So these are the four steps that we have in the hamshachah, in the bringing down of Hashem into the world. So we have אתה, הוי', Elokeinu, and then מלך העולם into the world. These are four general steps, and between each of the steps you have millions and millions of levels, but generally these are the four steps. And every time we do a mitzvah, we bring down Hashem, more of Hashem, from the אתה, from the highest level of אתה, into the lowest level down here into מלך העולם, the King of the world. And that's what we say when we make a bracha: ברוך, not only blessed are you, Baruch, we're mamshich, we're going to bring down. By doing this mitzvah that we're going to do, we're going to bring down, we, through our act that we are going to do, we will bring down אתה, הוי', אלקינו, מלך העולם.

Because this is the meaning of the bracha, that's why we find sometimes mitzvot that don't require a bracha. To use an example, it is מנהג Chabad and the minhag of the Sephardim not to make a bracha on the תפילין של ראש. We make a bracha when we put on the תפילין של יד, on the hand tefillin. Then, most people make a berachah, then a second berachah when you put on the תפילין של ראש. מנהג Chabad is not to make the berachah, because על פי קבלה it's according to הלכה also, but the main reason is because according to קבלה, you should not make a berachah on the תפילין של ראש. And the ספרדים, who usually also follow things על פי קבלה, according to קבלה, also don't make the berachah. What is the reason? So it says the reason is because the תפילין של ראש are such a high level, spiritual level, that it is not through our action that we bring down that המשכה. And I'll explain myself more in detail. When we say every time we do a mitzvah, we bring down a certain Godly spiritual level, there are two types. Sometimes, our action actually reaches into that level. Hashem said, when you do so and so, you will reach into that level, and then you will bring down the light from that level. Sometimes, the level is so high that we cannot reach that level, and it is not our action that is able to bring down the Godly light from that level. But, Hashem says, if you will do your share, you will do your part, then I, on My own, am going to bring down the light from that level to you. You just have to prepare yourself. You have to do something to be able to receive it. In order to receive money, this mashal was always given, in order to receive money, if you have a lot of money you have to take a pocket, to be able to have it. If you don't have a pocket, there's no place to put it. So when Hashem wants to give you a certain light, you have to make a pocket. So, certain mitzvot that we do, the mitzvot are not mamshich. The mitzvah is not the one that reaches into that level and pulls down that spiritual high Godly light. It's just that the mitzvah that you do prepares you that Hashem on His own will bring it down. And it says that's the difference between the תפילין של יד and the תפילין של ראש. The tefillin of the hand is a lower level, and therefore when we put on the תפילין של יד, we reach into that Godly level in the higher worlds, and we bring down the light. And since we are the ones that bring down the light, we make a berachah before we do it. ברוך, we're bringing down, אתה, from אתה to הוי' to אלקינו, מלך העולם, אשר קדשנו במצותיו וצונו להניח תפילין, and that's how you make a berachah. תפילין של ראש reaches such a high מדרגה, because it's on the head, and it's actually on top of the head, so that represents a very high spiritual level, not to go into the kabbalistic terms, into חכמה, אצילות, all the different high levels, that We cannot reach that level, so we cannot make a berachah and say ברוך, which means we're mamshich, we bring down from that level. Now it doesn't mean that the light from that high level doesn't come down. It comes down by us putting on the תפילין של יד with the berachah. By putting on the תפילין של ראש, now we say to Hashem basically, \"We're ready now. Now come on, bring it down yourself.\" And He on His own does it, but we are not the ones that are mamshich. That's why we don't make a berachah. Similar is that we don't make a berachah on Rabbeinu Tam's tefillin. Those that put on Rabbeinu Tam's tefillin don't make a berachah. There are halachic reasons why we don't make a berachah, but the kabbalistic reason is because the tefillin of Rabbeinu Tam are in a higher spiritual level according to Kabbalah than Rashi's tefillin. And the light that comes down through Rabbeinu Tam's tefillin is a higher level of light than the light that comes down through Rashi's tefillin. And that's why we don't make a berachah on Rabbeinu Tam's tefillin, because we are not the ones that are mamshich it. And there are other, not many, but other mitzvot that we don't make a berachah because this is higher than the level that we are able to reach. But generally speaking, most mitzvot we do make a berachah, and the reason is because we reach and we are mamshich. There's one more point I want to make in the berachot, which is along the same lines, and that is when we look at the wording of the berachah, it seems that the wording doesn't fit. It doesn't fit grammatically. We start off by saying \"You,\" we're talking to Hashem, so we're talking second person, and we finish off talking third person. You say, \"Blessed are You, Hashem our God, King of the universe, that He made us holy, and He commanded us to do this mitzvah.\" You say, \"And You commanded us.\" That's what we should have said. Or we should have started saying, \"Blessed is He, God, who He commanded us to do the mitzvah.\" But we start off by saying, \"Blessed, Baruch atah, You,\" and we finish off, \"אשר קדשנו במצותיו, that He, He made us holy and He commanded us,\" which is third person. In Hebrew, it's called, you start off lashon nochach, and you finish lashon nistar. Lashon nochach means across, in front, right in front of you, and nistar means the hidden, means the third person. How, how can we speak that way? So this is the hint to the same idea, but from a different angle. When we talk about Hashem, there are two parts generally in his connection to Hashem. There is the revealed part, and there's the hidden part. There's the revealed part of Hashem the way He puts Himself into nature and the way we see the, Hashem the way He runs the world. But then, the fact that Hashem controls the world and gives us everything that we need, that's not the real, real, most essential part of Hashem. That's the lowest, that's the fact the way Hashem lowered Himself to create the world. But He Himself is far, far, far beyond that. So the lower part, the one that we could relate to, that's the part called nochach, that's the one we could relate to, we could talk to face-to-face, cuz it's right here. The higher level is nistar. The word נסתר, third person, means it's over there, it's hidden. And when we do a mitzvah, we bring down not only, we make ourselves close to, bring down not only the level which is revealed, the lower level, but even the hidden level of Hashem also comes down when we do a mitzvah. And that's why the bracha was made with the combination of נוכח and נסתר. We say, \"ברוך אתה, You,\" that's the revealed part, so according to this interpretation, this is the lower level, \"אתה, You,\" we're talking direct as to You. That means there's something that's in front of us that we could relate to. And then we say that He commanded us, meaning the higher level, because the mitzvot, and the brachot represent what's going on in the mitzvot, is to bring down both levels. But whichever way, whichever explanation we'll give, we know that making brachot is very important. We know we have to be very careful to make brachot. And then there's one more part, that

to answer amen to a bracha is very important. It's very important. Answering amen, it says, is greater than saying the bracha itself. גדול העונה אמן יותר מן המברך, it says. The Gemara says the one that answers amen is greater than the one that makes the bracha himself. And it says, I don't even want to use these words, but it's mentioned many different, God forbid, God forbid, punishments for somebody who hears a bracha and does not answer amen. And it says even if you hear a bracha from a child, under Bar Mitzvah, that the child is not really obligated to do the mitzvah, so his bracha, we might think is not so important, so why should we answer amen? Says it's still very important, not only because that will educate the child to know that you have to answer amen, but it's important for us too, to answer amen. There's a famous story written in The Levush, it's too long, and it's too scary of a story of what happened by some for somebody who did not answer amen. So, it's very important to answer amen, and that is you get the same reward as if you said the bracha yourself. And that is concerning all brachot, whether it's ברכות הנהנין and ברכת המזון or whichever bracha. And when we talk about brachot, the Rebbe always used to, at the end of a farbrengen, always used to say that everyone should make a ברכה אחרונה. You have to make a bracha at the end. Then the Rebbe would say sometimes, and the Eibershter should help we should make a ברכה אחרונה for the galut. We should already make the bracha after the galus, when Moshiach will come, definitely we're going to make a bracha. There is actually an argument in the poskim what bracha we'll make, שעשה נסים or שהחיינו, whatever, we're going to make a bracha. The Aibershter should help that we should be already there and make the bracha for the for the end of the galus, for the גאולה במהרה בימינו ממש. Yes. Being so important to say amen, does that make it equally as important that when we make the bracha we should say it loud enough to hit You can't say equally important. It's a good idea, but there's no obligation to say it loud, but if it's said loud and someone hears, you have to say amen. Yes. We don't say we don't say the bracha on the We don't say a bracha on the on the של ראש... But what about the first thing we do in the morning when we get up, we don't make a bracha, we're still, before washing, we say מודה אני לפניך מלך חי וקים. And if you're still... and you're reaching... comes off, and מודה אני goes directly to אלקי... itself. What's higher than that? And here you didn't wash, you didn't you're still impure, and That's not a bracha. It's not a bracha. Not a bracha. It's a, it's a proclamation, but it's yeah, could be higher than a bracha, right. It is, but it's not a bracha. It's a different idea than a bracha. In the time of the Gemara, it didn't say מודה אני. This started later, and it's something that Definitely דרבנן, but not even in the time of the Gemara. Years later it was established to say מודה אני. In the Gemara we don't find מודה אני. And it says because it's such a connection that a yid has to Hashem that no tumah in the world could affect it, and that's why you could say it with טומאדיקע hands. But that's not the idea of a bracha. Right, right, right, right. Right. So for that we have a bracha, a second bracha, אלקי נשמה שנתת בי, we have a bracha that thanks Hashem for returning the neshamah. And this is a general proclamation before we even get to the bracha. I have a second question. Yes. You make ברכת התורה, you described and explained, however, what, but Birkat HaTorah covers the whole day, whatever. However, on Shabbos and Yom Tov you're called to the to take and you're lucky that you get an aliyah, you've got a good gabbai and you get an aliyah, you have to make another bracha, why? You made Birkat HaTorah in the morning, goes I mentioned it before, because when you read from the Torah, and you're going to be motzi the whole crowd, make a special bracha, because this is a special type of learning that you're doing. Your aliyah is for the whole crowd. And when you make the bracha, really the person who gets the aliyah should read it. Years ago, the person who got the aliyah would read that portion. People didn't know, so they made that everybody, always the the מקריא should read. So since it's a special type of learning that you're doing to be motzi the whole crowd the mitzvah of קריאת התורה, which is a mitzvah established מדרבנן, but one of the big רבנן, one of the big חכמים, can't get any bigger, Moshe Rabbeinu, Moshe Rabbeinu established the mitzvah of קריאת התורה, so because you're doing this special mitzvah, that's why you make a special bracha. That's for the general mitzvah of learning. For this specific mitzvah of getting an aliyah, which is fulfilling the mitzvah of קריאת התורה, for that you have a special bracha. One more question. Recently I I had a I on Shabbos I was walking with a with a person, a friend of mine, and I wanted to tell him over a Torah, a Torah Torah thought. Torah thought, right. He says, \"I can't. I didn't make I didn't make Birkat HaTorah yet.\" So the question is: Why didn't he make Birkat HaTorah yet? That's the best question. Why didn't he make Birkat HaTorah? I thought by myself, maybe he didn't make brachot altogether, Probably didn't. in the shul. Yeah, he probably So the question is: Could he have made Birkat HaTorah before like could have he could have made the Birkat HaTorah and Right, right. Could have done that. Could have done that, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yes? Rabbi, how do you spell that word which means pleasure? You said a word... הנהנין? You have ה, נ, ה, נ, י, ן? No, no, הנהנים. I have another question. When you wake up in the morning and it's 3:00 in the morning and you can't go to sleep, you can't say... The brachos you can say, if you plan not to go to sleep. Yeah, many people have a custom to say everything. The other thing is in slide, when you said something about when you talk about the names that's why we've you talked about אלקים, הוי׳ה, like that... I missed what the הוי׳ה part. הוי׳ה is היה, הוה ויהיה. It's made up of three words: past, present, and future. And that cannot be natural. Naturally, you can't have past, present, future together. So, that is beyond nature. So, הוי׳ה describes Hashem the way He is beyond nature. That's it. Yes. Yeah, those people who are not makpid in saying, making a bracha loud enough for someone to answer amen... Right. Now, what I heard something very interesting recently. One of the Lubavitcher rebbe's didn't want to make a bracha unless there was someone to answer amen. He waited and waited and waited. He was hungry or whatever. Anyhow, then he saw someone in the hallway and called him over and made the bracha and someone answered amen. The next day, he tells the young man who he thought, \"Thank you very much for answering amen.\" The young man said, \"I wasn't there.\" It was Hashem sent an angel! So, the importance of people saying a bracha loudly enough so amen can be said... So, he asked for it. So, it's important, but there is no obligation. It's a good idea to have to give someone an opportunity to answer amen. I'll tell you the truth, there are some people who hesitate from making a bracha loud, because if they don't answer amen, then they have an aveirah. If you didn't say it loud, there is no aveirah. Why put somebody in a position that he might not answer amen, and then he has an aveirah? So, better don't say it loud. I'm not saying that's what we should do, but this is a point also that if you're not sure that the person is going to answer amen, maybe it's better not to say it loud. Yes. I have a question. You said seven mitzvos in total. So, where does muktzeh fit into the...? No, that's what I said. There are so many mitzvos of דרבנן that are not part of these seven. There's a special group of these seven. These are all positive mitzvos. Muktzeh is a negative commandment. And most of the things that רבנן said, \"Don't do this, don't do that.\" But these are new positive mitzvos that muktzeh is not one of them. Like I said... Is it connected to the Torah? Connected to the Torah. Shabbos, in Shabbos, you shouldn't carry, you shouldn't do a melachah. But these are not connected these are new mitzvos that they made on their own. And Shehecheyanu, which kind of the three...? That's one of the brachos. Yeah, but it is, which group is it? שבח והודאה. שבח והודאה? Yeah. It's not הנאה, and it's not mitzvos. It's to thank, opportunity of thanking Hashem for bringing us to this time. And which which, give me another example of mitzvot that we don't make a beracha and like the doing tzedaka? What would be another one another mitzvah that we don't make a beracha? Tzedaka. By tzedaka, we don't make a beracha. Now, the simple reason there are All these have simple explanations, but there is a deeper explanation. The simple explanation is because any mitzvah that's connected to a second person, you can't make a beracha, because you never know. You might want to give him the the tzedaka, he might not take it. So, any... Is הכנסת כלה also one of them? You could say that, yeah. All this type of mitzvot, don't make a beracha. But the deeper explanation is because these are such mitzvot that are so high and reach such a high level that you can't make a beracha for it. This is the deeper. The simple explanation, like I said before, is because there's someone else involved. There's another reason. Because by tzedaka, it says the person needs the money right away. You can't spend the time to make a beracha. And the the Rebbe once said, he was laughing and he said, \"Imagine the guy comes to ask for tzedaka, a hungry man, and he's hungry and starved, and he'll come to this man, and this חסיד is going to make the beracha with great kavana. He's going to say, 'Wait a minute, I have to put on my gartel and my this and put on my hat.' And he'll start thinking about ברוך אתה ה׳, the guy will die in the meantime!\" So, they said, \"No berachot.\" But the deeper explanation is this is a mitzvah that is beyond reach. And therefore, we just have to do the act, and Hashem will bring it down, so we don't make a baruch, we don't make a beracha for השפעה. And the berachot hashachar, which which in which...? שבח והודאה. Right. You're alluding to this dispute, difference between, Chabad custom of saying the berachot hashachar in a minyan, cause wanting to answer amen... I know berachot hashachar, everything till הודו, other people say it in shul with a minyan. And Chabad says everything at home, it's a it's a private thing, it's not a... We don't eat before we make berachot hashachar, so when we wake up, it's part of our waking up. Right, so that's why we have to say it first. At home. Yeah. So, how about after berachot hashachar, as well? At home. Right, as soon as you wake up. Yes. Now, you covered the importance of saying amen. However, what you didn't cover was Baruch Hu uvaruch Shemo, which they touch sometimes in the beracha. Are you, are you, are you required, are you always to say that or? Okay, since you're asking, I'll tell you. The question was what's the significance of Baruch Hu uvaruch Shemo. Amen, everybody knows you have to answer. ברוך הוא וברוך שמו is not in the Gemara. That's later, in the Rishonim, and that is not the same obligation as amen. As a matter of fact, any berachah that you want to be yotzei, you're not allowed to say it. Right. If someone makes a berachah, like ברכת הנהנין, and you want to be yotzei with his berachah, you are not allowed to answer ברוך הוא וברוך שמו, because it's an interruption. It comes from the idea that every time Hashem's name is mentioned, you want to praise. Connected to the pasuk we said before: כי שם ה׳ אקרא הבו גודל לאלקינו. When they call the name of Hashem, you give greatness to it. So, when they say ברוך אתה ה׳, they say ברוך הוא וברוך שמו, that He be blessed and His name be blessed. So, it's based on that pasuk, but it's not an obligation. Therefore, if it's said in the middle of a berachah, it's an interruption. So, when you want to be yotzei, amen you have to say, because by saying amen, that's even more than the berachah, as if he said the berachah, more even. But ברוך הוא וברוך שמו you're not allowed to say. Therefore, even in davening, anytime a berachah is said, and it's in a place where you can't be mafsik, where you're not allowed to interrupt, you can't say ברוך הוא וברוך שמו. For instance, in Yishtabach. At the end of Yishtabach they say ברוך אתה ה׳, you're not allowed to answer ברוך הוא וברוך שמו. Even in... No, if somebody is yotzei for another, you're not allowed... at the end of a berachah? Yes. Right. No, no, no, no. I'm sorry, you didn't get it. Amen, yes. Not ברוך הוא וברוך שמו. No, we don't... excuse me. We don't answer ברוך הוא וברוך שמו ever from, from Baruch She'amar on. So ask, can I ask you: since we cannot be mafsik, we can't interrupt, we cannot answer ברוך הוא וברוך שמו. And the same, anytime you want to hear a berachah from anyone... Because you're not yotzei with the berachah... You're allowed to talk and you are not being yotzei with the berachah. But if you would intend to be yotzei with the berachah, then you couldn't answer Baruch Hu uvaruch Shemo. Same thing with Maariv. So, I would say you can't answer Baruch Hu uvaruch Shemo ever. So when someone is a guest at your house and your husband is saying Kiddush and you want to