Gemara Brachos 60b – When a person wakes up in the morning and hears the sound of the rooster crowing, he should say “Blessed are You who gives the [sechvi] wisdom to differentiate between day and night.”

o       Rashi tells us, based on a Gemara in Rosh Hashana 26a, that sechvi is a rooster.

·        When he opens his eyes, he should say “Blessed are You who gives sight to the blind.” When he sits up, he should say “Blessed are You who frees the bound.” When he dresses, he should say “Blessed are You who dresses the naked.” When he straitens, he should say “Blessed are You who straitens the crooked.” When he stands upon the ground, he should say “Blessed are You who spreads out the earth upon the waters.”

o       Tos. on this Gemara comments that a person does not need to actually hear a rooster’s crow before making this bracha. The bracha is made on the benefit of the rooster’s ability to distinguish between darkness and light, night and day.

·        Rambam: Tefillah 7:7 – These brachos have no determined order: they can be said in an alternate order if that is the order in which a person dresses/moves.

·        Shulchan Aruch: Orach Chaim 46 – The Mechaber instructs that if someone did not become obligated in any one of these brachos, he should say them without mentioning the name of God. The Rama disagrees, instructing that he should make the bracha with the full use of God’s name, since the purpose of the bracha is to praise God for having created the brachos’ subjects.

·        Rosh to Brachos perek 9 – The word sechvi in the bracha really means the heart: we are thanking God for giving us the ability to discern between day and night. The use of the word sechvi is a play on words, since it means rooster in [Arabic].

o       Since we face challenges and choices every day, the first bracha we make is the praise and thanks for God having given us the wisdom and ability to determine between dark and light, which symbolize the good and bad found in every choice.

§         Based on this idea of the Rosh, Rav S. R. Hirsch explains that we continue with the bracha of “shelo asani goi” because once we are thanking God for allowing us to make insightful decisions, we thank Him for making us Jews who were given the Torah and Mitzvos, which challenge us to make choices.

·        We then thank God for not making us slaves. A slave is someone whose time is not his own. As such, he is not obligated in positive mitzvos which are time-generated, since they are beholden to another master who controls his time.

·        We follow this with thanks to God for not having created us as women. This is because men and women have different roles to play in life. As such, women, who are better suited to give the attention and devotion necessary to raising children and maintaining a household, are not obligated in mitzvos which will create conflicts between their obligations. Men, then, who are less suited toward this role, are tasked with a different role in life, and as such are given other mitzvos which women are not.

We continue with the bracha thanking God for giving sight. This bracha has an underlying meaning, thanking God not only for sight but also insight.

Birchos haShachar/Korbanos/Mizmor Shir Chanukas haBayis l’David

·        The majority of the brachos express gratitude for our ability (or others, in the event of blindness/crippled) to do perfunctory actions and the existence of certain regular occurrences.

·        Gemara Megillah 4b – Avraham asked God how the Jews would achieve forgiveness. Hashem replied that they would have the sacrificial service. Avraham then asked how they would be forgiven in the event that they have no Beis haMikdash, to which Hashem replied that when the Jewish people did not have a Beis haMikdash, they could learn the parshios of korbanos and He would account to the Jews as if they had performed the services themselves.

·        The psalm is entitled “a song for the inauguration of the Temple”. However, a cursory look at the text will ascertain that the psalm makes no mention of the Temple whatsoever. Rather, it is an expression of praise and thanks from David to Hashem for having protected him from his enemies when he was ill.

o       Rashi offers an explanation, stating that David wrote the mizmor for the Levi’im to sing at the inauguration of Shlomo’s BhM.

o       In a simiar vein, Ibn Ezra offers a similar explanation, positing that David could have written the mizmor for the people to sing at the inauguration of the second BhM, and the illness refers to the darkness and spiritual illness of diaspora and exile.

o       Ibn Ezra explains in the name of R’ Moshe (Rambam?) that the mizmor was written about the despair David felt when Nassan told him he would not build the Beis haMikdash, and the joy which overtook that despair when Nassan told him that his son Shlomo would be the one to build it.

Mizmor Shir Chanukas haBayis l’David

·        This mizmor is an introduction to Pesukei d’Zimra, which does not actually begin until Baruch she’Amar.

·        The holiness of the Beis haMikdash is not of an inherent nature; it is imbued with holiness by God’s “residence” within it. So too is the Beis K’nesses, which has no inherent holiness or power to convey one’s requests to Hashem. Rather, it has a holiness created when a person utilizes it to connect to Hashem and ask Him personally.

o       That being the case, this mizmor represents a perfect introduction to the formal prayer service, in that it reminds a person that prayer has power only insofar as he enters into it with an open heart.

·        Sometimes it is difficult to see Hashem’s presence in our lives. At those times, it is necessary to have a relationship with Him in order to really call out to Him in prayer. If we approach our service to God in a checklist manner, as a list of obligations we must do, that relationship will be deficient, and we will not be able to call out to Him wholeheartedly. If we don’t build the relationship when everything is good and easier, we will not have it when we need it most.

o       Part of that relationship is being able to ask Him for help even in the most mundane of situations, in the most simple of places.

·        There is a higher level in the stages of Divine relationship. Although God is complete and does not need anything from us, He nonetheless does desire that we serve Him, since His nature is to give. Since He desires to give, He created the world so that He can give us opportunities to earn His favor and goodness. As such, it is in His interest that we continue to exist and be in a position to serve Him. It is this which drives David to cry out in the final 4 pesukim, challenging Hashem to grant him graciousness so that he can serve Him.