Blessed with Blessings

There are so many blessings (brachot in Hebrew) that a Jewish person can say. There are brachot for washing the hands and eating and using the bathroom. The morning, afternoon, and evening prayer services are full of brachot.

Then there are the brachot for ordinary-special occasions. There are brachot for nice sunsets and thunderstorms and eating a new fruit. There are brachot for seeing the ocean or a close friend after a long absence, and on new clothes and furniture.

Then there are the really special brachot. There is a bracha for meeting the president, and one for seeing an outstanding scholar. There is a bracha for especially beautiful people and one for deformed people. There is a bracha for terrible news and a bracha for outstanding news.

I have heard that a really observant Jew says one hundred brachot a day. I'm working on learning one new one each month.