A Nice Opportunity and a New Mitzvah

Today, I had an opportunity to say a bracha (blessing) I almost never get to say. It is "Blessed are you, God...who gives a good smell to fruits." I have a lousy sense of smell, so I usually have to deliberately smell the fruit in order to say this one. Today, however, a girl in my Bible class had peeled an orange and left it on the table during our seven minute break, and I could smell the orange from where I was sitting! So of course I thanked God for the smell.

Speaking of God...davening (praying) twice daily is so much habit now that I think I will take on another mitzvah. From here on out, I will praise God for my food after I eat, not just before. Thse prayers vary from the ten paragraph "Birkat Hamazon" after eating bread, to the two line "Borei Nefashot" for miscellaneous foods, with one in between (I forget the name of it) to thank God for the seven species of Israel (wheat, barley, grapes, figs, pomegranates, olives, and dates).