Personally Connecting to Baruch She'amar

Baruch She'amar "on one foot":

Baruch She'amar is a prayer in the weekday, Shabbat, Festival, and High Holiday morning service.

When In the Service is Baruch She’amar?

In order to answer that question, we must unpack three terms, each with two meanings.

Shacharit

In the time of the Mishnah (so, by 200 CE), the morning service consisted of the Shema with two blessings before it and one blessing after it (Mishnah Brachot 1:4), and then the Amidah (Mishnah Brachot 4:1). This was done soon after dawn broke (Mishnah Brachot 1:2), so this short service became known as “Shacharit”, meaning “the dawn service”. As more things got added to the morning service, “Shacharit”came to mean both “the entire morning service” and “the section of the morning service starting at Barchu and going through the Amidah (or possibly until the Torah is read)”.

P’sukei D’zimra

It became desirous to add some “warm-up” prayers before Barchu, specifically Biblical quotes bookended by non-Biblical prayers. These became known as “P’sukei D’zimra”, meaning “verses of song”. Later, more non-Biblical prayers were written to go before the original P’sukei D’zimra. Thus, “P’sukei D’zimra” came to mean both “the entire morning service before Barchu” and “the section of the morning service starting with Baruch She’amar and ending with Yishtabach on weekdays or Nishmat on Shabbat and Festivals”.

Birkot HaShachar

Birkot HaShachar was originally the blessings said when getting up, moved into the morning service (for more on this, see: https://www.sefaria.org/sheets/600539?lang=bi). Later, other prayers were added after Birkot HaShachar. Thus, “Birkot HaShachar” came to mean both “the specific prayer with the morning blessings” and “the entire morning service before Baruch She’amar.

So when does Baruch She’amar happen?

Baruch She’amar happens after Birkot HaShachar, at the beginning of P’sukei D’zimra before the main Shacharit service. In the Sefardic and Edot HaMizrach tradition, it is later in P'sukei D'zmira and missing the "oseh v'reishit" line, respectively.

What is the History of Baruch She’amar?

As previously mentioned, as of 200 CE the morning service only consisted of the Shema and its blessings, plus the Amidah. There is a comment from the same time period that “the pious ones of old would wait for an hour before praying in order to direct their thoughts to G-d” (Mishnah Brachot 5:1, Brachot 32b:20-25). It seems that at this time they were meditating, or at least giving themselves transition time (much like somebody today might use their commute to mentally leave work behind and be fully present by the time they get home).

In the Babylonian Talmud (as of 500 CE), we hear that some people are reciting psalms, called “Hallel” (“praise”), as part of their pre-morning service preparation (Shabbat 118b:6). It is clarified that these are not the psalms of “Hallel” (Psalms 113-118) that are done on holidays, but rather that these are general psalms of praise instead of psalms of supplication. These psalms are called “P’sukei D’zimra” in the Talmud, meaning “verses of song”.

Over time, this became the practice of starting the service with Psalms 145-150, to which other psalms and quotes from Chronicles and Nehemiah were added, ending with the Song of the Sea when G-d took us out of Egypt in Exodus. These create a sense of awe heading into Barchu. By the 800s, the Geonim, the leaders of the Jewish community in Babylonia, gave official approval to this practice and said that just like Hallel was Biblical quotes preceded and followed by a blessing, so too should this new “P’sukei D’zimra” section. Thus, Baruch She’amar was written to say “We will praise you, G-d”, then psalms are done to praise G-d, and finally Yishtabach says “We did praise you, G-d”. If you haven't done at least one of Psalms 145-150 (ideally Psalm 145), you can't say Yishtabach.

The first time that Baruch She'amar is called by name is when Rabbi Moshe Gaon (Sura, near Babylonia) answered a question in the 820s CE. He was asked what to do if you get to services late and need to catch up. His answer was to do: Baruch She'amar, Ashrei, Halleluyah (Ps. 150), and Yishtabach. In 868 Rav Amram Gaon publishes the first siddur, in answer to a question from Barcelona about what order to say the prayers in. This includes the Baruch She'amar, similar to the way we do it today both for weekdays and Shabbat. By 900 CE, Rabbi Saadia Gaon had a version that was similar to the second half of ours but not the same as our current text. He had a version of the first half, but for him it was only done on Shabbat (and it had additions referred to by Abudarham in the 1300s).

In the 900s, Nathan HaBabli goes to Sura. He reports on the coronation of the exilarch, and in this report he also reports that the cantor began the service with Baruch She'amar, with people responding "Baruch Hu" to each line. A siddur from the 1000s in the Land of Israel includes a version of Baruch She'amar, showing that it had spread from Babylonia to the Land of Israel by then. An early printed siddur for a Greek Romaniot community in Venice, from 1523, also includes "Baruch Hu" after each line, plus extra additions in the first half.

The author of Baruch She’amar is unknown. To solve this, some people say that the Men of the Great Assembly, as of 400 BCE, transcribed it from a page that fell from Heaven. However, it is suspicious that for 1,200 years there was no evidence of this prayer until after the Geonim approved this new section of the service in the 800s CE.

That being said, the phrase “Mi She’amar V’haya ha’olam” (“the one who spoke and the world came into being”) comes up in Rabbinic literature (Esther Rabba 1:12, Genesis Rabba 4:4, Gerim 1:2 and 1:5, Leviticus Rabba 3:7, Numbers Rabba 15:11, Deuteronomy Rabba 7:6). The beginning of the prayer can be found in Midrash Eliyahu Zuta 4:9 (see Tanna DeBei Eliyahu Zuta, Seder Eliyahu Zuta 4:1), which was finished around 975 CE but probably drew on earlier sources.

By the 900s CE, Baruch She’amar marked the formal beginning of communal prayer for morning services. There were still variations of it floating around for a while -- David Aburdarham, a commentator from the 1300s, refers to a version that has additions for Shabbat, Festivals, Rosh Hashanah, and Yom Kippur (Abudarham, Weekday Prayers, Songs of Praise 1).

How Do We Say Baruch She'amar?

Because this prayer marked the formal start of communal morning prayer in the 900s, it is said standing (Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chayim 51:7). We gather the front two tzitzit at the beginning of the prayer, symbolically combining love and awe of G-d in our hearts, kiss them at the end, and then drop them (Kitzur Shulchan Aruch 14:2). Kissing is also a way of showing significance (like kissing the Torah or a siddur). When the whole thing is not done out loud, the leader picks up at "yachid chei haOlamim".

How Important is Baruch She'amar?

Quite. It's one of the skeleton prayers of the service that you should say if you arrive late (Baruch She'amar, Ashrei, Yishtabach are enough for P'sukei D'zimra - Mishnah Berurah 52:6). If you are pressed for time, it is better to do Baruch She'amar and fewer Psalms in the middle since P'sukei D'Zimra should be done slowly and deliberately (Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chayim 51:8) and as the Talmud says, "A person's words before the Holy Blessed One should be few" (Brachot 61a:2).

Moreover, there are 87 words in Baruch She'amar. The Gematria (alphanumeric value) of this is "paz", which is a less-commonly used Biblical term for "gold". There happens to be a verse (Song of Songs 5:11) that "His head was of finest gold", but it could also be translated as "His opening words were finest gold". Make of this what you will.

​​​​​​​What is the Structure of Baruch She'amar?

Baruch She'amar comes in 2 parts. The first part is a "proem", a poetic introduction. It moves from the abstract and cosmic to the concrete and personal. The second part is a long-form blessing, starting with a "Baruch ata..." and ending with another "Baruch ata...". It talks about praising G-d.

The first part has 10 "Baruch"s in it, not including the second one ("Baruch Hu"). That one is a remnant of an older version of this prayer in Babylonia, where every line was responded to with "Baruch Hu", and today some people alternate responding "Baruch Hu" and "Baruch Sh'mo" to each line of the first half. Together, "Baruch Hu" (the second line) and "Baruch Sh'mo" (the last line) make up the traditional response to hearing G-d's name ("Praised be G-d and praised be the Divine name").

The first line of the prayer says that G-d spoke and the world came into being. Therefore, the 10 "Baruch"s that are left in the first half correspond to the 10 utterances that G-d used to create the world, per Pirkei Avot 5:1. (To learn why it's 10 and not 9, see: https://www.sefaria.org/sheets/241558.27?lang=en; to learn how these correspond to Baruch She'amar, see Abudarham, Weekday Prayers, Songs of Praise 5.) These "Baruch"s have the effect of creating a mantra of praise.

The Prayer Itself

1. Who spoke and the world came into being — G-d created a world through speech. When has someone's words changed your world?

2. Who makes Creation — This is in the present tense, implying that G-d remakes the world every day. (The morning prayers before Ahava Rabba make this point also.). This means that every day you get a new chance, a new day when you haven’t made any mistakes yet. When have you had a fresh start?

3. Who says and does, who decrees and fulfills — This text comes from Brachot 57b:21. These are a neutral and stern version of the same thing. G-d keeps the Divine promise, even when people don't seem to deserve it (like keeping G-d's promise to David when future kings of Judah were terrible), and G-d follows through on punishment unless there is sincere repentance (like in the Jonah story). When did somebody not follow through on what they said they were going to do, and how did that feel?

4. Who has mercy on the earth — What is something you can do to have mercy on the earth?

5. Who has mercy on those who are created — According to the Rabbis, G-d created the world with both Justice and Mercy so that the world could survive (Genesis Rabba 12:15). When did somebody have mercy on you, or did you have mercy on someone else, or you had mercy on yourself?

6. Who pays a good reward — In Pirkei Avot 1:3 we are taught that we shouldn't serve G-d expecting a reward, and in Pirkei Avot 2:14 and 2:16 (some say 2:19 and 2:21) we are taught that G-d can be counted on to reward us for doing the right thing. The reward sometimes comes in this world, and sometimes in the afterlife. When did you do the right thing without expecting a reward, and receive one anyway?

7. Who lives forever — G-d's foreverness is also referred to in Adon Olam. While G-d lives forever, people don’t. When did having a limited amount of time force you to accomplish something important?

8. Who redeems and saves — G-d redeemed us from Egypt, saving us at the Sea of Reeds. When did somebody save you, or did you save someone else?

9. Praised is the name of G-d — According to Pirkei Avot 4:13 (some say 4:17), there are 3 crowns — the crowns of Torah, priesthood, and royalty — but the crown of a good name surpasses them all. Who is somebody that you know who has a good name, and what about them caused them to have it?

10. Sovereign extolled with songs of praise — In your view, why should G-d be praised?

Observations About the Second Half of Baruch She’amar

- Ha-av Harachaman = literally "the fatherly womb" - G-d transcends gender

- B'fi amo -- According to the Mishnah Bertram 51:1, some people say "b'feh amo"

- Extolled by the mouth of G-d's people / the words of Your faithful servants -- the quotes in P'sukei D'Zmira are from Psalms, Chronicles, Nehemiah, and Exodus

- With the songs of Your servant David -- David was thought to have written the Psalms, which make up the bulk of the Biblical quotes; Psalms 145-150 were the original core

- N'gadelcha unshabechacha unfa'ercha -- not the Psalms of seeking help, but those of praise; similar sounding words creates a meditative atmosphere

- Proclaimed you sovereign -- a reference to the Song of the Sea at the end when they did that

- "Chey ha-olamim" -- "chey ha-olam" comes from Daniel 12:7, but there is no Biblical use of the plural of "olam". It could mean this world and the world to come.

- "Baruch" -- comes from the root for "bless". However, some people say that it's impossible to bless G-d, so they translate the word "Baruch" as "Praised".

Entering Jewish Prayer, by Reuven Hammer (1994)

The group of psalms of P’sukei D’zimra, to which have been added other Biblical sections, is enclosed within a set of blessings written by the Sages. These blessings are appropriate for saying when reciting psalms or passages of praise. The opening blessing is preceded by a proem, a poetic introduction, known as Baruch She-Amar (“Blessed is the One who spoke”).

The traditional Jewish practice is that whenever God’s name is recited in a blessing, the congregation responds “Baruch Hu u-varuch sh’mo”, (“Blessed is God and blessed is God’s name”). If we combine the second and last lines of this proem, the result is this response. Not a formal blessing in itself, the proem proclaims God’s praise in terms of God’s role as creator of the world, as described in the first chapter of Genesis. It also stresses the rabbinic value concept of God’s quality of mercy. The world, taught the Sages, was created with mercy and kindness, not with strict justice. The repetition of the word Baruch — blessed — is deliberately calculated to prepare us the recite the blessing that follows.

In this elaborate paragraph, which begins and ends with the blessing formula, one verb is deliberately piled upon another to emphasize the magnitude of the praise that is due to God. The themes ring out clearly: we are about to perform the act of praise and adoration and to proclaim God as sovereign, through the words of David.

- p. 113-14

This is the weekday nusach version of Baruch She'amar, chanted by Cantor Neil Schwartz.

This is the Shabbat nusach version of Baruch She'amar, chanted by Cantor Neil Schwartz.

This is the High Holiday nusach version of Baruch She'amar, chanted by Cantor Neil Schwartz.

This is Craig Taubman’s 2002 version from his “One Shabbat Morning” album.

This is a 2023 class by Moshe Bensoussan about the history of Baruch She'amar.

With appreciation to: Cantor Neil Schwartz, Entering Jewish Prayer by Reuven Hammer, To Pray as a Jew by Rabbi Hayim Halev Donin, Siddur Lev Shalem, Siddur Sim Shalom (weekday), Siddur Or Hadash, Siddur Eit Ratzon, Koren Siddur, Artscroll Siddur, Moshe Bensoussan,