Guide
Rabbinic Blessings after Eating a Meal in Ancient and Medieval Sources
1st–13th Centuries
Restricted
The Rabbinic Grace after Meals
Communal meals were important for the rabbis, as for other Jewish and non-Jewish groups in the Greco-Roman world. The rabbis prescribed a series of blessings to be recited jointly after a meal when at least three people were present. The recitation was to be formally initiated by one member of the group inviting the others to join with him in praising God. Early rabbinic legal texts articulate the proper ways of reciting these blessings, the proper order and content of the blessings, and, in a few cases, some verbal phrases to be used. However, the full texts of these blessings appear only later. Geniza prayer-book manuscripts provide early versions, following the rite of the land of Israel.
Related Primary Sources
Primary Source
The Mishnah on Blessings after a Meal
m. Berakhot 7:1–4
1. Three who ate together must invite each other [to recite the blessings after the meal they have just eaten]. If [among the three] [ . . . ] one was a servant who had eaten an olive’s bulk [of food]…
Primary Source
The Tosefta on Blessings after a Meal
t. Berakhot 4:7, 15; 5:17, 21
4:7. This is the general rule: Any [breadstuff] before [the eating of] which one recites the benediction, “Who brings forth bread from the earth”—he must recite three benedictions after [eating it] [i…
Primary Source
The Palestinian Talmud on Blessings after a Meal
y. Berakhot 1:5, 3d
R. Simon in the name of R. Joshua b. Levi said, “If one did not mention the Torah in [the blessing of] the Land, [the first blessing of the Grace after the meal,] they make him repeat it. On what…
Primary Source
The Babylonian Talmud on Blessings after a Meal
b. Berakhot 46a–50a (selections)
R. Yoḥanan said in the name of R. Simeon bar Yoḥai: The host breaks bread and a guest recites [grace after meals]. The host breaks [bread…
Primary Source
A Version of the Blessings after Meals (Birkat ha-mazon) from the Land of Israel
Let us bless for the food we have eaten from Him [var.: Let us bless (the one) of whose (bounty) we have eaten]
and by whose goodness we…
Primary Source
Grace after Meals according to a Cairo Geniza Fragment
With the mercy of Heaven.Blessed are You, Lord our God, King of the universe, who in goodness feeds the entire world, with kindness, and with mercy. He gives food to all living beings for His…
Primary Source
Grace after Meals for Weekdays according to Cairo Geniza Fragments
You, our Eternal God, are the essence of praise, and the universal sovereign, creator of the world and moulder of mankind who prepares food for all his creatures, as the verse has it: You give it…
Primary Source
Grace after Meals in a House of Mourning
Say: [In] memory of a good man.May the memory of a humble man be for a blessing.May the memory of the righteous be for a blessing, and their souls [be] in paradise…
Primary Source
A Page with An Abbreviated Grace After Meals, for the Sabbath
This version of the Grace after Meals, found in the Cairo Geniza, is only a page long. It includes a line, “the day of joy comes, let us rejoice in the bread of two days,” alluding to the two portions…