Praised Be the One Who Spoke (Barukh she-amar)

The post-talmudic prayer Barukh she-amar became the standard introduction to the morning recitation of certain psalms. The text of Barukh she-amar, like much of the biblical liturgy, was fluid. It consisted of two parts, the first a poetic series of talmudic and midrashic phrases that begin with the word barukh (blessed), each one praising God, and the second an introductory benediction that takes the more standard form of a rabbinic blessing. Natronay Ga’on, in the ninth century, ascribed Barukh she-amar to Moses ben Jacob Ga’on, an earlier ninth-century gaon of Sura. It remains customary in Jewish prayer books.