The Shehecheyanuberakhah (blessing) (
Hebrew: ברכת שהחיינו, "Who has given us life") is a common
Jewish prayer to celebrate special occasions. It expresses gratitude to God for new and unusual experiences or possessions.[1] The blessing was recorded in the
Talmud[2] over 1500 years ago.
Recitation
The blessing of Shehecheyanu is recited in thanks or commemoration of:
Generally, when doing or experiencing something that occurs infrequently from which one derives pleasure or benefit.
Some have the custom of saying it at the ceremony of the
Birkat Hachama, which is recited once every 28 years in the month of Nisan/Adar II.
When several reasons apply (such as the beginning of Passover, together with the mitzvot of matzah, marror, etc.), the blessing is only said once.
It is not recited at a
brit milah by
Ashkenazim, since the circumcision involves pain, nor at the Counting of the Omer, since that is a task that does not give pleasure and causes sadness at the thought that the actual Omer ceremony cannot be performed because of the destruction of the Temple.[4][5] However, it is recited by
Sephardim at the bris milah ceremony.[6]
^Isaac Klein, A Guide to Jewish Religious Practice,
The Jewish Theological Seminary of America, New York, 1979, p. 48: "Whenever we experience something new, such as eating fruit for the first time in its season, the advent of a holiday, or a joyous occasion in the family, we recite שֶׁהֶחֱיָנוּ וְקִיְּמָנוּ וְהִגִיעָנוּ לַזְּמַן הַזֶּה"
^The first word, בָּרוּךְ (barukh), is more commonly translated as "blessed" (in, for example:
Nosson Scherman's The Complete
ArtScroll Siddur, 1984, p. 231;
Philip Birnbaum's Ha-Siddur ha-Shalem, 1949, p. 776;
Reuben Alcalay's Complete English-Hebrew Dictionary, p. 287; Langenscheidt's Pocket Hebrew Dictionary by Karl Feyerabend, p. 47)
^
abcרבינוביץ, שמחה בן-ציון (2021). פסקי תשובות חלק שישי סימן תרע״ו אות א'. ירושלים.{{
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