Can you bless someone? 🤧

Home Forums Bais Medrash Can you bless someone? 🤧

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  • #1439623
    Lightbrite
    Participant

    I can bless you, right?

    The other day, my friend who is Christian texted me a “G[o]d bless”… I replied “…sending you blessings.”

    Later, I thought about our two different ways of extending blessings.

    Obviously, when I send someone blessings, it’s really more of a request for Hashem to bless so-and-so.

    Meanwhile, is saying “G[o]d bless [you]” more accurate?

    What does Torah say?

    Thank you ☺

    #1439666
    Joseph
    Participant

    Any Yid can bless anyone else.

    #1439688
    Lightbrite
    Participant

    Thank you Joseph! ☺

    May you and your family be blessed with sweet revealed good, health, parnassa, nachas, long days, and Hashem’s mercy and goodness and light! 💡💡💡

    #1439706
    Joseph
    Participant

    Amen!

    #1439812
    WolfishMusings
    Participant

    Any Yid can bless anyone else.

    True. But I feel sorry for anyone who values my blessing.

    The Wolf

    #1439846
    Joseph
    Participant

    Anyone would be lucky to get your blessing, Wolf.

    #1439879
    WolfishMusings
    Participant

    Anyone would be lucky to get your blessing, Wolf.

    If you wish to be wrong, so be it.

    The Wolf

    #1440092
    👑RebYidd23
    Participant

    Wolf, the person who is in the same room as me right now says that the blessing of any Yid is valuable, even the person you seem to think you are, and especially the person you really are.

    #1440116
    yytz
    Participant

    LB: Yes, but you’re right that we’re really asking Hashem to bless them. In the few instances in which we “bless” people rather than just davening for them, such as the father’s blessing of children at the Shabbos table and the Birkas Kohanim, the phrasing of the blessing makes clear it is a prayer that Hashem bless them. When I sign a letter “Kol tuv,” my intent is “May Hashem bless you with everything good/all good things (kol tuv).”

    #1440122
    yytz
    Participant

    Not only can you bless someone (ie, pray for them), but we should pray for all people we know or hear about who are in need, and even the entire world.

    “Every person is obligated to say, ‘The entire world was created for me’” (Sanhedrin 37a). “Consequently…I must constantly look into and consider ways to make the world better; to provide what is missing and to pray on [the world’s] behalf” (Likutey Moharan I, 5:1).

    #1444326
    in galus
    Participant

    אל תהי ברכת הדיוט קלה בעיניך
    let not the blessing of a layperson be light in your eyes

    -Megilla 15a

    #1444341
    Solaro
    Participant

    You’re not supposed to bless a goy,unless you have to because of דרכי שלום -Gittin62a

    #1444362
    Lightbrite
    Participant

    Solaro, why would we not be allowed to bless someone who isn’t Jewish unless necessary for peace?

    #1444360
    jewishperson803
    Participant

    It is assur min haTorah to bless a goy. “Lo tischanen.”

    #1444370
    Joseph
    Participant

    GHadorah won’t like hearing that. He’ll soon be telling us that we need to scratch out that Halacha for the 21st century. We’ll have to remind him that we live in the 58th century.

    #1444456
    yytz
    Participant

    Nonsense. You can pray for whoever you want. Elisha HaNavi healed non-Jews, Moshe saved non-Jews (in last week’s parshah), etc.

    I suspect Solara and JewishPapers and Joseph are the same person. Joseph has a history of such sockpuppeting.

    #1444588
    Gadolhadorah
    Participant

    Hey Joe….I forgot to give you my “blessings” for a successful 2018….not sure what are the top 10 New Years’ resolutions for trolls but hopefully your Streimlach hanging over the fireplace was filedl to the brim with seforim on Secrets of a Successful Troll etc.

    To others, speculating on Joe’s different screen names, don’t waste your efforts. If the theme of the posting is a xenophobic and myscogenistic rant cloaked in distorted citations to chazal or some meforshim, you probably have the right guy.

    In any event, most of us don’t walk around giving “blessings” to anyone, yiddin or goyim. If a goy you work with sneezes, its OK to say “god bless you” if that is the norm in your culture. If a goy is sick, its ok to wish him/her a speedy recovery. Not sure what a blessing is but generally, you might draw the line on saying “I’m going to shul to daven on your behalf” although even that might be mutar if the outcome will be to create good will for you, your family or the yiddeshe tzibur in general.

    #1444678
    Solaro
    Participant

    http://hebrewbooks.org/shas.aspx?mesechta=19&daf=62&format=pdf
    yytz- How can you call a Gemara and a very clear Rashi ‘nonsense’

    #1444712
    👑RebYidd23
    Participant

    I’m sorry you feel that way.

    #1444711
    Joseph
    Participant

    Because it doesn’t comply with 21st century demands for egalitarianism.

    #1444710
    CS
    Participant

    Maybe it’s because afaik lo sischanem only applies to idol worshipers and not all goyim. Now goyim are allowed to believe in shitfus or more than one power, even though a yid can’t, so that means christians are not necessarily aku”m which means that unless you live in India, blessing most non Jews shouldn’t be an issue.

    #1445213
    Joseph
    Participant

    CS: The נודע ביהודה psakens that shitfus is assur (as Avoda Zora) for gentiles and the Rambam paskens that Christianity is Avoda Zora.

    #1446005
    yytz
    Participant

    Neither that Gemara nor Rashi say that one is not allowed to daven for goyim. There is no such halacha. (If so, where is it in the S’A? However, some such as Sefer Chassidim hold that one should not daven for a non-Jew who is doing evil to the Jewish people, which makes sense.) The Gemara and Rashi only discuss the very specific situation of using the word “Shalom,” which is one of Hashem’s names, to greet goyim.

    #1446033
    yytz
    Participant

    CS: Video #185 at Dollars includes the Rebbe strongly suggesting one should daven for blessings for non-Jews (through the merits of the Jews.)

    #1446038
    yytz
    Participant

    From Ramak’s Tomer Devorah:
    “And he should constantly pray for mercy and blessing for the world just as
    the Supernal Father has mercy on all His creatures. And he should
    constantly pray for the alleviation of suffering as if those who suffer were
    actually his children and as if he had created them. For this is the will of the
    Holy One, Blessed is He”
    “Furthermore, his mercy should extend to all creatures, neither destroying nor
    despising any of them. For the Supernal Wisdom is extended to all created
    things- minerals, plants, animals and humans. This is the reason why we
    were warned against despising food. In this way man’s pity should be
    extended to all the works of the Blessed One just as the Supernal Wisdom
    despises no created thing for they are all created from that source, as it is
    written”

    #1446048
    Solaro
    Participant

    Yytz- Sorry I misunderstood pshat in the rashi
    Rashi said ולא היה מתכוון לברכו אלא לרבו
    I understood that to mean that you shouldn’t bless goyim at all. However the מהרש״א on דף ו in ברכות says clearly that it’s only by saying שלום twice
    I’m not sure about לא תיחנם, though

    #1446051
    jewishperson803
    Participant

    No one is talking about praying for goyim, so that’s just a strawman fallacy. The halacha, as codified in the Shulchan Aruch, is that a Jew is forbidden to bless a goy or praise a goy in any way. The Shulchan Aruch (YD 151:14) writes: “One may not speak in their praise, even to say how beautiful or handsome or well formed they are, and definitely not to praise their actions or be enthralled with their words”.

    #1446505
    CS
    Participant

    “: The נודע ביהודה psakens that shitfus is assur (as Avoda Zora) for gentiles”

    OK but afaik that isn’t universal. I think it’s the Rambam who paskens its mutar for a goy.

    “and the Rambam paskens that Christianity is Avoda zara .”

    For a goy as well?

    By hp the daily Rebbe video showed today the Rebbe blessing cuomo to win the election and conditioning that in doing well for the general community.

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