Rabbi Jonathan Roos delivers his sermon “Get In The Boat: A Post-October 7th Theology of Relationships” Sunday in the Amphitheater.
The most common blessing in Judaism is the hamotzi — “Blessed are You Lord our God, Sovereign of the Universe who brings forth bread from the earth” — the blessing over the bread or the meal at the beginning of a meal.
Rabbi Jonathan Roos, continuing his sermon series on the Gospel of John, chapter 6, said that in the feeding of the 5,000 Jesus gave a blessing before the meal, but he did not give the traditional blessing after the meal. Roos’ sermon delved into this “minor anomaly” in the text.
Roos’ sermon title was “You’re Out of Order: Gratitude and Blessings for Our Bounty,” and the scripture readings were Deuteronomy 8: 10-14 and John 6: 11-13.
Before beginning his sermon, Roos took a moment to get himself and the congregation centered. It was not just the abundance of Chautauqua that was a bit unsettling, but the situation in the world — the stabbing of children in England, the wars in the Middle East and in Ukraine and Russia. So the congregation took a deep breath together with the rabbi to get settled.
Roos told a story of an atheist who lived in a village of believers. He often took solitary hikes and, one day, he found a bear. The atheist ran and the bear ran after him. The atheist tripped, and when he rolled over he saw the bear over him, snarling and getting ready to attack. The atheist said, “God, please forgive me. Save me from this bear and I will spread your message throughout the world. Please make the bear a god-fearing creature.” The bear sighed and pulled out a yarmulke and said hamotzi.
In the Gospel of John, Jesus took the bread and blessed it and it was distributed to the people. When they were satisfied, Jesus told the disciples to clean up the leftovers.
“The problem is that there is supposed to be a blessing before and after the meal,” Roos said. “I don’t want to call out Jesus for not setting an example, but there is no record of a blessing after the meal. This is curious phrasing and calls out for midrash.”
The people got as much as they wanted to eat, and when they were satisfied, Jesus told the disciples to clean up. But these are not details the story needs, said Roos. “What is the text hiding?”
Roos showed a slide to make the connection between the feeding of the 5,000 and a commandment in Deuteronomy 8. “This connection is too on the nose to ignore. Deuteronomy 8 is the basis for saying a blessing after the meal. There are three specific actions: eat, be satisfied, and bless. The order is significant; that is how the commandment operates.”
The reason to bless the meal before eating is to acknowledge our interconnection to all things, Roos told the congregation. “The Talmud says we cannot benefit from the goodness of the earth without blessing it beforehand. If we don’t, we are guilty as if we misused the sacred objects in the tabernacle.”
From the moment God gave manna to the Israelites in the wilderness, the connection with food as a gift points to the origin of a blessing before a meal. Even though it feels like we own the food, Roos told the congregation, it is a gift from God.
In John 6, when Jesus breaks the bread and blesses it, it is obvious it comes from God, like manna from heaven. “The people received a miracle from the source,” Roos said. “Just because it was not manna, or because it was given by Jesus, doesn’t mean it was not a miracle.”
Roos’ friend Mark, the Episcopal priest who told him to go into ministry, also is a farmer. One spring he was growing strawberries to take to market. Mark had a few cows, as well, and one day he came home to find the cows had eaten the strawberries. “This is what a farmer and an insurance agency would call an act of God,” Roos said.
He continued: “Remember the words of hamotzi — it is God who brings forth bread from the earth. But there is no ‘bread bush.’ There is a whole chain of farmers, millers, bakers, truckers we can’t do without in order to have bread. We have to acknowledge the interconnection of all things before we eat.”
There is a Jewish memorial prayer which says, “Her soul is bundled into the great bundle of life,” to sanctify loved ones who have died so that there is one link for all of life. “That’s a lot to put on bread or a bagel, even an everything bagel. To bless the meal before we eat helps us sort our life experiences,” Roos said.
There is an order to the blessing practice in Judaism. “The Mishnah tells us that when we bless fruit, the prayer we use depends on the fruit. There is one for the fruit of a tree, and one for the fruit of the vine. One for the potato,” Roos said.
He noted that Orthodox Jews learn these prayers early in life and even have “blessing tournaments,” where contestants see who can recite the proper blessing first.
In Kabbalistic practice and belief, Roos said, there are sparks of the divine thrown around creation. These sparks are covered over and people need to find and uncover the sparks, sorting the rind of the fruit from the spark and lifting it up.
Kabbalah, the bundled souls, the practice of mindfulness or spiritual utilitarianism — these practices keep us from being disembodied heads, operating so much on automatic that we forget things. And as we forget, we cause harm to the people we forgot or the errands we forgot to run, until we spiral into head-spinning.
“One way to keep order, to keep our intentions, is to bless the meal before eating,” Roos said. “It is one way to keep order in front of us.”
Then Roos got back to his original question: Why didn’t Jesus pray after the meal, as would have been the custom?
“Jesus was not the one supposed to do the prayer in the first place. It was the people who were supposed to say the blessing,” Roos said. “Following Deuteronomy 8, they had eaten, they were satisfied, and then they blessed God.”
There is also a tradition in Judaism that God says prayers — and for that reason, Jesus did not bless the meal afterward.
In Isaiah 56:7, God says “and I will make them joyful in the house of My prayer, (t’filati).” What kind of prayer would God say? From the Mishnah, BT Berachot 7a, Roos shared this slide:
“What does God pray? May it be My will that My mercy will overcome My Anger and may My mercy prevail over My other attributes, and may I conduct myself toward My children, with the attribute of mercy, and may act towards them beyond the letter of the law.”
If Jesus had said a prayer after feeding the 5,000, he would have missed the core meaning of this prayer, Roos said. “Anger is so strong and mercy so hard to give, even God fails. Mercy and kindness want to come out, but they are buried under layers of shale.”
Roos reminded the congregation that we are connected to all creation and to God. Every emotion is heightened, but because we have bread that satisfies, we can bless and are blessed.
Renee Andrews, treasurer of the Ecumenical Community of Chautauqua, presided. Esther Northman, president of the Hebrew Congregation of Chautauqua, read the scripture. The prelude, played by Owen Reyda on the Massey Memorial Organ, was “Allegro moderato,” from Trio Sonata No. 1 in E-flat, by Johann Sebastian Bach. The Motet Choir sang “Offertory,” with music by John Ness Beck and words from Micah 6:6-8. The choir was under the direction of Joshua Stafford, director of sacred music and the Jared Jacobsen Chair for the Organist, and accompanied by Reyda on the Massey Organ. The postlude, played by Stafford on the Massey Organ, was “Allegro,” from Organ Concerto in D Minor, by Bach after Vivaldi. Support for this week’s services and chaplaincy is provided by the Harold F. Reed, Sr. Chaplaincy.
