100 Blessings A Day - The App

Perhaps you’ve been to a Shabbat morning service and heard me introduce the Nisim B’chol Yom blessings. I use it as an opportunity to introduce the prayerbook – the theme of each blessing is in the margin of the page, the transliteration is to left, the footnotes offer deeper meanings and source citations. I also teach the Jewish tradition that we should offer 100 blessings a day. That is not to say that we should have a religious checklist that we tick off by rote but that we should be so fortunate and have such a sense of gratitude and wonder that we are spontaneously moved to blessing 100 times. I then offer that we will give you a jump start by doing your first 15 together from the prayerbook as we join responsively on page....  (cue the Cantor)

I understand that it takes more than good fortune and a sense of gratitude to offer 100 blessings daily. Many people are not liturgically literate or do not feel adequately prepared in terms of spiritual creativity so that they can offer so many of their own blessings. The Central Conference of American Rabbis has come to our aid with this newly released app. As they describe it:

Carry this collection of daily blessings to help express your appreciation for experiences, encounters, and more. Complete with Hebrew, transliteration, translation, and audio files of each prayer being clearly read in Hebrew. This app contains both traditional and contemporary blessings.

I downloaded it from the iTunes app store for $1.99 and have browsed through the blessings. I’m offering a blessing from the app to start each day and I, too, aspire to hit 100/day. The recordings are helpful for those learning Hebrew. There are a few shortcomings. There are not 100 different blessings on the app and some basics are missing: hamotzi (the blessing over bread) and other blessings over food, the blessing for Torah study (la’asok b’divrei torah), the bed time shema, the traditional “modeh ani” gratitude blessing recited upon waking and none of the blessings from Nisim b’chol yom. That shouldn’t stop you from getting the app and it certainly shouldn’t stop you from cultivating the sense of wonder and offering blessings each day.

Link to download the app for Android or iPhone here: http://ccarnet.org/ccar-press/blessings-app/