Grace After Meals
Birkat HaMazon
Jewish Law / Halacha ↗️
If three or more males eat together, they are obligated in Zimmun, i.e,. they are required to recite Birkat Hammazon together, as a group, with one acting as a leader and the others responding. A boy who is thirteen years of age and above, and is aware Whom we bless in Birkat Hammazon, is eligible to participate in Zimmun.
If there is no Zimmun, continue with “Blessed are You…our God..”. Otherwise, continue here.
The leader: Give us [permission] and we will bless the King, Supreme, [and] Holy.
The participants respond: [With the permission of] Heaven!
The leader continues: (With the permission of the King, Supreme, [and] Holy,)
If there is a minyan (a quorum of ten adult men) present, the words in parentheses are added to the following sentences.
The leader: Let us bless [Him] (our God,) from Whose [food] we have eaten.
The participants respond first and then the leader repeats: Blessed is [He,] (our God,) from Whose [food] we have eaten and through Whose [great] goodness we have lived.
Blessed are You, Adonai, our God, King of the universe, the God, Who provides sustenance to us and to the whole world with grace, with kindness, with plenty, and with great mercy He gives bread to all flesh, for His kindness is everlasting. And through His great goodness, we never lacked, and may we never lack sustenance forever, for all eternity. For He is God, who nourishes and sustains all, and His table is set before everyone, and He prepared food and sustenance for all of His creatures which He has created in His mercy and in His great kindness, as it is said: “You open Your hand, and satisfy the desire of every living thing.” Blessed are You Adonai, who provides food for all.
We thank You, Adonai our God for having given our fathers a lovely, good and spacious land, covenant and Torah, life and sustenance; for having liberated us from the land of Egypt and freed us from the house of bondage and for Your covenant which You have sealed in our flesh and for Your Torah that You have taught us and for your laws which You made known to us and for the life and sustenance that you provide for us and sustain us.
| On all eight days of Channukah, and on Purim, we say here “Al HaNissim” (“For the miracles”): For the miracles, and for the redemption, and for the mighty deeds, and for the deliverances, and for the wonders, and for the consolations that You performed for our ancestors in those days, at this time. |
| During Channukah: In the days of Mattityahu son of Yochanan, the High Priest, the Hasmonean, and his sons, when the wicked Greek kingdom rose up against Your people Israel to make them forget Your Torah and to cause them to transgress the statutes of Your will. But You, in Your abundant mercy, stood by them in their time of distress. You fought their fight, You judged their cause, You avenged their wrong. You delivered the mighty into the hands of the weak, the many into the hands of the few, the wicked into the hands of the righteous, the impure into the hands of the pure, and the arrogant into the hands of those who occupy themselves with Your Torah. For Yourself You made a great and holy name in Your world, and for Your people Israel You wrought a great deliverance and redemption, as on this very day. Afterwards Your children entered the inner sanctum of Your House, cleansed Your Sanctuary, purified Your Temple, and kindled lights in the courtyards of Your holiness. They established these eight days of Chanukah for praise and thanksgiving. And You performed for them miracles and wonders, and we give thanks to Your great Name forever. |
| During Purim: In the days of Mordechai and Esther, in Shushan the capital, when Haman the wicked rose against them, seeking to destroy, to kill, and to annihilate all the Jews — from young to old, children and women — in a single day, on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month of Adar, and to plunder their possessions. But You, in Your abundant mercy, nullified his counsel, frustrated his scheme, and returned his recompense upon his own head; and they hanged him and his sons upon the gallows. And You performed for them a miracle and a wonder, and we give thanks to Your great Name forever. |
For all of this Adonai our God we thank You and we bless Your Name as it is said: “And you shall eat and be satisfied and bless Adonai your God for the good land which He has given you.” Blessed are you Adonai for the land and the sustenance.
Have mercy Adonai our God on us and on Israel, Your nation and on Jerusalem, your city and on mount Zion, the abode of Your glory and on Your Temple and on Your Abode and on Your resting place and on the great and holy Temple that bears Your name. Our Father – tend us, nourish us, sustain us, feed us, provide us with plenty, speedily grant us relief from all our troubles. And do not make us dependent Adonai our God not on the alms of flesh and blood or their loans, but rather on Your full, large, rich and open hand. May it be your will that we may not be humiliated in this world nor put to shame in the next world. And the kingdom of the house of David your anointed one, please return to its place speedily in our days.
| On Shabbat add: May it be Your will, Adonai our God to strengthen us through Your commandments, and through the commandment of the Seventh day, this great and holy Shabbat. For this day is great and holy before You. We will rest on it and relax on it and we will enjoy it according to the command of Your Will. May there not be sorrow and grief on our day of our rest. And enable us to see the comfort of Zion speedily in our days. For You are the Master of comfort. And even though we ate and drank, we did not forget the destruction of your great and holy house. Don’t forget us forever and don’t abandon us for eternity for You are the Great and Holy King. |
| On the Holidays, Chol Hamoed and Rosh Chodesh add: Our God and the God of our fathers! May it rise and come and reach and be seen and accepted and heard and noticed and remembered the memory of us and the attention to us and the memory of our fathers and memory of Mashiach the son David Your servant and the memory of Jerusalem Your sacred city and the memory of the house of Israel Your people for rescue, for goodness, for blessing, for grace, for kindness and for compassion, for life and for peace on this day. . . |
| On Rosh Chodesh say: of the New Moon . . . |
| On Rosh Hashanah say: of Remembrance . . . |
| On Pesach say: of the Festival of Matzot . . . |
| On Shavuot say: of the Festival of Shavuot . . . |
| On Sukkot say: of the Festival of Sukkot . . . |
| On Shmini Atzeret say: of the Festival of Shmini Atzeret . . . |
| . . . Remember us, Adonai our God on this day for goodness and turn to us for benediction and rescue us for good life. And with favor and salvation have compassion and mercy to us and save us, because our hopes are directed only to You, for You are the merciful and kind God. |
And rebuild Jerusalem Your city speedily in our lifetime. Blessed are you Adonai who builds Jerusalem. (softly: Amen).
Blessed are You Adonai our God, the God, our Father, our King, our Mighty One, our Creator, our Redeemer, our Holy One, the Holy One of Jacob, our Shepherd, the Shepherd of Israel, the King Who is Good and who does good to all. For every single day He was doing kindness to us, He is doing kindness to us and He will be doing kindness to us. He bestowed favors upon us, He bestows favors upon us, He will forever bestow upon us grace, loving kindness, compassion, prosperity, redemption and everything good.
May the Merciful One be extolled on His glorious footstool.
May the Merciful One be extolled on heaven and on earth.
May the Merciful One be extolled by us from generation to generation.
May the Merciful One raise our glory.
May the Merciful One send abundant blessing upon this dwelling and the table at which we have eaten.
May the Merciful One send Elijah the Prophet to us, and may he bear good tidings of salvation and comfort.
May the Merciful One bless all who are gathered here and all their families, as well as all dear to us.
May the Merciful One be proud of us for ever and ever.
May the Merciful One give us sustenance in an honorable way, but not through embarrassment; through permitted ways and not through forbidden means, through ease and not through hardship.
May the Merciful One make peace between us.
May the Merciful One send a blessing, plenty and success to all the work of our hands.
May the Merciful One give success to our ways.
May the Merciful One speedily break the yolk of exile from our necks.
May the Merciful One lead us upright to our land.
May the Merciful One send us a full recovery – the recovery of the soul and the recovery of the body.
May the Merciful One open His wide hand for us.
May the Merciful One bless each and every one of us, with His Great Name, like our fathers Avraham, Yitzchak and Yakov were blessed in everything, from everything and with everything. So too may He bless all of us together with a complete blessing, and so may it be His will, and let us say Amen.
May the Merciful One spread over us His shelter of peace.
| On Shabbat say: The Merciful One – may He let us inherit a world that is all Shabbat and rest in the everlasting life. |
| On Rosh Chodesh (the Festival of the New Moon) say: The Merciful One – may He renew for us this month for good and for blessing. |
| On Rosh Hashanah say: The Merciful One – may He renew for us this year for good and for blessing. |
| On Sukkot (the Festival of Tabernacles) say: The Merciful One – may He cause us to merit to dwell in the Sukkah[made] of the skin of the Leviathan. The Merciful One – may He generously bestow upon us an abundance of holiness and purity from the seven exalted [and] holy guests; may their merit be a shield and protection for us. (The Merciful One – may He reestablish the fallen Tabernacle of David.) |
| On Sukkot, Pesach and Shavuot say: The Merciful One – may He help us reach other Festivals that are approaching us, for peace. |
| On Yom Tov (Festivals) say: The Merciful One – may He let us inherit the day that is all good. |
The Merciful One – may He implant His Torah and love for Him in our heart, and may the fear of Him be before us so that we not sin.
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The guest says: The Merciful One – may He bless this table upon which we ate, and may He set upon it all delicacies of the world. May it be like the table of our Patriarch Avraham; may all who are hungry eat from it and all who are thirsty drink from it. May it not lack all that is good forever and for all eternity; Amen. The Merciful One – may He bless the master of this house and the host of this meal – him, his children and his wife and all that is his – with children who shall live, and with possessions that shall increase. May Adonai bless his wealth and favor the labor of his hands. May his possessions and our possessions be successful and near the city. May there not meet up with him or with us any matter of transgression or sinful thought. [May he be] joyful and happy all the days, with wealth and with honor from now and until eternity. May he not be shamed in This World nor humiliated in the World to Come. Amen; so be [His] will. |
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At Brit-Milah, add: May the Merciful One bless the master of this house, the father of the child, him, and his wife, the mother, now and forever. May the Merciful One bless the newborn child, and just as the Holy One, blessed is He, graced him to attain circumcision, so may He grace him to enter (the realm) of Torah, the wedding canopy, the mitzvot, and to good deeds. And so may it be His will, and let us say amen. May the Merciful One bless the honorable sandak and mohel and all other who participated in the mitzvah, them and all that is theirs. |
May the Merciful One enable us to live in the Messianic age and in the world to come.
God grants deliverance (on Shabbat and Rosh Chodesh: God is a tower of deliverance) to God’s chosen sovereign, and shows kindness to God’s anointed one, to David, and his descendants forever.
Young lions become destitute and hungry, but those who seek Adonai do not lack all that is good.
I have been young, and I have been old, but I have not seen a righteous person abandoned when his seed is destitute. All day he is gracious and lends and his children are a blessing. May what we ate satisfy and what we drank be for health, and what we left over be for a blessing, as it written: “And he placed[it] before them, and they ate and left over as Adonai has spoken.” Blessed are You Adonai Creator of heavens and earth. Blessed is the man who trusts in Adonai and Adonai shall be his assurance. May God give strength to our people; may God bless our people with peace. He Who makes peace in His high places – may He, in His compassion, make peace for us and for His entire nation, Israel; and say: Amen.