From Mi Shebeirakh to Birkat HaGomel

We pray, Mi Shebeirakh,
to the source of blessing
for healing of mind
healing of body
of spirit
wishing,
hoping,
begging
that it happen
speedily
painlessly
and fully…
that life should return to the way it was
before the illness,
before the injury,
before the brokenness…
or we pray
that healing come in different ways…
wishing,
hoping,
begging
for relief,
for release,
for ease and liberation from suffering

In and of itself,
the latitude
we give to a definition of healing…
can bring us the comfort,
can bring us the healing we so desire.

And what of that day…
when that healing
for which we
wished
hoped
begged
prayed….
becomes reality?

What words do we have
to celebrate?
What words do we have
to praise our source of blessing
our source of strength
our source of healing?

Like bookends,
the words of Mi Shebeirakh
initiate and sustain the journey
and isolation that is illness…
and at the other end
of the heavy,
weathered stack of storied experience,
our liturgy offers us
a succinct prayer –
Birkat HaGomel –
a blessing made upon
deliverance from danger,
for that time when
one’s name can
joyously be removed from
the Mi Shebeirakh list…
as well as for other escapes from misfortune,
the TalmudThe rabbinic compendium of lore and legend composed between 200 and 500 CE. Study of the Talmud is the focus of rabbinic scholarship. The Talmud has two versions, the main Babylonian version (Bavli) and the smaller Jerusalem version (Yerushalmi). It is written in Rabbinic Hebrew and Aramaic. teaches,
such as returning from sea voyage, journeying through the desert, surviving childbirth, being released from prison,
and living through the potential dangers of our lives

Also known in yiddish as gomelBirkat Hagomel is the blessing said by someone who survives a potentially life-threatening situation. Traditionally said after childbirth, serious illness, travel, or other types of danger. benschen,
Birkat HaGomel
was historically recited in private…
but overtime entered into the art and arc of public prayer…
recited in the midst of the Torah…
but more specifically…
in the midst of others,
in public,
amid a quorum of community…

We will soon have an opportunity
to experience this ritual of
Gomel Benschen,
this public act of gratitude for deliverance.
In some ways,
just being here as a witness is enough –
but actually, in this ritual,
it is not enough.
rather, it is incumbent upon us to respond aloud…

And why?

We all know illness,
We all know calamity…
in various gradations
we all know know the grievous
and grief-ridden blow
of brokenness…
how it is so isolating…
how it causes us to feel so alone,
how it seems that somehow
everyone else’s experience improves,
but ours…
isolated
such that no one else could ever understand our experience.
and this is true…
We don’t know another’s experience…
and yet
we do…
we do know.

Birkat HaGomel as a public ritual,
as a public response,
is our way of saying aloud,
before God and one another,
we know you suffered,
we know you felt isolated,
we know your family and friends felt this pain, too,
we felt pain on your behalf…
and while we don’t know exactly what it was like for you…
from our own experience,
we do know…
and because we know,
we’re here now…
and we pray for you,
we give thanks for you,
we celebrate with gratitude the goodness bestowed upon you…
and we welcome you back into our midst…
healed,
or perhaps always healing…