My friend is the only Catholic in her office. The boss and workers are all Jewish. They pray often. They always pray after coming out of the bathroom. Why? And what is the prayer they say? Would you be kind enough to satisfy our curiosity.
Religious Jews are supposed to say a “bracha” (blessing; prayer thanking God) for almost everything they do.
The basics is to pray three times a day: Shacharit (morning prayers), Mincha (afternoon prayers), Ma’ariv (evening prayers). In between are many other brachas that are said for various things.
I cannot write out the bracha because in Judaism, we are not supposed to write or say a bracha unless we are going to fulfill the mitzvah (commandment) it applies to. But I can give you an idea of what some are.
In the morning, we thank God for letting us see the new day…before we eat bread we wash our hands and say a bracha. When we meet a very holy religious Jewish sage, we say a special bracha. Even if we happen to meet or see a member of royalty, we say a bracha!
There is also a sepcial bracha when we meet someone who is physically or emotionally disabled…we thank God that He has created such a diversity of people.
As for coming out of the bathroom, there is even a prayer thanking God that He has created us in such a way that we can have a body that functions properly. We thank Him for the tiniest things, because even something as mundane as being able to have a body in good working order is a blessing!
Two really good books that gives a truly personal insight into this are:
“The Path of Blessing” by Marcia Prager
“Jewish With Feeling–a Guide to Meaningful Jewish Practice” by Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi
and believe you should never pay ful price for what you can get for less, try Amazon’s Marketplace. You can almost always find any book used, cheaper, and they are in great shape too!
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