"שעשה לי כל צרכי

By: Zahava Hoffman

מעמקי הלב- רב טברסקי

We say this ברכה every day of our lives, but what is its true essence? What are we actually thanking ה' for?

Rav Kook explains that the key word in this ברכה is “"שעשה that everything we need in this world ה' has created, He has already made. It’s a matter of whether we do the right actions; make the right choices in order to obtain them. It is all out there ready for us- all our needs and desires; however it is up to us to attain them.

The מהר"ל explains that this ברכה is referring to tying our shoes. When we say this ברכה we are thanking ה' for the essentials- the things in life that we need and ה' has granted us.

Rabbi Elie Munk in The World of Prayer expands upon this notion of shoes by bringing Rav Hirsch who discusses the larger concept of shoes. Rav Hirsch explains that putting on shoes is the external signal of our being set to take on self reliant activity. By contrast we see all those in תנ"ך who walk on holy ground are commanded to take off their shoes- what could this mean? This symbolizes their relinquishing of all self-determination and their absolute dependence on ה'. Rav Munk derives from this that this ברכה acknowledges that all human achievement stems only from ה' –who has granted us all our needs.

Rav Pincus in נפש שמשון views the idea of shoes differently. Rav Pincus explains that shoes are all inclusive- we are thanking ה' for everything until the very shoes on our feet. We often don’t realize how much we actually have in our lives to be thankful for. We have all our belongings in our homes, in closets, in shelves, etcetera and so we don’t notice the quantity of items we have- whether indispensable or superfluous.

The עץ יוסף understands this ברכה as שבח to ה' who gave us shoes so we can go and do what we need to do.

In תפילה כהלכתא we see some of the guidelines for this ברכה. One should say the ברכה even if not wearing regular shoes. Some say that if one is wearing נעלי בית (slippers, casual shoes), then one should not say the ברכהuntil wearing regular shoes. On fast days like יום כיפור and תשעה באב some only say this ברכה at night when wearing regular shoes.

This is the only one of the ברכות השחר that is written in first person. It is coming from a more personal place. “לי” and “צרכי” are tools to help us connect more to ה' and realize that everything in our lives, every shirt we own, every shoe we wear its all from ה'. It is truly difficult to imagine our lives without certain objects- whether necessary or not, so we must really recognize every single morning that it’s all from ה'. Our every step is from ה'. We must strive to do the right actions in order to obtain our needs and wants from ה' and once we have obtained them we need to thank ה' for them too.