The Jewish Prayer That’s Never Let Me Down

By Rebecca Schorr for Raising Kvell

Parenting has been compared to many things. I like to compare it to playing darts while wearing a blindfold. Because so often, it really does feel as though it’s just a stab in the dark.

Except when it works.

Some theory you have or some tactic you use works. And then, for one moment, you feel like a freakin’ parenting expert.

Which is exactly how I felt when I overheard the following conversation between my kids Lilly, age 10, and Jacob, age 6.

Jacob: I’ve never gotten hot lunch before. I don’t know what I’m supposed to do. So I am going to stand in line with [my friend] Luke. He’s got a lot of experience.

Lilly: Oh, I remember that. Everyone’s scared the first time. After I got my lunch the first time, I said that prayer to myself. Remember, Jacob? The Shehechiyanu?

Oh. My. God. It worked. It really, really worked.

***

As a brand-new mother, I was at a loss when I nursed my son for the first time. I had read (and heard) about how difficult it was and was truly blown away at how my little baby knew what to do. [Flashforward: it turns out that it didn’t come so naturally to either one of us and we would make many trips to the lactation support group for help. But I was completely ignorant of that in the first (hormonal) blush of motherhood.] I felt like God’s creative partner as I birthed and then nourished my son and yearned to express my awe and wonder. I reached back into our tradition and recited these words:

Barukh Atah, Adonai Eloheinu, Melekh haolam shehecheyanu v’kiy’manu v’higianu laz’man hazeh.

Blessed are You, O Eternal our God, for giving us life, for sustaining us, and for enabling us to reach this amazing time.

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