(Heb. Birkhot ha-Shaḥar). Blessings pronounced upon arising in the morning. Originally, each blessing was pronounced at the time of a given action, as for example, the blessing "Who gives sight to the blind" upon first opening one's eyes. The custom now is not to recite the blessings upon first awakening but to say them all as part of the preliminary section of the Morning Service. The blessings include thanks to God for not having been created a Gentile or a slave and (by men) for not having been created a woman. A 13th-century addition for women thanks God for "having created me according to His will." The male blessing has been the subject of a great deal of debate and, together with the other negative blessings, has been reformulated in non-Orthodox Judaism in a positive form praising God "Who made me a Jew, who made me free" (Conservative Sim Shalom Prayer Book). The following blessings are not universal, as there are variations among different communities, but represent a typical arrangement of birkhot ha-shaḥar:
Following two hymns of praise to God---Adon Olam and Yigdal---the blessing on washing one's hands is recited, referring to the washing of the hands upon rising. This is followed by the blessing customarily recited after one excretes waste from the body. Blessings on studying the Torah are then made, to cover any Torah study engaged in during the day. To ensure that the blessing is not in vain should no studying be done that day, passages from the Torah and the Mishnah are now read to ensure a minimum of such study.
God is then thanked for restoring us from our sleep, and this is followed by 15 blessings of thanks to God and then prayers composed by various sages, after which the account of Abraham's sacrifice of Isaac is recited, with the plea that just as God was moved to mercy at that time, He should have mercy on us. There follows a section which includes the first verse of the Shema prayer (and in some rituals the entire first paragraph). A section is then devoted to describing the sacrifices which took place daily in the Temple, for as the sages say, in the absence of the Temple our prayers take the place of the sacrifices. Finally, a Baraita is read which enumerates the different ways laws are deduced from the Torah. At this point the Morning Service begins.
