Blessings of Shema: Partners With God

The Holy One, Blessed Is He, created all of the worlds with the letters of the Torah. As such, when He renews His creation everyday, He also does it with the letters of the Torah.

King David prayed that through the new insights he has on the Torah,  he too will get to dwell in the tent of the Heavenly Torah and be a partner with God in the renewal of creation. This is the meaning of (Psalms 61:5): “I will dwell in Your tent forever”. (Ramah of Fano)

We say in the Blessing of the Shema: “Who renews in His goodness everyday, constantly, the work of Creation”. We understand that God is perpetually breathing new life into the world. He does so through the letters of the Torah, the building-blocks of creation.

Those same letters are the ones that we are privileged to utter when we sing a verse of Torah; those same letters are the ones that we are honored to delve into when we learn its words.

When we realize how incredibly fortunate we are to have been gifted with the opportunity to “dwell in God’s tent forever” through our learning and uncovering new insights, then, as King David did, we are indeed praying to become partners with God in the renewal of creation.