Ohr HaShachar: Torah, Kabbalah and Consciousness in the Daily Morning Blessings

Having David's book in our house is a real bracha. We have greatly benefited from all the research and learning that want into writing Ohr HaShachar -- our morning prayers are now so much more alive, infused with deeper meaning and purpose. And I love how he looks at the concepts and language of prayer though the lens of the sefirot. His graphs and examples light up the path of understanding. Highly recommended!

David Bar-Cohn has written an outstanding book that I highly recommend. He goes through the order of the morning blessings as a way of bringing out very deep and holy concepts. The ideas he discusses are full of philosophy and Kaballah. The book is jam packed with both traditional and novel ideas, that I'm sure will add meaning to your rituals and inner-most thoughts about those rituals. David has a unique talent for finding the sublime meaning in the morning activities and blessings, shedding light on the profound way that our Sages have organized the first hour of our morning.

Traditional Judaism has three daily prayer services except for the Sabbath and holidays where there is four and the holiday of Yom Kippur where there are five. Each begins with the same morning service in which the Jew praises God and thanks God for still being alive and well. David Bar-Cohn describes the first set of blessings said in the morning, from "modeh ani" through "birchot hashchar, several pages of the morning prayers, extensively, in 254 pages. He tells us that his book is for traditional-minded Jews.The thrust of his explanations is that the English translations of these prayers fail to capture their meaning. For example, most prayers begin with the words "Blessed are you Lord." But what does "blessed" mean? Bar-Cohn offers several answers. Similarly, what does "holiness" mean?His explanations rely on his concept of Jewish mystic. He states: "I am not a mystical thinker. I would refer to this (his explanations of the prayers) as 'Rational Kabbalah' (that I only borrow) the language and systematics of Kabbalah to communicate aspects of human experience and creativity." Yet the book abounds in the use of Jewish mystic ideas. Jewish mysticism conceives of God comprising ten parts (sefirot) and Bar-Cohn uses this understanding to explain the prayers. For example, what does it mean to give thanks to God? Thankfulness is similar to the part of God called "hod," which Bar-Cohn understands as "the quality of deference, giving way to another."