100 Blessings

by Benjamin Rose
The Posuk in Devarim 10:12 says "And now, O Israel, what does the Lord, your God, demand of you? Only to fear the Lord, your God, to walk in all His ways and to love Him, and to worship the Lord, your God, with all your heart and with all your soul,"
This verse seems difficult to understand. Hashem is ONLY asking us to love and fear Him, as if these levels were easy to attain!! So why does the Torah make it sound so easy? The gemora says that we learn from this possuk that one is obligated to make 100 brochos every day. מה ה אלקיך שואל מעמך don't read מה read מאה 100. If you spell it מאה then there are 100 letters in the posuk. The Maharsha explains this gemara that if one is particular to say 100 brochos a day with real Kavannah he will attain the attributes that the posuk states!
There was once many many years ago a small, peaceful village with a main road going through it. At first it was just horses and carts going through it and it was safe for children to play and enjoy themselves and noone got hurt. As time went by the village grew into a bustling major city and the road became a huge main road splitting the city into two big cities. As technology advanced speeding cars replaced the horses and carts and it became dangerous to cross the road. Speed bumps were put in place to slow the traffic down!
There are two cities - two worlds this world Olam Hazeh and the world to come Olam Haba. Many years ago we had our Beis Hamikdosh, we were closer to Hashem and these two worlds were much closer together. As time went on this world changed into a high speed rapid place and we are all speeding along the motorway which splits this world and the next. It has actually become dangerous to cross into the next world! Therefore Chazal instituted our 100 speed bumps throughout our day to slow us down and stop and think for a second who is in control. We have so much to be grateful for, imagine if Chos Vshalom you could not see or walk or hear etc. The brochos make us aware of how much we appreciate Hashem's kindness that is constant and never ending. When we make a bracho we should say it slowly and think who are we talking to. We should all make 36500 brochos a year! If one says a brocha with kavana then one can attain true fear of Hashem because if He wanted to He could just stop issuing His kindness. We can attain Love of Hashem because we will be ever grateful to him that he provides us His Children with everything we need to live a good life and to be happy! Let us strengthen our love and fear in Hashem with just a few brochos a day, and we will learn to appreciate and be thankful to Hashem!
EASY 100 BROCHOS:
BIRKAS HASHACHAR (MORNING BROCHOS) 20
TALLIS/TZITZIS AND TEFILIN 3
THREE DAILY SHEMONEH ESREI 19 x 3 57
PSUKEI DZIMRAH 2
BIRKAS KRIAS SHMA 8
EATING AND WASHING WITH BREAD (WASHING HANDS, HAMOTZI AND 4 IN BIRKAS HAMAZON) 6
ASHER YATZAR MAYBE 2 TIMES 2
SNACKS AND OTHER FOOD 4 EQUALS 102
WITHOUT EVEN TRYING!!! THAT IS HOW EASY IT IS!!
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