Last post I said that I find Devarim shebiQdushah to consistently be prayers that speak of Hashem’s inherent Holiness, and trying to bring ourselves and our world to a place where we can better peceive it.

About Borkhu I wrote:

When you say Borkhu, you refer to two the general concept of blessing two ways:

1- The Chazan calls on people to bless Hashem, and the people respond with Barukh Hashem

2- We call him HaMevorakh — the Blesséd One.

Hashem as One we bless. Hashem as the inherently Blesséd.

The full response is

!בָּרוּךְ ה’ הַמְּבֹרָךְ לְעוֹלָם וָעֶד

Bless Hashem Who is Blesséd forwever!

So, a quick question:

What is le’olam va’ed — forever?

Do we mean the barukh, the blessing we are now giving Hashem? As in: “I bless Hashem Who Is Blesséd, [in a way that blesses Him] forever.”

Or do we mean “the HaMevorah” is eternal. So that the line should read, “I bless Hashem Who is Forever Blesséd?”

I don’t imagine that many who are following my trek through tefillah really thought of the two possible ways of parsing the response to Borkhu and consciously chose between them.

But I would hope that many of you actually are thinking one possibility of the other when saying it.

Which is correct? I think both are. Personally, which speaks to me at any tefillah depends on mood.