So far we looked at the bookends of birkhas Yotzeir Or. By the rules for writing a berakhah, they establish the central theme. At this point it appears to be about Hashem’s constant creation of light, hope and redemption, as well as the yet-unfilled opportunities for us to create them as well.

This is much like a repeating theme we saw in Shemoneh Esrei and the Shabbos Amidah. Being content with Hashem’s Good and content with His Salvation from tragic experiences. The Creator of both light and darkness, and the One Who is constantly in covenant with us to together light that darkness.

Now let’s look at the material in between.

I want to break it down into three sections:

1- “הַמֵּאִיר לָאָֽרֶץ – The One Who is the Light of the World and those who dwell on it”, said six days a week. And “הַכּל יוֹדוּךָ – All know You and all praise You”, for Shabbos.

2- Angels: The section that begins “תִּתְבָּרַךְ צוּרֵנוּ מַלְכֵּנוּ וְגואֲלֵנוּ בּוֹרֵא קְדוֹשִׁים – Be blessed our Maker, our King, and our Redeemer—Creator of holy ones” and runs through until the end of the Qedushah embedded in the Berakhah.

3- A description of the praises of the angels, and what about Hashem they are praising. “לְקל בָּרוּךְ נְעִימוֹת יִתֵּֽנוּ – To the blessed G-d they offer pleasant [melodies]…” through until the closing.

The first section differs greatly between the version said during the day of the week, notably including when they are Yom Tov, and that said on Shabbos. But they both deal with two themes: the wonder of creation and the created praising him for it. The difference is which of the two themes are emphsized, and in the amount of detail we give it. Which is why HaKol Yoduchah and Keil Avon are longer than HaMeir leAretz and its shorter alphabetic acrostic, Keil Barukh.

But the fact that Yom Tov that isn’t on a Shabbos we also say HaMei’ir laAretz tells us something about why we say HaKol Yodukha. It’s not about the holiness of Shabbos, or it being a sign – usually taken to be from its prohibition of doing melakhah (contructive work) – but because of where Shabbos stands in relation to the six days of Creation.

For six days, we emphasize the glory of Hashem as seen through Creation.

On Shabbos, the day of rest from Creation, take a step back and watch ourselves, and how all of creation in its own way acknowledges that fact. Every living creature, the magesty of space, even the angels. The Shabbos version is one of reflection.

Which is after all the whole function of Shabbos: Hashem made things for six days and then set an example of “וְיִנָּפֵ֥שׁ” resting, but from the root \נפש\ meaning “soul”. More of a spiritual pit-stop than meaningless time off. It’s a day of reflection, of finding the spiritual in what happened the past week, the lessons learned from those events, and set aspirations for how to make next week holier.

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I thought this post was going to focus on the length of the various lists of nouns and adjectives in part 1 of the weekday Yotzeir Or. But when I continued writing, the Creator had other Plans. That last paragraph is too strong of a takeaway point to get buried behind other material.

On the plus side, I will start the next post continuing with what I thought I would say. And maybe you won’t have to wait so long until it arrives!

Good Shabbos from the House of the Sun,
micha