OC2 – Lesson 052b – Birkhas HaReyach 1 – Halakha 2 – Para. 1-4a – Why No After-Blessing on Fragrance – Praising HaShem Enables Spiritual Progress – The Power of Saying Blessings on Food

Birkhas HaReyach 1 – 2 – Why No After-Blessing on Fragrance – Praising HaShem Enables Spiritual Progress – The Power of Saying Blessings on Food – Speaker: Rabbi Nasan Maimon. (Recorded on 2021-02-25.)

• 00:00 PARAGRAPH 1. Why there is no need for a bracha achrona on smelling a fragrance.
• 00:53 Hilkhos Birkhas HaReyach 1 is based on Likutey Moharan 25.
• 06:52 Kavanas of the blessings made before eating.
• 17:16 PARAGRAPH 2.
• 19:22 Blessing made on the fragrance of an Esrog.
• 21:46 Blessing on fragrance on Motzei Shabbos.
• 22:21 הֹד֣וּ לַֽיהֹוָ֣ה כִּי־ט֑וֹב כִּ֖י לְעוֹלָ֣ם חַסְדּֽוֹ – “Give thanks to HaShem because He is good, for His kindness is eternal” (Tehillim 107:1). The custom in nusach Sefard is to say Tehillim 107 on Erev Shabbos.
• 23:31 PARAGRAPH 3. Praising HaShem is the key to spiritual progress.
• 27:09 Stage 2 of teshuvah – when challenges begin.
• 29:52 ***To break through from one spiritual level to a higher one, it’s necessary to praise HaShem.
• 34:16 The 4 requirements to praise are related to refining one’s food intake.
• 36:58 Reference to 2Likutey Moharan 1.
• 37:57 Hisbodedus.
• 43:18 Reference to 2Likutey Moharan 10.
• 43:53 ***Even if a person’s not physically standing in a field, it’s possible for the trees and plants to contribute their energy to his tefilah.
• 44:58 ***Through man’s tefilah, the many types of vegetation return their powers to their Source and this brings healing and life-energy into food.
• 46:44 The concept of Moshiach is related to the sense of smell.
• 50:49 The bracha made on lechem brings the blessing of healing.
• 60:26 The berakha achrona – blessing after eating – distributes the nutrients into the body.
• 63:56 The blessing Borei Nefoshos.
• 67:49 Birkhas HaMazon.
• 72:24 Just as the body has 613 elements, the soul also has 613 elements.
• 77:30 Reference to Likutey Moharan 2 – the nostrils are related to the ruach of Moshiach.
• 78:47 Reyach is tefilah/Dvar HaShem.

Indexing and notes by S.Y. Wurtzel.