A Blessing Praising Good Health After Using the Toilet

If by any chance we are really healthy, we really wouldn’t know it by all the medical information and ads in the media which seem to tell us otherwise. Therefore, if we have no aches and pains and we are at the moment not considering that we have a sleep disorder, a bowel disorder, chronic arthritis or recurrent headaches, digestive disorder or depression and have no need to call the doctor for an appointment then we should celebrate. Perhaps, give a blessing praising our good health.

As described in A Piece of My Mind section of the Journal of the American Medical Association May 28, 1997, Kenneth M. Prager, M.D. writing “For Everything a Blessing”, that he was aware of a Jewish blessing when he was a child attending a Jewish parochial school. There was a sign posted outside the bathroom there stating that a blessing must be spoken after one had “relieved oneself” (through micturition or defecation). According to the Jewish Talmud, a document of Jewish law and lore, “Abayei said, when one comes out of a privy, he should say: Blessed is He who has formed man in wisdom and created in him many orifices and many cavities. It is obvious and known before Your throne of glory that if one of them were to be ruptured or one of them blocked, it would be impossible for a man to survive and stand before You. Blessed are You who heals all flesh and does wonders.” The blessing was to be performed in Hebrew by an observant Jew and as a student in the school, Dr. Prager and the other students were always reminded by the sign.

Is there merit to bless our good luck that we have not as yet experienced blockage of our urinary tract, our gastro-intestinal tract, our coronary arteries or a ruptured appendix, spleen or aortic aneurism? I think so. Who knows, maybe performing the blessing as one leaves the bathroom might even be prophylactic, preventing future troubles and would be inexpensive and without side effects. Just a thought. ..Maurice.