THE CREATOR OF THE UNIVERSE f 327 KEx ¨A Blessed are You, our God and Creator, Sovereign of the universe, Whose word brings on the evening twilight, Who opens the gates of dawn with wisdom, and with foresight makes times pass and seasons change. Your plan sets the stars in their courses in the sky, creating day and night, turning light into darkness and darkness into light. You make the day fade away and bring on the night, separating day and night. You are the Ruler of the hosts of heaven. Blessed are You God, who brings on the evening twilight.
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KEx ¨A Baruch attah Adonai eloheinu melech ha–olam, asher bidvaro ma’ariv aravim, b’chochmah potei’ach sh’arim. Uvitvunah m’shanneh ittim, umachalif et ha–z’mannim, um’saddeir et ha–kochavim b’mishm’roteihem baraki’a kirtzono. Borei yom valailah, goleil or mip’nei choshech v’choshech mip’nei or. Hama’avir yom umeivi lailah, umavdil bein yom uvein lailah, Adonai ts’va’ot sh’mo. Baruch attah Adonai, ha–ma’ariv aravim.
ancestors, the blaze of light in the skies at night displayed for all to see the battalions of the ‘Lord of hosts’, or myriads of serving angels, or a supernal light shining through holes in the firmament which covered the earth. This vastness demands that, at least for the duration of the prayer, we mute our human arrogance and acknowledge our collective and individual limitations. But we do not remain cowed or humbled, for the blessing that follows asserts our uniqueness before God.
mi ¦a ¨x £r ai ¦x £r ©n Who brings on the evening twilight ... This is the first of two blessings leading up to the recital of the Sh’ma , ‘Hear O Israel … ’ Like its morning counterpart (about God who ‘creates light’), the blessing acknowledges God as Creator of the universe. The spectacle of the sky at night, the ever–recurring change from light to dark and back again, however we explain this phenomenon, remains an extraordinary pattern of ebb and flow, of concealment and vision, that underpins all of life. For our
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