Awake and Aware

We’ve come to the end, to the very last brachah. You’d expect this brachah, appearing after we’ve thanked Hashem for all of our physical needs and recognized our spiritual uniqueness, to be a grand finale. And on the face of it, it seems anticlimactic to thank Hashem for removing the sleep from our eyes.

Shouldn’t this brachah, which was once said when washing one’s face, be found toward the beginning of the set of brachos? And haven’t we already thanked Hashem for opening the eyes of the blind? What does this brachah add? Finally, what’s the connection between this brachah and the yehi ratzon that follows it, asking Hashem to enable us to follow in the Torah’s ways?

Windows to the Soul

We thank Hashem for removing the slumber from our eyes — the window of the soul. Since our eyes are the gateway to such holiness, the Vilna Gaon emphasizes that we must daven that we use our eyes solely in pursuit of Torah, and not to follow our desires.

We daven each day, “V’ha’eir eineinu b’Sorasecha — light up our eyes with Your Torah.” Rav Chaim Friedlander explains that we’re asking Hashem to enable us to see the world with the correct perspective and value system; it’s so easy to deceive ourselves, to convince ourselves that values antithetical to the way of Torah have some aspect of truth.