B
ircas Hamazon is a journey through history, for each brachah commemorates a milestone in our past. We begin with remembering the mahn and Hashem’s many forms of physical sustenance. We then proceed, in the second brachah, to Yetzias Mitzrayim and the gift of Eretz Yisrael. In the third blessing, we advance to subsequent national highlights: Yerushalayim, the dynasty of Dovid Hamelech, and the Beis Hamikdash.
What comes next in the timeline of our history?
Destruction. Bloodshed. Exile.
Enter the fourth brachah, Bircas Hatov V’hameitiv. The Gemara tells us that this brachah, which begins with the words “Baruch Atah Hashem, haKeil Avinu Malkeinu” and ends with “v’al yechasereinu,” is d’Rabbanan, Rabbinically ordained, unlike the first three brachos, which are Biblically mandated. The sages of Yavneh instituted it after a miracle involving Beitar, the last city in Eretz Yisrael to fall to the Romans, approximately 60 years after Churban Bayis Sheini.
The Rambam (Hilchos Taaniyos 5:3) lists the fall of Beitar as one of five tragic events that occurred on Tishah B’Av. He writes that it was a catastrophe akin to the Churban Beis Hamikdash. The Gemara (Gittin 57a) writes that the number of victims was staggering. For seven years, the gentiles were able to fertilize their vineyards with nothing besides the blood of the Jews slain at Beitar. The flow of blood overturned boulders and streamed for miles into the sea (Yerushalmi Taanis 24b).
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