[lit-ideas] Re: "Bless you": a performative?
- From: "Mike Geary" <atlas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 5 Aug 2004 21:47:55 -0500
In addition to all the OED data, there's this song my mother used to sing to
us when we were kids.
"God bless my underwear,
they were my only pair,
I adored them,
but I tored them,
on the seat of the old
rocking chair."
That was the holiest song I ever learned.
Mike Geary
Memphis
----- Original Message -----
From: <Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx>
To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Thursday, August 05, 2004 9:40 PM
Subject: [lit-ideas] "Bless you": a performative?
>
>
> In a message dated 8/5/2004 1:29:05 PM Eastern Standard Time,
> JulieReneB@xxxxxxx writes:
> You really wouldn't take well to Judaism, Mike. Half the prayer
service
> consists of sentences which begin with "Baruch atah adonai, eloheinu
melek
> ha-olam" (Blessed are you Lord our God, Master of the Universe....).
When
> you eat
> bread you say "Blessed are you Lord our God Master of the Universe who
> brings forth bread from the earth" -- when you do *anything* you bless
God
> first.
> Prayers are interspersed frequently with "Baruch HaShem" (blessed is the
> Name (of God)). Interesting, the emphasis in Christianity on God
blessing
> people and the emphasis in Judaism on people blessing God. Actually I
> think it's
> more an acknowledgement -- "I recognize that you are a Blessed
One"....but
> that's not how much rabbinic commentary talks about it. I read a piece
on
> the
> blessing of God in Judaism by Heschel, I think, once, (or maybe Kaplan?)
>
>
>
> ----
>
> While the OED recognises 'bless' as originally 'heathen', there's this
note
> which connects the word to the Hebrew tradition:
>
> 'to bless"
>
> "To make â?~sacredâ?T or â?~holyâ?T with blood;
>
> to consecrate by some sacrificial rite which
> was held to render a thing inviolable from profane
> use of men and evil influence of men or demons.
>
>
> "The streaking of the lintel and doorposts with blood,
>
> Exodus xii. 23,
>
> to mark them as holy to the Lord and inviolable by the
> destroying angel, was apparently the kind of idea expressed
> by [English bloedsian] in pre-christian times.
>
> ----- So, there may be an element of 'pre-Christian' cognate with
'Hebrew'?
>
> "Cf. also the history of the Latin words
> 'consecrare' and 'sacrificium'.
>
> ---- I haven't been able to check this. But 'consecrare' seems to really
> have (if you excuse the split infinitive) the root for 'sangue', blood?
>
> Cheers,
>
> JL
>
>
>
>
>
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