how to say “blessed” in Hebrew

מְבֹרָךְ, בָּרוּךְ[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/ברוך-1.mp3″ /]

To bless someone or something is לברך[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/ברוך-2.mp3″ /], an active-intensive verb. Thus one who is blessed – the recipient of the blessing is the corresponding passive מבורך[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/ברוך-3.mp3″ /] if he’s a male or מבורכת[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/ברוך-4.mp3″ /] if she’s an female.

This applies to non-human and non-living nouns as well:

[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/ברוך-5.mp3″ /]שתהיה לנו שנה מבורכת.

May we have a blessed year.

But what about ברוך[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/ברוך-6.mp3″ /], the word that opens all the dozens if not hundreds of formal blessings in Judaism? Doesn’t it mean blessed as well, as in Blessed are you, G-d, King of the universe…?

People who speak Hebrew hear ברוך and tend to think of it as a passive because of its structure. They instinctively compare it to כתוב[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/ברוך-7.mp3″ /] – written, זרוק[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/ברוך-8.mp3″ /] – thrown, etc, which have the same vowels and placement of letters.

But there is another structure that ברוך may belong to: the same as that of the Biblical terms רחום[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/ברוך-9.mp3″ /] and חנון[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/ברוך-10.mp3″ /], synonyms that mean merciful or compassionate. There, one who is רחום or חנון (typically G-d) is the giver of mercy or compassion. Likewise, ברוך could describe one who bestows blessing and bounty – which makes sense in the case of the formal Jewish blessing. According to this, ברוך אתה[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/ברוך-11.mp3″ /] at the beginning of the Jewish blessing does not mean Blessed are you, but rather something more like You are the blesser.