Berakoth (singular Berakah)

The Hebrew word for blessings. Typically, they begin, “Blessed are you, Lord our God, King of the universe,” followed by naming that for which God is blessed, such as “who brings forth bread from the earth.” Scholars distinguish between berakoth and hodayoth prayers. The latter begin, “We give you thanks.” Jewish liturgical prayers have tended to use the berakoth form and Christian prayers the hodayoth. These Jewish prayer forms lie behind the Christian Great Thanksgiving (BCP, pp. 333ff, 340ff, 361ff, 367-376). The Jewish thanksgiving after meals, which includes both forms, is almost certainly the ancestor of the Christian eucharistia, or eucharistic prayer.