Blessings on recreational drugs 2026-9-22

The idea of writing new blessings came to me when I was reflecting on A Blessing on a Cheeseburger by reform Rabbi Rachael Bregman, since Rabbinical schools do have these creative assignments, why can't I write blessings for drugs? Moreover, many of them can be connected to personal spirituality, so to me it makes perfect sense and it's a fun topic to exercise my Hebrew and Talmudic philosophy on.

According to Rabbi Rachael Bregman's thought, her underlying philosophy for the cheeseburger blessing is the fact that human beings have such a tasteful creativity of mixing and combining different ingredients to make new flavours, thus her blessing reads:

ברוך אתה יי אלקינו מלך העולם, שברא כּוֹח יְצִירָה באדם

"Blessed are You, Hashem our G-d, sovereign of the cosmos, who created creativity within human beings"

Or, in a more literal way "who created (bara) the power of creation (yetzirah) in human beings." Interestingly not mentioning any food-related content, yet by this logic she created a brakha that would be suitable for even more foods, even more so, for the creative power that G-d has given us. Personally, though, I wouldn't have specifically chosen the word "bara" as the main verb here. It should be something structurally deeper that resonates to some established Jewish concepts.

With that in mind, I've written a few blessings for 6 categories of recreational drugs/medications, with having a specific one which I personally experienced in each category to rewind the force of how that substance touched me.

For LSD/Hallucinogens:

בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה ה׳ אֱלֹקֵינוּ מֶלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם, שֶׁפָּתַח לְכָל נֶפֶשׁ עַצְמָהּ שַׁעֲרֵי בִינָה.

"Blessed are You, Hashem our G-d, sovereign of the cosmos, who has opened the Gates of Intelligence to every individual soul."

The idea here alludes to the Talmudic concept of Sha'arei Binah (Rosh Hashanah 21b), later developed extensively in Kabbalistic literature. It's also the same metaphor I've used in Shirat HaPri for LSD. We cannot bless the transgress over Halakha itself, thus we're also not allowed to draw an image to the forbidden fruit with the brakha. "l'khol nefesh atzmah" emphasises the reflexivity on each soul after taking the substance, I think I did a pretty good job on this one.

For MDMA/Empathogens

בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה ה׳ אֱלֹקֵינוּ מֶלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם, הַמּוֹשִׁיב בְּנֵי וּבְנוֹת אָדָם גַּם־יָחַד.

"Blessed are You, Hashem our G-d, sovereign of the cosmos, who settles sons and daughters of humanity together in fellowship."

You can see the apparent connection to Tehillim 133:1 Hinneh Ma Tov, the core essence of MDMA usage, sitting together and sharing emotions.

For Opioids

בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה ה׳ אֱלֹקֵינוּ מֶלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם, הַמּוֹצִיא כֹּחַ מִן הַבְּרִיּוֹת.

"Blessed are You, Hashem our G-d, sovereign of the cosmos, who brings forth strength from the creatures."

We have an ambiguity here, the verb "מוֹצִיא" can be interpreted as "brings forth" or "extracts" as in the Hamotzi blessing, but the same "extracting" can also mean "removing". Hashem brings forth this strength from substances (habriyot) so that those in pain can be relieved, on the other side, Hashem suppresses the physical strength of humans (habriyot) through opioids' respiratory effects. The duality of strong painkillers.

For Pregabalin/Gabapentinoids

בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה ה׳ אֱלֹקֵינוּ מֶלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם, הַמְשַׂמֵּחַ אֶת הַגּוּפִים.

"Blessed are You, Hashem our G-d, sovereign of the cosmos, who makes the flesh rejoice."

...bring near the bdellium which I ate without the evil thereof, and do thou unto me every miraculous thing. (Hitahera 2:1)

For Benzodiazepines

בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה ה׳ אֱלֹקֵינוּ מֶלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם, שֶׁרִפָּה אֶת הַגּוּפִים.

"Blessed are You, Hashem our G-d, sovereign of the cosmos, who brings stillness to the flesh."

The main verb came from the same root as that in Tehillim 46:11, one of my favourite psalms, ר-פ-ה "to relax, to be still". There's also a phonological pun here as that of Yirmeyahu 38:4, מְרַפֵּא vs מְרַפֵּה, "to heal" vs "to relax", both of them are true attributes of benzos.

For Vyvanse/Concerta/Stimulants

בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה ה׳ אֱלֹקֵינוּ מֶלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם, שֶׁשָּׁת לֵב־אָדָם לְמַעַן דַּרְכּוֹ.

Blessed are You, Hashem our G-d, sovereign of the cosmos, who has set the human mind for His way’s sake.

You can immediately see the connection to the classical Tehillim 23:3, "...He guides me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake." The pair of "שָּׁת לֵב" as seen in Shemot 7:23 meaning to care for something, literally "to set heart".

Amen vihi lakhem trip tov!