In the middle of this morning's Shaharit service, thunder erupted during one of the quieter moments. Although you can't interrupt an established seder berakhot (a particular series of blessings) to say a separate berakhah, we added this at the end of the service:
Barukh atah Adonai, eloheinu melekh ha-olam, shekoho ugvurato malei olam.
Praised are You, God, Ruler of the universe, whose power and might fills the world.
The windows in the chapel were open (I think they're stuck!), so the room really rumbled. Thunder and lightning are to us merely natural phenomena and an occasional nuisance; to our ancestors, who were much more in touch with nature and less insulated from the weather, they must have been truly frightening symbols of God's power.
For a moment, with the windows open and thunder shaking the room as we mumbled our morning
meditations, maybe we could feel God's power. Just for a moment.
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