Rav Avigdor Miller on the Brachah of Go’el Yisroel

You should have in mind a thousand things.  Think of all the troubles that have come upon people.

Of course you can’t think about them at the moment.  You have to live a life of hachanah for tefillah.  If during your waking hours you see what happened to other people, say, “Look, it didn’t happen to me.”

Here’s a man who has migraine headaches all the time. And you don’t remember when you had a headache the last time; maybe years and years ago.  ברוך אתה ה’ גואל ישראל!

Now you might say it’s רופא חולי עמו ישראל.  It’s true.  But גואל ישראל includes everything.

Look at people who fell down the stairs.  Look at a person who had an accident in traffic.  So many things happen to everybody. And each time it’s a geulah.  Each case is a geulah – you were redeemed from it.

And therefore, you won’t succeed in saying גואל ישראל properly unless you have a store of such things in your mind.

That’s what Dovid said, “ברכי נפשי את ה’ ואל תשכחי כל גמוליו – don’t forget all that He did to you.”  (Tehillim 103:2). Keep in mind! זכר רב טובך יביעו – The remembrance of Your great goodness should always overflow (ibid. 145:7). And if your mind is full of remembering – you don’t try to forget; you try to remember – then when you say גואל ישראל, each time you can put a different thought before your mind and each time you thank Hashem for a different kind of geulah.

March 1992