Blessings for Nature: Thunder, Rainbows, and the Ocean

A Blessing for Everything

The Talmud makes a remarkable statement: “A person who enjoys anything of this world without a blessing is considered as if they have stolen from God” (Berakhot 35a). The logic is simple. Everything in the world belongs to the Creator. When you eat an apple, smell a rose, or hear thunder, you are experiencing something that God made. The blessing is your acknowledgment — your receipt, your thank-you note, your moment of awareness that this beauty is not accidental.

Judaism has developed blessings for virtually every natural phenomenon a person might encounter. These blessings, codified in the Talmud and the Shulchan Aruch, transform ordinary experiences into spiritual encounters. Here is your guide to the blessings for nature.

Thunder and Lightning

Upon hearing thunder:

Baruch Atah Adonai, Eloheinu Melech ha’olam, shekocho u’gvurato malei olam.

“Blessed are You, Lord our God, King of the universe, whose power and might fill the world.”

Upon seeing lightning:

Baruch Atah Adonai, Eloheinu Melech ha’olam, oseh ma’aseh bereishit.

“Blessed are You, Lord our God, King of the universe, who makes the works of creation.”

The distinction is significant. Thunder evokes God’s power — raw, overwhelming force. Lightning evokes God’s creative work — the ongoing miracle of a universe that continues to produce wonder. If you see lightning and hear thunder simultaneously, you say the lightning blessing, which covers both.

These blessings are said once per storm. You do not repeat them for each clap of thunder.

The Rainbow

Upon seeing a rainbow:

Baruch Atah Adonai, Eloheinu Melech ha’olam, zocher habrit v’ne’eman bivrito v’kayam b’ma’amaro.

“Blessed are You, Lord our God, King of the universe, who remembers the covenant, is faithful to His covenant, and keeps His promise.”

The rainbow blessing is unique because it is explicitly tied to a biblical narrative. After the Flood, God set a rainbow in the sky as a sign of the covenant with Noah: “Never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood” (Genesis 9:11). Every rainbow is a reminder of that promise.

There is a custom not to stare at the rainbow for too long or to point it out to others, because the Talmud associates the rainbow with divine judgment — it appears, according to tradition, in generations that deserve destruction but are spared. The blessing acknowledges God’s mercy in keeping the covenant despite humanity’s shortcomings.

The Ocean

Upon seeing the ocean (or any vast body of water) for the first time in thirty days:

Baruch Atah Adonai, Eloheinu Melech ha’olam, she’asah et hayam hagadol.

“Blessed are You, Lord our God, King of the universe, who made the great sea.”

The ocean blessing captures the sense of awe that the sea inspires. The vast, churning, unfathomable ocean — it is the closest most people come to experiencing infinity. The blessing is a reminder that even infinity has a Creator.

Beautiful Trees in Bloom

Upon seeing fruit trees blossoming for the first time in the spring (during the month of Nisan):

Baruch Atah Adonai, Eloheinu Melech ha’olam, shelo chisar b’olamo klum u’vara vo briyot tovot v’ilanot tovot l’hanot bahem b’nei adam.

“Blessed are You, Lord our God, King of the universe, who has made nothing lacking in His world, and created in it beautiful creatures and beautiful trees for human beings to enjoy.”

This is one of the most beautiful blessings in Judaism. Said only once a year, when spring arrives and the trees burst into flower, it captures the joy of renewal — the annual miracle of a world that dies in winter and comes back to life.

Fragrant Plants and Spices

Judaism has an entire category of blessings for pleasant smells:

• Fragrant trees or shrubs: borei atzei v’samim (“who creates fragrant trees”)
• Fragrant herbs and grasses: borei isvei v’samim (“who creates fragrant herbs”)
• Fragrant fruits: hanoten rei’ach tov bapeirot (“who gives a pleasant fragrance to fruits”)
• Fragrant spices (general): borei minei v’samim (“who creates various spices”)

The havdalah ceremony at the end of Shabbat includes smelling spices, with the blessing borei minei v’samim. The tradition explains that the soul receives an extra portion (neshamah yeterah) on Shabbat, and when Shabbat ends, the soul grieves its departure. The fragrance of the spices revives the soul.

Beautiful Creatures and People

Upon seeing an exceptionally beautiful person, animal, or tree:

Baruch Atah Adonai, Eloheinu Melech ha’olam, shekacha lo b’olamo.

“Blessed are You, Lord our God, King of the universe, who has such [beauty] in His world.”

This blessing is remarkable. Upon seeing a beautiful person — of any religion, any ethnicity, any gender — the Jew says a blessing. The beauty is not claimed as Jewish or human or even earthly. It belongs to God. The blessing is a recognition that beauty, wherever it appears, is divine.

The Spiritual Practice of Noticing

What these blessings share is a common purpose: they force you to notice. In a world where we walk past thunderstorms staring at our phones, where we drive past oceans without looking up, where entire seasons change without our conscious awareness, the Jewish system of nature blessings insists: pay attention. The world is extraordinary. Every raindrop, every blossom, every flash of lightning is a letter in God’s ongoing love letter to creation.

The practice of saying blessings for nature is, at its heart, a practice of gratitude and mindfulness — the refusal to take the world for granted, and the insistence that every encounter with the natural world is, if we are paying attention, an encounter with the divine.