Blessings · The sky and nature
What blessing do you say when you see lightning?
When you see lightning, the tradition gives a berachah (blessing) that ends with the words oseh maaseh bereshit — "who makes the work of creation." The very same words serve for comets, for great mountains, and for deserts.
A blessing for what the eye catches
Lightning is blessed for what it is: a flash of the first days of the world breaking into this one. Its blessing ends עושה מעשה בראשית — Maker of the work of creation, the work of Bereshit, the beginning. What you saw for a fraction of a second is placed back inside the story of a world being made.
The same words reach further than the storm. A comet crossing the sky, a range of great mountains, the vast silence of a desert — these too are met with oseh maaseh bereshit, because they too are the handiwork of the beginning.
The source, and why thunder differs
The Mishnah in Berachot 9:2, and the Shulchan Aruch in Orach Chaim 227, set the sight of lightning apart from the sound of thunder. The eye and the ear receive different blessings: lightning and the other wonders of the created world take oseh maaseh bereshit, while thunder takes the words of strength and power that fill the world. When both arrive in one storm, the tradition has an order for saying each.
What to do
When lightning flashes, say the berachah ending oseh maaseh bereshit. If a comet, a great mountain, or a wide desert stops you the same way, the same blessing belongs there too. The sight is brief, so it helps to know the words in advance — the sky rarely gives notice.
Source: Mishnah, Berachot 9:2; Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 227.
For the wonders that arrive without warning, Barkai — the blessings of the day, read from the sky and the place — holds the right words ready, so the flash finds you prepared rather than searching.
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