Every religion has a blessing or grace before eating. Before we eat, we thank and acknowledge God for the food of which we are about to partake.

Yet, Judaism is possibly the only religion in the world that also has a blessing or grace after the meal.

Let’s understand this deeper.

Before you eat, when you are hungry, rather than just shoving the food in your mouth and satisfying your hunger, you take pause and thank God for the food. This differentiates us from an animal who eats without any thought of the source of the food. This makes a lot of sense.

Why though have a blessing after the meal?

Truth be told, it is not about the food at all. It is about the concept of being satisfied and having all that you need.

When you feel that nothing is missing, it is easy to forget about God. When you are lacking you turn to God and ask for help but when you have everything you are less likely to turn to God.

The blessing after the meal teaches us how to behave when we are satisfied, when everything in our life is humming along and running smoothly.

Just as we bless God when we are full from a good meal, we have to thank God when we are full of wonderful things in our lives.

It is less than an ideal relationship when our children come to us only when they need something.

Similarly, our relationship with God should not be that we turn to him only with our difficulties and challenges. We need to thank and praise God when all is good and we are satisfied!