Prayer Before Mincha 

Hashem, 

Thank You for the privilege of providing for my family. 

The Mincha prayer I am about to recite stands in place of the Mincha offering that we once brought in Your Holy Temple in Jerusalem.

It was a flour offering— 
an offering born of human effort: 
planting seeds, tilling the earth, guarding the crop from harm, 
harvesting the stalks, separating the kernels, 
and grinding wheat into flour to become bread. 

The Mincha offering reflects the work of my hands, 
and it reflects the work of Yours. 

The Mincha offering declares how hard man works— 
and how infinitely harder You work. 

You created the sun: 
1.4 million kilometers wide, 
1.3 million times larger than the Earth, 
burning at 15 million degrees Celsius. 
You placed it 150 million kilometers away— 
not closer, not farther— 
so that when its warmth reaches the wheat, 
it is exactly what life requires. 

Had the sun been 5% closer, the wheat would burn. 
Had it been 5% farther, the wheat would freeze. 

You created air, sunlight, soil, and water— 
all that wheat needs to grow. 
Ninety percent of wheat’s substance comes not from the ground, 
but from the carbon in the air You create. 

You provide water in perfect measure. 
Too much, and the roots suffocate. 
Too little, and the plant starves. 

You design wheat so that only Your balance sustains it, 
so that our lives remain dependent on Your wonders. 

Each year, all the wheat on Earth is harvested. 
And each year, we stand again— 
fully dependent on You 
to provide food anew. 

Wheat appears to rise from the ground, 
but most of it comes from the sky. 
Soil only unlocks what air, light, and rain provide. 
Like the Manna we received in the midbar (desert), the bread of this world descends from Above. 

Every year, You create 1.2 quadrillion wheat stalks— 
1,200 trillion holding 24 quadrillion wheat kernels 
to feed the 8 billion souls living on Your Earth. 

As hard as I believe I work for my daily bread, I do not. 
It is Your blessing that enables my effort. 
I do not provide my family with my strength— 
I deliver Your blessing into their hands. 

The greatest gift You give us is allowing us to partner with You in tending Your world. Without You, we do nothing. You do everything. 

Our task is not to create blessing, but to receive it humbly and use it to serve Your will— 
through Torah, mitzvot, tzedakah, and refined middot. 

Mincha reminds me Who is truly working and who is receiving. 

Thank You, Father. 

*** 

David Ben Horin lives in Afula with his family, 60,000 passionate Israelis, and Matilda, our local camel.