Question: I am very appreciative and, if I might add, flattered that you answer and publish many of my questions. Due to your superior knowledge, I am always confident when I send in a question that I will receive a proper response. I wonder if you could address whether one should say Birkat HaGomel after flying even though flying is statistically safer than driving. Also, do women say HaGomel as well or only men?
Menachem
The Talmud (Berachot 54b) states that there are four people who must say HaGomel, with the Rivash and Rav Gershon disputing whether this list is exclusive or not. Rabbi Tuvia Goldstein maintains that modern-day air travel cannot be compared to the types of danger listed in the Gemara, and thus one need not say HaGomel after flying. Rav Moshe Feinstein, however, argues that flying is inherently dangerous since only the airplane separates the passengers from death. If the airplane suddenly stops functioning, the passengers will almost certainly die.
Last week we cited HaRav Yaakov Simcha Cohen who, in “Prayer The Right Way,” compares HaGomel to Dayan Ha’Emet. Just like we don’t say Amen in response to Dayan Ha’Emet (since we don’t wish to hear more bad news, explains HaRav Henkin), we don’t say Amen to HaGomel. Rather, we say “Mi shegemalcha…”
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The text of the berachah of HaGomel is: “Baruch Ata Hashem Elokeinu melech ha’olam hagomel l’chayavim tovot she’gmalani kol tov – Blessed are You, L-rd our G‑d, king of the universe, who bestows kindness upon the culpable, for He has bestowed good to me.” The literal translation of the last words is “for He has bestowed every good to me.” I replaced “ever good” with “good” because of V’aleihu Lo Yibol, a sefer by HaRav Nachum Stepansky on the halachot and minhagim of his revered teacher, HaGaon HaRav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach, zt”l.
In Halacha 151, corresponding to Orach Chayyim 219:2, he writes as follows: “It was Shabbos Parshat Yitro 5751 [1991] when after suffering a fall that left a gash in his head that required stitches, [Rav Auerbach] said HaGomel with the following altered the text of this blessing: ‘Baruch Ata Hashem Elokeinu melech ha’olam hagomel l’chayavim tovot she’gmalani tov – Blessed are You, L-rd our G‑d, king of the universe, who bestows kindness upon the culpable, for He has bestowed good to me.” Noticing this, I asked him: Did you deliberately say ‘she’gmalani tov – for He has bestowed good to me’ as opposed to what the Mechaber’s version of ‘she’gmalani kol tov – for He has bestowed every good to me’?”
He answered: “The text in the Mechaber is ‘she’gmalani kol tov – for He has bestowed every good to me.’ However, it does not make sense – for can it be that for this one kindness that Hashem has bestowed to a person, He has already bestowed every good to that person? Nonetheless, I always recited the Mechaber’s text until I found in the siddur of Chabad and the Ari, z”l, the text ‘she’gmalani tov – for He has bestowed good to me,’ to which the congregation responds ‘Mi she’g’malcha kol tov Hu yigmolcha kol tuv selah – May He who has bestowed every beneficence upon you always bestow every beneficence upon you.’ So now I use this text for perhaps some sort of error crept into the Mechaber’s text.”
HaRav Nachum Stepansky commented to HaRav Auerbach: “I have somewhat of a support for the Rav’s custom of following the custom of Chabad to say ‘she’gmalani tov’ from the words of Levush (to Orach Chayim 219:2) who uses the text of “she’gmalani kol tov” in the blessing but changes the congregation’s response to “Mi she’g’malcha tov Hu yigmolcha kol tuv selah – May He who has bestowed beneficence upon you always bestow every beneficence upon you.” (They thus are acknowledging that he has not received all benefit, but wish that he does receive it.)