Shehecheyanu
Jewish prayer
The Shehecheyanu berakhah (blessing) (Hebrew: בִּרְכַּת שֶׁהֶחֱיָנוּ, "Who has given us life") is a common Jewish prayer to celebrate special occasions. It expresses gratitude to God for new and unusual experiences or possessions. The blessing was recorded in the Talmud over 1500 years ago.
Recitation
The blessing of Shehecheyanu is recited in thanks or commemoration of:
Generally, when doing or experiencing something that occurs infrequently from which one derives pleasure or benefit.
The beginning of a holiday, including Passover, Shavuot, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Sukkot, Simhat Torah and Hanukkah, but not holidays commemorating sad events, such as Tisha B'av.
The first performance of certain mitzvot in a year, including sitting in a sukkah, eating matzah at the Passover Seder, reading the megillah, or lighting the candles on Hanukkah.
Eating a new fruit for the first time since Rosh Hashanah.
Normally said before the blessing over the fruit, but some customarily say it afterwards.
The fruit must be fresh, not dried.
Seeing a friend who has not been seen in thirty days.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 22, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2068387. VIAF identifies the subject as 175499726. The Library of Congress control number is n2014006822. None of the 2 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1500.
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This entry incorporates text from “Shehecheyanu” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.