What is a Blessing?

"The Spirit of Jewish Prayer" (Abraham Joshua Heschel)
(PROCEEDINGS OF THE RABBINICAL ASSEMBLY OF AMERICA FIFTY-THIRD ANNUAL CONVENTION AT BREAKERS HOTEL ATLANTIC CITY, N. J. TAMMUZ 9 TO TAMMUZ 14, 5713 JUNE 22 TO JUNE 27, 1953)
To pray, then, means to bring God back into the world, to establish His kingship, to let His glory prevail. This is why in the greatest moments of our lives, on the Days of Awe, we cry out of the depth of our disconcerted souls, a prayer for redemption: And so, Lord our God, grant Thy awe to ail Thy works, and your dread to ail Thou hast created, that all Thy works may fear Thee, and all who have been created prostrate themselves before Thee, and all form one union to do Thy will with a whole heart. Great is the power of prayer. For to worship is to expand the presence of God in the world. God is transcendent, but our worship makes Him immanent. This is implied in the idea that God is in need of man: His being immanent depends upon us. When we say ’ברוך’ Blessed be He, we extend His glory, we bestow His spirit upon this world. יתגדל ויתקדש . . . May there be more of God in this world.
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The true source of prayer, we said above, is not an emotion but an insight. It is the insight into the mystery of reality, the sense of the ineffable, that enables us to pray. As long as we refuse to take notice of what is beyond our sight, beyond our reason; as long as we are blind to the mystery of being, the way to prayer is closed to us. If the rise of the sun is but a daily routine of nature, there is no reason to say, In mercy Thou givest light to the earth and to those who dwell on it ... eve:ry day constantly. If bread is nothing but flour moistened, kneaded, baked and then brought forth from the oven, it is meaningless to say, Blessed art Thou … who brings bread from the earth.