Welcome to First Fruits!

New to our site? Sign up for a free First Fruits Core account and enrich your First Fruits experience.

Sign up for a First Fruits Core account:

  • Access to more online resources and greater connectivity! Premium content, email newsletters and special offers from our Store. More info here »

I can't remember my login. »

Mealtime Prayer

Prayer resources for the whole family! Discover and embrace the mitzvah of blessing God at mealtimes. Learn the traditional mealtime blessings (Birkat Hamazon) and discover and pray the words of early believers.

 

Make Every Meal an Act of Worship

Tags:  ancient prayer texts, apostolic prayer, believer's prayers, birkat hamazon, blessings after eating, blessings before eating, breaking bread, didache, grace after meals, hebrew prayer, mealtime blessings

 

Click here to purchase this resource

Click here to order »

 

"Breaking Bread" can be a spiritual experience!

God commands us to bless Him when we eat. Every meal provides us with an opportunity to take time out, acknowledge God, placing words of Torah on our tongue and the path of discipleship under our feet. "Breaking bread" is a Hebrew idiom for having a meal together. The book of Acts teaches that "breaking bread" together was a central part of the practice of the early believers. For believers, every meal should be a spiritual experience.

Make every meal an act of worship!

  • Learn the traditional mealtime blessings.
  • Pray the words of early believers.
  • Keep the commandment of blessing God.

God is concerned with details, should we be? Saying Grace After Meals is a detail of the Torah that may seem small in the scope of all of God’s Law, but it plays a foundational role.

This series on Grace After Meals is the “first fruits” of our new, Messianic-prayer resources. Learn the commandment of Deuteronomy 8:10 with beautiful mealtime prayerbooks that enable one to bless the LORD in patterns that date back to the time of the apostles. Use our audio resources to learn table songs that will give you, your family and your community an opportunity to unite in song and praise. Teach the commandment of gratitude to your children with our children’s resources. Listen and learn the importance of this commandment with the MP3 download of the First Fruits of Zion seminar, “The Commandment to Bless.”

The Commandment to Bless

Audio CompanionLive Seminar

The "Commandment to Bless" seminar is ninety-minutes of teaching on the purpose of the commandments of God, the place of tradition, and the commandment to bless God before and after one eats. Boaz Michael recorded these sessions live in Pittsburgh, PA and they are available as an MP3 download or packaged as an Audio CD

Audio CD: Available at our Store : Order here »
MP3 Download: Available at our Store : Order here »

Part 1

50 minutes of audio [64kb]
Click here to download the MP3 – 23 MB (Save the file)

Part 2

48 minutes of audio [64kb]
Click here to download the MP3 – 22 MB (Save the file)

 

We Thank YouWe Thank You

Blessings of Thanks Before and After Meals

New Second Edition. Yeshua taught His disciples to bless God before they ate; the Torah commands us to bless God after we eat. Blessing God and thanking God for the provision of food both before and after one has eaten has long been the practice within Judaism.

Our new table blessings guide, We Thank You, offers a simple and innovative liturgy for disciples of Yeshua by weaving the ancient meal blessings of Judaism together with recently discovered prayers of the early believers.

Order here »

 

Audio CompanionWe Thank You

Audio Companion

New Second Edition. Learn to sing the blessings! The accompanying audio CDs make the traditional melodies available for both Hebrew and English readers and will cause your table to come alive with the joy of gratitude. Over 70 audio tracks representing the various meal time blessings. Hebrew tracks are also read slowly and carefully, word by word, for beginning Hebrew students.

Audio (Set of 2 CDs): Order here »

 

Breaking BreadBreaking Bread

In Everything Give Thanks

In Breaking Bread, FFOZ teachers Aaron Eby and Toby Janicki present a clear exposition on the traditional blessings before and after meals. Includes halachah, detailed explanations and an introduction to the table blessings of the early believers.

Connect with the people of Israel and appreciate the land of Israel while observing the scriptures of Israel.

Order here »

 

Beit Midrash Scholars EditionBreaking Bread

Beit Midrash Scholar's Edition Audio CDs

Join Aaron Eby, Boaz Michael, Daniel Lancaster, and Toby Janicki together in the First Fruits of Zion Beit Midrash ("House of Study") as they dig deeper into the commandment to give thanks at mealtimes. Elaborating on the ideas introduced in the Breaking Bread book, this dialogue expounds upon the major concepts and explores in-depth perspectives on the Scriptures.

The engaging style of Beit Midrash dialogue will increase your understanding of the importance of blessing God before and after eating. Illuminates the traditional blessings from both Judaism and the early believers in Yeshua.

Audio (Set of 4 CDs): Order here »

 

Children's EditionWe Thank You for the Food!

Children's Activity Booklet and Audio Companion

Introducing mealtime prayers for kids 3–9, activities, coloring, plus stories and fun for the whole family! This 12 page activity booklet teaches children the importance of thanking God at mealtimes and includes traditional blessings from We Thank You, including a usable version of the Birkat HaMazon (Grace after Meals) in English. Stories from the Gospels and Rabbinic literature such as “Feeding the Five Thousand” and “Benjamin the Shepherd” and the traditional melodies of the blessings come alive with the companion audio CD.

Booklet and CD: Order here »
Booklet: Order here »

 

Preview of the prayerbook and book

Click on the thumbnails below for a preview of what's inside.We Thank You
We Thank You
Blessings of Thanks Before and After Meals

Pages: 50 (Hebrew/English)
(New Second Edition)

# # # # ## # # # #

Breaking Bread

Breaking Bread
In Everything Give Thanks

Authors: Aaron Eby & Toby Janicki
Pages: 76

# # # # # # # # # # # #

We Thank You

Audio CompanionAudio Companion

The We Thank You Audio Companion contains over 70 audio tracks for both Hebrew and English readers, representing the various traditional meal time blessings. There are Hebrew melodies, English melodies and tracks for each Hebrew blessing, pronounced slowly and carefully for beginning Hebrew students.

From the Didache section in We Thank You

This blessing comes from the Didache (end of first century CE) and was recited by
believers before eating bread at communal meals.


didache blessing before eating – sung in english

 


didache blessing before eating – sung in Hebrew

 


didache blessing before eating – read slowly in hebrew

 

From "Fear the LORD" at the end of Birkat HaMazon

The following string of scriptural verses comes from the end of the fourth and last
blessing of the traditional Grace After Meals prayer.


fear of the lord – sung in english

 


fear of the lord – sung in english by group

 


fear of the lord – sung in hebrew

 


fear of the lord – sung in hebrew by group

 


fear of the lord – read slowly in hebrew

 

Children's EditionWe Thank You for the Food!

Children's Activity Booklet and Audio Companion

The traditional melodies of the blessings come alive with this companion audio CD. There's fun for the whole family! Activities, coloring, plus stories!

 


take a tour of israel with Boaz and Tikvah Michael in this 3-minute CD sampler.

 


Listen to the Yeshua story told by Tikvah Michael

 


it's a mitzvah to bless god after we eat!

What people are saying

Ruth S. from Australia says...

We had a great time at the conference. It was so much fun. We learnt so much too. We LOVE doing Grace after meals. The boys have learnt how to lead and sing the melodies using the cd. They love doing it.

Jeri M. says...

I must admit that at the beginning of the conference I was a bit disappointed to hear of the new melodies for grace after the meals. Like most people, I'm resistant to change. I had the "old" melodies firmly planted in my memory. But after hearing the new melodies I was struck with their beauty. Surprisingly, after only a few days of singing them at the conference, I found myself humming them at other times. I love the fact that Messiah is included in the traditional blessings, and that we can be part of greater Israel in using these blessings. Our family plans on incorporating these blessings at our meal times, and I like the recommendation on the teaching DVD to learn them "one phrase at a time."

Steve and Mary Ellen K. say...

We've known that God gives a specific command to bless after you eat but we have just not known what to do in this regard and it has always felt awkward. We loved the Grace After Meals from the first time we sung them at the conference. One of the highlights was hearing two groups sing the Grace simultaneously in both Hebrew and English and the melodies matched. That was really special! We have been singing these ever since the conference and almost have them memorized. The tunes are catching and our children our frequently humming them as they go about their daily routine. We love the unity of these prayers, knowing that down through the ages and around the world today this same expression of thanks is being offered to God. We are enjoying singing these blessings within our family but we will be especially blessed anytime we have the opportunity to once again sing them in a group setting. They are a great reminder that all we have really does come from the Lord.

Taylor K. says...

Ever since I purchased "We Thank You" resource at the Shabbat Shalom conference it has been a rewarding experience.  Everytime we sang together after a meal, you could sense the unity as our voices were lifted up giving thanks to the Lord.  It is a resource that the whole family can use and learn together with.  I could easily pick up on the melodies and was able to sing with little hesitation.  I recommend it to anyone who eats breakfast, lunch, and dinner!  It is a resource I will continue to use for a lifetime.

Jeff and Sarah C. say...

Our family just got back from the FFOZ Shavuot conference, where we prayed via the new bencher after every meal.  We immediately purchased multiple copies of the bencher for our congregation and the companion CD (because some of the tunes are not easily recalled from memory.) We were also given a copy of the new book, Breaking of Bread, explaining the reasoning behind giving blessings both before and after eating.   Our family has been richly blessed by submitting to the fulfillment of this worthy mitzvah!  FFOZ has also included blessings from the Didache and shorter blessings for people that are new to the idea of blessing Hashem for the food. This allows people at all levels of observance to successfully fulfill this important mitzvah.  After just one week of doing the blessings before and after eating, our young children are asking, "Did you say HaMotzi?"  FFOZ has certainly blessed the Messianic movement by publishing this much needed resource.

Randal W. says...

I think that the best testimony is that our kids were excited about [these resources] and wanted to learn the prayers and the melodies. We have learned the first Psalm and are moving on to the next blessing. Thanks for doing all the work to put these blessings together.

Resources Overview

Click here for more information about the wide array of study material and services offered by First Fruits of Zion

Visit our Online Store

You can purchase any of our resources at our dedicated online Store, or call toll-free: 800-775-4807 or 417-468-2741.

Featured Resources

Get more information in-depth information about these selected resources.

 

Upcoming Resources

Explore new projects and upcoming
resources. Find out about funding needs and
projected completion dates.