Hatov V’Hameitiv and Dayan HaEmes — The Two Brachos for the Joy and the Grief of One Life

Introduction

There are moments when the phone rings and the whole shape of a life changes in a sentence, and for those moments the Sages gave us words: Baruch Dayan HaEmes, “Blessed is the true Judge,” for the news that breaks us, and Hatov v’Hameitiv, “who is good and does good,” for the news that lifts us.

It is one of the most striking teachings in all of Jewish life that the same mouth which blesses Hashem for a positive tidings is taught to bless Him also at the news of a death, and to recognize His hand in both.

This is not resignation and it is not denial; it is the emunah that the One who sends the joy and the One who sends the grief are One, and that nothing He sends is meaningless or outside His care. Even what we cannot understand, even what feels unbearable in the moment, is still held within His wisdom and His goodness. We do not say that pain feels good, or that loss stops hurting. We say that Hashem is good even here, that His truth is deeper than what we can see, and that somehow, beyond our understanding, all He does is for the ultimate good.

Understanding the Brachos on Good and Bad News

Jewish life marks the turns of fortune with brachos. On hearing news that is good, and that brings benefit to oneself together with others, one says Hatov v’Hameitiv, “who is good and does good.” On hearing news that is bad, above all the news of a death, one says Baruch Dayan HaEmes, “Blessed is the true Judge.” Because each blessing answers a different kind of news with the same act of bracha, they frame joy and grief as two responses within one covenantal language. Together they train a Jew to respond to both mercy and loss with the recognition that all comes from His ultimate goodness, even when that goodness is hidden from us and felt, for now, as judgment.

These blessings are recited by anyone, man or woman, who receives such news, individually and in the moment, not as part of the fixed daily tefillos. A first-time reader learns the basic map at once: good that touches others as well as oneself draws Hatov v’Hameitiv; good that benefits oneself alone draws the more familiar Shehecheyanu; and genuine bad news draws Dayan HaEmes (Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 222:1–3; 223:1–2). The daily practitioner learns something subtler from where these brachos sit in the halacha: that the obligation to bless does not pause for grief. The very same Mishnah continues with the teaching that a person is obligated to bless on the bad just as he blesses on the good (Berachos 54a, Mishnah 9:5), which means that blessing Hashem is not a reward we offer Him only when pleased, but the constant posture of a life lived before Him.

The History and Origins of These Brachos

The pair of blessings is among the oldest in our liturgy, set down in the Mishnah in Maseches Berachos and elaborated by the Gemara. The Mishnah’s ruling that we bless Hatov v’Hameitiv on good and Dayan HaEmes on evil (Berachos 54a) is expanded in the ninth chapter, where the Sages spell out the principle that the obligation to bless extends to hard tidings no less than to glad ones, and that this blessing is to be received with the same acceptance with which one receives good tidings (Berachos 60b; Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 222:3, “with a complete mind and willing soul”). The wording of Dayan HaEmes echoes the song of Haazinu, where Moshe Rabbeinu describes Hashem as “the Rock, His work is perfect, for all His ways are justice, a faithful G-d without iniquity, righteous and upright is He” (Devarim 32:4), words that give voice to the very acceptance the bracha asks of us.

The Gemara also preserves a remarkable origin for Hatov v’Hameitiv. The Sages connected the fourth blessing of Birkas HaMazon, which opens Hatov v’Hameitiv, to the burial of those slain at Beitar, instituted in Yavneh when the bodies were at last brought to burial: Hatov, that they had not decomposed, and v’Hameitiv, that they were given a proper burial (Taanis 31a; see also Berachos 48b). Even the blessing of pure goodness, then, was born in the shadow of catastrophe, a fitting birth for a bracha that teaches us to find Hashem’s goodness inside events we would never have chosen.

The poskim refined the practice across the generations. The Rambam codifies the brachos on good and bad tidings and their conditions (Hilchos Brachos 10:17), and the Shulchan Aruch and its commentators settled the details of when each is said, how the bracha of Dayan HaEmes is recited upon the death of a close relative together with the rending of the garment, and which news warrants which words (Orach Chaim 222:1–3; 223:1–2; Yoreh Deah 340:5 on keriah). Differences among communities here are slight and concern the precise circumstances and wording rather than the substance; across all of them the mesorah is one, that a Jew greets every turn of his fortunes with Hashem’s name on his lips.

The Brachos — Hebrew, Transliteration, Translation

Both blessings, when recited as full brachos with Hashem’s name and kingship, take the standard opening. Local custom and the severity of the news affect whether the full form with shem u’malchus is said; a rav should be consulted in practice.

In daily speech the short form Baruch Dayan HaEmes is widely used at the news of a death even outside the formal bracha, and it has become the way Jews acknowledge a loss to one another. Whether the full bracha with shem u’malchus is recited, and in which circumstances, is governed by the poskim and varies with the case (Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 222:2; Yoreh Deah 340:5), so the precise form should be confirmed with a rav in practice.

What These Brachos Mean: A Deeper Look

The two blessings are short, but each opens onto the whole landscape of how a Jew is to hold fortune and loss. Four ideas, drawn from the words above, carry the weight.

“Hatov v’hameitiv” — “who is good and does good.” The bracha names goodness twice, and the Sages understood the doubling precisely: Hatov, He is good to me, v’hameitiv, and He is good to others as well. This is why the blessing is said specifically for good that is shared, such as the birth of a son or rain that falls on a whole community, while good that benefits oneself alone calls for Shehecheyanu (Berachos 59b; Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 222:1; 223:1–2). The teaching is quietly demanding: a true blessing on good fortune looks past the self to everyone the good touches. Our gladness is made whole only when it widens to include others.

“Dayan HaEmes” — “the true Judge.” We do not bless Hashem at hard news as “the One who comforts” or “the One who heals,” but as the Judge whose verdict is emes, true. The Shulchan Aruch rules that one is to bless on the bad with a complete mind and a willing soul (Orach Chaim 222:3), and Moshe’s words in Haazinu give the reason: “all His ways are justice… righteous and upright is He” (Devarim 32:4). To call Him the true Judge in the hour of loss is to affirm, against everything the heart feels, that there is justice here even where we cannot see it. The bracha does not ask us to grasp that justice, which is hidden from us in this world, but to trust it.

“Chayav adam l’vareich al hara’ah” — the obligation to bless on the bad. The obligation to bless on the bad does not mean pretending the loss is not a loss, or forcing joy where the heart feels pain. It means that even now we keep Hashem’s name on our lips, because what has happened is not outside Him. We do not say that we can already see the good in this world. We often cannot. But we affirm that the One who gave this moment is Hashem, whose goodness does not cease when it becomes hidden from us. For anyone who has stood at a graveside, the bracha is permission to mourn fully while still entrusting oneself fully to Hashem.

The day it will all be Hatov v’Hameitiv. The deepest teaching is that the two brachos are not equal and eternal. The Sages taught that in this world we bless Dayan HaEmes on the bad and Hatov v’Hameitiv on the good, but in the world to come it will all be Hatov v’Hameitiv (Pesachim 50a). The bracha of the true Judge, then, is not Hashem’s final word; it is our word for now, for the time when His goodness is hidden inside events we cannot read. One day the same news that drew Dayan HaEmes will be understood as goodness, and the comfort of that promise lives inside the bracha even while we weep.

The Halacha: When These Brachos Are Said

In practice, the rules sort the moments of life with care, and a few questions come up again and again.

Hatov v’Hameitiv is recited on hearing good news that brings benefit to oneself and to others together, such as the birth of a son, a beneficial rainfall after drought, or coming into a good that is shared with family or community (Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 222:1; 223:1–2). When the good benefits only oneself, the bracha is Shehecheyanu rather than Hatov v’Hameitiv. The distinction is real and worth pausing over, because it trains us to notice whom our good fortune reaches.

Dayan HaEmes is recited on genuinely bad news, and most familiarly upon hearing of a death. On the death of one’s father, mother, or other close relative for whom one mourns, the bracha is recited together with the tearing of keriah, the rending of the garment, in the formal way the poskim describe (Shulchan Aruch, Yoreh Deah 340:5; Orach Chaim 222:2). Whether the full bracha with shem u’malchus is said for less severe bad news, or only the short acknowledgment Baruch Dayan HaEmes is used, depends on the case and on the ruling of one’s rav. Other hard sights and tidings, such as witnessing great destruction, also draw this blessings. A practical caution: because the conditions for the full bracha are precise and grief is disorienting, it is entirely appropriate, and often wise, to ask a rav at the moment what to say, rather than to guess.

The Spiritual Power of Tefillah and Tzedakah

Our Sages joined prayer and giving as a single avodah, and that bond is felt especially in moments of joy and grief. The verse teaches that tzedakah saves from death (Mishlei 10:2), and Chazal include tzedakah and crying out in prayer among the things that help avert a harsh decree (Rosh Hashanah 16b). When good news comes, giving in gratitude turns brachah outward, allowing our Hatov v’Hameitiv to find expression in care for others. When bad news comes, giving in memory of one we have lost turns our Dayan HaEmes into an act of chesed and zechus — a source of comfort for the living, and, we pray, an aliyah for the neshamah.

This is the work Rabbi Meir Baal Haness Charities has carried for over two centuries, upholding the legacy that those who give to the poor of Eretz Yisroel in the merit of Rabbi Meir Baal Haness find heavenly intercession in their time of need. To give in a moment of joy, or in memory of a loved one, is to take the emunah these brachos express and turn it into chesed that someone in Yerushalayim will feel today. Giving is an act of emunah and chesed, never a transaction, and Hashem alone determines what each gift accomplishes.

Give Tzedakah in the Merit of Rabbi Meir Baal Haness

In gladness or in grief, tzedakah turns what we feel into what we do. Give in gratitude for good news, or in memory of one you have lost, and let your gift bring comfort to a needy family in Eretz Yisroel.

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About Rabbi Meir Baal Haness Charities

Rabbi Meir Baal Haness Charities, founded in 1799, is one of the oldest and most trusted tzedakah organizations serving the poor of Eretz Yisroel, upholding Rabbi Meir Baal Haness’s legacy that those who give to the needy in his memory find heavenly intercession in their time of need.

Today it distributes funds to Torah scholars, widows, orphans, and needy families throughout Eretz Yisroel, an unbroken chain of compassion and a zechus for the giver and their family.

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Frequently Asked Questions About Baruch Dayan HaEmes and Hatov V’Hameitiv

Closing

Between the news that lifts us and the news that breaks us, our tradition hands us the same gift: Hashem’s name, to speak in either hour. To bless Him as the true Judge is not to understand the loss but to keep faith through it, trusting the day His goodness will be revealed. Let your tzedakah carry that emunah into the world, in gratitude or in memory, and may you know far more occasions for Hatov v’Hameitiv than for grief, and the full comfort of Hashem in every season.