Shehecheyanu is one of the most common and versatile brachot in Jewish liturgy. It is recited on special occasions, like the birth of a child or upon converting to Judaism, and when doing something for the first time in a year, like celebrating Pesach or eating a seasonal fruit. It is a blessing of renewal, a way of offering gratitude not only for life but for the cycles we find ourselves part of within it. Shehecheyanu offers us an unquantifiable, qualitative way of thinking about time. Instead of drawing our attention to the ways in which we grow old, it reminds us of the ways in which we become new again.

.בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יי אֱלֹהֵינוּ מֶלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם, שֶׁהֶחֱיָנוּ וְקִיְמָנוּ וְהִגִיעָנוּ לַזְמָן הַזֶה
Barukh atah Adonai, eloheynu melech ha-olam,
 shehecheyanu, ve-kiyimanu, ve-higiyanu lazman hazeh.

Blessed are you, who has kept us alive and sustained us, 
and enabled us to reach this moment.
 


haggadah Section: Kadesh