Sotah 44b says, One who speaks between Tefilin shel Yad and Tefilin shel Rosh returns from war. Rashi explains, if he did nor make another Bracha on the Tefilin shel Rosh. Rashi to Menachos 36a says the same. (Tosefos to Menachos 36a say, because he created the need for an unnecessary Bracha.) Nedarim 81a says, we lost Eretz Yisroel because we did not make a Bracha on Torah. (The Ran brings Rabeinu Yonah who explains, they did not make a Brach on Torah because learning Torah was not important enough to them, and they did not learn Lishmah.)
Could we offer another explanation? Putting together Rashi here with the Gemora in Nedarim, it would see that one needs Bracha to obtain land, to keep land, to win in battle. If one misses a Bracha, one loses land, one does not have the z'chus to win in battle. But, I do not know why this should be so.
What do you think?
Thank you.
Moshe Schlusselberg, Spring Valley, NY, USA
I don't know if these are the same phenomena. The Gemara chooses these specific Berachos, not just Berachah in general. It seems that skipping a Berachah detracts from the Mitzvah somewhat (even though it isn't integral to the Mitzvah). It "de-emphasizes" the Mitzvah that is being done.
In our Insights we included a nice explanation for how Tefilin is related to winning battles. As for Torah, we find that the Land was given to us on the condition that we continue to study the Torah, as the Rishonim explain.
Be well,
Mordecai Kornfeld