Lightning - Timing of Beracha

QUESTION: Do I recite the beracha on seeing lightning even if I only saw a flash of light and I did not see the bolt of lightning?

ANSWER: Tzitz Eliezer (12:21) writes that one indeed recites the beracha on seeing the flash of light even if one did not see the lightning. He explains that the Mishnah (Berachos 9:2) states that on lightning one recites the beracha “shekocho u’gevuraso malei olam” (His strength and might fill the world). This is also the wording of Shulchan Aruch and all the commentaries. None of them write that the beracha is recited specifically “on seeing” lightning, which would connote the need to see the bolt of lightning, but rather one recites the beracha on experiencing lightning. This was also the ruling of Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach (Minchas Shlomo II:34). He explains that it is appropriate to recite the beracha of “shekocho u’gevuraso” on seeing the flash of light even if one did not see the bolt of lightning, since through this as well one recognizes the strength and might of Hashem.

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