306. One-Hundred Brachos a Day

Tefillah u’Birkas Kohanim 7:14

A person is required to recite 100 brachos every day. These are: all the brachos enumerated in this chapter (23); the brachos before and after Shema in the morning and at night (7); when putting on the tallis, the bracha that God “has sanctified us with His commandments and commanded us to wrap ourselves in tzitzis” (1); when putting on tefillin, the bracha that God “has sanctified us with His commandments and commanded us to put on tefillin” (1); three Shemoneh Esreis of eighteen brachos each (54). This equals 86 brachos. The other 14 brachos comes from eating two meals, one by day and one by night. Each meal includes seven brachos: when washing the hands before eating (1); HaMotzi before the food (1) and bentching after (3); the bracha on the wine (1) and the bracha after the wine (1). This makes 100 brachos every day.

Tefillah u’Birkas Kohanim 7:15

In addition to the above, the Sages added the bracha against heretics in Shemoneh Esrei and added haTov v’haMeitiv in bentching, which makes five more brachos that we say every day. On Shabbos and yom tov, when the Amidah consists of only seven brachos - and on other days, if one is not obligated in certain brachos, such as if he didn’t sleep at night or use the bathroom, etc. - one must complete his 100 brachos by eating fruit and other foods, reciting the appropriate brachos.