וַיֹּאמֶר בָּרוּךְ השם אֱלֹקי שֵׁם וִיהִי כְנַעַן עֶבֶד לָמוֹ
And he said: Blessed be God, the God of Shem; may Canaan become their servant.
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ברכה is the fundamental idea of the Jew’s whole life. The whole purpose of the Torah is to teach us how to bless God, לברך את השם.
We are constantly called upon לברך, to bless God and God is ברוך, blessed.
The meaning is as follows: God’s Will is furthered by our commitment to fulfill His Will. God asks of man ברכני; further My aims, perform My commandments, realize My Will, bless my work, whose completion on earth depends on you!
ברכה is the commitment to further God’s aims in the world. When we make this commitment, God’s Will is furthered. He is blessed.
ברכה does not mean mere praise. Praise of Hashem becomes ברכה only when it has an effect on us, when our minds become illuminated and our hearts purified, leading us to do the Will of Hashem.
The ברכות we say in our daily שמונה עשרה are considered substitutes for the קרבנות not because of the requests we make, but because of the ברכות that we conclude each request with. Just as the קרבנות were לחם אשה השם, fuel for the fire of God on earth, representing the dedication of all of our energies and talents to carry out God’s will, so we make that same commitment with each ברכה of the שמונה עשרה. (For more, see Horeb, Avodah, pages 471-478)
Noach, the first ancestor of the new humanity, understood all of this. When we say ברוך, we are carrying out the work that was assigned to all of mankind. We are pronouncing the first word that was ever spoken to express man’s relation to God.
Beraishis 9:26
pages 249-250
