Q&A: Looking in a Mirror During the Asher Yatzar Blessing
Looking in a Mirror During the Asher Yatzar Blessing
Question
Is it appropriate to look at my own beauty in the mirror during the Asher Yatzar blessing, just as it is proper to see and smell the fruit before saying “Who creates the fruit of the tree,” etc.? And to draw from the thanksgiving motivation to take care of the body—since aesthetics are like the good peel of a fruit.
Hillel would bathe because the body is in the image of God. But it seems to me that Rabbi Simlai would not look at the image of a person on the king’s coin.
Thank you very much!
Answer
Asher Yatzar is not a blessing about beauty, but about complexity and purposefulness (that all the body’s openings are coordinated and intended for the proper functioning of the body). Therefore I see no reason at all to look in a mirror before the blessing. The complexity is something you know from life and from studying biology more than from a mirror.
As a rule, Jewish law prohibits a man from looking in a mirror because it is considered a woman’s accessory. True, nowadays the practice is to be lenient about this, and one who is lenient has authorities to rely on.