In the Amida service we pray for virtually all our needs, including wisdom, forgiveness, good health, a livelihood and the restoration of the Bet Hamikdash. Interestingly, however, the Sages did not enact a blessing in the Amida for children. The Talmud speaks of "Beneh" (children) "Hayeh" (life) and "Mezoneh" (sustenance) as the three most basic needs that a person has. Yet, although in the Amida we pray for life and sustenance, there is no blessing in the Amida where we pray that we should beget children.
The commentaries explain that in truth, we do pray for children in the Amida. We beseech God in the seventh Beracha, "Re’eh Na Be’onyenu" – "Please see our torment." The term "Onyenu" appears in the Torah (Debarim 26:7) as part of the description of the Egyptian bondage: "Va’yar Et Onyenu" ("He [God] saw our torment"). We cite this verse in the Haggada on Pesah, and the Haggada explains it as a reference to "Perishut Derech Eretz" – Beneh Yisrael’s inability to procreate as they wished, due to the oppression. Thus, in the Amida, too, when we pray, "Re’eh Na Be’onyenu," we ask that God look mercifully upon us and grant our wish for children. It is in this Beracha, then, where we beseech God for children.
Appropriately, this Beracha concludes, "Baruch Ata Hashem Go’el Yisrael" ("Blessed are You, Hashem, Redeemer of Israel"). The Talmud teaches that Mashiah will come only when all the souls are emptied from the "Guf," the heavenly warehouse where the souls are stored. In order for the final redemption to come, all the souls that were created for the purpose of coming into this world must be brought down to earth. Thus, in the Beracha when we pray for children, we acknowledge that Hashem will bring us the redemption by granting our request for children.
Furthermore, this understanding of the Beracha of "Re’eh Na Be’onyenu" explains the juxtaposition between this Beracha and the subsequent Beracha, "Refa’enu," in which we pray for good health. The Talmud in Masechet Megila explains that the Sages designated the eighth Beracha of the Amida as the prayer for good health because newborn boys are circumcised on the eighth day and must be healed. The Beracha of "Refa’enu," then, refers to circumcised infants in need of healing. Accordingly, in the seventh Beracha we ask God for children, and then in the eighth we ask that He cure the newborn boys who have undergone Berit Mila.
In the merit of our prayers, may the Almighty bless all Am Yisrael with many healthy sons and daughters, Amen.
