The "Zemirot" section of our morning prayer service begins with the prayer of Baruch She'amar. It is told that this prayer originated from a piece of paper that fell from the heavens containing the words of Baruch She'amar. The Anshei Kenesset Ha'gedola (Men of the Great Assembly, who instituted and composed our liturgy) then incorporated this prayer into the standard morning service.
How are we to understand this account of a letter "falling from the heavens"?
According to one explanation, this account refers to the method by which the Anshei Kenesset Ha'gedola chose which expressions to use in praising God. In Baruch She'amar we mention many different descriptions of God's greatness, such as "Baruch Omer Ve'oseh" ("Blessed is He who carries out His word"), "Baruch Gozer U'mekayem" ("Blessed is He who issues decrees and fulfills them"), and so on. Now obviously there are endless descriptions of praise that can be recited in God's honor, and so the Anshei Kenesset Ha'gedola had to select just a small number of expressions of phrase with which to begin the "Zemirot." They therefore conducted a lottery, whereby they wrote hundreds of expressions of praise and the twelve or thirteen chosen from the box were selected in composing Baruch She'amar. Thus, the words of this prayer "fell from the heavens," as it were, in that it was left in God's hands to decide which expressions of praise would be selected.
The accepted text of Baruch She'amar contains eighty-seven words. Some found an allusion to this number in the verse, "Rosho Ketem Paz" ("His head is fine gold" – Shir Hashirim 5:11), which may be read to mean that the "head," or the beginning, of the prayer service is "Paz," a word with the Gematria (numerical value) of eighty-seven.
There is a widespread custom to kiss one's front Tzitzit strings upon completing the recitation of Baruch She'amar. Many books explain that in Baruch She'amar we recite many blessings to God ("Baruch She'amar…Baruch Omer…Baruch Gozer…"), but we make no mention of God's Name. Every Beracha must include the Name of God, and so we hold the two front Tzitzit, which together contain sixteen strings and ten knots, yielding the number twenty-six – the numerical value of the Divine Name. Thus, by holding the two Tzitzit strings we include the Name of God in the blessings of Baruch She'amar. This demonstrates how all accepted Minhagei Yisrael (customs of Israel), even if we do not understand them at first, have profound meaning and are rooted in sound logic and rationale.
(See Shulchan Aruch, Orach Hayim, Siman 51:1, and Kaf Hachayim Seif Kattan 1)
