One of the components in this week’s Torah portion gives us the mitzvah of reciting birkat ha-mazon after we eat. Rabbi David J. Meyer comments on the nature of the grace after meals in his drash, “Thanksgiving and Dedication.”

Here is an excerpt:
The same can be said, of course, in regard to a prayer recited before partaking in a meal. In reciting the proper beracha for the food about to be eaten, we sense God’s blessing in our lives and in the world around us. Again, it is not we who are blessing the food. Instead, we acknowledge that God has already blessed the food, and that by enabling us to partake in the food, we also partake in the blessing.

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