The Asher Yatzar

Judaism has a prayer called the Asher Yatzar that is often recited after using the bathroom, a prayer grounded in the very real needs of our bodies. At first, some of us might blush over the idea of God caring about our bodily functions, especially those considered most vulgar. However, this prayer, as Tish Harrison points out, “dares us to believe that the God who holds the planets in orbit deigns to be involved with even the most mundane, pedestrian, and scatological parts of human embodiment:

Blessed are You, Hashem our God, King of the universe, Who formed man with…