ברכות התורה with a Special Guest Blogger!

As we try to keep improving the blog, our next big project is to try to get Rabbis from our community to address some of these questions as well as our faculty.  Towards that end...

Layla Blenden asks:

Do you need to say birchot hatorah before listening to a song from a pasuk/with words of a pasuk in them?

Does it make a difference whether you're listening to it just because it's a nice song, or if, while listening, you're thinking about the words of that pasuk (as part of the torah)?

Rabbi Kenneth Schiowitz, Rabbi of Congregation Shaarei Tefilla, and Rosh Beit Midrash at Ramaz High School (as well as the husband of Ma'ayanot's own Mrs. Shira Schiowitz) responds:

It most certainly matters whether you are paying attention to the words of the song. If you are not, then you are not learning at all and you do not need to say birchot haTorah. If you are paying attention to the meaning of the words, then you are actually learning and would be getting a mitzvah of talmud Torah. This is similar to reading a sefer or listening to a shiur. Nevertheless, you do not need to say birchot hatorah. The Shulchan Aruch rules (OC 47:4) that one who is merely thinking (meharher) about Torah does not make a bracha; the bracha is reserved for one who expresses his/her learning through speech or writing.

As an aside, the Vilna Gaon argues with the Shulchan Aruch and rules that whenever you learn you must say the bracha, even if done silently.