Versions of the Home Blessing

There are several Jewish blessings for the home. The most commonly used home blessing is actually not a blessing as it lacks the typical structure and words of Jewish blessings.

The modern "home blessing" Birkat haBayit (בִּרְכָּת הָבָּיִת)

בְּזֶה הַשַּׁעַר לֹא יָבוֹא צַעַר
Let no sadness come through this gate
No permitas que la tristeza pase a través de esta puerta

ְּבְּזֹאת הַדִּירָה לֹא תָבוֹא צָרָה
Let no trouble come to this dwelling
No permitas que ningún problema pase por este lugar

בְּזֹאת הַדֶּלֶת לֺא תָבוֹא בֶּהָלָה
Let no fear come through this door
No permitas que el miedo pase por esta puerta

בְּזֹאת הַמַּחְלָקָה לֺא תָבוֹא מַחְלוֺקֶת
Let no conflict be in this place
No permitas que ocurra ningún conflicto en este lugar

בְּזֶה הַמָּקוֺם תְּהִי בְרָכָה וְשָׁלוֺם
Let this home be filled with the blessing of joy and peace
Permite que este hogar se llene de la bendición de la alegría, y la paz

An engraved plaque with a version of the Birkat HaBayit (from Wikipedia)

The Birkat haBayit is the most commonly used petition to G¨d for the welfare of the home and its inhabitants. It often appears as an amulet inside the entrance of many houses of Jews of all streams. However, it actually does not include a blessing nor does it show the typical structure of Jewish blessings, which all start with ...בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה ה' אֱ-לֹהֵינוּ, מֶלֶך הָעוֹלָם (Barukh ata Adonai Eloheinu, melekh ha'olam... Blessed are You, LORD our G¨d, King of the universe...). Nor does it address G"d in any way. Provenance and authorship are unknown, but the petition seems to be of modern origin. There are several varieties of the Birkat haBayit .

The traditional home blessing from Devarim / Deuteronomy 28.6:

בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה בְּבֹאֶךָ וּבָרוּךְ אַתָּה בְּצֵאתֶךָ
You shall be blessed when you come, and you shall be blessed when you depart
Serás bendecido cuando vengas, y serás bendecido cuando te vayas
Gesegnet bist du bei deinem Kommen und bei deinem Gehen

The blessing was widely used as a house or home blessing in Central and Eastern Europe, but is now superseeded by the home blessing Birkat haBayit

Painting by Moritz Daniel Oppenheim portraying the meeting of Moses Mendelsohn, Gotthold Ephraim Lessing and Johann Kaspar Lavater in Berlin (1763). From the Magnes Collection (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

Detail of the painting by Moritz Daniel Oppenheim with homeblessing above the door. From the Magnes Collection (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

The painter Moritz Daniel Oppenheim included the blessing in his famous painting portraying the meeting of Moses Mendelsohn, the founder of the 'Jewish enlightenment' (Haskalah), with the writer Gotthold Ephraim Lessing and the Christian theologian Johann Kaspar Lavater in Berlin (1763). Lavater unsuccessfully tried to convert Mendelssohn to Christianity.

The blessing is inscribed above the entrance to Mendelsohn´s living room´s in his house in central Berlin.

The presence of Jews in my home area on the German-French-Luxemburg border goes way back. Jews were known to live in Roman Trier (Treves) in the 4th century CE. This was when it was – as Augusta Treverorum – the Roman capital of the prefecture of Gaul before the European Migration Period and Germanic invasions.

During the last centuries, acculturation produced the amalgamation of Jewish and local customs. An outstanding example is a surviving German-Hebrew inscription on the stone door lintel, dating from 1858, of a traditional rural farm house once built by a Jewish family. Its a cobination of the local tradition of marriage stones, displaying the name of husband and wife who built the house, the date the house was built, and the house blessing in Hebrew.

The street – In der Gass, Herchweiler, on the border between Saarland and Rheinland-Pfalz – was mainly inhabited by Jewish families until the Holocaust and was also the location of the now destroyed synagogue. The inscription is now protected as a cultural monument as the German-Hebrew inscriptions have become rare.

Lintel with home blessing above the entrance of a formerly Jewish owned house. S M G Funk, 2013 - CC BY-ND

Formerly Jewish owned house with the home blessing above the entranvce door. The owners were murdered during the Shoah. S M G Funk, 2013 - CC BY-ND:

An alternative "home blessing" from Psalm 121:8

יְֽהֹוָ֗ה יִשְׁמָר־צֵֽאתְךָ֥ וּבוֹאֶ֑ךָ
The Lord will guard your going out and your coming in
El Señor guardará tu salida y tu entrada
Der Herr behüte deinen Ausgang und Eingang

I haven't seen any art using Psalm 121:8 as a home blessing. Like the Birkat haBayit it is not a blessing per se, but I believe it is a very beautiful petition to G"d to protect us in our homes.