Skip to main content

Thought for the Day: Hefsek Between the Bracha and the Eating

I have a physician friend who told me that his first big shock in med school came as he was walking out of his first exam.  Suddenly he realized that his here-to-fore successful modis operandi -- cramming knowledge into his brain before a test, locking it in there just long enough to finish the exam, then letting is ooze out as he left the classroom -- was not going to work any more.  People's lives were going to depend on his remembering what he learned!  Yikes!  YIKES!

Learning halacha is like that on steroids.  Whereas a physician can at worst only cause 70 or 80 years of pain and suffering.  Get a halacha wrong and you could get suffering with out limit and without end.  There's no words for that.  So before what I learned this morning completely leaks out, I'll write some down.  You are welcome to read what follows, but I urge you to check it up in the Mishna Brura (or Ben Ish Chai, if you prefer): Shulchan Aruch, OC, Siman 167, Syefim 6, 7.

When it comes to eating, what we call "making a bracha" is actually formally addressing the Creator of the world to thank and praise Him for the food we are about to enjoy.  Obviously, when you are talking to anyone it is just derech eretz to give them your full attention.  An interruption -- even a silent lapse -- between finishing the bracha and partaking of the nourishment is an extraordinary breach of derech eretz.  In fact, it is so bad that an interruption by even one word nullifies the original bracha and one needs to start over.  (That is, you just asked the Creator of the world -- your beloved King -- for a moment of His precious time; then said, "never mind."  Brrr... sends shiver down my spine.)

Making the bracha should, therefore, always be followed immediately by the eating/drinking.  However, if something is preventing you from eating, then talking to correct that situation is not considered an interruption.  The Shulchan Aruch gives several examples:

  • Asking for salt (or other accompaniment), which is a kavod for the bracha on bread.
  • Feeding your animals; that might even be d'oraisa (but you get to drink first, as we learn from Rivka Imeinu)
  • Instructing your butler/waiter/kids to get food for a guest who just arrived (so he can join in the s'uda)
How far does that go?  If someone is running really late and is heading for the kitchen to wash while the m'varech says the motzi; as long as the m'varech had in mind to be motzi whoever heard and the runner has in mind to be yotzi, he can now wash his hand, make a bracha of "al n'tilas yadayim", and then sit down to eat -- he is already ge'brachafied from before.

What if someone makes a bracha on an apple, then thinks to himself, "Hmm... I really should have made a nicer bracha...  I know I am yotzi b'di'avad, but I want to make a l'chatchila bracha", then makes another "borei pri ha'eitz"?  Since he didn't need that second bracha -- was not, in fact, permitted to have made that bracha -- it's not a bracha.  So he just talked between the bracha and the eating.  So now what should he do?  Make another "borei pri ha'eitz"?!?

I have broad enough shoulders to pasken this one: don't do that.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Thought for the Day: Pizza, Uncrustables, and Stuff -- What Bracha?

Many years ago (in fact, more than two decades ago), I called R' Fuerst from my desk at work as I sat down to lunch.  I had a piece of (quite delicious) homemade pizza for lunch.  I nearly always eat at my desk as I am working (or writing TftD...), so my lunch at work cannot in any way be considered as sitting down to a formal meal; aka קביעת סעודה.  That being the case, I wasn't sure whether to wash, say ha'motzi, and bentch; or was the pizza downgraded to a m'zonos.  He told if it was a snack, then it's m'zonos; if a meal the ha'motzi.  Which what I have always done since then.  I recently found out how/why that works. The Shulchan Aruch, 168:17 discusses פשטיד''א, which is describes as a baked dough with meat or fish or cheese.  In other words: pizza.  Note: while the dough doesn't not need to be baked together with the meat/fish/cheese, it is  required that they dough was baked with the intention of making this concoction. ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Thought for the Day: What Category of Muktzeh are Our Candles?

As discussed in a recent TftD , a p'sak halacha quite surprising to many, that one may -- even לכתחילה -- decorate a birthday cake with (unlit, obviously) birthday candles on Shabbos. That p'sak is predicated on another p'sak halacha; namely, that our candles are muktzeh because they are a כלי שמלאכתו לאיסור and not  מוקצה מחמת גופו/intrinsically set aside from any use on Shabbos. They point there was that using the candle as a decoration qualifies as a need that allows one to utilize a כלי שמלאכתו לאיסור. Today we will discuss the issue of concluding that our candles are , in fact, a כלי שמלאכתו לאיסור and not מוקצה מחמת גופו. Along the way we'll also (again) how important it is to have personal relationship with your rav/posek, the importance of precision in vocabulary, and how to interpret the Mishna Brura.  Buckle up. After reviewing siman 308 and the Mishna Brura there, I concluded that it should be permissible to use birthday candles to decorate a cake on Sha...
Post a Comment
Read more

Thought for the Day: אוושא מילתא Debases Yours Shabbos

My granddaughter came home with a list the girls and phone numbers in her first grade class.  It was cute because they had made it an arts and crafts project by pasting the list to piece of construction paper cut out to look like an old desk phone and a receiver attached by a pipe cleaner.  I realized, though, that the cuteness was entirely lost on her.  She, of course, has never seen a desk phone with a receiver.  When they pretend to talk on the phone, it is on any relatively flat, rectangular object they find.  (In fact, her 18 month old brother turns every  relatively flat, rectangular object into a phone and walks around babbling into it.  Not much different than the rest of us, except his train of thought is not interrupted by someone else babbling into his ear.) I was reminded of that when my chavrusa (who has children my grandchildrens age) and I were learning about אוושא מילתא.  It came up because of a quote from the Shulchan Aru...
Post a Comment
Read more