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Thought for the Day: Why There Must Be No Interruption Bewteen the Bracha and the Action

You know it is true. There can be no interruption between the bracha and its target event, be that eating or the performance of a mitzvah. Why not? The Beis Yosef, R' Yosef Karo's commentary/analysis of the Tur, discusses this question in a surprising location; to be disclosed at the end, b'ezras HaShem.

Let's start with the text of the bracha. Before eating an apple, for example, we say: 
Blessed/praised are You, HaShem, King of the universe, who created the fruit of the tree.

Where do you see anything about eating an apple -- or any other fruit, for that matter -- in that statement? I mean, doesn't that sound like something you'd say when seeing a cool fruit, or even thinking about how much you like apples?

 The text of bracha before performing a mitzvah isn't any better. Take the waving of the lulav/myrtle/willow/esrog, for example:

Blessed/praised are You, HaShem, King of the universe, who sanctified us with His commandments and commanded us regarding the taking of a lulav.

That's even more enigmatic, no? Nothing about waving, and three of the species didn't get as much as an honorable mention. All the more surprising when you realize that missing one of them or adding something additional completely negates the bracha!

We see from here that Chazal formulated the bracha to get us into the proper frame of mind to appreciate enjoying this world. Whether the enjoyment is physical -- such as eating an apple and so forth -- or spiritual -- such as waving a lulav bound with myrtle/willow/esrog. In each case Chazal gave us a script to get into the right head space. That means that the bracha and action must be bound together. What binds the bracha to the action? The absence of interruption.

I have been careful to say "absence of interruption" and not "absence of talking" nor "absence of actions." That is because sometimes you need to talk or do something between the bracha and the action. For example, if the knife or salt is missing when making the bracha of ha'motzi, then you can ask for them. That is not called an interruption, because the action -- in this case, eating the bread -- cannot be performed without the salt/knife. (In fact, you are much better off asking straight out rather than gurgling "um.. um.." and pantomiming, which could lead to an actual interruption.)

Where is this discussion of the Beis Yosef? Orach Chaim, Siman 47 on ברכת התורה. The Beis Yosef uses the above analysis to demonstrate that you don't actually need to learn immediately after ברכת התורה. Since one is always obligated in learning Torah, any time someone is not learning, must be because they need to do something that prevents them from learning. In other words any non-Torah leaning time is necessary -- at least in the mind of the non-learner -- and therefore is no different than needing the knife or salt before eating the bread. That being the case, there never is an interruption between ברכת התורה and learning.

More on that when we discuss, בעזרת השם, using אהבה רבה for ברכת התורה in this TftD.

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