Foods Eaten During the Meal - Rabbi Menachem Mendel Vilshansky shlita

00:02 Speaker 1 You’re listening to “Lema’an Yishme’u,” a podcast from Machon Halacha Chabad.

00:09 Speaker 2 Good morning, gentlemen. With Hashem’s help, today we’ll continue our classes on the laws of blessings over food. This time we’ll focus mainly on chapter 4 of the Alter Rebbe’s Seder Birchos Hanehenin, which is the final edition—what he taught last. Before that, there was Luach Birchos Hanehenin, among other works, as well as his Shulchan Aruch. There were several editions. Here we’re discussing the final edition in the siddur, which was also written after the Orach Chayim section of the Alter Rebbe’s Shulchan Aruch. So this is a carefully refined presentation, and what it says here is practical halacha. There are many, many disputes in the laws of blessings over food, and here we have the rulings in Seder Birchos Hanehenin. Chapter 4 does involve many disputes found in the Shulchan Aruch and elsewhere, but the Alter Rebbe presents the halachic approach here in such distinctive language. With Hashem’s help, I’ll try to cover the main points. There is a topic already mentioned in the Gemara, beginning with the Mishnah in chapter 6 of Tractate Berachos: “How does one recite blessings over fruit?” “If one recited a blessing over bread, he has covered the parperes.” There is a topic called “the primary and the secondary.” We’ve discussed it before, and Rabbi Silam also has classes on it. Right now, we’re dealing with foods that are eaten because of the meal and during the meal. In other words, foods that come as part of the meal. Our question is whether the blessing over bread covers them. We know that in the words of Chazal, a meal means eating bread. When a person eats bread, that’s called a meal. He must wash his hands, recite the blessing over washing his hands, recite Hamotzi, and eat bread. From then on, everything he eats is part of the meal. But here’s the thing: at a meal, there are foods that are eaten because of the meal. In other words, people ordinarily eat them only at mealtime, or in the great majority of cases eat them at mealtime. It could be that a person

02:07 Speaker 2 eats them outside a meal too, but generally they’re eaten as part of a meal. Soup, for example. Right? If a person has washed his hands and also has soup, he’ll eat the soup during the meal. Farfel—I mean things like pasta and noodles. You can eat them on their own, but they’re meal foods. Usually, when a person washes his hands for breakfast, lunch, or dinner—usually lunch or dinner—then, as we know from the custom in Eretz Yisroel, for example, once you wash and eat the bread, they serve you the soup, the noodles, and so on. These are foods that provide nourishment and fill you up. They come as part of the meal, and they provide nourishment and fill you up. That last point shows that they aren’t foods you just—excuse the expression—snack on throughout the day. They aren’t something you eat on the go. On the other side are fruits. You would never define fruits as part of the meal. They aren’t eaten because of the meal, and they aren’t there to nourish and fill you up. Usually, if someone eats fruit—especially berries and the like, or tart fruits—he eats them for pleasure, as a treat. Right? He might also try to fill up on fruit. If someone is very hungry, or is setting out on a journey, he’ll take some fruit with him so he has something to eat and can quiet his hunger. But that isn’t what makes a meal. “Bread sustains the heart of man.” A meal is built around bread. “Bread sustains the heart of man.” Now, bread has its own special blessing, Hamotzi, and we’ve already discussed that. But when Chazal told us that when a person eats bread, its blessing covers everything that comes with it—“If one recited a blessing over bread, he has covered the—if one recited a blessing over bread, he has covered the parperes; a blessing over the parperes does not cover bread”—that means there are foods that come with the meal. Now, it may be bread that I’m making into a sandwich. In other words, I bring those foods as part of the meal, and I don’t merely eat them during the bread meal; I actually eat them together with the bread. I put them on the bread and combine them with it. They become part of my sandwich. For example, I can take fish, meat, and vegetables and put them inside the bread. Sometimes I’ll take vegetables. Even someone taking a sandwich on the road will generally try to spread cheese on it; that’s one of those foods. There are foods you don’t put inside bread. You can’t put pasta inside bread. You don’t put porridge inside bread. But these foods do come as part of the meal. In other words, we’re now distinguishing between foods that are part of a meal without being eaten with the bread itself, and foods that are actually eaten together with the bread. When you eat something with bread, you show that it has become something that makes the bread tastier. The bread is the primary food, and this adds flavor to it, makes it more enjoyable, and gives it a good taste, so that eating the bread is more appetizing and more filling. This distinction matters mainly for foods whose status as part of the meal is in doubt. With fish and meat, for example, whether they’re inside the bread or served after I’ve washed my hands, Hamotzi covers them. That’s clear: a person has recited Hamotzi, and everything that follows is part of the meal. As we

03:41 Speaker 2 Exempted the—if he made the blessing over bread, he exempted the parperes; if he made the blessing over the parperes, he did not exempt the bread. In other words, there are foods that come as part of the meal. Now, this might mean bread that I make into a sandwich. In other words, the things I bring as part of the meal are not just things I eat during the meal, during a bread meal. I actually eat them together with the bread. I put them on the bread and combine them with it. They become part of my sandwich. For example, you can take fish, meat, and vegetables and put them inside the bread. Sometimes I’ll take the vegetables. Even someone taking a sandwich for the road will always try to spread some cheese on it; that’s one of these things. There are foods you don’t put inside bread. You can’t put ptitim inside bread. You don’t put porridge inside bread. But these are foods that come as part of the meal. In other words, right now we’re distinguishing between foods that are part of the meal and foods that are actually in the bread. Some foods are part of the meal without being literally inside the bread, but they accompany the bread or continue the bread meal. And beyond that, some are actually eaten together with the bread. By eating them with the bread, you show that they’re there to give the bread flavor. The bread is the main thing, and the other food flavors it, makes it more enjoyable, and gives it a good taste, so that eating the bread is more appetizing and more satisfying. This distinction matters mainly for foods where there’s a question about whether they’re part of the meal. For example, with fish and meat, whether they’re inside the bread or served after I’ve washed my hands, the blessing of Hamotzi covers them. That’s clear: once a person has made Hamotzi, everything that comes afterward is part of the meal. As we—

05:31 Speaker 2 see at Shabbos meals: a person eats bread, then fish, meat, soup—that’s all part of the meal. True, there’s dessert. We call it lafasn. In halacha, lafasn means the food eaten together with bread. It’s what forms the main part of the meal. What people today call lafasn is dessert. It’s brought either to ease the heaviness of the food, for pleasure, or to offer something tasty as a pleasant finishing touch. But it isn’t part of the meal. When I say “eaten together with bread,” or lafasn, I mean something that comes as part of the meal to fill a person up, so that he can say, “I ate and was satisfied.” Unlike the first blessing, where there is a question—as we’ll see—about what it covers, the blessing after eating covers everything. Birchas Hamazon covers everything we ate. We’ll see that shortly. So, as I said earlier, a person is given bread or buys bread and sits down to eat. Of course, he washes his hands and recites Hamotzi. He’s served meat, fish, and vegetables. Whether he puts them in the bread or eats them on their own, they’re all considered part of the meal. One blessing of Hamotzi covers everything. Fine—but what happens if fruit is brought to him? The Rema writes in the Shulchan Aruch that fruit can never be considered part of the meal, because its whole purpose is enjoyment and pleasure. People eat it outside a meal. What happens if it’s brought during the meal? Let’s say someone sits down, washes his hands, and suddenly he’s served a bowl of fruit. I’m deliberately not saying vegetables; that’s open to discussion. Vegetables are usually part of the meal, yes. But he’s served fruit—apples, pineapple, even watermelon and melon. If it came at the end of the meal, if it was

07:38 Speaker 2 If it comes as dessert, then it certainly comes either for enjoyment and pleasure—to “delight oneself,” in the words of the Shulchan Aruch—or to ease the heaviness of the meal. Simply put, his stomach feels heavy, so he eases it by eating something tasty, and that relieves the pressure in his stomach. So he certainly says a blessing before eating it. Anything that comes at the end of the meal and is not part of the meal requires a blessing before eating it. According to the Alter Rebbe, this applies not only to blessings like Borei Pri Ha’adamah or Borei Pri Ha’eitz. It applies to Shehakol too. The Alter Rebbe rules that anything served at the end of the meal requires its own blessing before eating it. Yes, even if you eat chocolate and candy at the end of the meal, you say Shehakol. All the more so, if you eat fruit, you say Borei Pri Ha’eitz. There is a dispute about ice cream. We’ll discuss that another time, but its blessing is still Shehakol. And certainly, because it is served at the end of the meal, it should require a blessing. There is a dispute over whether it is considered a drink, as discussed in Birkas Habayis and Yalkut Yosef. But right now we’re talking about something else: a person is served fruit. They’ve just brought him fruit during the meal. Here we need to distinguish between cases. A person who eats fruit, whatever kind, together with bread the whole time does not need to say a separate blessing before eating it at all. When I eat it together with bread, it isn’t merely being served as an accompaniment; it isn’t just a food meant to nourish and fill me up. It’s actually put into the bread, into the sandwich. Or I eat it alongside the bread: every bite, everything I put in my mouth, is challah or bread together with the fruit. I don’t say a separate blessing before eating it, and there is no halachic doubt about it.

09:40 Speaker 2 So, for example—just to give an example—I’ve seen chassidim served ice cream who weren’t sure what blessing to say over it, or whether to say one at all. So they get clever and eat the ice cream spread on bread. That way they avoid any doubt about blessings, because spreading the ice cream on bread shows that you want it to be subordinate to the bread, to be part of it. You don’t say any blessing over the ice cream. Anything that’s part of a sandwich presents no problem regarding a blessing. But fruit served at the beginning of a meal as part of the meal, though not to be eaten with bread—if it’s uncooked and served for pleasure, the Alter Rebbe rules in accordance with the opinions that require a blessing before eating it. There is a dispute among the Rishonim about this—the Rosh and others—and the Alter Rebbe presents it as the ruling. A person has washed his hands and eaten bread. He’s at a meal, at an important event, and they serve—you know how it is—suddenly they bring him a cup filled with grapes and other fruits, a sort of fruit cocktail served at the beginning of an elegant, formal meal. What should he do? The Shulchan Aruch says not to eat it at the beginning of the meal, because there is a dispute. And if he wants to eat it, some of the commentaries on the Shulchan Aruch say to recite Borei Pri Ha’eitz before the meal: take a fruit, say the blessing and eat less than a kezayis before the meal, intending for the blessing to cover what you’ll eat during the meal. From the Alter Rebbe’s words in Seder Birchos Hanehenin, it emerges that if a person is served fruit at the beginning of the meal, does not eat it with bread, and the fruit is uncooked, he may say Borei Pri Ha’eitz over it. A grape, grapes, cherries, strawberries—say the appropriate blessings over that whole fruit cocktail they serve at the beginning of the meal. Just like that. True, some say that according to the Alter Rebbe’s Shulchan Aruch, even so,

11:47 Speaker 2 it’s preferable to say the blessing before the meal. But according to the straightforward ruling in the Shulchan Aruch, that’s how it is. Now, here we run into a problem: cooked fruit. For example, a cooked apple. And the balabusta serving it adds a few raisins and perhaps little pieces of meat. She says, “I brought this as part of the meal.” The person has washed his hands, and now he’s served an apple with cinnamon—a cooked apple with cinnamon, a few raisins, and perhaps little pieces of meat. What’s the ruling? It’s disputed. Cooked fruit is a matter of dispute. So the Alter Rebbe says, “Ideally, take a fruit before the meal and say a blessing over it.” Take an apple, cooked or uncooked, before the meal. Eat less than a kezayis and say Borei Pri Ha’eitz, because if you eat a kezayis, you’ll become obligated to say a blessing afterward. Eat less than a kezayis, and intend for that blessing to cover what you’ll eat during the meal. It’s like the maror we eat: we say Borei Pri Ha’adamah and intend for it to cover the korech and the lettuce, and so on and so forth. What’s the issue here? Well, with cooked fruit, there’s a dispute. Some say that cooked fruit is more readily considered part of the meal than uncooked fruit. Uncooked fruit is certainly not part of the meal. But cooked fruit—why was it cooked if not to be eaten as food? Especially if it has a few little pieces of meat, as the Alter Rebbe says, even with meat. So we have a doubt, and that’s why you should say the blessing over a fruit before the meal. There’s another solution. As we said earlier, eat it with bread. With every bite, every taste, every time you put some in your mouth, include bread along with the fruit, or wrap it in bread—make it a sandwich. You’ve avoided the problems. But what happens if you’re served fruit for enjoyment and pleasure, and you want to start eating it with bread and then stop?

13:47 Speaker 2 You must say a blessing before eating the fruit. Note this: you’ve been served fruit for enjoyment and pleasure, not as part of the meal. You start eating it with bread, then stop and want to continue eating it without bread. If you know from the outset that you won’t be eating this fruit with bread the whole time, throughout the meal, you must say a blessing over it. Only if you eat it with bread throughout the meal are you exempt from saying a separate blessing. But what if I didn’t bring the fruit for enjoyment and pleasure? I brought it as part of the meal. I know I want to feel, so to speak, full afterward—satisfied from the bread and full from the fruit. I brought it to eat as food, and I want to eat it with bread. The Alter Rebbe says, “If you know you’ll eat it with bread at the beginning and with bread at the end, then even if you don’t eat it with bread in the middle, that’s fine; you don’t have to say a separate blessing.” But if you start eating it and won’t finish eating it with bread, and you brought it as part of the meal, there’s again a dispute. You brought the fruit as part of the meal, you start eating it with bread, then stop, and you don’t want to go back to eating it with bread at the end either. Because if you start with bread and intend to eat it with bread again later, toward the end, that’s fine—even if you don’t actually go back to eating it with bread. But if you know in advance: I brought the fruit for enjoyment and pleasure—for satiety, sorry—and I want to eat it with bread, but I’ll stop in the middle. If it was for enjoyment and pleasure, then you certainly need to say a blessing at the outset. But since you’re saying that it’s for satiety, and we said earlier that when fruit is eaten with bread, we don’t say a separate blessing over it,

15:28 Speaker 2 All the more so, if you’re eating it to fill yourself up, you don’t make a blessing. But if you eat it to fill yourself up with bread, though not the whole time—you stop eating it with bread halfway through—then we get into a dispute. So make a blessing—don’t get into that situation. Either eat it with bread the whole time, or make a blessing on the fruit before the meal to avoid the dispute. So, regarding fruit according to the Alter Rebbe: if you bring out fruit and won’t eat it with bread, and it’s for enjoyment and pleasure, you can make its blessing at the start of the meal. But if any detail is different, either make a blessing on it before the meal and resolve all the questions, or eat it with bread throughout and resolve the questions that way. That was a brief summary of how to avoid the problem. But we’re left with a real question. With ptitim, there’s no question that they’re part of the meal. But what if someone eats the apples we mentioned earlier, cooked with meat? What then? Let’s take Waldorf salad. Waldorf, a pineapple-and-apple salad, isn’t cooked. Today it’s part of meals. When someone wants to serve a nice meal, some people order Waldorf salad. I don’t know where that name came from—perhaps it’s named after some town in Germany where they invented this pineapple-and-apple salad. A person wants to eat this salad, but it isn’t cooked. If he eats it with challah or bread, there’s no problem. But something interesting has happened in our generation. The Rema writes that fruit can never be part of the meal. Generally, a person eats pineapple for enjoyment and pleasure, and it’s also an elegant fruit served at lavish meals. Apples, too,

17:24 Speaker 2 but an apple still isn’t part of the meal; it’s something you eat along the way. So what happened? I asked rabbis: If someone eats only challah and Waldorf salad, if Waldorf salad is all he has, it’s part of his food. There’s a basis in the Alter Rebbe’s ruling for not making a blessing, because it’s covered by the blessing on the bread. If there are several salads, and he’s eating bread and is served Waldorf salad—not that Waldorf is his only accompaniment, but there are several salads, including Waldorf, and it was explicitly served as one of the salads eaten to fill you up—it isn’t dessert. Apple-and-pineapple salad isn’t served as dessert; it’s expressly put on the table with the other salads as part of the meal. When I asked rabbis about this years ago, as a bochur, they told me, “What are you talking about? You need to make a blessing on it before the meal, because there’s a doubt.” What’s the doubt? Whether nowadays it’s covered as part of the meal or not. Make the blessings borei pri ha’eitz and borei pri ha’adamah on something else, less than a kezayis, before the meal. Years later, I asked those same rabbis what they thought, and they said, “It’s already become the common practice.” The common practice today is to treat apples and pineapple as part of the meal. But they told me it still needs further consideration, because that isn’t always quite the case. So they said: If you eat it during the meal, don’t make a blessing on it. When you see people eating it during a meal at a wedding, don’t go and tell them to eat it with challah or bread the whole time, or to make a blessing on something else. But someone who wants to be meticulous and stringent for himself in matters of our Sages’ teachings, especially in fundamental matters of halachah—and particularly blessings over food, on which such fundamental matters depend, blessing and praising Hashem—should either eat the Waldorf salad with bread throughout,

19:29 Speaker 2 or at least begin and end eating it with challah or bread, or eat less than a kezayis of a fruit requiring borei pri ha’eitz and something requiring borei pri ha’adamah before the meal. Either way, we shouldn’t object to what people do, since Waldorf salad has become part of the meal, part of the... As for the cooked apple served with raisins, or a baked apple served as part of the meal, that’s also a question. Sometimes it’s served... The Alter Rebbe says that even fruit served with meat, even a little meat, remains fruit. Since it’s brought as part of the meal—usually it’s served alongside the chicken or meat, and they serve this too—clearly whoever serves it intends it to help fill you up. So you could call it common practice, as with Waldorf salad, say that it’s part of the meal, and not object to what everyone is doing. Or you could say: Eat it with challah and satisfy all the approaches and opinions. In any event, with this apple, if it comes with meat, the Alter Rebbe says that doesn’t change its blessing. But there’s a point to consider about the meat: serving it with meat, even small pieces, shows that they specifically want to make it part of the meal. In other words, it isn’t brought for enjoyment and pleasure; it’s brought as part of the meal, so the question here is much harder. I don’t know why I haven’t seen people being stringent about this. At meals where I’ve seen it served, people don’t treat it as a question. I don’t know why. But in any case, from the plain meaning of the Alter Rebbe’s words, it seems you can’t make a blessing on it, because it’s cooked and comes as part of the meal. So, indeed, either eat it with challah or

21:22 Speaker 2 make a blessing on something else before the meal. And I would welcome someone shedding light on this; perhaps I’ll hear a different view. At any rate, that’s how it seems. To clarify, the only thing I still have a doubt about is the apple with raisins. We’ve already discussed everything else, Waldorf salad and the other cases. That was an aside about the apple with raisins. In the past, when a person was eating, his neighbor might know about it and bring him food during the meal. The Alter Rebbe says that if it’s customary for people to know that when you make hamotzi, your neighbor may come and bring you various things, then making hamotzi covers it all. But if something new is brought to your meal and you didn’t know about it beforehand, and it wasn’t part of the meal, wasn’t in your home, came from somewhere else, and bringing it isn’t customary, then you need to make a blessing. So bochurim eating in yeshivah have in mind whatever the kitchen serves; even if donations of food arrive, they don’t need to make another blessing. Bochurim sitting in 770, people sitting in 770—you start eating and more things arrive; trays keep coming. Certainly, when you make a blessing, you have in mind everything that will come later. Of course, I mean that a blessing of mezonos covers all the mezonos foods, and ha’eitz covers all the fruits requiring ha’eitz. Why? Because it’s normal for food to be brought. But when a person is sitting at home today, it isn’t normal for someone to bring food—perhaps on Purim. On Purim, it really is normal for mishloach manos to arrive. A person washes his hands, someone suddenly brings a special challah and he makes hamotzi on it, and then some special meat or dish arrives. So certainly, on Purim, when a person washes his hands, he has in mind everything that might arrive in mishloach manos. I

23:01 Speaker 2 am not talking about sweets or things eaten for enjoyment and pleasure, or about dessert. I’m talking about the meal, about things people prepare as food, as salads and the like. In other words, when I said that hamotzi covers everything that comes during the meal, I meant what you had in mind for the meal, what you know will come—not something that unexpectedly turns up. Unless, of course, that’s the local custom. On Purim it is customary; in 770 it is customary. At home, you eat what you have in the house and in the refrigerator. So if someone brings you new food—unless you’re hosting guests for Shabbos and they normally bring things, in which case there’s no problem—but at an ordinary weekday meal at home, if new food is brought, hamotzi is not considered to have covered it. Everything we’ve said until now is different when it comes to drinks. What’s the rule for drinks during a meal? There are disputes about this among the Rishonim. But in Seder Birchos Hanehenin, the Alter Rebbe establishes a principle for us: A meal generally makes a person thirsty and leads him to drink. In other words, drinking is a need of the meal, right? That’s how it is. The way of the world, says the Alter Rebbe, is that when a person eats, he develops a desire to drink—whether because he becomes thirsty or because he wants to drink as part of the meal. See who that is. Some people don’t want to drink various beverages before the meal, but specifically during the meal, perhaps for health reasons. Nowadays, incidentally, doctors say to drink well before the meal and not during it. But we’re talking about someone who normally drinks during the meal, as on Shabbos and the like. The Alter Rebbe says that all the drinks you have during the meal, apart from things that aren’t normally drunk during a meal or that have

24:54 Speaker 2 Wine has a special status. Even though we said that once you sit down to eat, the blessing of Hamotzi covers not only the food but also the drinks, wine has its own blessing, and Hamotzi does not cover it. So you always have to say Borei Pri Hagafen over wine. What if someone said Borei Pri Hagafen at Kiddush? Then he certainly does not have to say it again during the meal, because a blessing he said over wine before the meal covers the wine served during the meal. That is always true, whether it was at Kiddush or not. The question concerns someone else: a person listens to Kiddush and fulfills his obligation for the blessing over wine. Now he washes his hands, eats, and is served wine. Does he need to make a blessing over it? That depends. If he regularly drinks wine during a meal, the Borei Pri Hagafen he heard before the meal covers both the wine he tasted then and the wine during the meal. But if he does not regularly drink wine during a meal, it does not cover it. Here we should also note: if a person said Borei Pri Hagafen, left the room, washed his hands, and came back, we must distinguish between the person who made Kiddush and the person who heard it. If the person who made Kiddush left the room after saying Borei Pri Hagafen, and he drank a revi’is—not just a cheekful, which is often less than a revi’is; halachically it is less than a revi’is unless the person is exceptionally large. A cheekful means filling one cheek, or both. In short, if he drank less than a revi’is, left the room, and came back, he will now have to make another blessing over

27:00 Speaker 2 the wine during the meal. A person who heard Kiddush—but if the person who made Kiddush drank a revi’is, sorry, then after the fact, if he left and came back, he does not make another blessing over wine during the meal. Now, someone who heard Kiddush from another person and fulfilled his obligation for Borei Pri Hagafen: if he regularly drinks wine during a meal, that blessing would cover the wine served during the meal. But if he left the room and came back, the blessing over wine that he heard at Kiddush does not cover the wine during the meal, and he will have to make another blessing over it. Let’s summarize. When a person says Hamotzi Lechem Min Ha’aretz, it covers all drinks, but it does not cover wine. Because wine has its own special status, he needs to make a blessing over it. What if he made a blessing over wine before the meal, or even heard Kiddush before the meal? If he regularly drinks—sorry: someone who made a blessing over wine before the meal has covered the wine during the meal. Someone who heard Kiddush has also covered the wine during the meal if he regularly drinks wine during a meal. Incidentally, hearing Kiddush also covers all other drinks. If someone hears Kiddush, eats mezonos, and is then served water, Borei Pri Hagafen covers the other drinks. Since he fulfilled his obligation by hearing the blessing, he does not make another blessing over them. But wine has a special status. So if he regularly drinks wine during a meal, he does not need to make another blessing over it. If he left the room, however, we distinguish between the person who made Kiddush and drank a revi’is—who, if he left and came back, does not say Borei Pri Hagafen again after the fact—and someone who heard Kiddush and only tasted the wine, certainly less than a revi’is, then left the room to wash his hands or for any other reason

28:42 Speaker 2 and came back. If he is served wine, the blessing he heard before the meal does not cover it during the meal, and he must make a separate blessing over the wine, even though he does not make a blessing over the other drinks. So we see that there are differences between types of drinks. For example, the Kitzur Shulchan Aruch raises a question, which Misgeres HaShulchan discusses: suppose vodka is served. For someone studying the Kitzur Shulchan Aruch, vodka is not something ordinarily drunk during a meal, so the question is whether one must make a blessing over it during the meal. It has the status of spirits. The Alter Rebbe discusses this: if it is brought as part of the meal, to help with the heaviness of the food, one does not need to make a blessing over it. But if he wants to drink the spirits for another reason, and it is not customary there to drink them during a meal—he brings them simply as a drink of some importance—then they are not part of the meal, because people do not ordinarily drink them with a meal. So the Kitzur Shulchan Aruch—or Misgeres HaShulchan—asks: what about vodka? And he answers that vodka might not otherwise be part of the meal, but chassidim are accustomed to saying l’chaim. Heaven forbid, those under forty do not drink a revi’is, but they certainly say l’chaim over less than a revi’is. So it is part of the meal, part of the farbrengen. There is no question about it; it is certainly covered. In particular, the Frierdiker Rebbe once sat at a farbrengen where various tasty foods and favorite things were served, along with vodka. The Frierdiker Rebbe said: among chassidim, we—sorry, halachah says that one first makes a blessing over the item one favors most. The Frierdiker Rebbe said, “There is l’chaim here. How could it

30:23 Speaker 2 not be favored by a chossid?” The taste of vodka is not delicious, but the drink is cherished because of what it represents. So the Frierdiker Rebbe took it and gave it precedence over all the other foods and drinks when making the blessings. That means that for us it even has a special importance, and it is certainly covered during the meal because it is part of the meal. On the one hand, it does not have wine’s special status, which would require a separate blessing; on the other hand, it is part of the meal. Tea and coffee, for example, are generally drunk during a meal too—sometimes with it, sometimes without. But if an especially unusual drink is served that has no connection to the meal, it may require a blessing. The Alter Rebbe gives the example of beer and mead: they are not necessarily part of the meal. There is something very important to emphasize about what we discussed earlier. We said that if a person drank less than a revi’is of wine, then left his place to wash his hands and came back, he now has to say Borei Pri Hagafen again over wine during the meal, because he left his place. The same applies to someone who heard Kiddush from another person and then left his place. We also said that even if someone drank a revi’is and left his place without having intended to do so, it is only after the fact that he does not say Borei Pri Hagafen again during the meal, because he drank a revi’is. All of this is when he had not intended to leave. As we learned before, when a person takes an apple and says Borei Pri Ha’etz, that blessing can cover the whole house if he intends it to. If he says Borei Pri Ha’etz and goes into another room, even if he returns to the first room, he must say Borei Pri Ha’etz again. But if, when making the blessing, he has the entire house and all its rooms in mind, the blessing covers them all. The same applies to wine.

32:20 Speaker 2 If, when making Kiddush, he thought, “I’m going to go into this room and that room, and I want my blessing to cover everything,” then even if he now goes into another room, washes his hands, and returns to his meal, he will not need to make another blessing over wine served during the meal. He had all the rooms, and everything that would come later, in mind. Everything we discussed earlier was when he had not thought of that. If he intended it in advance, the blessing covers everything. This deserves special emphasis: a person’s intention matters. Even someone who regularly drinks wine during a meal should always have all the rooms of the house in mind when making Kiddush, in case he goes out and comes back, so that he will not have a problem with the blessing. One who drinks water because he is thirsty says Shehakol. You cannot make a blessing over water if you are not thirsty, but if you are thirsty, you do. What if someone was thirsty before the meal, decided to put off drinking, and now wants a drink during the meal? The water is covered by Hamotzi. Why? Because, after all, the meal adds to his thirst. There is no eating without drinking; eating makes you thirsty. That, at least, is how the Alter Rebbe rules in practice, so he does not need to make a blessing. What happens next?

33:58 Speaker 2 Earlier, a person drank wine and made a blessing on—someone who needs to, because he is not accustomed to drinking wine during the meal, or because he did not drink wine before the meal, and he said Borei Pri Hagafen. Someone was served fruit—uncooked fruit, for whatever reason, perhaps a fruit cocktail—and made a blessing on it during the meal: Borei Pri Ha’eitz, or Borei Pri Ha’adamah on strawberries or watermelon. Someone was served dessert and made the blessing required for dessert. Just as he makes a blessing beforehand, does he also need to make a blessing afterward? After all, he was obligated by halachah to make the first blessing. Must he make an after-blessing too, or not? The halachah is that Birchas Hamazon covers everything. True, the blessing of Hamotzi Lechem Min Ha’aretz covers the bread, the meal, and what comes as part of the meal. But as for Birchas Hamazon, one of the Rishonim, the Razah, writes that it covers everything consumed up to that point. In other words, everything you ate and were satisfied by is included. That’s it. Whether because it is secondary to the meal or because it contributed to your satisfaction, either way: “You shall eat and be satisfied”—once you have eaten and are satisfied, everything you ate, everything that went in and became part of you, is part of the meal you had. And for that you make one blessing: “You shall eat and be satisfied and bless”—Birchas Hamazon. Birchas Hamazon covers everything, even food that did not come as part of the meal and on which you made a separate blessing beforehand. In other words, there may be a question about the blessing beforehand, but not about the blessing afterward. Birchas Hamazon covers it all. Of course, if a person goes to eat something else after Birchas Hamazon, that is different. For example—

35:45 Speaker 2 Dessert. You always make a blessing on dessert. We said that according to the Alter Rebbe, you must make a blessing even on any dessert served at the end of the meal, even if its blessing is Shehakol. There are opinions that you do not make a blessing at the end of a meal on foods whose blessing is Shehakol. But we know that if you are served cake, honey cake—which we discussed previously as requiring Borei Minei Mezonos—any cake about which there is no doubt at all, and no opinion holds that its blessing is Hamotzi, such as honey cake, which everyone agrees requires Borei Minei Mezonos: if it is served at the end of the meal for enjoyment, as dessert, you must say Borei Minei Mezonos. The same applies if you are served fruit at the end of the meal as part of... Ice cream, according to those who hold that even though it will melt, it is not considered a drink; as long as it is frozen, it is considered food, and you say Shehakol on it. You make a blessing beforehand on any dessert, whatever its blessing may be. That is the Alter Rebbe’s position. You are exempt from an after-blessing, but this is the place to mention a halachah that appears in the Alter Rebbe’s Shulchan Aruch, at the end of the laws of blessings on fruit. The Alter Rebbe says this: although, when you eat dessert at the end of a meal, you fulfill the requirement for the after-blessing through Birchas Hamazon—you make a blessing beforehand, and Birchas Hamazon covers what comes afterward—there is still room, and there are opinions, to make an after-blessing too, especially on Shabbos, when we should increase the number of blessings we say in order to reach one hundred blessings. Therefore, the Alter Rebbe says to eat—one should be particular about this. People are not so particular about it today, but the Alter Rebbe wrote in his Shulchan Aruch that one should be particular to eat dessert after the meal in order to gain two blessings. This is not considered putting oneself in a position to make an unnecessary blessing, as though it were a kind of blessing in vain, or—

37:32 Speaker 2 Or an unnecessary blessing of some kind. Rather, the Alter Rebbe specifically says: on Shabbos we should increase the number of blessings, so eat dessert after Birchas Hamazon. Then you can make not only a blessing beforehand but an after-blessing as well, and make progress toward your one hundred blessings. It is worth doing, the Alter Rebbe says, so that you have both. In other words, yes, Birchas Hamazon exempts you, and that is how people generally conduct themselves: they eat dessert before Birchas Hamazon and are exempt from an after-blessing. But someone who wants to reach one hundred blessings and be more meticulous has a halachic basis for making the after-blessing too. That is not considered adding unnecessary blessings, so he should have dessert after the meal. In practice, I have not seen people particular about this in their homes—not even in the homes of rabbis, or in my father’s home. Perhaps that is because in Seder Birchos Hanehenin, the Alter Rebbe states it very simply and does not mention this at all; he simply says to make a blessing beforehand. He does not discuss Shabbos there, so that does not really prove anything. But in practice, he says: make a blessing beforehand; do not make an after-blessing. I do not see that as proof. Seder Birchos Hanehenin does not discuss Shabbos. Still, at large meals, at all the Sheva Brachos meals and the like, I have never seen people deliberately do this on Shabbos. I have been with great rabbis and have not seen them do it... Some practiced iskafya, yes. I have seen many rabbis practice iskafya and either not eat dessert or eat it with bread, right? Not necessarily because iskafya with food is the main thing today, but we certainly need to remember the concept of iskafya. Reb Nissan Nemenov, when he was served ice cream for the first time—he was in Ameri—America—

39:11 Speaker 2 They served him ice cream, and he said, “Marozhna [?], marozhna [?].” So yes, today we practice iskafya in other things too. Delaying gratification. Yes, you have tasty food—eat it. The Rebbe says that today this is not the main point. The Rebbe told Rabbi Pinye Korf in yechidus that iskafya with food is not the main point. But you can put it off a little, rather than having it all at once. Regarding the blessings on wine, there are things that stimulate the appetite. Wine before a meal is considered part of the meal. Why? Because it stimulates the appetite. There is kiddush wine, and there is ordinary wine. Whenever a person drinks wine, the Gemara says, the wine opens the stomach, opens the—the stomach and the heart, and leads a person to eat. So drinking wine before a meal is generally for the sake of the meal. What difference does this make? Birchas Hamazon. When a person drinks wine before the meal, he does not need to make the after-blessing, Al Hagefen Ve’al Pri Hagefen. Why? Birchas Hamazon covers the wine too. Why? Because the wine is part of the meal. All the more so when we are talking about kiddush. Kiddush may only be made in the place where one eats a meal. The Alter Rebbe explains in section 471—271, sorry—“And you shall call Shabbos a delight.” When you proclaim Shabbos and say “the sixth day,” the proclamation must be in the place of delight, where you enjoy the Shabbos meal. That is where you say the blessing. The meal gives the blessing its significance. The meal and the blessing are connected. Since kiddush may only be made in the place where one eats a meal, you cannot make kiddush without eating there. There is a dispute about this in the Gemara, but the halachah is that you cannot make kiddush unless you eat and drink there and have the meal. That means a meal of bread or a meal of mezonos: an egg’s volume of bread or an egg’s volume of mezonos.

41:07 Speaker 2 Kiddush must be made where the meal is eaten. That means the whole Kiddush is for the sake of the meal. So you certainly do not need to say Al Hagefen after drinking the wine of Kiddush; Birkat Hamazon covers that wine and any other wine you drink. Incidentally, if a person drank the wine of Kiddush—a revi’is—and now feels like drinking more wine, the blessing over Kiddush covers the blessing before that wine, and Birkat Hamazon covers the blessing afterward. That is because wine is considered a need of the meal: it opens the appetite. The same applies to any drink used for that purpose. In the past, too, there were various kinds of drinks—wine, spirits, beer. Anything a person drank to open his appetite was included in the meal, even if he drank it before the meal. All the more so with wine. The question arises when a person drank wine at Kiddush and, before washing his hands, wants to drink a revi’is of water. That puts him in a position of doubt about the after-blessing. He may need to say an after-blessing, which would separate the drinking from the meal. So we avoid the doubt and do not drink after Kiddush until we are in the meal. If a person nevertheless drank a revi’is of water—or cola—before the meal, it is never covered by Birkat Hamazon afterward. Only drinks consumed during the meal are covered by Birkat Hamazon for that meal. So for anything you drank before the meal other than wine, even though the blessing over the wine covered its initial blessing—a person said Borei Pri Hagafen, drank wine, and now drinks cola; we said not to enter into this doubt, but he did drink it—if he drank a revi’is, he should say Borei Nefashos Rabbos, because Birkat Hamazon does not cover it. When do we have a question concerning wine? Wine

42:59 Speaker 2 As we said, whenever you drink wine before the meal, Birkat Hamazon covers it. The question concerns wine that is not connected to a meal—for example, the wine of Havdalah. A person makes Havdalah to mark the end of Shabbos. His intention is not the meal; he intends to go about his work now that Shabbos is over. So what happens if, immediately after Havdalah, he has a Melaveh Malkah meal and washes his hands for it? If, at Havdalah, he has in mind the wine he will drink during the meal—he is accustomed to drinking wine at Melaveh Malkah, and his blessing over the Havdalah wine is also intended for that wine—then Birkat Hamazon covers the Havdalah wine. He does not say Al Hagefen Ve’al Pri Hagafen after Havdalah, because he intended to have the Melaveh Malkah meal immediately afterward. But if he said the blessing without any particular intention, he remains obligated to say the full after-blessing, Al Hagefen Ve’al Pri Hagafen. Even if he remembers during the meal: if he is not accustomed to drinking wine, did not have the wine of the meal in mind when saying the Havdalah blessing, and is not going to drink wine, then even if he has already washed his hands and started eating bread, he must say Al Hagefen Ve’al Pri Hagafen. There is one case that exempts him. Pay attention: if someone makes Havdalah with the wine of the meal in mind, there is no problem. If he made Havdalah without that intention, there is a case... then he needs to say Al Hagefen Ve’al

44:44 Speaker 2 Pri Hagafen, even if he has washed his hands. If he has already said Birkat Hamazon, he has fulfilled the obligation after the fact. That is the case that exempts him. But there is another case that exempts him from the outset, not just after the fact. Someone who made Havdalah, did not say Al Hagefen, and then said Birkat Hamazon has, after the fact, covered the after-blessing for the Havdalah wine. But when is a person exempt from saying Al Hagefen Ve’al Pri Hagafen from the outset? In other words, when does he not need to say Al Hagefen? First, as we said, when he had the meal’s wine in mind. Second, even if he did not, if he intends to make a zimun over a cup of wine after Birkat Hamazon, then the Al Hagefen Ve’al Pri Hagafen he says after drinking the cup of zimun will also cover the Havdalah wine. So a person who makes Havdalah must ordinarily say Al Hagefen Ve’al Pri Hagafen afterward. If, when saying Borei Pri Hagafen, he intended it to cover the wine at his Melaveh Malkah meal, he has fulfilled his obligation. If he did not, he should say Al Hagefen Ve’al Pri Hagafen. After the fact, Birkat Hamazon covers it. If he did not have that intention and knows he did not, but expressly intends to make a zimun over wine—there are three people, and he will make a zimun over wine—then the Al Hagefen after the meal will also cover the Havdalah wine, and he need not say Al Hagefen now. With that, we have summed up the law concerning the blessing over wine before a meal. In general, the Alter Rebbe already says in chapter 1 of Seder Birchos Hanehenin that wine opens the appetite, and therefore, when drunk before a meal, it does not require a separate after-blessing. Birkat Hamazon covers the Al Hagefen that would follow wine drunk before the meal, because

46:46 Speaker 2 it is part of the meal. But Havdalah has a different purpose. The person is not thinking about the meal at all. Still, if he had the meal in mind, that covers it. If he did not, but he is going to make a zimun over a cup of wine, then the Al Hagefen after Birkat Hamazon will also cover the Al Hagefen for the Havdalah wine, and he need not say it separately. If neither of those applies, he certainly should always say Al Hagefen Ve’al Pri Hagafen for the cup of Havdalah. While discussing all this, we should know that there are also parperos. Parperos are various sweet things—not necessarily mezonos—various sweets that stimulate the appetite for a meal. A person eats something before the meal to open his appetite and encourage himself to eat. Something sweet, sugar, gives him an appetite. He does not need to say an after-blessing, because he is explicitly eating it for the sake of the meal. He eats it now so that afterward the blessing over the bread covers even the parperes; all the more so, it covers its after-blessing. In other words, all kinds of parperos—sweet foods or delicacies. When he eats these before the meal to stimulate his appetite, he does not say an after-blessing, because Birkat Hamazon covers everything connected to the meal. So, to avoid unnecessary blessings, we need to know these laws well and be proficient in them, so that we do not say an after-blessing when it is unnecessary. Although, according to the Tzemach Tzedek and the Alter Rebbe, an unnecessary blessing is not a Torah-level prohibition. It is not considered taking Hashem’s name in vain

48:33 Speaker 2 as in a Torah-level oath. It is a rabbinic prohibition, but it is still forbidden. The words of the Sages are treated more stringently than the words of the Torah. We must be careful, and that is why we make such an effort to know the laws of Birchos Hanehenin well, so as not to say an unnecessary blessing. So we have finished chapter 4. We covered and explained all the laws, with one exception: we did not go into great detail about something uncommon—the laws concerning beer, spirits, and mead. We touched on all of them as things that are not common today. They are not really part of a meal, and nowadays people are not generally accustomed to drinking them before a meal to open their appetite. But certainly, if someone drinks spirits to open his appetite, he does not say an after-blessing. If a Jew comes here from any country and is accustomed to drinking an alcoholic beverage every time before washing his hands for bread—he drinks it to open his appetite—whether it is beer or vodka, he does not say an after-blessing over it. Why? Because he drinks it for the sake of eating, as part of the meal. He is exempt from an after-blessing and cannot say one. Not only is he exempt; Birkat Hamazon covers that drink too. May it be Hashem’s will that we merit to say Birchos Hanehenin as we eat of the fruits and are sated with the goodness of the true and complete Geulah, the true and complete Geulah. The fruits will yield their produce; the vine will yield its fruit, and the fig tree will yield its strength. All these things will truly come to be; each will give of its abundant goodness. A land flowing with milk and honey—and then our blessings of praise and enjoyment to Hakadosh Boruch Hu will increase beyond measure. We will be able to thank and praise, laud and glorify and exalt Hakadosh Boruch Hu

50:24 Speaker 2 Truly, we will see the land flowing with milk and honey with our own eyes, immediately, right now.