Changing Location During a 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 A person recites a blessing and then interrupts his eating by changing location. Sometimes a person recites a blessing, stops eating, and comes back to eat much later. Sometimes he doesn’t stop for any length of time, but he changes location: he leaves and returns. A break in location, a break in time—what is the law? First, we need to know a general principle. The halachic authorities disagree about foods whose blessing is Mezonos: does changing location count as an interruption or not? In other words, when someone eats bread and leaves his place, in many cases he returns to his original established meal—even though, as we’ll learn later, he shouldn’t do this in the first place. That means that even if he continues eating in another house and then returns, he won’t need to recite Hamotzi again, and afterward he’ll recite Birkat Hamazon over everything he ate. That’s if he leaves and returns quickly, as we’ll see later. With a food or drink whose after-blessing is Borei Nefashos, if someone drinks a glass of water, leaves his house, and returns, he certainly recites Shehakol again. The first blessing no longer covers him. He recites Shehakol again, continues drinking, and afterward recites Borei Nefashos over both drinks. But with foods whose blessing is Borei Minei Mezonos, there’s a question: When a person sits down to eat Mezonos and establishes himself there, do the blessing and the eating establish him in the same way as bread? Then, even if he leaves and returns, he returns to his original established meal—whether or not he should have left in the first place. Some of the early authorities say no, and others say yes. The Alter Rebbe connects the blessing on Mezonos to establishing a meal. That means that even if a person leaves and comes back much later—the Alter Rebbe says he returns to his original established meal. Then there’s the question of things similar to Mezonos, such as the Seven Species, wine, and the like. As I said, when someone has recited the blessing over bread and wants to leave his place,

02:15 Speaker 2 he may leave briefly for a mitzvah and come back. It’s preferable for some members of the group that ate together to remain. But even if none remain, and even if he’s eating alone, he may leave briefly for a mitzvah and return. Suppose he wants to go to a quick Mincha minyan or something similar: he goes to the shul near his home and comes back, returning to his original established meal. Other departures are forbidden. If he leaves anyway, and it’s only for a short time and he doesn’t get drawn into conversation or spend a long time talking with his friend, then after the fact he returns to his original established meal and doesn’t recite Hamotzi again. If he leaves and talks for a long time—a lengthy conversation, say several good minutes, ten minutes—then when he returns he needs to wash his hands again and recite Hamotzi. It’s a new meal. But if, from the start of his meal, a person intends to eat in this house and in a second house, and he begins his meal here and goes to the second house to continue, it’s preferable that he take some bread with him. Since he had both houses in mind, that’s acceptable, but the Alter Rebbe prefers that he take some of the bread he ate in the first house and continue eating it in the second. That can’t be done on Shabbos when we are careful not to carry, or when carrying is forbidden. But even when—this doesn’t mean one can’t be lenient about it, right? We’ll see later that some are lenient. But the main point, the preferable way to do it in the first place, is to have both homes in mind when washing your hands and reciting Hamotzi, and take some of the first bread with you. A person recites Hamotzi here, goes to another house to eat, intending to return to the first house and continue. That, too, is a more reasonable option, more consistent with the rules of an established meal. In many cases it’s much simpler: you recited the blessing here, ate, went to another house, and returned to the first. You return to your original established meal, so you don’t recite Hamotzi again, and you recite Birkat Hamazon

04:14 Speaker 2 over all the eating together. That’s also a good and proper option. But here’s the thing: as I said, you shouldn’t leave your place in the first place. When you establish a meal, you recite the blessing afterward where you ate. So much so that the Mishnah says that someone who deliberately leaves the place where he ate without reciting Birkat Hamazon must go back there to recite it. So how can you leave? You want to eat somewhere else and establish another place for your meal? That’s a question, because your original meal was established in the first place; that’s where you became obligated to recite Birkat Hamazon, and that’s why we want you to return there. Now you want to establish another place? If you didn’t plan that from the start, how can you do it? And when someone really does eat in one place and then leaves altogether, going off to another place, if he did so deliberately, he must return to the first place. If it was unintentional and he’s occupied with a mitzvah, he doesn’t need to go back. But in the first place—and the halacha places great emphasis on this, and there is great reward for it—even if you simply left unintentionally, go back to your place. We know about the sage mentioned in the Yerushalmi, Rabbi Yonah. He neglected to recite Birkat Hamazon where he ate and then remembered, and he said he had forgotten a golden dove. He went back to his place even though it had been an oversight. He was traveling with a caravan through the desert, and they were afraid of bandits and so on. He went back, recited the blessing there, and found the golden dove. He had told them he was going back because he had forgotten gold, and a miracle was performed for him. That was his reward: he received gold. Why? He also knew a miracle would be performed for him, so it wasn’t a lie. But the point is that he went back to recite the blessing where he had eaten. Why? Because even if you left unintentionally, you should return to your place. Birkat Hamazon: “You shall eat and be satisfied and bless”—in the place where you ate and were satisfied, the place where you established your meal, that is where you must recite the blessing. That’s why changing location is problematic. Take a mother at home—now I’m not talking about bread.

06:23 Speaker 2 With bread, suppose she’s eating and knows she’ll need to step out for a moment to tend to her baby. That’s like leaving for a mitzvah, and she returns to her meal; fine. But what if she’s drinking water? Suddenly the baby cries, screams. She has to run to the next room. When she comes back, does she need to recite the blessing again? Or she’s eating an apple in one room and goes to another—what happens then? People say, “She recited the blessing at home, so let her take the cup into the next room and continue drinking.” It’s not so simple, because many opinions say that moving from room to room is like moving from house to house. Just as, if you drank here and went to another house, you would need to recite Shehakol again because the first established setting has ended—the change of place interrupts the effect of the first blessing—so too, some say, when you move from room to room within the same house. The Alter Rebbe mentions this. So what’s the advice for that woman? I generally tell any woman who knows that after reciting a blessing she may need to move around the rooms of the house and leave the room: “When you recite the blessing over the apple, have the whole house in mind and take the apple with you. When you recite Shehakol, you know the children might call you or you might have to run to the phone. Have the whole house in mind, and then you can leave and rely on that same blessing.” If you didn’t do that and had to leave, we’ll see: sometimes you need to go back and recite the blessing again, and sometimes you don’t. So far we’ve touched on these matters in general terms. Now for the details. When we talk about changing location, is moving from one apartment to another in the same building considered like moving from room to room, or like moving from house to house? In general, the rulings about moving from apartment to apartment aren’t relevant only to the laws of blessings. We’re all familiar with the law concerning chametz: when reciting the blessing over the search for chametz, one must have all the houses in mind, because

08:17 Speaker 2 If not, it will be an interruption. But the main idea is that if moving from one room to another counts as an interruption, then certainly moving from one home to another does. The Kaf Hachaim says that when the entire building has one roof, even moving from one apartment to another—certainly when the apartments face each other—can be considered like moving from room to room. The accepted practice is that if you go into a neighbor’s home, certainly after making a Shehakol blessing, that is considered a change of place that interrupts the original blessing, and you must make the blessing again when you return. As for the first blessing: someone who never goes from his room into an adjoining room, but always drinks in one place, a man and the like—if he goes into another room and returns, he should make Shehakol again. A woman who generally moves between rooms, or a man who takes care of things around the house and the like, has grounds to be lenient about moving from room to room. Alternatively, he can make Borei Nefashos, wait a certain amount of time so that it will not be an unnecessary blessing, and then make the blessing again. He should hold off, then make the blessing again. Or, if he regularly moves from room to room, we can consider his initial blessing to have covered everything he intended to drink, and then he would not make another blessing. One may be lenient and not make the blessing again. As for the final blessing: someone who drank a revi’is or ate a kezayis of foods that do not require the final blessing to be made where they were eaten—we said that a change of place is an interruption for Shehakol: if you leave your place, you need to make the blessing again. Why? Because the original setting does not establish a fixed place. So we also need to know that according to the Alter Rebbe, although ideally Borei Nefashos should be made where one ate or drank, it is not a problem if you are in a hurry to leave. You can make Shehakol here, drink, and make Borei Nefashos on your way out, because this does not have the rules of a fixed meal or a fixed place

10:24 Speaker 2 as with Birkat Hamazon and eating bread after making Hamotzi. Now, there is a difference. Suppose someone drank a beverage—a revi’is, according to the Alter Rebbe, within kedei achilas pras, the time it takes to eat three eggs, according to some opinions. There are several opinions in the Tzemach Tzedek: five minutes, four minutes, up to seven minutes. Right. He drank a revi’is and became obligated to make a final blessing. He did not make it—or he drank in little sips and did not drink a revi’is. Later, after some time, after seven minutes, he made Shehakol again and drank some more. What about the final blessing? When does he become obligated? Until what he drank or ate has been digested, he can still drink more after making an initial blessing, and the final blessing can cover everything he ate and drank earlier. That is, let me explain. A person made Shehakol, drank a little, and forgot to make a final blessing. Within an hour and twelve minutes, which is the time it takes for food to be digested, he does not need to make Borei Nefashos before drinking again and then make Shehakol. He can make Shehakol again and again, or leave and return and make Shehakol, and in the end, everything he drank within an hour and twelve minutes is combined under one final blessing. Of course, ideally, someone who drank a revi’is and is leaving should make Borei Nefashos. When he returns, he makes Shehakol again. But if he did not do that, all the drinks he had within an hour and twelve minutes are combined under one Borei Nefashos blessing. The same is true of bread: if he forgot to make Birkat Hamazon, he can make it within an hour and twelve minutes. After an hour and twelve minutes, though, it depends on how he feels. If he is still full, he can still make Birkat Hamazon. If he is no longer full and feels a little hungry, he has missed the opportunity to make Birkat Hamazon. There is a difference there: sometimes,

12:30 Speaker 2 sometimes one can make a final blessing even after twelve minutes. But with a final blessing over drinks, over a revi’is, whether or not he left his place, the final blessing covers everything. Leaving affects the initial blessing. As for the final blessing, after the fact—or sometimes it is not even after the fact—if he left his place, returned, and made Shehakol, the final blessing covers everything. And sometimes it is not an after-the-fact case. A person is sitting and drinking a cup of tea. He says, “I want to sit here and drink another cup of tea in the same place. I’m learning now; I’ll have another cup of tea.” Everything he drinks within an hour and twelve minutes is covered by the initial blessing. If, when he first made Shehakol, he had in mind, “This is for the cups I’ll have later as well,” then for everything within that hour and twelve minutes, the first blessing applies, and one final blessing covers all the drinks together. The Rema goes further and says that if a person is sitting at a wedding meal that lasts all day, he can have the whole day in mind when he makes the blessing now. He just has to be careful not to let an hour and twelve minutes pass, so that the food in his stomach is not digested. He can sit here and make a blessing at the start of the day for the entire day. Earlier, I was speaking about an hour and twelve minutes when a person changes his location—changes location and returns—or drinks again with a new Shehakol blessing without having made Borei Nefashos in between. Or a person who drinks less than a revi’is with medicine, or on Yom Kippur, let’s say, when he needs to swallow medicine: he drank less than a revi’is, and after seven minutes made Shehakol again and drank less than a revi’is again. Then he drank less than a revi’is of tea. All sorts of different variations. A person who drinks a cup of tea slowly over an hour and a quarter makes one final blessing over all of it together. The initial blessing, though,

14:11 Speaker 2 depends. As the Rema says, if he had the whole day in mind, the initial blessing also covers the whole day. But he must be careful not to let an hour and twelve minutes pass without drinking a little more, and then at the end he makes one final blessing over everything. If he left in the middle, returned, and had not had everything in mind, then, as I said earlier, he makes the initial blessing several times, and within an hour and twelve minutes makes one final blessing over everything together. Let’s summarize. He should make Shehakol where he is drinking. When he leaves, he should make Borei Nefashos on his way out. If he left and returned, whether immediately or not, he should make Shehakol again if he wants to keep drinking, and one final blessing over everything. If he drank less than a revi’is, or drank a cup of tea slowly with the intention of continuing to drink like that for a while, the initial and final blessings cover the whole hour and a quarter, the hour and five minutes of drinking. If he decided to stay in one place and drink throughout the day, and he keeps drinking a little at a time or a lot at a time, he must make sure that an hour and twelve minutes do not pass without drinking. And at the beginning, within the first seven minutes—the first four or seven minutes—he should drink a revi’is. After that, he should drink a little within each hour and twelve minutes, and continue that way throughout the day. Then, if he remains in his place and continues the meal, he makes one final blessing over everything at the end. Not only with Hamotzi; the same applies to Shehakol. In other words, at the beginning he makes the blessing and drinks a revi’is. He then has an hour and twelve minutes in which he drinks a little. After that he continues drinking, because he wants to sit here and drink all day. He has a meal that lasts for hours, or all night, or all day—a long wedding meal with breaks. That is fine. But if he drinks less than a revi’is at a time for medicine, or less than the required amount on a fast, then it needs to be within the hour and five minutes that he

16:11 Speaker 2 He recites Shehakol once and Borei Nefashos once for everything. But if that is not the situation, and he drank a revi’is, left and came back, then he recites Shehakol again for each drink, and Borei Nefashos Rabos Vechesronan once for everything together. If he recited Shehakol, left his place, does not want to return now or drink any more, and suddenly remembers that he did not recite the after-blessing where he was, the rule requiring one to return to his place for Birkas Hamazon does not apply; he should recite the blessing wherever he remembered. As we explained earlier, ideally a person must not leave his place while eating a meal over which he recited Hamotzi, unless he intended from the outset to eat both here and somewhere else. In that case, ideally he should take the bread with him. But even if he does not take the bread, if he continues eating bread there—other bread, as might happen on Shabbos—one may be lenient and do so. Now, despite everything we discussed earlier, we need to know: what happens when a person is traveling? In the past he might have ridden a donkey; today he travels by car. Regarding travelers, the Sages established from the outset—and this is stated in the Gemara and accepted as halachah—that a traveler is considered to have intended from the start to eat along the entire route. So if he recited Hamotzi, the entire route is considered his place. This is a special halachah for travelers. We cannot apply it to someone who established his place at home and is eating there. Travelers—that is a special halachah. A traveler can recite one blessing for everything and recite the after-blessing only when he finishes. That is regarding bread, because with bread he thinks to himself: I am eating, and my place is the entire route. What about foods whose after-blessing does not have to be recited where they were eaten—things that require Borei Nefashos, foods over which one does not establish a meal? Here too, the common practice has been to be lenient. When a person recites a blessing while traveling, it covers everything he is now going

18:04 Speaker 2 to drink and eat. We do not require him to stay in one place. We say: the vehicle you are sitting in, the donkey you are riding, the entire route ahead of you—we will consider all of that one place. This is in contrast to someone who recites Shehakol at home and goes from one room to another. The straightforward halachah is that when he returns to his original place, he must recite a new blessing, or he must recite a new blessing in the second room. We said that if someone regularly moves around like that, there is room to be lenient, as though he had intended the blessing to cover the entire house. That applies if he normally moves from place to place after reciting a blessing, but it is not so clear-cut according to halachah. So when reciting the blessing, he should have the entire house in mind. A traveler, though, is considered to have had the entire route in mind, and we are lenient even with the blessing of Shehakol. As noted, when a person establishes a meal with bread in one place, he must recite the after-blessing there. He should not leave. The same applies to the blessing of Mezonos. There is considerable disagreement about which foods establish a meal. Some say Mezonos foods do; some say the seven species do as well. The Alter Rebbe goes so far as to say that Mezonos foods constitute an established meal, and that with the seven species, one should ideally be stringent and recite the after-blessing where he ate. And the Alter Rebbe goes further than that. Unlike the view of later authorities, he says that even if people sit down together over chamar medinah—that is, wine or beer, a customary drink, perhaps even cola—if several people gather and say, “We’re sitting down now to drink cola and crack sunflower seeds,” or to drink beer, that constitutes an established gathering. What is the rule for such a gathering? If you step out briefly to use the bathroom or speak to a friend—and certainly if you leave to perform a mitzvah—when you return, you do not recite a new blessing. Yes, when a group sits down together to drink beer as a regular gathering... I do not drink beer as a beverage, perhaps only very occasionally, but certainly if I sit down for coffee

19:51 Speaker 2 with someone else, and we are sitting together over coffee, that is a kind of established gathering. Here the Alter Rebbe introduces the idea that it has the same status as Mezonos in this regard. When there is doubt about whether a blessing is required, we are lenient and do not recite a new one. So if I am sitting at a meeting, and we have all gathered and are drinking a cup of coffee together—especially if we have gone to the coffee corner to drink coffee together—that is an established gathering. Even if I leave and return, I return to the original gathering. One must remember not to recite another blessing, so as not to recite a blessing in vain, G-d forbid. If he left and got caught up in conversation, spoke with his friend for several minutes and forgot about it entirely—not just a few moments, but, say, about ten minutes of extended conversation—then certainly, when he returns, he must recite a new blessing. So what we have established now is that, according to the Alter Rebbe, a meal is established with bread and also with Mezonos foods. With the seven species, one should be stringent. Of course, if he left and returned, he should not recite a new blessing, because we are lenient when there is doubt about blessings. But ideally, he should remain in his place—that is, he should recite the after-blessing there. That differs from Shehakol: a person recites Shehakol here and gets up to leave, and he can recite Borei Nefashos as he leaves or once he is outside, because there is no requirement to remain in place. Here it is different, even with the seven species. But the Alter Rebbe introduces the idea that gathering over chamar medinah—such as mead in earlier times, a drink made from water and honey, or beer today, perhaps even coffee—also establishes a gathering. These are all forms of chamar medinah. So when someone leaves such a gathering and returns, he returns to the original gathering and does not recite a new blessing. Someone who drinks coffee in the morning and moves from room to room—on the one hand, he has settled down to drink it, but he has not arranged to sit down with friends to do so. Regarding this, the Alter Rebbe says: if he has established

21:45 Speaker 2 a gathering over them, and they are things over which people establish a gathering, such as beer and mead in these countries, then a change of place is not considered an interruption if he returns to his original place. What does the Alter Rebbe mean when he speaks of beer and mead “in these countries”? Is he talking about an individual drinking beer or mead, or about a gathering of friends, as I discussed earlier? This has a practical bearing on coffee, especially morning coffee. Perhaps even coffee that a person drinks alone establishes his place, because a person usually sits down to drink it at ease; he does not drink his coffee standing up. He sits down and settles in. Therefore, when it comes to coffee, I would recommend that ideally you not leave your place at all. If you leave and return, there is doubt about whether you need to recite a blessing. When in doubt about a blessing, we are lenient, so you would not recite another one—but why get into that situation? If you are sitting and drinking with friends and you leave, there is no doubt about the blessing. You left and returned, so you have returned to the original gathering, according to the Alter Rebbe’s ruling. Therefore, when you drink coffee, try to remain in one place until you finish, because if you leave and return, you face the difficult question of whether or not to recite another blessing. Now, regarding place: what constitutes a change of place? It cannot occur within the same room. If a person is sitting in a shul with a raised platform in the middle, as is customary among our Sephardic brethren, and he started on one side and moved to the other, where he can no longer see his original place, those are not two rooms. It is one room, because the same walls surround it. But if a person moves from one room to another, we said earlier that for things whose after-blessing does not have to be recited where they were consumed, such as foods requiring Shehakol and the like, he must recite a new blessing. That is because he cannot see his original place. If he left the house for its courtyard, or moved from one room to another, and can see his original place, then the first blessing still applies to him. He does not

23:27 Speaker 2 recite a new blessing in the second room or when he returns. There was no interruption; this is not considered a change of place. A change of place occurs when he cannot see his original place. Unless, that is, these are two gardens separated by a wall—those are already two separate places. Two gardens belonging to two different houses certainly constitute a change of place. But going from the house to its courtyard, or from one room to another in the same house, while he can see his original place, is not a change. Going from one house to another is a change of place even if he can see from one house into the other—through the window of one house and into the window of the second house—because they are two different houses. That is so even if they share a single roof beam, even if there is one roof over them. But going from a house to its courtyard, or from one corner of the courtyard to another, and the like, is not considered a change of place, even... And certainly not when he moves from one room to another and can see his original place. A change of place is when he cannot see his original place. The same applies to Kiddush. We learn this in the laws of Kiddush, and there is a parallel there to our laws concerning a change of place. A person eats a fig in a garden—yes, in a garden. Suppose someone is in a courtyard, in some large garden, and recites a blessing over a fig on one side. We will not get into the laws of whether tithes must be separated right now. He moves to the other side of the fig tree and cannot see his original place. We know from the Gemara that this is like two separate places, and he must recite a new blessing on the other side. What if the fig tree is in a courtyard? The courtyard is enclosed on all four sides by walls. The Alter Rebbe says: “One who eats in a field that is not enclosed by walls—only if he moves away from his original place does he... not recite a new blessing—he does recite a new blessing. But in an enclosed area, he does not recite a new blessing.” In other words, if he eats

25:21 Speaker 2 Within one room, or in an area enclosed by walls, it is not considered a change of location. What happens if someone is standing beside a fig tree and, when making a blessing over one fig, says, “I’m making this blessing now over every side of the fig tree, both the parts visible from where I first stood and those that aren’t”? Then the first blessing certainly covers them all. As I said earlier, if you make a blessing over something in your home and want to include the whole house, have the whole house in mind. You cannot include someone else’s house, but you can include your own house, your yard, and your entire surroundings in the first blessing, intending all of it to be your place. As I said earlier, this is also advisable for a woman at home who moves from place to place: when she makes the blessing, she should have everything in mind from the outset, so she won’t get caught up in confusion. “Did I make the blessing? Didn’t I? Do I need to make another blessing or not?” When a person makes a blessing, the food should be in front of him. Water is different. You make a blessing over water, but you may not be holding it—for example, someone stands at a faucet and drinks straight from it, right? Or he finishes one glass and fills another. He didn’t see the water that went into the second glass. He can’t see that water; it’s flowing. The sages say that the first blessing covers all the water that comes afterward. But when you make a blessing over food, the food must be before your eyes, and you should hold it in your right hand. You hold it while making the blessing. As for bread, the Alter Rebbe’s Shulchan Aruch says to hold it with all ten fingers. Interestingly, that is written in the Shulchan Aruch, but for some reason the requirement to hold bread with ten fingers is omitted from the Laws of Blessings over Food. There it says that all foods are held in one hand. Reb Levi Yitzchak, the Rebbe’s father,

26:57 Speaker 2 apart from Erev Yom Kippur, never held food in both hands. It may be that even when making the blessing of Hamotzi, he did not hold the bread in both hands. It says that he did not hold foods in both hands, which could be understood to refer to the time he was eating, whereas when making the blessing he held the bread in both hands. Perhaps there is room to read the Alter Rebbe’s words in the Laws of Blessings over Food closely: he says that all foods should be held in the right hand, in one hand. Perhaps that applies to bread too, despite what is stated in the laws of breaking bread—that one should hold it in both hands, placing all ten fingers on the bread. Here, at least, the Alter Rebbe speaks generally about all foods, implying that one should hold the food in the right hand, look at it, and have it in mind before making the blessing. The Radatz, Reb Dovid Tzvi Chein, was five years old when he had a yechidus with the Tzemach Tzedek. The Tzemach Tzedek told him, “Reb Dov... Dovid Tzvi, stop being a child.” When we make a blessing, we need to know Whom we are blessing. Right? We religious people have an ailment: sometimes, before eating, the lips move like this, but I don’t know what this religious ailment is. No—make the blessing! What are your lips doing? What is this reflex in your lips? Say the blessing: “Blessed are You, Hashem our G-d, King of the universe, by Whose word all things came to be.” “Blessed are You, Hashem our G-d, King of the universe, Who creates the fruit of the tree.” Have intention, because you need to know Whom you are blessing. Just as you need to know what you are making the blessing over—all the more so—you need to know Whom you are blessing. Another point: a person makes a blessing over a particular food. He makes a blessing over water, and there is cola beside it. Everything before his eyes that has the blessing of Shehakol is covered by that blessing. You made Shehakol; all the things that require Shehakol were covered when you made the blessing

28:40 Speaker 2 of Shehakol over the one thing before your eyes. Now, suppose you made a blessing over one thing, and afterward someone brought you more of that same kind. You didn’t know they would, but they brought it afterward. We are not talking about when you are a guest in someone’s home. As a guest, you eat with the host’s offerings in mind, and your blessing covers whatever the host brings you. You made Shehakol? Whatever the host brings you that requires Shehakol is covered by that one blessing. Now you are at home. You made Shehakol over coffee, and suddenly someone brings you cola as well. What do you do? If the cola was on the table from the start, your blessing covers everything. But now someone has brought you another kind of drink and placed it beside you. This is not so straightforward. Ideally, you should intend to include all the drinks that will be brought. You didn’t have that in mind? If another kind of drink is brought while you still have the first kind, and both require the same blessing, the first blessing covers it too; you do not make another blessing. Some say that if the second drink is more significant and more favored—more significant—then you do need to make a blessing over it. But when there is doubt about blessings, we rule leniently and do not make another blessing. A person is sitting and makes Shehakol over water. Now there is cola, and he wants to drink that too. Ideally, when making the blessing he should have in mind even water that will be brought later, as well as the cola before him or cola that will come if he knows it will be brought. Who am I talking about? Someone sitting at home or in shul, who decides for himself what to eat. A person who is a guest in someone’s home makes the blessing with the host’s offerings in mind. If he made Shehakol, that blessing covers everything the host brings him that requires Shehakol. If he made Mezonos, it covers everything the host brings him that requires Mezonos. Why? He doesn’t know what they will give him to eat. He relies on the host. The same applies at farbrengens. He knows he is not in charge of the farbrengen and that things will be served. When he makes a blessing, he has in mind everything that will be brought

30:28 Speaker 2 to the farbrengen. But suppose you are sitting at home and members of the household are serving you. You made a blessing over water, and now there is cola. Did your blessing cover the cola or not? Ideally, you should have everything that will be brought in mind. If you did not, but the cola was in front of you when you made the blessing over the water, the cola was covered too. Suppose you made the blessing over the water without thinking about what might come later, and you finished the water. Someone brings you cola: make a blessing over the cola. If they bring you more water—the very same thing you had at first, requiring the same blessing and exactly the same kind as what you made the blessing over—you do not need to make another blessing. But if you drank all the water and they now bring you a different kind of drink with the same blessing—cola has the same blessing as water—you certainly make another blessing, because the water is already finished. If you have not finished the water, you have a problem. Why? You are still drinking the water, and suddenly someone brings you something you had not had in mind, but it has the same blessing. So if the water is finished, you certainly make a blessing over the new drink. If the water is not finished, you have a problem: should you make a blessing or not? The Alter Rebbe says: “If they are two kinds of fruit or two kinds of drink that were brought before him, and he did not have them in mind, then if some of the first kind is still before him, he need not make a blessing. But if the first kind has already been used up, he must make another blessing.” You finished the water and they brought you cola? Make another blessing. You have not finished the water? Even if they brought you cola, do not make another blessing. But here is the problem: because cola is more significant than water, some say that even if the water is not finished and they bring you cola, you should make a blessing over it. True, when there is doubt about blessings, we rule leniently, so you will not make a blessing over the cola. But remember

32:10 Speaker 2 that this is a matter of dispute. Therefore, whenever you make Shehakol, it is always advisable to have in mind the drinks—all kinds of drinks on the table, as well as those that will be brought. This often comes up during meals. You go to a restaurant and place an order. You decide what to order. You have now made Shehakol over your coffee, or Shehakol over your juice. Have everything that will come in mind, because if something new is brought, there is no problem if it is the same kind and you still have some of that food or drink before you. If the drink is finished and they bring more of the same kind, that is also fine. But if the drink is finished—the juice is gone—and they now bring you cola or a different kind of coffee, you have a problem. So have everything in mind. Otherwise, as we said, if the water before him ran out and they brought him more water, he does not make another blessing. If the water ran out and they brought cola, and he had not had it in mind, he makes a blessing over the cola. The same applies in practice when a person is eating ptitim, over which the blessing is Mezonos, and then cakes are brought to him. Some say that since ptitim are cooked in water and cakes are baked, cakes are more significant. According to this view, the blessing over ptitim never covers the cakes, even if they were before him. Take note: there is an opinion that the blessing over ptitim does not cover cakes even if the cakes were right in front of him. Let’s return to the water and cola. You made Shehakol over water, and there is cola. If you did not have the cola in mind at the outset, some say that since it is more significant—cola is certainly more significant than water—the blessing over the water does not cover the cola. So when you make a blessing over water, have in mind everything on the table and everything that will come. Otherwise, you will face doubt upon dispute upon dispute: a dispute over whether, when this is a second kind and the first kind has been used up, you need to make a blessing over the second kind when it arrives; and a further dispute over whether, even if the first kind has not been used up, you made a blessing over the water and the other kind

34:02 Speaker 2 Second, the cola is in front of you, and you made a blessing over the ptitim while a baked item is also in front of you. But there is an opinion that a less important item does not cover a more important one, so you should always have everything in mind. If you didn’t, it depends. If you made a blessing over water, the water ran out, and then cola arrived, make a blessing over the cola. If you made a blessing over water while cola was in front of you, but you did not have the cola in mind, do not make another blessing over the cola, because in cases of doubt concerning blessings, we are lenient. How important it is, when making a blessing, to think of everything that may come later, so as not to get into these questions. This is how the Alter Rebbe rules. One thing is clear, says the Alter Rebbe: if a person—let’s say he ate something spicy, and now they bring him fish, which is an important food, to take away the salty taste, and the spicy food is gone—he certainly makes a blessing. In this case, the fish is an important food, whereas until now it had been secondary. Once it arrives afterward, it is no longer considered secondary. In the Alter Rebbe’s words: if they brought him fish or cheese to temper the drink, even though both require the same blessing and the first item is still before him, the first blessing covers them only if he had them in mind. And some say that even if the first item is still before him and he has not eaten it, he must make another blessing; but in cases of doubt concerning blessings, we are lenient. That is when the first item is still there. In other words, if the spicy food is before him and they bring him fish, he does not make a blessing over the fish, because in cases of doubt concerning blessings, we are lenient. But if he ate something spicy and it is gone, and now they bring him fish, the fish is an important food in its own right and is meant to take away the spicy taste. Certainly, when the first item is no longer there, the fish is not secondary to the spicy food, and he must make a blessing over it. So I’ll say it again: there are several details to these laws. For example, a person

35:58 Speaker 2 drinks something strong, and now he wants to drink a particularly fine juice to temper it. If the strong drink is still in front of him, he does not make a blessing over the juice that arrives. If the strong drink is gone, he certainly makes a blessing over the juice that arrives afterward, according to all opinions—unless he had it in mind at the outset. If he had it in mind at the outset, everything changes; the whole ruling changes. So we have learned several laws here. First, at farbrengens, you eat with the understanding that the person serving may bring you more; as a guest, you eat with the same understanding. But at home, or when you are sitting alone in shul eating, or at any other event—or ordering at a restaurant—you are responsible for your own blessings. Make a Shehakol blessing with everything on the table and everything that may come later in mind. Of course, there is also the rule of giving preference to what you like best. We will learn those laws: there is a halachah that says you should first make a blessing over the item you like best. So if there is water, juice, and coffee, and one of them is your favorite, choose that one for the blessing. That honors the blessing. Don’t make it over plain water, unless you have a health reason or the like, or you want to start with water for some other reason. But in principle, it is also important to make the blessing over the item you prefer, or over one of the Seven Species. These are the laws of precedence in blessings. So when we make blessings, although we have just discussed which blessing covers which foods, we must not forget to take the laws of precedence in blessings into account as well.