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Blessings of the Delighted – Question of Clarification

שו”תCategory: HalachaBlessings of the Delighted – Question of Clarification
asked 11 months ago

Hello Rabbi Michael,
Recently I decided to say the blessing of enjoyment over the food I eat.

  1. What is the rule when eating several foods in a mixture (say, a fruit salad with various food additions)? In what cases is it sufficient to bless the first ingredient in its rank? Are there any exceptions?
  2. Let’s say I’m not sure which blessing I should bless for a particular food – is it possible to bless all the blessings I’m hesitating between and thus fulfill my obligation?

I’ve heard slightly different answers to the above questions. I’m asking you as a last resort.
Happy New Year and thanks for the waiting forum,
Mordechai


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0 Answers
מיכי Staff answered 11 months ago
Hello Mordechai. In principle, one should recite a blessing over every type of food that is eaten. The only exception is at a meal when one washes one’s hands. Every person who belongs to a meal dies. The order of the blessings is in the initials of Maga A’Sh. Food, vine, tree, earth, everything. When in doubt, recite a blessing over everything in retrospect. But it is worth learning what blessings are said and getting out of the rut. There are reviews online

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שואל replied 11 months ago

Rabbi, what about the rules of Ikr and Tefel?
And regarding ”when you have a doubt, recite the blessing that is everything in retrospect” – it sounds like you are giving an instruction on how to proceed from the beginning and calling it retrospect. What's more, to the best of my knowledge, in the case of doubt about the blessing, one is not supposed to recite the blessing that is everything, unless a person has already recited the blessing that is everything “in error” because that is how he thought the blessing was, and then it turned out to him that the blessing was different, then retrospect it is out and there is no need to go back and recite the “correct” blessing. Isn't this the halacha?
Thank you very much.

מיכי Staff replied 11 months ago

No, that's not the halacha. As for the interpretations you hear between the lines of my words, that's your business. I said what I had to say. And this is not the place for an encyclopedia on the halacha of blessings.

שואל replied 11 months ago

The issue of the main and the auxiliary in the blessings was in relation to the questioner's first question. Could you please address whether this is indeed the halacha (that one must recite the blessing over the main and this exempts the auxiliary, without going into how one determines what is the main and what is the auxiliary), or in your opinion, in such a case, one must indeed recite the blessing over each component separately in the mixed food (meaning that there is no separate halacha for mixing food)?

Regarding the issue of everything being in doubt, if the halacha is that this is how it should be done, then what is the hindsight here? Hindsight is after the fact, right?

Indeed, there is no need for an encyclopedia on the laws of blessings, I am just trying to understand the Rabbi's approach on the subject. I did not mean to offend or anything.

Thank you very much.

מיכי Staff replied 11 months ago

Who spoke of insult?
When there is a tefel and a main dish together, such as bread with butter or another spread on it, it is clear that a blessing is recited over the main dish. The question was not about eating them mixed together as one dish, but rather about several different dishes. As I wrote, one must recite a blessing over every dish that one eats, and there is no tefel and a main dish here unless they are eaten as one dish.
The blessing of everything is issued retrospectively, and therefore the poskim wrote that if you do not know what the blessing is, bless everything. It is clear that if you can clarify the blessing, you should clarify it.

שואל replied 11 months ago

From your response, it seemed that you might have thought I was trying to insult/annoy you, and I really didn't mean to.

As far as I understood, the question did deal with the case of eating them in a mixture:
“What is the rule when eating several foods in a mixture (say, a fruit salad with various food additions)? In what cases is it sufficient to recite the blessing on the first ingredient in its rank? Are there any exceptions?”

Regarding the blessing of everything, could you please provide an example of the poskim who ruled in this way?

Thank you very much.

מיכי Staff replied 11 months ago

When eating a salad with foods, one blesses each one separately. It is not recited together. Something to wrap the meal in is together.
In the Rama Susyi Rav:
All the fruits that one knows are the main fruit, one blesses them with the word “pah”; and those that are not the main fruit, with the word “pah”; and if one is unsure whether it is the main fruit or not, with the word “pah”; and if one does not know what it is, one blesses all of them (Tur).

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