Q&A: Doubt About a Blessing
Doubt About a Blessing
Question
Lately I was thinking that when a person is in doubt whether he recited a blessing, it may be that according to Jewish law he should thank the Holy One, blessed be He, in his own words. After all, that is the Torah-level commandment, and the rabbis are the ones who instituted the fixed formula of the blessing. And since he is in doubt, it is ruled that the prohibition against taking God's name in vain, together with a rabbinic-level doubt, takes precedence. So seemingly we return to the original Torah-level law as it stood originally (and there there is no mention of God's name). But I have not seen this in the halakhic decisors. What do you think?
Answer
great minds thinks alike.
Yes, I have written this explicitly in several places as a matter of Jewish law (assuming that a blessing before an act is based on logic, and logic is Torah-level). See for example my article on logical inferences:
https://mikyab.net/%D7%9B%D7%AA%D7%91%D7%99%D7%9D/%D7%9E%D7%90%D7%9E%D7%A8%D7%99%D7%9D/%D7%A1%D7%91%D7%A8%D7%95%D7%AA-%D7%AA%D7%95%D7%A8%D7%A0%D7%99%D7%95%D7%AA-%D7%95%D7%9E%D7%A2%D7%9E%D7%93%D7%9F-%D7%94%D7%94%D7%9C%D7%9B%D7%AA%D7%99
And also in my article on the guilt-offering:
https://mikyab.net/%D7%9B%D7%AA%D7%91%D7%99%D7%9D/%D7%9E%D7%90%D7%9E%D7%A8%D7%99%D7%9D/%D7%9E%D7%94%D7%95%D7%AA%D7%95-%D7%A9%D7%9C-%D7%A7%D7%A8%D7%91%D7%9F-%D7%90%D7%A9%D7%9D
And elsewhere.
Discussion on Answer
Just out of curiosity, does the Rabbi know of any halakhic decisor who wrote this?
No
Rabbi Shmuel Tal instructs people to bless using a substitute name
Rabbi, after all, the Pnei Yehoshua, who holds that logic is Torah-level, did not say to recite a blessing in a case of doubt! It seems clear that once the Sages defined a certain framework for the matter, then after they defined it, if a person performs the commandment differently, it is not considered fulfillment. And in truth that is a bit difficult conceptually. What does the Rabbi say?
Who says he did not say it? That is what emerges from his words.
As for whether one who violates a rabbinic law nevertheless fulfills the Torah-level obligation, this is an old and well-worn issue. See the dispute between Ran and Tosafot on Sukkah 3a.
Oh! Blessed be He who led me to the same conclusion!