Q&A: Mentioning Retzei
Mentioning Retzei
Question
Regarding mentioning Retzei when one eats on Friday afternoon and recites the blessing on Saturday,
the Rema wrote in Orach Chayim, siman 271, se’if 6, concerning someone who ate on Friday, close to nightfall, and recites Birkat HaMazon after the Sabbath has begun, that some say he does not mention the Sabbath, because we follow the beginning of the meal, and that is the main ruling, etc.; see there.
Now Rabbi Akiva Eiger, Orach Chayim siman 186 se’if 2, was uncertain about the case of a minor who ate close to the night of his becoming an adult, recited Birkat HaMazon, and within the time span in which he is still considered satiated became an adult: must he go back and recite Birkat HaMazon, since the Birkat HaMazon he recited while a minor was only rabbinic, whereas now he is obligated by Torah law, and a rabbinic obligation does not suffice for a Torah-level obligation? We see that there is an obligation to recite Birkat HaMazon as long as he is still satiated from the meal he ate earlier. Seemingly, then, it is difficult to understand: what is different from the law of Retzei, where the Rema rules that we follow the main part of the meal and not the time of satiation, for even if he ate nothing after nightfall [see the Mishnah Berurah there], still, the time of satiation is after dark. If so, why at that time is he not obligated to add Retzei?
I thought to myself that mentioning the Sabbath and the New Moon in Birkat HaMazon when the next day has already begun is not at all related to Rabbi Akiva Eiger’s question.
With regard to mentioning the Sabbath, etc., the question is how to recite the blessing so that there will not be an internal contradiction within Birkat HaMazon, because he is reciting the blessing on the Sabbath but ate on a weekday. Mentioning the Sabbath, a holiday, or the New Moon is not part of the blessing of thanks for the food itself; rather, it is appended to Birkat HaMazon.
Rabbi Akiva Eiger’s question concerns someone who was not yet obligated and ate, and now is obligated. Since the obligation of Birkat HaMazon lasts until digestion, is the blessing recited after the meal directed at the fact that he is satiated now, and therefore a minor and a convert would be obligated by Torah law? Or is the blessing a kind of make-up for the eating, and if he already recited it for that eating he need not recite it again?
I would be glad to receive the Rabbi’s comments on my answer,
his student through his writings,
the youngest of the learners,
Answer
That is possible. But there are other approaches too.
1. In the case of a minor, the obligating act of eating was the eating of a minor, and that is considered a deferral regarding commandments in relation to a Torah-level obligation (as in Maharam of Rothenburg, brought by the Rosh at the end of chapter 3 of Moed Katan regarding mourning).
2. In the case of a minor, the discussion is whether he must recite the blessing; in the case of Retzei, the discussion is what to recite (the wording of the blessing).
3. Even if a minor is not obligated in the blessing, once he recited it, he has in fact thanked the Holy One, blessed be He, for the food, and therefore it is not relevant to recite it again. This is like a minor who built a guardrail while still a minor: he is not obligated to build it again once he becomes an adult, because the house already has a guardrail. There may be room to connect this to Rabbi Chaim’s comments on Maimonides regarding a minor who became an adult between two Passovers, and regarding the law of “a lamb for a father’s house,” where he distinguishes between the obligation and the performance of the commandment. If a sacrifice was offered on behalf of a minor while he was still a minor, then it is considered offered for him and accepted, even if he was not obligated and did not thereby fulfill a commandment; therefore it is not relevant for him to offer again. Something similar appears in Rabbi Yitzchak Zev Soloveitchik on the Torah and in Noda B’Yehuda regarding Tamar’s levirate marriage.