Hilchos B'rachos part XI

Having In Mind Cont.

Foods during a bread meal – part I

Eating a meal:

A person who sits down to eat fruit and recites a b’racha on a fruit placed before him is not required to recite a new b’racha on a different fruit, because it is as if he had in mind to include all fruit. [1] This seems to incorporate even the more important fruit, for example: a b’racha was recited on an apple and one of the seven species was brought in.

How does this apply to a regular meal?

At a regular meal when one is not washing over bread, and recites a shehakol on fish, it is unnecessary to recite a shehakol over chicken, as it is normal to eat chicken during a meal and it is as if one had this in mind when reciting the b’racha. [2]

Would the shehakol on the fish cover the ice cream eaten at the end of the meal?

Only if one regularly eats dessert of some type at the end of a meal will the shehakol cover it, otherwise it is not part of the b’racha.

Consequently, one should always have in mind to include everything with a similar b’racha.

Rav Sternbuch shlita added that if one is a guest, whatever is served is included in the b’racha.

What about beverages imbibed during the meal?

Since one normally drinks during a meal, the shehakol will cover beverages as well.

Foods during a bread meal – part I

The rules of a bread meal are such that the hamotzi recited at the onset of the meal covers all foods pertaining to the meal. [3]

What does pertaining to the meal mean?

It means that all foods normally served as part of a meal are included in the b’racha, such as soup, beverages, chicken, meat, vegetables and everything else normally served at a meal.

What if one only wishes to eat a small amount of bread, do we still say that it is the main part of the meal and everything else is included?

If one ate more than a k’zayis of bread, it includes everything else. Rav Moshe Feinstein writes that this is because bread is always the basis of a meal and everything else is subordinate. [4] It is possible that in former times bread really constituted a major portion of a meal and meat, fish etc. were a minor part of the meal. Nowadays, a little bread is consumed at the onset of the meal and for most of the remainder of the meal, bread is hardly consumed. Nevertheless, as stated, one recites hamotzi and it includes all else.

What is not included in the meal?

Several items are not included in the meal: 1) Wine. 2) Fruit and desserts. 3) Certain cakes.

Wine

One who imbibes wine or grape juice during a meal is required to recite a boreh p’ri hagofen, [5] even if one had specific intention to drink wine when one recited hamotzi on the bread.

But do people not drink wine during a meal?

Indeed people regularly imbibe wine during a meal, but because wine is an important beverage, Chazal saw fit to require its own b’racha. [6]

What makes wine important?

Rashi explains (the gemora B’rachos 42a) that wine is imbibed on several occasions and not because one is thirsty, such as at a wedding ceremony; a b’ris; a pidyon habein; kiddush; havdalah.

Tosefos explains that its importance is that Chazal instituted a unique b’racha on wine. In other words, according to the rules, the b’racha on wine would have been ha’eitz, but Chazal elevated the b’racha to hagofen.

Rabeinu Chananel (cited in T.R Yonah) explains that since the b’racha recited on wine includes all drinks that follow, therefore after drinking wine, one need not recite a shehakol on any drink following the wine. [7] It is an important drink and is not included in the bread meal.

What if one recited kiddush before the meal and drank wine?

In such a case one does not need to recite a new b’racha during the meal, provided that one normally drinks wine during the meal or had in mind to do so.

Guests or family members who did not partake of the kiddush wine must recite a b’racha on the wine they drink during the meal.