Blessings During and After Meals

 

In this siman, Rav Ganzfried explains that most foods do not require a special blessing if eaten during a bread meal.  Bread is considered the "foundation" of the meal, and other foods that are eaten with bread or are like bread in that they are eaten to satisfy hunger and not for mere delight are considered to be built upon this foundation and are exempted with the same blessing.

However, foods which are "incidental" to the meal, such as raw fruit which is not usually part of a bread meal, require their own berakha - unless they are actually eaten together with bread.  And wine has its own special importance and so is not considered subordinate to bread; it also requires its own blessing.  (These same principles underlay the laws presented in siman 39.)

What determines when a food is "fundamental" and when it is "incidental"?  Are the criteria objective or subjective? Let us examine the rulings brought in our chapter.

In some cases, our intention is critical.  For instance, IN GENERAL fruit is not considered to be part of the meal and requires its own blessing (se'if 3); however, if the diner makes fruit an integral part of his meal, it IS subordinate to bread (se'if 4).  Cake eaten to fill up is considered secondary to bread; if it is eaten only to delight the palate it may require its own blessing (se'if 6).

In other cases, intentions are not taken into account.  Even if a particular individual decides that for him wine is no more important than lemonade, he must still make a separate blessing on it.  The special status of wine in our culture and history can not be effaced by one person's subjective attitude.  The opposite is also true: even if a person esteems lemonade like wine, he may not make a special berakha on it during a bread meal.

The expression the Talmud uses to explain why the isolated individual's opinion is not regarded in these cases is "batla da'ato etzel kol adam" - "his opinion is negligible compared to others."  The character of our actions is determined partly by our own intentions, partly by prevailing social conventions. 

We encounter this Torah principle in everyday life as well.  A heavy flannel shirt may be considered a "shirt" or a "sweater" depending on how it is worn, but a heavy down jacket will never be considered a "shirt" merely because some individual decides to wear it as his only upper garment.

The halakha attaches tremendous importance to the ideas and intentions of the individual, allowing us significant latitude in determining what foods play what role in our meals.  But ultimately our private ideas and intentions themselves only have meaning within the larger social context, and due consideration needs to be given to tradition and convention.

SIMAN 44 - GRACE AFTER MEALS

WASHING HANDS AFTER MEALS - "MAYIM ACHARONIM" (Se'ifim 1-2)

Rav Ganzfried explains the obligation to wash the hands after the meal.  The Talmud gives two reasons for this custom.  One is prosaic: because the hands tend to be dirty after a meal, and in particular may be encrusted with salt which is dangerous if rubbed in the eyes.  The second is esoteric: an evil spirit dwells on the hands.  The connection with an unclean spirit and the associated requirement to wash into a vessel remind us of the hand washing on rising in the morning which we mentioned in chapter 2.

Washing the hands has a paradoxical, dual symbolism.  On the one hand, it may denote respect for the world - a desire to interact with the world in a pure state.  This is the approach we explained in siman 2.  If a person washes his hands BEFORE shaking hands with you, this shows he respects you - he doesn't want to interact with you until he is clean.

On the other hand, washing hands can project DISDAIN for the world.  If you shook hands with someone and AFTERWARDS he immediately washed his hands, you would probably look at this as a mark of DISrespect. 

In other words when we wash as a PRELUDE to interaction, this shows respect.  This is how we explained the hand washing of the morning, which follows a period of INaction and prepares us for INTERaction.  But when we are careful to wash SUBSEQUENT to action, this shows a measure of distancing ourselves from the action.  This latter symbolism best characterizes the hand washing after meals.  After eating, fulfilling a mundane bodily need, we are anxious to distance ourselves a bit from our materiality, and purify ourselves from any excessive tendency to material enjoyment.

Washing hands in the morning rids us of the evil spirit of IDLENESS; washing after meals rids us of the evil spirit of INDULGENCE.  Either way, there is a division between body and spirit - spirit not expressed in the material world, or indulgence in the material world without the requisite spirituality - and this division is the essence of "tum'a."

(What about the washing before eating, described in chapter 40? In that case we rid ourselves of the unclean NEGATIVE aspects of materiality in order to interact with the nourishing POSTIVE aspects.  No extreme attitude to material interaction is expressed, and this washing is not associated with any evil spirit).

LEAVING BREAD ON THE TABLE (Se'if 3)

Rav Ganzfried explains that bread is left on the table to symbolize that God provides us with more than our needs, as well as to provide a foundation for further blessing.  He gives the example of the miracle performed by Elisha, in which a single cruse of oil was able to fill scores of other vessels (Melakhim II beginning of chapter 4).  The same applies to Elisha's feeding of a hundred people with a few loaves of bread (Melakhim II end of chapter 4), the Chanukah miracle (oil was not miraculously created but rather burned miraculously long), and so on.

This symbolism is particularly appropriate as the setting for the blessing of the grace after meals.  The concept of blessing - in Hebrew "berakha" - relates specifically to the growth and development of something existing - NOT to the creation of something new.  It is like the welling up of a tiny spring into a pool - "bereikha."  The special power of a prophet or righteous person is generally to augment the existing Divine influence, which is then received and collected via a pre-existing material reality - as we explained in chapter 40.

A KNIFE ON THE TABLE

The Torah commands us, "When you shall build Me a stone altar, don't build with hewn stones, for when you wave your blade upon it you desecrate it."  (Shemot 20:22) Rashi cites the Midrash which explains that it is inappropriate to pass an iron blade, which shortens life, on the altar, which lengthens it.

Rav Ganzfried, reiterating that our table is likened to the altar (see 41:6 and our explanation), explains that for this reason we should cover the knife as we recite the grace after meals.  The exception is Shabbat, when we are elevated above the violent aspects of life.

Of course, Jews are not forbidden from using iron implements in general, and we use them even in the Temple itself (to slaughter the sacrifices), just as we may use our knives on the table DURING the meal.  Part of man's Divine image is his creative ability, which reflects Hashem's ability to create "ex nihilo" - something from nothing.  The mirror image of this capacity is our destructive ability.  Both are symbolized by iron, which enables us to hew stones into carefully planned shapes or on the contrary to commit violence in carefully planned ways.

However, in order to sanctify our creative side it has to be set upon the proper foundation - a foundation of submission to God and an acknowledgement that ultimately He is the Creator; we are at most His agents.  Creation without this recognition is itself destruction - it is a sacrifice to the pagan god of our own talents, saying, "My strength and the might of my hand made me all this wealth"  (Devarim 8:17).

We do indeed slaughter sacrifices in the elaborately designed Temple, but when we want to elevate them before God we must start with an altar built with unhewn stones, left exactly the way God gave them to us.  Likewise, we use our knives throughout the meal, but when we want to elevate our eating, by affirming that the Source of our material blessing is in God, it is appropriate to cover them.  This brings us back to the point we made above, that the idea of blessing is that of augmentation and not of creation.

On Shabbat, our creative capacity goes on vacation entirely.  All creative labor is forbidden.  Then we are not concerned with the symbolic connection of metal to our ability to create and destroy, and we need not cover the knives.

THE GRACE AFTER MEALS

The Torah, after expanding on the praises of the Land of Israel, orders us: "And you shall eat and be satisfied, and you will bless Hashem your God for the good land which He gave you" (Devarim 8:10).  The Torah then goes on to warn us to take care "lest you should eat and be satisfied, and build fine houses and dwell ... and your heart will become haughty and you will forget Hashem your God Who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage ... and you will say in your heart, My strength and the might of my hand made me all this wealth."  Rather, we must always remember that the source of all our blessings is in God.

We can certainly understand why after eating we should THANK God, to show our gratitude for the food which He gives us; we can also understand why we should PRAISE God, since after eating we have a heightened appreciation of His beneficence.

But "blessing" refers neither to thanks nor to praise.  When Hashem blesses Adam and Chava to be fruitful and multiply (Bereishit 1:28), He is neither thanking nor praising them; when Yaakov asks the angel to bless him after their struggle (Bereishit 32:27), he is not asking the angel to thank him, nor to praise him.  In each case, "blessing" refers to a special influence which will provide success.

It is easy to understand how God can bless man; in siman 100 we extend this idea to show how man can bless man, as in Malkhitzedek's blessing of Avram (Bereishit 14:19).  But how can man bless God? What need does God have of man's blessing, and how does man have the power to bestow such a blessing, if not from God Himself? And yet in this verse we are commanded to bless God!  Furthermore, Malkhitzedek himself blessed God; and the Talmud relates that once when the High Priest Rebbe Yishmael ben Elisha entered into the Holy of Holies of the Temple, he saw the Lord of Hosts who bade him, "Yishmael, my son - bless Me!"

In the very beginning of the book, where the Kitzur talks about the righteous who go "before God," we quoted the Midrash which explained that Avraham went before God, so to speak "leading the way" for Him.  Obviously, the Midrash is not suggesting that there are places where God is really absent - after all, the angels sing that "the whole earth is filled with His glory" (Yishayahu 6:3).  Rather, there are places where Godliness is absent - where Hashem's sovereignty is not acknowledged.  Avraham was a pioneer in spreading knowledge and consciousness of Hashem throughout the world - in creating a place where God's presence dwells palpably among human beings.

Likewise, by creating a consciousness and acknowledgement of God, we are in effect "blessing" Him - we are augmenting His presence among mankind.  This is exactly what the Torah commands us.  By affirming that the material blessings of Eretz Yisrael are from God, and not from our own efforts, we augment God-consciousness - both our own and others'.  This in turn CREATES blessing, since when we are close to God material blessing is a function of the extent of His presence.

An explanation of the special phrasing used in all benedictions will be presented later, in chapter 48.