|
 Shabbat Parashat Ki Tavo| 5767Ask The RabbiQuestion: What do I do if I eat a meal and am unsure if I bentched (recited Birkat Hamazone)?
Answer: The Shulchan Aruch (Orach Chayim 184:4) says that if one is unsure whether he bentched or not, he should bentch. Although usually one should avoid a beracha when it might not be appropriate, when the potential obligation is from the Torah, he should take his chances and recite what might be an extra beracha (based on Berachot 21a). However, this is only if he ate enough to be satiated (k’dei sevi’ah), as the Torah mentions Birkat Hamazone in the context of “You shall eat and be satiated and bless Hashem …”( Devarim 8:10- see Mishna Berura 184:15). Otherwise, it is at most a rabbinic obligation and we revert to the regular rule not to make berachot out of doubt.
There are many questions regarding whether one has had k’dei sevi’ah. One is whether there is an objective amount or it depends whether the individual is full (see Mishna Berura, ibid.:22 with Biur Halacha). The most common question, which we will now focus on, is what one has to eat in the process of satiation. One is obligated in a full Birkat Hamazone only if he ate bread (Shulchan Aruch, OC 168:6), as only bread turns eating into a full meal. The question is whether one needs to eat bread and be satiated, or one needs to eat enough bread to be satiated from the bread.
The Halachot Ketanot (II, 227) makes the following claim. When one eats a k’zayit of bread he no longer has to make berachot on other foods of the meal because they are attached to the eating of the bread, which sets the meal’s tone. If so, even if he became filled only because of the other foods, it is as if he was satiated from bread, and there is an obligation to bentch from the Torah.
In contrast, the Pri Megadim (EA 184:8) assumes that the k’dei sevi’ah must come from the bread for there to be an obligation from the Torah. If it were enough just to be full, why does one need even a k’zayit of bread? There are a few answers to the Pri Megadim’s question. One, which he hints at but rejects, is that it is necessary to fulfill the Torah’s first requirement of “you shall eat” with bread. (Regarding many Torah laws, a k’zayit is the cutoff point of what is considered eating.) Regarding being satiated, the important thing is the state at the end (see Biur Halacha to 184:6 regarding one who was almost full before eating bread). Another possible answer is that if one ate less than a k’zayit of bread, it is likely that he must make a beracha on subsequent foods (see Magen Avraham, 177:1). If so, the Halachot Ketanot’s logic does not apply, and he would agree with the Pri Megadim that other food would not count toward k’dei sevi’ah. (The Pri Megadim (ad loc.) feels that even less than a k’zayit of bread exempts other foods).
Rav O. Yosef (Yechave Da’at VI, 10) suggests that this machloket existed among the Rishonim. The gemara (Berachot 48a) tells how Shimon Ben Shetachate very little, yet bentched on behalf of King Yannai and friends. Tosafot (ad loc.) says that this is difficult according to the Bahag, who says that one who ate only enough for a rabbinic obligation cannot exempt those who were satiated, as the king certainly had a full meal. Rav Yosef suggests that Yannai ate a big meal with only a little bread. According to Tosafot, that would obligate him from the Torah and according to the Bahag it would not. In any case, the more widely held position seems to be that the satiation need not come only from the quantity of bread (see Igrot Moshe IV, 41; see sources in Piskei Teshuvot 184:(82)). There are additional halachic factors that indicate that in our case one should bentch out of doubt (Yechave Da’at, ibid.). Therefore, one who ate at least a k’zayit of bread (within a relatively short time- Mishna Berura 208:48) during a filling meal and is not sure if he bentched should bentch now.
In Hemdat Yamim of R'ei, the wrong Ask the Rabbi entry was inserted. The correct one can be found on our website's Hemdat Yamim archives or in that week's Torah Tidbits.
 Top of page Print this page Send to friend |
|
Ki Tavo
