The importance of studying Birchos HaNehenin
[1] (Halacha 1006)
The Importance of Studying the Brochos of Enjoyment
Question: Why is it important to study the brochos of enjoyment — after all, for all of them, if one said "shehakol" he has fulfilled his obligation1?
Answer: The Gemara in Maseches Brochos2 states: 'The Rabbis taught: A person is forbidden to derive enjoyment from this world without a bracha, and anyone who derives enjoyment from this world without a bracha has committed me'ilah (misappropriation of sanctified property). What is his remedy? Let him go to a chacham (sage). [But if] he goes to a chacham, what has he accomplished for him? He has already committed the transgression! Rather, Rava said: Let him go to a chacham from the outset and let [the chacham] teach him brochos, so that he will not come to commit me'ilah3'.
Rabbeinu Yonah wrote in Sefer HaYir'ah: 'And let him recite a bracha over everything, before it and after it, the bracha stated for it according to our teachers, may they rest in peace. And if he is not expert, let him go to one who is expert to learn, and let him not make himself like an animal; and if he did not find one who is expert, let him go and forgo his enjoyment. And let him not derive enjoyment from the thing until he knows how to recite a bracha over it to his Creator according to law and statute'.
And the Ritva4 wrote: 'Every Jew who comes to derive enjoyment from the world is obligated to recite a bracha over everything he enjoys to the Great Name, King of the world; and if he did not recite a bracha he has committed me'ilah with sanctified things, and has separated between water and water, and has cast off the yoke of Heaven, and has robbed his father and mother, and has reviled the One who rides in the heavens, He whose Name is Y-ah; therefore in the land it shall be requited, and his number among the living shall be blotted out and he shall go childless; and concerning this it is said5 "and he who troubles his own flesh is cruel"; while the one who recites a bracha shall be blessed and draws favor and kindness to the whole world, and concerning him it is said "the man of kindness does good to his own soul"; therefore at the outset of everything it is fitting for a person to learn and to teach his children and his students the order of brochos, so that they do not come to commit me'ilah and corrupt and make abominable [their] deeds, because this is a very grave matter'.
And the students of Rabbeinu Yonah wrote6: 'That is to say, one who does not know the brochos — in what manner is he able to eat, for if he eats he will be liable for a me'ilah offering every single time; and we respond that he should go to one who is expert and let him teach him the brochos for each and every thing, and the same applies that even if he knew only the bracha of shehakol, he would thereby be cleared of me'ilah, as we learned [in the Mishnah] "and for all of them, if he said shehakol, he has fulfilled his obligation," except that he must learn so that he recites the bracha appropriate to each and every thing'.
However, from the words of the Abudraham7 it appears that the bracha of shehakol does not clear one of me'ilah, and these are his words: 'And anyone who derives enjoyment from this world without a bracha — meaning the bracha designated for that particular thing — has committed me'ilah. The meaning is, it is as though he derived enjoyment from things consecrated to Heaven. What is his remedy? Rava said: Let him go to a chacham from the outset and let [the chacham] teach him brochos, so that he will not come to commit me'ilah'.
And the Hagahos Maimoniyos wrote8: 'According to this, he should recite a bracha over anything about which he is in doubt; and so wrote the Tosafos9, and my teacher in the name of Rabbeinu Chananel and Rabbi Yosef, and even at the outset; and although we learned [in the Mishnah] that it applies only after the fact, this too, since he is in doubt about it, is regarded like after the fact'. [And see below that the Magen Avraham cited his words, and explained that it refers to a case where he learned but has a doubt]
And Rabbi Ovadiah of Bartenura wrote10: 'However, at the outset one should not eat any fruit if he does not first know to recite over it the bracha appropriate to it'.
The Yosef Ometz wrote11: 'And just as there is a grave prohibition for one who derives enjoyment without a bracha, so too there is a grave prohibition for one who recites a bracha in vain (l'vatalah), that is, a bracha that is not at all fitting to be recited over what he recited it on at that time, or a bracha that is unnecessary, that is, that he brings himself to a liability for a bracha from which he could have exempted himself, whose punishment is like that of invoking the [Divine] Name in vain. And if he recited a bracha not in accordance with its law, he has in his hand the punishment of both — that he derived enjoyment without a bracha and that he recited a bracha in vain. Therefore the Sefer HaYir'ah wrote that if he did not find one who is expert to teach him, let him forgo his enjoyment, and let him not derive enjoyment from the thing until he knows to recite a bracha to his Creator according to law. Therefore a person should be scrupulous to acquire for himself a rav to learn from him the laws of the brochos, or to ask him about whatever he is in doubt about. And let him impose upon himself a penalty of fasting or money for every bracha that he nullifies or that he does not recite according to its law, until he is accustomed not to derive enjoyment without a bracha; and afterward let him do so out of love, not out of fear of a penalty or the aforementioned punishments'.
And the Magen Avraham wrote12: 'And if he is in doubt. That is, after he has learned, but one who has not learned should not eat until he goes to a chacham to teach him brochos (so it is in the Gemara and in the Bartenura and the Beis Yosef at the end of siman 204 in the name of the Hagahos Maimoniyos)'.
And these are the words of the Alter Rebbe13: 'Any fruit about which one is in doubt whether it is a fruit of the tree or a fruit of the ground, in that he does not know how to clarify it according to the sign that will be explained in siman 203, or a fruit of the tree about which he is in doubt whether it is the essential fruit or not, he should recite "borei pri ha'adamah"; and if he does not know what it is, he recites "shehakol nih'yeh bidvaro." And nevertheless, if it is something that he can exempt within the course of a seudah, that is better, for then there is no doubt at all. And all this is concerning a doubt that arose for him after he has learned; but one who has not learned should not eat by way of the bracha of shehakol, for it does not exempt everything except after the fact and not at the outset when it is possible — and here it is possible for him to go to a chacham who will teach him the laws of brochos'.
And in Seder Birchas HaNehenin14 he wrote: 'And all this is when a doubt arose for him after he has learned, or after the fact; but at the outset it is forbidden for him to fulfill his obligation with the bracha of shehakol — rather he must recite over each thing the bracha designated for it; and if he is an unlearned person let him go to a chacham and let [the chacham] teach him the laws of brochos'.
> Thus we have seen the importance of studying the brochos of enjoyment, and whoever15 has not learned and does not know the appropriate bracha should not eat until he knows the appropriate bracha16, and should not recite the bracha of shehakol. (Even though after the fact, if he recited shehakol, he has fulfilled his obligation).
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Notes:
1 ברכות מ, א ↩
2 לה, א ↩
3 וכתב מהרש"א בחידושי אגדות: 'לא קאמר הכי אלא בברכות הנהנין דבשאר ברכות הקבועות אם למדו פ"א שפיר אין מקום לטעות אבל בברכות הנהנין דיש כמה שינוים בברכות ראשונות ובאחרונות לפי המין וכמה ספקות שנפלו בהן דאם שינה לא יצא וכאלו לא בירך כלל וה"ז מעל גם הברכה שבירך היא לבטלה וע"כ ילך אצל חכם וילמדנו *פעם אחר פעם* עד שיהיה בקי בהן לברך מעין הברכה וק"ל'. וראה פרי מגדים או"ח פתיחה להל' ברכות ↩
4 הל' ברכות פ"א אות א ↩
5 משלי יא, יז ↩
6 ברכות כה, א מדפי הרי"ף. (הביאו המגן גיבורים אלף המגן סי' רב ס"ק ל) ↩
7 הל' ברכות ↩
8 הל' ברכות פ"ח אות ע ↩
9 יש שכתבו (ראה אור חדש כלל יב אות ב) שהכוונה לתוספות ברכות מג, א ד"ה ועל ↩
10 ברכות פ"ו מ"ב ↩
11 ח"א דיני ברכה סי' שעה ↩
12 סי' רב ס"ק לו ↩
13 שו"ע או"ח סי' רב סכ"ד ↩
14 פ"א ס"ה ↩
15 וראה גם משנ"ב סי' רב ס"ק פד, וסי' רו ס"ק ד ↩
16 ולהעיר ממ"ש המרומי שדה ברכות לה, א ↩
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