לעילוי נשמת

יואל אפרים בן אברהם עוזיאל זלצמן ז”ל

Question: During the course of my work day, I drink many times. I was taught to make one Shehakol for all the drinking. How is this system impacted by lunch or snacks I may have?

Answer: The key to your fine system is that when one plans to eat intermittently, a bracha can continue even for a whole day (Rambam, Brachot 4:7), if he does not leave his place (Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chayim 178:1). If one takes breaks of more than several minutes, this system faces some challenges: A. After no more than 72 minutes, but for drinking, more like a half an hour (see Living the Halachic Process, II, B-4), the ability to fulfill the obligation of a bracha achrona lapses, when the food is considered “digested.” B. After the above amount of time, there is a machloket whether the efficacy of the bracha rishona also ceases (Magen Avraham 184:9) or whether it remains as long as one plans to continue eating/drinking (Even Haozer ad loc.).

Due to a lack of consensus of poskim (see Mishna Berura 184:17), we recommend that if one drinks a reviit (approximately 90 milliliters or 3 fluid ounces) at one time (slower is a machloket—see below) and is likely to break for at least half an hour, that he recite borei nefashot on the previous drinking. This solves problem A (missing the bracha achrona). This situation brings us to another machloket: Does a bracha achrona end the first eating period, in regards to needing a new bracha rishona before the next eating—in a case that at the time of the bracha achrona he was planning to continue relatively soon (see Biur Halacha to 190:2)? We posit that one should make a new bracha rishona (see Minchat Yitzchak V:102), but that before starting the original drinking, should intend that the bracha rishona’s efficacy end with the bracha achrona (see Vezot HaBracha page 52, footnote 6).

Whether you sip frequently or follow different halachic guidance (both are fine), since you do not make a new bracha rishona on the new drinks, you raise a good question. You cannot avoid a bracha achrona on the food you eat (see Har Tzvi, Orach Chayim I:96, that continuing drinking does not allow for an indefinite stay of the bracha achrona at the end of the snack). The situation depends on the bracha achrona you recite. If it is Birkat Hamazon, you can assume the entire eating/drinking experience is completed, and you require a new bracha rishona when eating/drinking again (see Magen Avraham 190:1; Vezot Habracha, Birur Halacha 37). If you eat something whose bracha achrona is “mei’ein shalosh” (e.g., Al Hamichya), that bracha achrona will not impact the unrelated brachot on drinks.

The question is if the bracha achrona you need to make is “borei nefashot.” Do we say that the borei nefashot will apply to the drinks as well as the borei nefashot foods? If it does apply to the drinks, the situation will be as above, for one who needs to make a bracha achrona before too long goes by. The Har Tzvi (ibid.) recommends that when making the bracha achrona, he should intend that it should not relate to the drinks, and then he will not need a new bracha achrona. However, some argue that it is not possible to exclude foods that could be included in the bracha achrona (Pri Megadim, Introduction to Hilchot Brachot). While one can exclude some foods from a bracha rishona, this is because before eating them, there is no existing obligation to make a bracha, so the bracha can be focused on what one wants. In contrast, when one has eaten and has an existing borei nefashot obligation, some say that it will apply to everything that it can.

An alternative suggestion is to make the bracha achrona on both the food and drink. This has an added advantage in cases in which that which is drunk may not be covered by any bracha achrona, which is regrettable especially because according to some (see Mishna Berura 210:1), moderately paced drinking of a reviit requires a bracha achrona. To make the new bracha on drinking more clearly justified, there are a few ideas: 1. Limit the scope of the intention during the first bracha (see above). 2. Step outside before resuming drinking (see above). 3. Wait a half an hour before resumption (Vezot HaBracha, page 53). We recommend the second approach for people who will remember when to do what.

Rabbi Mann is a dayan for Eretz Hemdah and a staff member of Yeshiva University’s Gruss Kollel in Israel. He is a senior member of the Eretz Hemdah responder staff, editor of Hemdat Yamim and the author of “Living the Halachic Process, Volumes 1 and 2” and “A Glimpse of Greatness.”