[Avodah] LeiSheiv

[Kenneth Miller]

Rabbi Meir G. Rabi asked:

> Why do we not make the Beracha of LeiSheiv before HaMotzi? After
> all it is the first Mitzvah. In fact even though custom has
> emerged to only make the Beracha when eating, we ought to make
> LeiSheiv as soon as we enter to have our meal, before we wash or
> make Kiddush.

It seems to me that RMGR is asking about the Mishneh Brurah 639:46, who wrote that if one made a clear hefsek since the last time he was in the sukkah, "when he returns afterwards, he has to say the bracha again, even a hundred times a day. And when he enters, even though he's not eating there, he says the bracha because sitting and standing there are also mitzvos, because it is "k'ein taduru"... Nevertheless, the minhag everywhere is like the poskim who don't say the bracha except when eating: Even if they sit in the sukkah for an hour before eating, they don't say the bracha because they hold that the bracha that they'll say later on the food will cover everything, because it [the meal] is the ikar, and it will cover the sleeping and the tiyul and the learning, which are all tafel to it."

In other words, the MB seems to says that there are indedd poskim who would hold as RMGR suggests, but nevertheless, universal minhag has developed otherwise.

One might ask: "But WHY? What's wrong with saying the bracha as soon as he enters the sukkah?" My guess is that it might constitute a case of a bracha that doesn't have enough koach to properly patur us. If it is true that eating in the sukkah is a Chiyuv D'Oraisa, but sitting in the sukkah is merely a Kiyum D'Oraisa, then can the bracha on one cover me for the other?

It might be comparable to the Bar Mitzvah boy who says an early Maariv on the evening that he becomes a gadol. Does he daven a second time? Was he yotzay with what he said as a child? Similarly here: If I say Leishev on sitting and learning in the sukkah (which I could have done in the house), then what happens when mealtime arrives (which I *must* eat in the sukkah? Did that bracha cover me, or do I have to make another Leishev despite not having made any hefsek? Its' a messy problem, and the solution suggested by the MB is to delay the bracha for mealtime.

Akiva Miller
____________________________________________________________
One Weird Trick
Could add $1,000s to Your Social Security Checks! See if you Qualify&#8230
http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL3131/52479dceab8dc1dce4e2bst04vuc