[Avodah] New Brachos

[kennethgmiller at juno.com]

Some recent threads ("Post-Talmudic Brachos" and "Bracha on a Granola Bar") have enticed me to ask something I've wanted to understand for a long time.

Similar threads over the years have explained to me that there is a very deep divide between the Ashkenaz and Sefarad poskim on several topics in Hilchos Brachos. There is a whole list of brachos which Ashkenazim say on a regular basis, which a Sefaradi would never dream of saying. (Example: Al Mitzvas Tefilin) And there are brachos which are legitimate even for Sefaradim, but situations where it standard fare for an Ashkenazi, but unheard of for a Sefaradi. (Example: Mitzvos Shehazman Graman for women)

Some have explained the above in terms of "saying a bracha on a minhag" or "where a bracha *is* the minhag", and similar ideas. But it all boils down to, in general, that Ashkenazim allow a lot more leeway in these things than Sefardim.

I want to know why these Ashkenazi practices don't count as Bracha L'vatala.

Or, better phrased: How do the Ashkenazim define of Bracha L'vatala? Their definition, whatever it is, must surely exempt these many cases, right?

I've always figured that Bracha L'vatala is defined that any bracha which I'm not obligated to say, is therefore assur to say. I can see a small number of exceptions to this rule, such as Shehecheyanu, which depend on how I feel at the moment. But one could argue that this is not really an exception, given that this bracha was originally designed that way.

But in general, I cannot decide these things for myself. I cannot say brachos at the wrong time, or invent new brachos. No matter how much I love bread or wine, and no matter how much I want to that HaShem right now for making them, I cannot say Hamotzi or Hagafen right now, because there is no bread or wine around for me to consume. Only Chazal can set up and establish these things.

Chazal wrote many brachos. The ones they wrote become obligatory on us whether we understand it or not. They did write a bracha for reading Megilas Esther, and they did not write a bracha for Chavitas Aravos. We can and do discuss and learn about the choices they made, but once they made those choices, it seems to me that it ought to be "set in stone", so to speak.

But there seem to be at least two sorts of exceptions to this.

The first sort of exception is the "Post-Talmudic Brachos" often mentioned on these pages. Al Mitzvas Tefillin. She'asani Kirtzono. Al Mitzvas Tzitzis. And now some posters are saying that even L'hadlik Ner (Shel) Shabbos is a recent invention. I would like to think that my question is a simple one: Why aren't such brachos L'vatala? And they indeed are not, then why would I not write a new bracha whenever I feel like it?

The second exception was mentioned in the thread about the Bracha Acharona on granola bars. Namely, the possibility that we might have to say an unheard-of bracha. Now, this is not a new halacha; I learned it -- and the Tosfos it is based on -- decades ago in regard to Puffed Wheat cereal. But I never understood it. What is the havamina to say such a bracha?

Even further: What is the havamina that I might be OBLIGATED to say such a bracha? Let rephrase that: What is the havamina  that there might possibly exist a law which requires me to do something which no law has ever prescribed? What were Tosfos thinking? Where did this bracha ("Al Ha'adamah, v'al pri haadamah") come from?

Akiva Miller

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