[Avodah] New Brachos

[kennethgmiller at juno.com]

R' Micha Berger wrote:

> I think this analysis slices the matter in a confusing angle,
> which is why I proposed looking at two distinct questions:
> 1- Does the situation call for a berakhah?
> 2- Is this berakhah an established nusach?

WADR, I'm not convinced that #1 is a legitimate question. Can there be a situation which calls for a bracha, yet Chazal neglected to establish one?

I have a very simple place where *I* draw the line between situations which call for a bracha, and situations which don't. Namely, if there is a bracha which I'm obligated to make, then it is a situation which calls for a bracha. If there is *not* any bracha which I'm obligated to make, then it is *not* a situation which calls for a bracha. Sounds pretty straightforward to me. Where do *you* draw the line?

> But the question with puffed wheat or toasted grains isn't
> question #1. The person is about to eat, so the time is
> appropriate, there is no berakhah levatalah. However,
> arguably none of Chazal's standard coinages apply. So then
> the question is between (1) using a berakhah that post-dates
> gemara, (2) sheqer, or (3) not making a berakah desipte the
> general taqanah to make one before eating.

None of those three options is a good idea. But the system allows for situations like this, and tells us exactly what to do: Use the more general bracha.

That would be Haadamah over Mezonos, if we're unsure if the grains were processed enough to be worthy of Mezonos. Or, if the question is the bracha acharona, and we suspect that this food is chashuv enough to get a Bracha Me'en Shalosh, but none of the three forms fit this food -- so we fall back on Boray Nefashos.

Akiva Miller

PS: In the thread "The Dynamic of Post-Talmudic Brachos", RMB asked:
> On a related note, but I just don't know the difference
> between this thread and the one titled "New Brachos" to
> know if I'm really replying to something said here...

Good point. Perhaps I should not have given my thread a distinct name. But now that I did, I'd say that the difference between the two is this: That other thread is rather lomdish, a high-level thread concerned with the *application* of the rule against new brachos. My thread is much more basic, asking the *definition* of when a bracha is legitimate or l'vatala.

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