[Avodah] New Brachos

[Micha Berger]

Finally, I can wrap up explaining what I was thinking rather than
writing while people are posting more explanation than I could keep up
with as quickly as it was coming in.


I think there are two questions:
    1- When a berakhah is to be made
    2- The matbei'ah.

My inclination was to say that the Rosh was speaking of #1, that we
do not add times for berakhos. But if the situation arises and there
is no appropriate berakhah from before chasimas hashas, we do coin a
new one to be said. This question is the more chamur one. After all,
that's where sheim Hashem lashav, berakhah levatalah, berakhah she'einah
question come up. Saying you can't come up with new excuses to invoke
sheim Hashem as part of a berakhah (shevu'ah or not) appears to me to be
pretty compelling.

Our original question was of this sort. The person just finished
eating, so question #1 is answered "yes" -- now is the time to make a
berakhah. However, if this particular food does not fit al hamichyah but
requires a berakhah achas me'ein shalosh, Tosafos are free to suggest
a new variant.

It is true that I didn't consider birkhos shevach. And to fully consider
it, one has to think about the implications of the 18 (or 19) berakhos
in a tefillas nedavah.

But let's say for now that the "when a berakhah is to be made" question
means that the positions in the siddur where berakhos are made. E.g.
Chazal said Barukh sheAmar and Yishtabach, but my making similar berakhos
before and after Qorbanos would be a problem.

(Tangent: The Bal'adi Teimani siddur has a leading berakhah before
Qorbanos -- birkhas haTorah! Rather than our "Eileh Devarim", they go
straight to parashas Tamid, IIRC.)

OTOH, a woman saying "she'easni kirtzono" as the third in the sequence
wouldn't then defy the Rosh's rule.

I wrote "let's say for now" (3 par up) because the above has a
problem.... The berakhah of "[ha]meqadeish [es] shimkha/o barrabim"
was coined as a birkhas hamitzvah before dying al qiddush Hashem in
the Crusades. It was then pulled into the siddur, perhaps as a berakhah
before *living* as a qiddush Hashem. But in any case, saying it daily
appears to defy the Rosh -- both the coinage and the time for saying it
is new.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             A wise man is careful during the Purim banquet
micha at aishdas.org        about things most people don't watch even on
http://www.aishdas.org   Yom Kippur.
Fax: (270) 514-1507                       - Rav Yisrael Salanter