[Avodah] Berachot in the Course of a Meal

[Micha Berger]

On Wed, Jun 20, 2012 at 08:04:27PM -0400, cantorwolberg at cox.net wrote:
:> There is an interesting exception, however. If such 
:> foods are eaten together with bread they will not require their own 
:> blessing. So although fruit eaten as a dessert requires its own 
:> blessing one would not recite a blessing on the fruit if one eats the 
:> fruit with bread in every bite.
: 
: I recall this and even as a child, it seemed to be artificial.

Well, these are dinim derabbanan, they /are/ artificial.

The problem is that those of us who didn't grow up in traditional
Edot haMizrach or Teimani homes don't relate to the eating style
chazal assumed when they passed these laws. See the July 2006 thread,
"historical contingency and brachos" <http://j.mp/Ma1Adq>.

At a Middle Eastern meal, everything else is eaten on bread. I would say
bread is your cutlery, but it's more like your meat is embellishing your
bread. The se'udah is to this very day viewed as eating bread with other
things. And if you want more cubes of grilled meat, tear off a piece of
flat bread, scoop some out, and enjoy!

So, it's artificial, and based around a different eating style than ours.
Something for the next Sanhedrin to deal with.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

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Micha Berger             Brains to the lazy
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