[Avodah] Berachot in the Course of a Meal

[Gershon Dubin]

From: Micha Berger <micha at aishdas.org>
Date: Thu, 21 Jun 2012 15:14:24 -0400
> 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...

> 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....

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

Clearly the Mechaber in 177:2 says that it does in fact depend on the
eating style prevalent at that time and place. Since "we" never stop
eating pas (the style you refer to) it's always lelafes. Same would
work in the other direction; in the USA in 2012 nobody (who doesn't
have a berachos cheshbon) would ever eat bread with their dessert.
So the dessert is NOT lelafes and requires a beracha.

Gershon
gershon.dubin at juno.com