[Avodah] Haetz and Shehecheyanu

[Akiva Miller]

Aruch Hashulchan 225:7 gives two very different reasons for delaying
Shehecheyanu from the seeing until the eating.

The first is that despite the joy felt at seeing the new year's fruit, we
must wait until that fruit is fully grown, and it is difficult to determine
exactly when that occurs. Therefore, he says, we evade the question by
waiting until it is actually ready to eat. According to this, I clearly
understand that the Shehecheyanu is actually on the seeing and must come
*before* the Haetz.

But there is another reason given for delaying the Shehecheyanu. It is the
second one given by AhS 225:7, and it is the only one given by Mishne Brura
225:11. Namely, nowadays, the amount of simcha that we get from seeing the
new fruit isn't enough to say Shehecheyanu on.

Please pay close attention to what the AsH writes there:

"The earlier Generations were temimim. They had simcha at seeing the new
fruit, and they gave heartfelt thanks to Hashem for the good that He gives
to the whole world. So *they* were able to say the bracha on seeing. But
us? The simcha and gratitude is not noticeable by us, except when the body
enjoys it at eatingtime. That's why it's not possible for us to say the
bracha on seeing. They (Rama 225:3) did write that 'one who says it on
seeing doesn't lose', but that only means that one should NOT say that for
us it would be a bracha l'vatala, because it wouldn't be."

It seems to me that if the AhS is going out of his way to stress that
saying Shehecheyanu on the seeing is NOT a bracha l'vatala, then he is
implicitly saying that it IS a b'dieved. If so, then the nature of this
bracha has changed. It used to be true that "Seeing comes first and
therefore Shehecheyanu comes first," but it is not true anymore, because
seeing has become mostly irrelevant.

"Mostly irrelevant," but not totally irrelevant, because if one did say
Shehecheyanu on seeing, it's not a bracha l'vatala. But let's be honest.
"It's not a bracha l'vatala" is a polite way of saying "wrong but not an
aveira." The proper way to do it nowadays is to say the Shehecheyanu at
eating time.

The conclusions I draw from all this: According to the first reason of the
AhS, the logic of "the seeing came first so Shehecheyanu should be first"
is sound. But according to the second reason of the AhS, and the only
reason given by MB, the Shehecheyanu on fruit nowadays is NOT on the
seeing, but on the eating, in which case I remain befuddled on why the
Shehecheyanu comes first - as indeed both the AhS and MB tell us to do
l'maaseh - and I have resigned myself to chalk it up to inertia from when
the Shehecheyanu WAS on the seeing.

At this point, I'm going to play Devil's Advocate, accepting the argument
that the chiyuv for the Shehecheyanu began long before the eating did, and
that this is why the Shehecheyanu should be said first. There is a similar
situation in Hilchos Sukkah, but it leads to a different result.

Mishne Brurah 639:46 - "... Whenever one enters (the sukkah), even though
he is not eating there he says the bracha (Layshev Basukkah) because the
sitting and standing there is a mitzvah too ... Nevertheless the minhag of
the whole world islike those poskim who don't say the bracha except when
eating. Even if sitting in the sukkah before eating for an hour, they don't
say the bracha, for they hold that the bracha said later on over the food
will cover everything, because that's the ikar, and it covers sleeping and
relaxing and learning, all of which is tafel to it ..."

The parallel is quite clear to me. In the case of sukkah, one should say
Layshev immediately upon entering the sukkah, but there are good reasons to
save it for eatingtime, and that's the minhag. In the case of fruit, one
should say the Shehecheyanu immediately upon seeing the new fruit, but
there are good reasons to save it for eatingtime, and that's the minhag.

We have said that Shehecheyanu precedes Haetz because seeing precedes
eating. If so, then if we enter the sukkah now, with plans to eat later on,
then when that time finally arrives, the Layshev Basukkah ought to precede
the Hamotzi/Mezonos. But it doesn't! Whenever we say Layshev together with
a food bracha, the Layshev is said *second*.

Why is that? How is sukkah different from fruit? Why is the Shehecheyanu
said first, but the Layshev is said second?

Akiva Miller
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