Tuesday, February 18, 2020

Who's up first and who's batting cleanup?


Where’s Emily Post when we need her? Today’s daf TB Berachot 46 teaches different aspects of meal etiquette. We all know that there is a blessing before we eat, hamotzi, and Grace after meals, birkat hamazon, when we have finished eating. With guests and family sitting around the Shabbat or Yom Tov table, who is honored with the motzi and who is honored with birkat hamazon? The Gemara tells the story that answers our etiquette question.

The Gemara recounts: Rabbi Zeira took ill. Rabbi Abbahu went to visit him and resolved: If the little man with the scorched legs, a nickname for Rabbi Zeira, is cured, I will make a festival, a feast, for the Sages. Rabbi Zeira was cured and Rabbi Abbahu made a feast for all the Sages. When it came time to break bread, Rabbi Abbahu said to Rabbi Zeira: Master, please break bread for us. Rabbi Zeira said to him: Doesn’t the Master hold in accordance with that halakha of Rabbi Yoḥanan, who said: The host breaks bread? Rabbi Abbahu broke bread for them. When the time came to recite the blessing, Rabbi Abbahu said to Rabbi Zeira: Master, recite Grace after Meals on our behalf. Rabbi Zeira said to him: Doesn’t the Master hold in accordance with that halakha of Rabbi Huna of Babylonia, who said: He who breaks bread recites Grace after Meals?

The Gemara asks: And in accordance with whose opinion does Rabbi Abbahu hold that he asked Rabbi Zeira to recite Grace after Meals? The Gemara answers: Rabbi Abbahu holds in accordance with that halakha that Rabbi Yoḥanan said in the name of Rabbi Shimon ben Yoḥai: The host breaks bread and a guest recites Grace after Meals. The host breaks bread so that he will break bread generously, whereas a guest might be embarrassed to break a large piece for himself and other guests; and the guest recites Grace after Meals so that he may bless the host in the course of reciting Grace after Meals, as the Gemara proceeds to explain. (Sefaria.org translation)

That’s the answer to our question. A good host should give generous portions and a guest should bless the host for opening up his home to him. The Gemara goes on to suggest the wording of this blessing.

What is the formula of the blessing with which the guest blesses his host?
May it be Your will that the master of the house shall not suffer shame in this world, nor humiliation in the World-to-Come. Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi added to it elements pertaining to material success:
And may he be very successful with all his possessions,
and may his possessions and our possessions be successful and near the city,
and may Satan control neither his deeds nor our deeds,
and may no thought of sin, iniquity, or transgression stand before him or before us
from now and for evermore. (Sefaria.org translation)

For reasons unknown to me, this blessing formulation never entered the birkat hamazon liturgy. I think a blessing like this is certainly appropriate for us today. How would you bless your host thanking him/her for his/her hospitality and generosity?

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