Reb Eliezer

Currently the workers can say the whole bentdhing as the boss expects them to do that. See SA O’CH 191,2.

אמן – א-ל מלך נאמן, אני מוסר נפשי My father told me a mashal on the value of Amen which I repeated at his eulogy forty years ago. There was a merchant who traveled overseas on a ship taking along merchandise to sell. There was a big storm wind which destroyed the ship and his merchandise and threw him out on a desert island. In his depression, he was playing around with the pebbles on the ground. Eventually, another ship arrived which took him home. When seeing his wife, he started to cry, telling her how he lost everything. Wanting to wipe his eyes, he took out his handkerchief and they noticed that something fell out of it. When they looked at it carefully, they realized that it was a diamond. So the wife asks him, do you have any more of this? He says, It must have fallen into my pocket on the desert island when I was waiting for another ship as I was playing around with the pebbles but I cannot go back there to collect more because I don’t know where the island is. When we come to the next world to account for our deeds, we start crying that we didn’t accomplish anything. We take out our handkerchief to wipe our eyes and an Amen falls out of it. So, they tell us. this is a diamond over here. Do you have any more of this? He says, if I would have known the value of this over here, how much more I could have collected but I cannot go back to collect more.

ברכות מד,ב

In Eretz Yisroel they made a brocho when they removed the tefilin but we don’t do. There is an argument between Rebbi Yosei Haglili and Rebbi Akiva Mesaches Eruvin 96,1 if at night ,habbos and yom tov is forbidden to put on tefilin. Rebbi Yosei Haglili saya it is forbidden and Rebbi Akiva holds it is not. See Shagas Aryeh 41 in great detail. We pasken like Rebbi Akiva, so shabbos and yom tov is only assur because of a sign and and night because of releasing gas. So they made the brocho according to Rebbe Yosei Haglili but according to Rebbi Akiva we don’t make it.

Maybe Chanukah and Purim is not mentioned in Al Hamichya because there is no requirement on these days to eat foods that the brocho is said on. Purim when we drink is not for the sake of the wine but to be drunk. The praise on Chanukah does not have to be said on wine.

The Rav Abarbanel explains the meaning of לא תשא את שם ה’ אלקיך לשוא do not elevate Hashem your G-d’s name falsely. Don’t say Hashem is so great that he wants nothing to do with us and doesn’t care for us. A baa gaiva, who holds his head up high, pushes Hashem out of this world. He believes that Hashem belongs in the heavens and does not belong on earth because of His greatness.

ברכות מג,א

When it comes to reclining to be motzei others in kiddush or hamotzi, currently we don’t recline, so our sitting is like there reclining as indicated in SA O’CH 213,1. At the seder we do recline for wine SA O’CH 473,2 and for matzah 475,1 as we are commemoratiing our history when they reclined.

In says in SA O’CH 214,1 that every brocho requires the mention of malchus, the King of the Universe, otherwise it is considered no brocho as we learned above 40,2. The question is why the shmonei esrei does not include this?
Why tthe mentioning of malchus is so important? I explained above that we are organizing the praise of Hashem to show that He is the only One who can fulfill our wishes, so the Beis Yosef says in rhe name of the Rokeach that since we mentiioned it before shmonei esrei we don’t have to mention malchus again in the shmonei esrei.

ברכות מא,ב

The Rambam Hilchas Melochim (9,10) says that measurements don’t apply to goyim as they were halacha given to Moshe in Sinai and not to the goyim. So over here it is not mentioned. Maybe the measurements were from the pasuk but the halacha tells us what to apply it to.

The Rambam explains in Shmonei Perokim Perek 4, that the person was created with an eqilibrium. When this balance is upset, he becomes ch’v sick. To heal him, this equilibrium must be restored.
In SA O’CH 170 it says that foods contain salt and drinks contain water, so we don’t have to be concerned for the lack of salt or water.

By the argument between Hilel and Shamai to eat in the week days for shabbos, Hillel says Bless Hashem day by day. It is great when Hashem wants us to bless him day by day. The snake was cursed by providing it food without need to ask for it as dust is available all over. Explains the Chidushei Harim that Hashem said to the snake, here is your food and don’t bother me. I don’t want to her from you.

The Chasam Sofer left in his will שלא יבוש המעין ויקצץ האילן the well should not dry out and the tree be cut where he was referring to the Torah.
The Ben Ish Chai has a mashel: A father had a field with beautiful trees and other plantations. The watering was done through irrigation canals. They periodically had to be dug out from pebbles and other stones which stuffed them up. The father was afraid that his children will not follow in his way and they will not dig them out, so he left it in the will that there is a treasure buried in the ditches. The children after his death, dug them out but they did not find anything in them. Later, they were surprised how beautifully everything grew. Then they understood what the father meant. We have too constantly make sure that the Torah be able to flow by digging out any obstructions. הפך בה הפך בה דכולה בה turn it around, turn it around, why twice? You are allowed to question things but we should not leave it like that.

According to the view that Adam Harishon drank wine, we say lechaim to bring us life, here and the next world. The Chasam Sofer explains in Toras Moshe that Adam had a proof that he was able to eat through his wife. She was not commanded directly. The command was on grapes. He drank wine. His argument was like this. If the juice of the fruit is the same as the fruit then Chava was part of him, so if he was commanded, she also was commanded, so why didn’t she die and if the juice is not the same as the fruit, then I drank wine and did not eat the fruit.
The medrash says that it was an esrog. According to this we can understand why the earth was punished at the same time when Adam was punished for not following Hashem’s commandment that the tree and fruit should have the same taste. Adam knew that he is not allowed to eat the tree but he was questioning the fruit, so he tasted the tree and fruit and he saw they taste differently. So he ate the fruit and not the tree from eitz hadaas but it was an esrog where the fruit and the tree taste the same. If the earth would have properly followed the commandment, Adam would have not made the mistake, therefore the earth was responsible for his sin.

When it comes to cutting the chalah, on a week day, SA O’CH 167,1 says to make a small cut before the brocho such that the small piece is not separated from the rest (you can pick up the rest by holding the small piece). This is done to minimize the time between the brocho and eating. On shabbos, we only make an indication with the knife in order that the lechem mishneh should stay complete. , Bach there in the name of the Maarshal. The Ateres Zekenim exolains that we make המוציא to emphasize the ‘ha’. He gives a reason for it, the word can mean past and future. Now when we say who brings forth bread from earth, the question is, it is not bread but wheat? The gemora in Maseches Shabbos (30,2) says that rolls will come out of the ground at the time of redemption. The extra ‘ה’ is also hinting this. The RMA there says to cut both ends since we don ‘t know which end got baked first.

If not good at all no brocho. It should be not as good.

Rav Moshe O’CH (3,31) paskens that if you eat one thing made up of two things where you would eat each separately, you make two brochos e.g. a chocolate with nuts on it.

ברכות לט,ב

It in SA O’CH 274,2 Friday night we cut the bottom chalah whereas in the morning, says the RMA there, we cut the top and the reason is kabala. Maybe, we can give a reason. We want to show that the morning when it comes to the meal, is more chashuv by cutting the top one than the night and by also using also the bigger chalah. Similarly, the sefardim who put tefilin on the hand sitting down, they want to show that the rosh is more chashev, so they stand up for it.

The covering of the lechem mishna has two reasons. For kiddush not to ashame the chalahs and by hamotzi to remember the mon which was covered.

ברכות לט,א

At a wedding or bar mitzva, they put out pieces of bread to be able to make a brocho on it after washing. Now we are suppose to make a brocho on a complete chalah which is available at the table. They think that making a brocho on washing the hand and walking to the table is a hefsak. The eitza might be (I was told that Rav Yaakov Kaminetzky ztz’l did this) is to make the brocho of netilas yodayim at the table and then make the brocho on a complete bread.