Everyday Judaism · Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe

You're listening to Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe of TORCH in Houston, Texas. This is the Everyday Judaism Podcast.

Welcome back everybody. Good morning. It is so wonderful to be back here finally after the holiday of Pesach. We are now resuming our Everyday Judaism series. We are in Simmon Memhei 45, Simmon 45. And we will begin discussing the laws of Zimon, the Zimon blessing. What is Zimon? Zimon is an invitation. Inviting, lehazmin, hazmanah, is an invitation. You're inviting people to recite the blessing, the grace after meals.
So here, the basic premise of this is that if you have three men sitting together and eating, three women as well, but three men, then it's not just that you start blessing, you bless together. You give the grace after meals together. One calls and invites everyone to recite the blessings together. If three or more men have participated in a meal that requires Birkas Hamazon, the grace after meals, to be recited, a special formula is added to the beginning of the Birkas Hamazon
in which one of the men formally invites the others to join him in the recitation of the Birkas Hamazon, the grace after meals. This formula is referred to as the blessing of Zimon, literally invitation. Ideally, when the Zimon is performed, the leader then recites the entire Birkas Hamazon aloud and all those present listen carefully so that they may be exempted of this by this recitation. Indeed, this is how the Zimon was practiced in earlier times. However, nowadays, we are concerned that the participants will become distracted
and not listen carefully to every word of Birkas Hamazon recited by the leader and thereby not fulfilling their basic obligation. Therefore, the accepted custom is to have the leader recite the Zimon and then the others recite Birkas Hamazon along with him. Preferably, the Zimon should be recited over a cup of wine or other qualifying beverage. The Kitzer begins the simon with a full discussion of this topic. Okay, halacha number one. Shlosha she'achlu biyachot, three people that have eaten together,
tzichim levarch be-zimon, must recite the Birkas Hamazon, the grace after meals, with a Zimon. V'mitzvah she'yivorku alakos, it is proper, it is a mitzvah, that the Zimon be recited over a cup of wine. That means the leader will hold a cup while reciting the Birkas Hamazon. Tzrichim lehadeh she'yeh kos yayin, one should endeavor that that cup be filled with wine. V'yim'i efsher be-yayin, ye'yeh she'chor o-med o-yayin sorof. If it is impossible for them to have wine, for whatever reason, it should be recited over beer, mead, or whiskey.
Kishu hu chamar medina, if it is a chamar medina, which is a luxury beverage of the time. Today that can even be a Starbucks coffee, which is so expensive, that it might fall into that category as well. Dahayinu she'ayin yayin godel sham, if it is a place that there is no wine available there. K'derech yom min ha'ir, within a day's travel from the city. Therefore wine is expensive in that place. So in a place that's rural, where it's impossible to get wine, you can use other beverages.
And it is common for you to drink these other drinks, like beer, mead, or whiskey, yim'kom yayin, instead of wine. V'yei shomrim, some authorities say, the Birkas Hamazon afilu bi-yachit unakos. Some say that if a person recites the Grace After Meals, even as an individual alone, should also include reciting it over a cup of wine. It is a practice of those who are scrupulous in their mitzvah observance, when reciting the Birkas Hamazon alone, to recite it over a cup, but not to hold the cup throughout the blessing.
Rather, they leave it on the table in front of them while they recite the blessings. The cup of wine should be poured first, and after that they should wash their hands for the final waters, which is the simon that we discussed previously, simon number 44. We have two episodes on that, that we discussed the washing of our hands prior to the recitation of Birkas Hamazon, the Grace After Meals. Regarding wine from which one drank, all the wine remaining in the vessel from which he drank Naseh Pogom
is rendered pogom, which means blemished, it's blemished wine, because it was already used for a blessing of the Apostle of Birkas Hamazon and is disqualified from the blessing of Birkas Hamazon. So, for example, if you had wine in your glass for Kiddush, the beginning of the meal, on Shabbos, and now you had still half the glass, half the cup of your Kiddush cup, now you just want to use that wine, add a little bit more to it to use it for the end of the meal.
No, because you already made Kiddush on that wine, you can't use it now for another purpose. This is, so what do you do? Achi Takna, until it is remedied, how does that happen? How do you fix it? This is accomplished, what you do is you add some wine to the cup, or a small amount of water that is not pogom itself, into that kos, into that cup. However, since it is necessary to fill the cup, if the cup of wine had pogom wine in it,
means it was already blemished wine, and you remedied it, then it is necessary to pour the pogom back into a bottle, and then you can pour it back into a cup for the sake of the blessing. So, if you have wine that was used already, you want to use, you want to unpogom it, you want to unblemish it, how do you do it? You add more wine to it, and then pour it back into the bottle, and now it is considered to be fresh wine again.
Okay, halacha number four, kos shemevorchanolav, the cup over which the blessing is recited, tzoroch sheheishom, should be a complete cup, not a cracked cup, and not a broken cup, not a cup with a puncture in it. Va'afilu nishba rak ha-bosis shel ha-mata, and even if the lower base is just broken, so it's not, you know, sometimes you have the kiddush cups, so you have the cup part, but sometimes there's a stem, and on the bottom of the stem you can have like a little base,
a little bit over there is cracked, no, it has to be a complete cup, not only the cup part, but also the stem part, should be va'afilu nishba rak ha-bosis shel ha-mata, even if only the lower base is broken, posol, it is disqualified and cannot be used for this purpose, va'afilu pgima kolshu bisfa sakli, and even a minute nick on the rim of the vessel, oh, she nistak, or it is cracked, posol, is disqualified. Veton ha-dokha mi-bifnim, and the inside of the cup requires washing,
v'tif, v'shtifa mi-b'chutz, and outside rinsing before it is used as the cup of blessing. Omekan cho-yofeh, and alternatively, you should wipe it thoroughly, it should be clean, and then you pour from the wine bottle into the cup, for the purpose of the blessing of the benching, the birkas hamazon, the grace after meals, and the cup should be filled to the top, and the one leading the zimon, should take it with both hands, to demonstrate his love for the mitzvah,
reciting the grace after meals over a cup of wine, that he desires to receive it with all of his strength, with all of his might, he takes it with two hands, where Kiddushiv, as the verse states, raise your hands, the verse says in Psalms, raise your hands in holiness and bless Hashem, raise your hands, so you're taking the blessing, you're taking the cup with both hands, and holding them up with both hands, then you remove your left hand,
and then you hold it just in your right hand, and without the assistance of your left hand, that it shouldn't give off an impression, that it's a burden for him to hold his cup, and he should look at the cup, so that he not be distracted from the blessings, that he is reciting, and it's proper, that when you hold the cup, it should be one tefach, a tefach is one hand's breadth from the table,
which is approximately 3.2 inches to 3.8 inches off the table, D'chasiv, as the verse states, I will raise the cup of salvation, and the name of Hashem I will invoke, a left-handed person, a right-handed person, should hold the cup in his right hand, what's his right hand? The left hand, which is his right hand, is his left hand, because he's a lefty, one should remove from the table, the empty dishes that are left over from the meal, you shouldn't recite the blessing,
thanking Hashem on empty plates, should clear off the table, before you recite the blessings, there's just another interesting thing, is that during the weekday, and I think the halacha may mention it here, we're supposed to remove the knives from the table, before we recite the grace after meals, before we recite the blessing, because the table is like the table of the altar, of the offerings, and we remove the knife, before we recite the blessings, so if you're not removing it,
you should at least cover it, some people will put a napkin over it, some people put it under the plate, but the idea is that when you recite the blessing, you shouldn't have the knife visible, halacha number five, if all those participating in the meal, are of equal stature, so who is the one to recite the zimon, which is the invitation, inviting everyone, and the leader of the prayer, of the grace after meals, if there is a Kohen among them,
we have a Kohen in our presence here, it is a mitzvah to honor him, with the leading of the recitation, of the Birkas Hamazon, as the verse states, and you shall sanctify him, referring to the Kohen, however, if among those people, is someone who is greater in prominence, in holiness, in Torah knowledge, then it is proper for that person, even if the Kohen is present, to recite the grace after meals, and to be the leader for that,
if there is a mourner there, it is proper to accord that honor, to the mourner, but only if those, who are of equal stature, but only if those present, are of equal stature, it is proper, to give the honor, to someone who is generous, and someone who despises, wrongful profit, and one who acts with kindness, with his money, as the verse states, one, with a good eye, not with a bad eye, but with a good eye,
and to honor, One with a good eye will be blessed. Al tikri yivorach, eli yivorach. Not that he will be best, but he shall bless our sages teach us, and therefore that is the person that should be chosen for the grace after meals to be the one to lead the people. Halacha number six. You know what? We're gonna stop here for today. Welcome back, everybody. It's great to be here. So we started, God willing, we're going to continue next week from six.
We will conclude, hopefully, next week with the Zimon laws in Simon 45. Now, my dear friends, we're going to welcome back, Ask Away, number 40.

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