Resources for Kesubos daf 8
1. The גמרא at the end of the previous דף as well as on our דף discusses the need to have פּנים חדשות in order to say שבע ברכות after the first day. There is a מחלוקת ראשונים as to who qualifies as ּפנים חדשות. The רא"ש in סימן י"ג writes that if someone was present for the ברכת חתנים but wasn’t present for the סעודה he can still be considered פּנים חדשות. The ריטב"א and רמב"ם in הלכות ברכות, פּרק ב׳ הל׳ י disagree and say that if you were there for ברכת חתנים then you cannot be considered פּנים חדשות. תוספות in ד"ה והוא שבאו פּנים חדשות says that only a person who enhances the שמחה of the people present through his attendance at the meal can count as פּנים חדשות, whereas some random person grabbed off the street would not be considered פּנים חדשות. Most ראשונים bring this requirement as well but theרמב"ם does not mention it and it sounds from him that any new person would count as פּנים חדשות. The ריטב"א writes that a woman does not count as פּנים חדשות since one can only be considered פּנים חדשות if you can be counted in the quorum of ten people required to allow the ברכת חתנים. According to this a child under bar mitzvah would not count as well. The ערוך השלחן in אבן העזר סימן ס"ב ס"ק כ"ג has a חקירה about the whole concept of פּנים חדשות that ties everything together: why do you need פּנים חדשות to say שבע ברכות and what does it accomplish? Is it that we should really be blessing the newly married couple every day of the שבעת ימי המשתה but in order for the group to be חייב in שבע ברכות you need a תוספת שמחה and the new person brings that שמחה? Or is it that there is a חיוב on all to bless the חתן וכלה that they should have a successful marriage and if they did that already then there is no need to do it again unless someone new is here who didn’t do it before? If the latter is true then the point of שבע ברכות is just to give the people who weren’t at the wedding a chance to be יוצא their חיוב and the one who makes the שבע ברכות is really being מוציא those people. He suggests that all the above מחלוקתים revolve around this issue. If you hold that the purpose of פּנים חדשות is to create a תוספת שמחה then that can only happen with a person who adds שמחה. Furthermore, if they were already at the wedding and heard שבע ברכות, they could still count as פּנים חדשות since they weren’t at the סעודה and their presence is מרבה שמחה. This is the opinion of most ראשונים. However, if the purpose of שבע ברכות is to give to the people who weren’t יוצא ברכת חתנים a chance to say it, then if they were at the wedding but missed the סעודה they were still יוצא and can’t be פּנים חדשות. It also wouldn’t matter if they added שמחה to the meal or not since that is not the point. This is the opinion of the רמב"ם . The קהילת יעקב in סימן ו also says this and adds that according to the רמב"ם if they were kids or a woman they wouldn’t be פּנים חדשות since they couldn’t recite the ברכת חתנים, whereas according to the other ראשונים it is possible they would be פּנים חדשות if they added שמחה (against the ריטב"א).
2. The ראשונים explain that the reason some of the שבע ברכות start with a ברוך and others do not is because the middle ones are considered a ברכה הסמוכה לחברתה which the גמרא in ברכות דף מ"ו says does not start with a ברוך. רש"י on דף מ"ו ע"ב explains that the reason is that the ברוך from the beginning of the first ברכה covers the second ברכה. However, תוספות in פּסחים דף ק"ד ד"ה חוץ says that it is the חתימה of the previous ברכה that helps for the second ברכה. Either way, it would seem strange that the general custom today is to have different people make each of the seven ברכות. How can the other person’s ברוך help my ברכה that doesn’t start with ברוך? In fact, there are some פּוסקים and communities that are מקפּיד to have one person read all seven ברכות. As to the general מנהג, the אגרות משה in אבן העזר ח"א סימן צ"ד explains that splitting up the ברכות is not like being מפסיק in the middle of the ברכה . Rather, it is a דין in the צורת הברכה and not the person. They were מתקן it as a ברכה הסמוכה לחברתה and it doesn’t matter who in practice says each ברכה.
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