More About After-Blessings (Bracha Achrona)
Correspondence with Fore-Blessings (Bracha Rishona)
There is no essential connection between fore-blessings and after-blessings.
Examples:
Rice
The fore-blessing is borei minei mezonot, so you might expect the after-blessing to be al ha’michya. But the correct after-blessing is borei nefashot.
Apple
The fore-blessing is borei pri ha’eitz, so you might expect the after-blessing to be al ha’eitz. But the correct after-blessing is borei nefashot.
After-Blessings (Bracha Achrona): Incorrect
Situation: You ate or drank mezonot, wine, grape juice, or any of the Five Special Fruits.
You said the incorrect after-blessing.
What To Do: You must still say the correct after-blessing after the incorrect one.
Situation: You said an incorrect or too-general fore-blessing over food (even she’hakol--which does, b'di'avad, cover all foods, including bread, wine, the Five Special Fruits, and mezonot). Or you forgot to say the fore-blessing.
What To Do: You must still say the more-specific, correct after-blessing, including birkat ha’mazon when appropriate.
Reason: You must still say the correct after-blessing even though you said the incorrect fore-blessing.
After-Blessings (Bracha Achrona): Incomplete
You must repeat the after-blessing for mezonot, wine/grape juice, or any of the Five Special Fruits if you ate items from more than one of those categories, said the after-blessing for just one of them, and forgot the other.
Example:
Situation: You ate mezonot and some figs, said al ha’michya, and forgot to add the words for al ha’eitz.
What To Do: You must say the after-blessing al ha’eitz.
After-Blessings (Bracha Achrona): Sequential
If you said a fore-blessing and ate a snack, but then decided to eat bread and a full meal:
If your meal will not contain any foods that have the same after-blessing as your snack-Say the snack’s after-blessing, and then
Wash your hands and say ha’motzi.
If your meal will contain foods with the same fore-blessing as your snack (even the same food as your snack)—
Do not say the snack’s after-blessing.
Wash your hands and say ha’motzi.
Note: Wash and say ha’motzi if you will be eating any amount of bread--even less than 1.3 fl. oz. (39 ml, or 1/6 cup) within four minutes and even if it will take you more than four minutes to eat it (in which case, although you say ha’motzi, you do not say any after-blessing, including birkat ha’mazon).
Note: Say al netilat yadayim only if you intend to eat at least 1.9 fl. oz. (59 ml) within four minutes.
Exception: If you have eaten mezonot (and even if you will not eat any more mezonot with your meal), do not say al ha’michya. Just wash your hands, say ha’motzi, and eat your meal.
After-Blessings (Bracha Achrona): Changing Location
Inside to Outside, Outside to Inside
You may start a meal inside the house and finish outside, or the reverse, if that was your original intention. If that was not your original intention, consult a rabbi.
If you were eating a snack inside a building and had not planned to continue eating outside but then decided to eat outside, you must say a new fore-blessing once you are outside.
Changing Location: Bread or Mezonot
Because bread or mezonot REQUIRES you to say an after-blessing at the place where you ate it, you are considered to NOT have had an interruption of thought (hesech da’at ) when you move and eat more bread or mezonot at the new place, and you may say the after-blessing at the new place.
Changing Location: Traveling
When traveling, the proper practice is to:
Finish eating where you begin eating, or
Intend, when saying the fore-blessing, to continue eating while traveling.
Exceptions:
Even if you did not intend to continue eating along the way, you may say the after-blessing wherever you are if:
You are already involved in doing a mitzva, or
If you will incur a large loss of money, or
By the time you would return to where you ate, it would be past the latest time to say the after-blessing.
Situation: You eat one item outdoors, then eat food from another category inside your car, which is within view of where you ate the first food.
What To Do: You may say the after-blessings for both foods while in your car (or both outside of your car), even if it is a food that normally would require you to return to the place at which you ate it.
Situation: You did not, at the time you said the fore-blessing, intend to continue eating along the way. You then ate at least 1.3 fl. oz. (39 ml, or 1/6 cup) of bread or mezonot within four minutes.
What To Do: When you say the after-blessing, you should return to where you began eating.
However, if you continued eating mezonot or bread while traveling, you may say the after-blessing in either place.
Note: It is the proper practice to say a new fore-blessing (since you did not intend to continue eating along the way when you began eating) in the vehicle in which you are traveling. But even if you did not say a new fore-blessing, you may still say the after-blessing in the vehicle.
Situation: You are traveling (driving, riding in a bus, etc.), and you stop and get out of the vehicle in order to eat part of a meal or snack:
What To Do
If, when you said the fore-blessing, you had consciously intended to return to the vehicle and continue eating either along the way or at the next stop, you may say the after-blessing wherever you are when you finish eating.
If, when you said the fore-blessing, you had not consciously intended to return to the vehicle and continue eating while traveling, it is assumed that you will continue to eat and you do not need to say a new fore-blessing.
If you intended NOT to continue eating in your car or along the way, you need to say a new fore-blessing in the vehicle.
Copyright 2015 Richard B. Aiken. Halacha L’Maaseh appears courtesy of www.practicalhalacha.com Visit their web site for more information.
This material is provided for informational purposes only – not a substitute for the consultation of a competent rabbi.