We are on page 102, and now we come to Halachah 9. If someone recites the blessing over wine—borei pri hagefen—on grape juice, it covers all other beverages. You might have thought that this applies only to wine, but grape juice has the same halachic status as wine, and therefore the blessing covers the other drinks as well.
At the bottom, in note 19, Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv is quoted as ruling that when someone recites the blessing over grape juice, it does not cover other beverages. Hacham Ovadia disputed this ruling. He argued that, without a doubt, grape juice has the same status as wine in halachah. Rashi explained that wine is special because it is used on important occasions, such as Kiddush and Havdalah. Since grape juice may also be used for Kiddush and Havdalah, there is no reason that the blessing over grape juice should not cover the other drinks as well.
This applies even to people who do not drink wine because they are allergic to it, because they do not like it, or because it gives them stomachaches or makes them feel intoxicated. Grape juice is still considered equivalent to wine for this purpose.
Now consider the following case. There is a groom on Shabbat, and everyone goes to his home to celebrate and recite the wedding blessings. The cantor recites Kiddush over a cup of wine and passes the cup around the table so that everyone can take a sip. Afterward, one of the guests wants to drink water, juice, or a strong alcoholic drink. Does the blessing he heard from the cantor, together with the sip he took, cover those beverages as well?
Most people do not drink a significant amount from the Kiddush cup; they merely take a sip. Even if someone wants to be especially careful to drink from the cup of Kiddush, he must recite the blessing over beverages on the whiskey or other drink that he wishes to have. If he is eating bread in that situation, however, it does not matter, because the bread will cover the beverages consumed during the meal.
Look at paragraph 11: “If he drank from the wine, he recites the after-blessing for the wine.” Let us say that he drank only a small sip of wine, but he drank the required measure of water afterward. In that case, he recites the after-blessing for the water. Obviously, he does not recite the after-blessing for the wine after drinking only a sip.
Our Sages taught that whenever someone eats a combination of two foods, he recites the blessing over the primary food and not over the secondary food. This applies both to the blessing recited before eating and to the blessing recited afterward.
Maran included an example in the Shulchan Aruch: A person wishes to eat an anchovy, but because it is extremely salty, he eats a piece of bread together with it. He recites the blessing over the fish, because the bread is being eaten only to help him swallow the anchovy. The fish is the primary food.
Ben Zion was asked about a case in which the anchovy was smaller than the required measure, while the piece of bread was larger than the required measure. Does the anchovy remain the primary food even though it is smaller than the piece of bread? In that case, he cannot recite the after-blessing for the fish, because he ate less than the required measure. Must he then recite the after-blessing for the bread?
After discussing the matter, he ruled that in this case it is necessary to recite Birkat Hamazon for the bread, even though the bread was secondary.
He added that the same principle applies when drinking wine together with other beverages. The other beverages are secondary to the wine, which is primary. If someone drinks the required measure of wine, he recites the blessing for wine afterward, and it covers whatever else he drank. But if he drinks less than the required measure of wine, even though the wine is the primary beverage, he has not consumed the required measure of it. If he drank the required measure of the other beverage, that beverage takes precedence for the after-blessing, and he recites the after-blessing for it. There is therefore no after-blessing for the wine.
This is a very important halachah. We have learned it well: If you take a sip of wine during Kiddush, you are covered with respect to the other beverages. Those small cups are sufficient for the Kiddush itself. But if you did not take a sip of the wine, you must recite the blessing over beverages on the drink that you intend to have.
There is another question concerning the after-blessings. Suppose a person drank water first and then drank wine. If he drinks wine first and then water, he recites the blessing for wine afterward, and it covers the after-blessing for the water. But what happens in the reverse order? He drank water first, so perhaps the after-blessing for the water already applies, and then the wine cannot remove it. Or perhaps, since he is now drinking wine, the blessing for wine can take precedence.
This person has put himself into a difficult situation. It is better not to do this. If he did so, however, even though he knows that he is going to drink wine, I am not certain what the correct procedure is. Do not put me on the spot and ask me to decide immediately; that would not be fair if I were to say something incorrectly.
So, once again: If a person drank water and then drank wine, we would say that he should not recite the after-blessing for the water. He should recite the blessing for wine and leave it at that. This is the same principle we apply in other cases involving the order of the after-blessings.
There is also a case involving the use of a cup for Birkat Hamazon. If a person has one cup of wine and has eaten a meal that requires Birkat Hamazon, he should use that cup for the blessing after the meal. When there are three people present and a quorum can be formed, do not underestimate the value of using a cup. Thank God, we always do so when three people are present, even on a Tuesday night.
Many people think that using a cup is a mystical practice and say, “It is not our custom.” But the rule is that whatever a person has never done is not yet his custom. That is how it works: if nothing becomes a practice, then nothing is a custom. The practices we are learning now become our practice.
I once heard from Rabbi Ben Zion Musafi that his father said that Rabbi Salman would use a cup on the night of Yom Kippur. They would eat at the appropriate time, and before the fast began they would recite the blessing after the meal with a cup. That indicates the importance attributed to using a cup.
Someone asked, “Why are you looking at the cup?” He answered, “I am enjoying a cup of wine now, and afterward I am going into a fast.” The other person said, “What are you worried about?” He replied, “We are going to become dizzy.” The response was, “The cup of wine is worth a thousand times more than that dizziness. Why are you worried about the dizziness? The cup of wine is more important.” In other words, if you become a little dizzy, that is acceptable; you have fulfilled the mitzvah of using the cup of wine.
If there is no cup of wine available, one should wait until after the meal to drink it. If there is no food, then of course one must eat. If there are not three people present, however, there is no obligation to wait, and the cup may be drunk earlier.
Let us move to another case. A person drinks all kinds of beverages—Snapple, lemonade, and other drinks—and afterward wants to drink coffee. He also wants to eat a little sugar with the coffee. There is no need to calculate how much sugar he is eating.
This brings up an interesting practice. Have you ever seen how some older Europeans used to drink coffee? They would place a sugar cube between their teeth and drink the coffee through it. Today, the cube would melt with the first sip, but these people were experts. They could keep the cube between their teeth while drinking an entire cup of coffee, and each sip would gradually wear away a little of the sugar until the last piece was gone.
Someone commented that this might explain why they did not have teeth. In any event, I do not know why they drank coffee that way. Why not simply drop the sugar into the coffee? That was their practice: they put the cube between their teeth and drank the coffee that way.
So here is the question: If I recited the blessing over wine, does that blessing cover my coffee? Absolutely. But what about the sugar? Sugar is sugar; it is not a liquid. I would say that one must recite the blessing over the sugar separately.
Forget about the coffee for a moment. Consider a regular meal. On Friday night I recite the blessing over bread, and then dessert is brought. This happens to me all the time: they bring sorbet or an ice dessert, and I become uncertain whether a separate blessing is required. Is it included in the blessing over the meal?
This is a major dispute. There is a dispute within the family itself concerning what was done in such a case. I usually prefer to postpone the dessert until after we recite Birkat Hamazon. Sometimes, when they bring me one of these items, I ask for a candy or another piece of candy. Then I know that I can recite the blessing over the candy, and afterward I can eat the dessert. Sometimes they give me a sugar cube, which is the best candy of all.
After all, what is candy? It is a cube of sugar. They simply call it red or purple, or whatever color it is. I want white candy—that is, a sugar cube, or rock candy.
What is the halachah if someone brings me a piece of sugar in the middle of a meal and I put it into my mouth? Is there any question? No. According to the ruling being discussed, if a person recited the blessing over wine and is now having coffee—not with the sugar placed in the coffee, but with the sugar placed directly in his mouth—he does not recite a separate blessing over the sugar. The blessing over the wine covers the sugar. What is the reason?
Apparently, it was once common to eat sugar after drinking very strong coffee. The coffee was bitter, and afterward they would eat a piece of sugar to remove the bitter taste.
Rabbi Moshe Sofer ruled that the sugar is considered secondary to the beverage. It is being consumed only to eliminate the strong taste, and therefore no separate blessing is required for it. The sugar is secondary to the coffee.
The Kaf HaChaim challenged this ruling. He cited an opinion, including the Mordechai, that disagreed with the entire premise that the blessing over wine covers other beverages. Although we follow the ruling of the Shulchan Aruch that the blessing does cover the other drinks, logic dictates that we should limit this innovation to beverages. Why extend it further and say that it also covers sugar? That is the objection of the Kaf HaChaim.
What does he write? He says that there is no reason to recite a blessing. Yalkut Yosef is quoted, and in Chazon Ovadia, a note was written on the side disputing the Kaf HaChaim. The conclusion there is that one should not recite a separate blessing over the sugar.
Therefore, this gives us a practical example: If a person has sugar during a meal, he does not recite the blessing over beverages on it when he is eating it with his coffee or after his coffee. If he drank wine and the wine already covered the coffee, then the question is whether the wine also covers the sugar. If he recited the blessing over bread, the bread covers it in any event. But if he had no bread and only recited the blessing over wine, perhaps that blessing covers the sugar and the other items that are secondary to it.
What about a lemon wedge? If you are taking only the liquid—the juice of the lemon—then it remains a beverage and there is no problem. But if you are eating the lemon itself, that is a different question. I do not remember the exact law regarding a raw lemon. Since eating a raw lemon is not a normal way to eat it, it may have one blessing or it may have the blessing over beverages; that is the subject of the discussion.
There was also a question about ginger served with sushi. By the way, what is the appropriate blessing to recite over sushi? That is a major question. I do not know what the majority is. With sushi, one has to consider the majority of the ingredients, because rice is not one of the five grains. Perhaps there is more salmon than rice; I do not know.
The general practice is that people look at it for a few seconds and then recite the blessing over grain products. They analyze it and measure it according to their usual appetite. Sometimes, however, there is only a thin layer of rice, with a large piece of fish and avocado inside. In some of the deluxe varieties, the fish and avocado make up most of the sushi, while in others there is more rice.
That is a real dilemma, and we will have to get to it another time. I think we have done enough damage in one session. Let us leave the sushi for now; we will discuss it later.