We continue with the halachot (Jewish laws) of Shinui Makom, and we change place. This is, again, one of the most thorny halachot in Chelek Bet of the Mishnah Berurah; it is very complicated. B'ezrat Hashem (with God's help), look at this. There is a big machloket (dispute) between the Shulchan Aruch and the Rema. I'm just going to read one or two lines in the Shulchan Aruch and then the Rema.
The Shulchan Aruch, for example, is very extreme with Shinui Makom, changing place. As we explained last time, l'chatchila (best), if you're eating in a place, you don't move from there. The less you move, the less you move. But sometimes in the middle of a meal, someone needs to go to the bathroom, for example. You go to the bathroom; it's a place where you cannot eat. So that should be hefsek gamur (complete interruption). This is going to a place where you cannot eat. At least if you've got the kitchen, you could, technically speaking, eat in the kitchen. You could say beracha (blessing) in the kitchen. When you go to the bathroom, it's an area where you cannot eat. So this should be a complete hefsek between the achilah (eating) and the new place where you are.
Without going into the bathroom story, the Shulchan Aruch is even more machmir (stringent) than that. The Shulchan Aruch says, “Hayah ochel babayit zeh.” If you're eating in a room, bayit, in this case, the room, you're eating in the dining room. Let's say he stopped eating and went to another room. If he was eating and his friend called him out, he went to the front door. Someone knocked on the door. You open the door, and they start talking for two minutes. He came back to the room where he was eating, the dining room. Since it changes his place, it changes his place. “Tzarich levarech lemafre'a al mah she'achal.” He has to say beracha acharona (final blessing) on what he ate first. “V'chozer u-mevarech bit'chilah hamotzi.” And he has to go back and do again the beracha hamotzi. Which means we're talking here about Birkat Hamazon. If it's not bread, then it's a little bit more meikel (lenient), but he has to do beracha acharona wherever he is and start eating with the beracha over there also. Nobody does like that. It's not a proof. Many times we do things over here.
I'm skipping a little bit. The Rema, in se'if (section) Bet, says he's patient. He waits for two se'ifim and says, “Hagah v'yesh cholkim b'chol mah shekatuv b'siman zeh.” So I'm a cholek, to disagree with everything that is written in this siman (section). Not in this se'if. The entire siman, Kuf Ayin Chet. So I'm a cholek on everything that the Shulchan Aruch wrote. I'm skipping the details. Basically, now we're going to be faced with a safek berachot lehakel (when in doubt about blessings, be lenient).
According to the Rema, you don't have to say a beracha when you come back because most probably the kavanah (intention) was to come back to the place. Somebody knocks on the door. What are you supposed to do? You're going to leave the person hanging? You go to the door. But when you go to the door, your kavanah is to come back to the place. It's much more inclusive. Also, maybe our houses are made in a way that you go around the house, even in the middle of the seudah (meal). You want to get something from the kitchen. Maybe back then it was different.
To make a long story short, Hacham Ovadia is the posek (halachic decisor), and he rules not like the Shulchan Aruch in this case. Like the Rema, saying that safek berachot lehakel, and today it would be best, especially for the smaller items, to say beracha acharona when you leave the room. Many times we forget. Let's say you're drinking coffee here and you go next door for breakfast. You say, Shehakol again on another coffee? Hacham Ovadia says no. You don't. You go in there, you say, l'chatchila, best, if you drank water here, you say beracha acharona here, Borei Nefashot, then you go next door, you say another beracha, no problem with that. It's the best way to do it. If you forgot and you're next door and you continue, you don't say another beracha. It goes completely against Maran (our master) HaShulchan Aruch.
So halacha lema'aseh (practical ruling), we're going to follow safek berachot lehakel, unless somebody really left completely and there's no kavanah to come back, and he comes back. That's a whole new thing. But use the rationality also with that. Lema'aseh (in practice), we don't follow the strictness of the Shulchan Aruch in this case; we follow the Rema.