Seder Bircas Hanehenin - Chapter 2 Detailed Laws Governing the Blessing over Bread

2:1 - Obligation for Bircas Hamazon

Scriptural: Any bread eaten to the point of satisfaction

Rabbinic: Kezayis of Ordinary Bread

Ordinary Bread: Types of loaves upon which people ordinarly base a meal

Types of loaves upon which people do not ordinarly base a meal (Baked Goods)

• If one eats casually → Mezonos/Al Hamichyah
• If one eats amount sufficient to constitute basis of a meal (of regular person) → Hamotzi/Bircas Hamazon

2:2 - Amount of Baked Goods sufficient to constitute basis of meal

Many opinions, Actual practice

• If individual is not satisfied, then if ate x amount of Baked Goods
  • x =<= 6 k’beitzos → Mezonos/Al Hamichyah
  • 6 K’beitzos =<= x < Half Isaron → Only in Meal
  • Half Isaron =<= x → Hamotzi/Bircas Hamazon
• If individual is satisfied, then if ate x amount of Baked Goods
  • x < 4 K’beitzos → Only in Meal
  • 4 K’beitzos =<= x → Hamotzi/Bircas Hamazon

K’beitzah: 50 ml
Half Isaron: 0,625 l

2:3 - Amount of Baked Goods & Accompanying Foods

Even if one is satisfied by x only when one eats it with a accompaying food that is filling, shiurim from 2:2 apply because accompanying dishes are secondary to Baked Goods. Therefore

• If individual is satisfied, then if ate x amount of Baked Goods & accompanying food
  • x < 4 K’beitzos → Only in Meal
  • 4 K’beitzos =<= x → Hamotzi/Bircas Hamazon

2:4 - Change of Mind with Baked Goods

If initially one intended to eat Baked Goods as snack, recite Mezonos, then changed mind to eat until satisfaction → best course of action

1. Stop eating
2. Al Hamichyah
3. Wait short while
4. Hamotzi
5. Eat to point of satisfaction
6. Bircas Hamazon

Even if not satisfied by Baked Goods after Hamotzi alone (5), he should still recite Bircas Hamazon, provided he ate at least 4 K’beitzos.

2:5-8 - Types of Baked Goods

People generally don’t base meal on

1. Pas Haba Bekisanin
   1. Dough kneaded with milk, butter, honey, oil, wine, fruit juice, eggs, fat (more than half if water added) or spiced at time of kneading
   2. Ordinary Bread with pocket for sweet filling
2. Lachmoniyos: Thin, soft pastry made from soft blend of flour & water. Baked in oven or frying pan without liquid.
3. T’rukenin
   1. Particularly thin mixture of flour & water. Poured into cavity or hollow in cooking range or oven. Thickens somewhat after baked.
   2. Large amount of particularly thin mixture of flour & water. Poured into frying pan and baked until somewhat thick. (Crepes/Blinesh)
4. Trisa
   1. Particularly thin mixture of flour & water. Poured on the floor of cooking range or oven sp it became very thin after baking.
   2. Small amount of particularly thin mixture of flour & water. Poured into broad frying pan and it spread yielding product that even after being baked is very thin. (Blintzes)

Lachmoniyos: Dough soft, final product somewhat thick
T’rukenin: Dough very soft, final product somehwat thick
Trisa: Dough very soft, final product very thin

2:5-9 - Dinim of Baked Goods

1. Pas Haba Bekisanin (Types 1.1)

• Opinion 1 Mezonos/Al Hamichyah unless Amount Constitutes Meal
• Opinion 2 Consistency, not flavor causes bread to lose status → Hamotzi/Bircas Hamazon
• Letter of Law Opinion 1
• Baal Nefesh Only in Meal

2. Pas Haba Bekisanin (Types 1.2): Mezonos/Al Hamichyah unless Amount constitutes Meal, since made for enjoyment
3. Lachmoniyos

• Opinion 1 Mezonos/Al Hamichyah unless Amount Constitutes Meal
• Opinion 2 If dough very soft or final product very thin (like trisa) → Mezonos/Al Hamichyah unless Amount Constitues Meal, If dough or final product somehwat thick → Hamotzi/Bircas Hamazon
• Practice Only in Meal

4. T’rukenin

• Opinion 1 Mezonos/Al Hamichyah unless Amount Constitutes Meal
• Opinion 2 If dough very soft or final product very thin (like trisa) → Mezonos/Al Hamichyah unless Amount Constitutes Meal, If dough or final product somehat thick → Hamotzi/Bircas Hamazon
• Practice Only in Meal

5. Trisa

• Opinion 1 Always Mezonos/Al Hamichyah
• Opinion 2 Mezonos/Al Hamichyah unless Amount Constitutes Meal
• Practice Satisfaction only in Meal

2:8 - Pas Haba Bekisanin (1.1) Sustaining Filling

Ordinary bread with pocket for filling that

• Accompanies bread, satiates hunger: Meat, fish, cheese
• Accompanies bread, does not satiate hunger: Vegetables
• Does not accompany bread, satiates hunger

→ Hamotzi/Bircas Hamazon

2:9 - Lekach

Ingredients: Little flour (makes mixture fit to be eaten), majority honey Purpose: Eaten primarily for sake of enjoying sweetnes

Question: Always Mezonos/Al Hamichyah or Mezonos/Al Hamichya unless Amount Consitutes Meal?

2:10-11 Baked Goods in Midst of Meal

If eaten in midst of meal, but not integral to meal, eaten solely for enjoyment/dessert

• Lekach, Trisa, Thin Lachmoniyos, Thin T’rukenin, Pas Haba Bekisanin (Types 1.2), Soft Dough Fried in Liquid → Mezonos/Covered by Bircas Hamazon
• Pas Haba Bekisanin (1.1) → Covered by Hamotzi/Bircas Hamazon (Dimim 1. → Safek Bracha L’hakel)

If above eaten in midst of meal, but not integral to meal, eaten for satisfaction → Covered by Hamotzi/Bircas Hamazon

2:11 Frying, dough soft

Products of soft blend of flour and water fried in liquid (not lubricated pan) → Always Mezonos/Al Hamichyah

2:12 Frying, dough thick

Thick dough (resembling dough of ordinary bread) fried in liquid - even if sustaining filling

• Opinion 1 Frying in small amount of liquid doesn’t cause thick dough to lose status, like baking → Hamotzi/Bircas Hamazon
• Opinion 2 Frying in any amount of liquid like cooking → Always Mezonos/Al Hamichyah
• Letter of Law Opinion 2
• Practice Satisfaction Only in Meal

Cooked dough → Always Mezonos/Al Hamichyah

Baking after cooking: Baking returns status of bread - even if pieces smaller than kezayis → Hamotzi/Bircas Hamazon

Frying after cooking

• Opinion 1 Frying in small amount of liquid returns status of bread → Hamotzi/Bircas Hamazon
• Opinion 2 Frying in any amount of liquid like cooking
• Practice Satisfaction Only in Meal

Frying in large amount of liquid like cooking according to all opinions

Question: Is deep frying like cooking according to all opinions, even in case of thick/ordinary dough?

2:13 - Cooking after Baking

If bread baked, then cooked, pieces remain kezayis → Hamotzi/Bircas Hamazon

If bread baked, then cooked, until pieces smaller than kezayis - whether appearance of bread remains or not → Always Mezonos/Al Hamichyah

If bread baked, then crumbled until pieces smaller than kezayis, then cooked - whether appearance of bread remains or not - whether pieces remain individual or reattached until more than kezayis

• Opinion 1 Always Mezonos
• Opinion 2 Hamotzi/Bircas Hamazon
• Letter of Law Opinion 1
• Baal Nefesh Satisfaction only in Meal, if apperance of bread remains

If bread baked, then crumbed until pieces smaller than kezayis, then fried → Opinion 2

2:14 - Other Forms of Dissolution after Baking

If bread baked, then cooked in kli sheni, appearance of bread remains → Hamotzi/Bircas Hamazon

If bread baked, then cooked in kli sheni, until no apperance of bread → Always Mezonos/Al Hamichyah

[If bread baked, then soaked, apperance of bread remains → Hamotzi/Bircas Hamazon]

If bread baked, then soaked, until no appearance of bread → Always Mezonos/Al Hamichyah

If bread baked, then crumbled, until pieces smaller than kezayis (even if fine as flour) → Hamotzi/Bircas Hamazon

2:15 - Rejoining Pieces of Bread

If bread baked, then crumbled, until smaller than kezayis, then joined/kneaded with liquid, until lost appearance of bread, then cooked → Always Mezonos/Al Hamichyah

If bread baked, then crumbled, until smaller than kezayis, then joined/kneaded with liquid, until lost appearance of bread, then fried → Letter of Law Always Mezonos/Al Hamichyah, Baal Nefesh Satisfaction only in Meal

If bread baked, then crumbled, until smaller than kezayis, then joined/kneaded with liquid, then cooked, until lost appearance of bread - even if larger than kezayis → Always Mezonos/Al Hamichyah

Question: Does last paragraph come to explain Point 1 & 2 or add new halachos?