Search results for: ""Bracha l'vatala""
Making a Conditional Fore-Blessing (Bracha Rishona)
To avoid making a blessing in vain (bracha l'vatala), you may intend a fore-blessing to cover all other foods of that category that you will eat at the same time.
Note You may make the condition:
- Each time you eat, or
- Once and intend it to apply to all future instances.
SheHecheyanu for New Fruit You Might Not Like
SITUATION
You have a fruit on which you would like to say she'hecheyanu, but you might not like it.
WHAT TO DO
To avoid saying a pointless blessing (bracha l'vatala), you may:
You have a fruit on which you would like to say she'hecheyanu, but you might not like it.
WHAT TO DO
To avoid saying a pointless blessing (bracha l'vatala), you may:
- Say the blessing borei pri ha'eitz on a different fruit.
- Eat from the fruit you just blessed over.
- Taste the new fruit. If you like it—and before you have eaten all of the new fruit—
- Swallow the small piece you tasted (if you do not like it, you do not need to swallow it).
- Say she'hecheyanu.
- Finish eating the new fruit.
NoteWhen saying she'hecheyanu on a new fruit, there is no preference for on which fruit to say borei pri ha'eitz--you may say it on the new fruit or on any other fruit.
Shabbat: Candles: Lighting at Dinner Location
Light Shabbat candles wherever you will eat dinner.
Note If eating elsewhere, do not light Shabbat candles at your own home unless you will be home for some period of time after dark while the candles are burning (otherwise you have made a bracha l'vatala). You must see the candles burning for at least one minute after dark (tzeit ha'kochavim).
Jewish Festivals: Candles: Dinner Location
As on Shabbat, light Jewish festival candles wherever you will eat dinner that night.
Note If you will be eating away from home, do not light the candles at home unless you will be home for some period of time after dark (in which case you must see the candles burning for at least one minute after dark/tzeit ha'kochavim; otherwise you will have made a bracha l'vatala). This is not the ideal situation, as the ideal is to light where you will eat.
Note You do not need to light candles at all if you are not eating at your own home on the Jewish festival (this applies to men and women, even wives and mothers who normally light at their own home) as long as someone else is lighting candles where you will eat. While the basic halacha is that the hostess lights for everyone, it is a widespread custom for any woman who is--or was--married to light at the hostess's home.
Note You do not need to light candles at all if you are not eating at your own home on the Jewish festival (this applies to men and women, even wives and mothers who normally light at their own home) as long as someone else is lighting candles where you will eat. While the basic halacha is that the hostess lights for everyone, it is a widespread custom for any woman who is--or was--married to light at the hostess's home.
Prayer Leader of 10 Men Should Wait
A prayer service leader for a group of only 10 men including himself should (but is not required to) wait until all 10 men have finished the private amida before he begins the reader's repetition.
- Shabbat
- Jewish Festivals
- Rosh Chodesh musaf.
Reason To have nine men replying amen to each blessing.
Note A minimum of six men must be finished before the reader begins the repetition. If delaying the repetition at mincha will cause the repetition to be finished after sunset, consult a rabbi.
Note A minimum of six men must be finished before the reader begins the repetition. If delaying the repetition at mincha will cause the repetition to be finished after sunset, consult a rabbi.
Note If all nine other men will not (or may not) say amen, the leader should intend that his public amida be a “free-will offering” (nedava); otherwise, his public amida may be a bracha l'vatala. He may not intend to offer a "free-will offering" on days or services that this sacrifice was not offered in the Temple in Jerusalem:
- Shabbat
- Jewish Festivals
- Rosh Chodesh musaf.
Drinking Cheekful for Shabbat Kiddush
As on Jewish festivals, the minimum total volume of Shabbat kiddush beverage that must be drunk--usually by the kiddush-maker (mevareich) but it may even be by several people combined--is a cheekful (m'lo lugmov), as follows:
- 2 fl. oz. (59 ml) within 30 seconds of beginning to drink for d'oraita cases such as Shabbat evening kiddush (as well as first-night Jewish festival kiddush and all havdalas), and
- 1.7 fl. oz. (50 ml) within 30 seconds of beginning to drink for d'rabanan cases such as Shabbat lunch kiddush (as well as first-day Jewish festival lunch kiddush and all second-day Jewish festival kiddushes).
Note If no one drinks the kiddush beverage, a blessing was made in vain (bracha l'vatala), and the commandment to say or hear kiddush has not been fulfilled.