Dinim: Rabbi Frankel

Someone who is involved in קרוב רחוקים work may be dealing with people not dressedבצניעות :
1. Hair- the ארוך השלחן says that hair being a totalערבה depends on society. Long ago, even unmarried girls covered their hair, so hair was considered anערבה . Today, most woman don’t cover their hair, so a married woman’s hair isn’t a totalערבה . All the other פוסקים don’t hold like this butבשעת הדחק , people do fall back on theשיטה of theארוך השלחן .
2. Collarbone, knees and elbows- the ארוך השלחן says these areas are considered anערבה no matter what the style is. The מאירי says that only byתלמוד תורה , a man may speak in front of an exposed woman. If someone is makingקדוש and someone is inappropriately dressed, the man should turn to the side. Story- Patty Park.

רוח רע- bad smells:

What type of bad odors do we have to be careful of?
1. Smells that come from rotting food- if we have a dirty garbage can, we have to be concerned about this.
2. Carcasses
3. Bodily wastes, such as a baby’s dirty diaper.

What do we do in terms of making davening near rotting material:
1. In order to daven near rotting material that has no smell, we must move 4 אמות away.
2. In order to daven near rotting material that does have a bad smell:
a. רוח רע שיש בו עיקר- a bad smell that the source of it is in the same room where we want to daven. We have to estimate where the bad smell ends and distance ourselves 4 אמות. When it comes to davening ש''ע, we can’t see the rotting material.
b. רוח רע שאין בו עיקר- rotting material that isn’t in the same room as us, but the bad smell still comes to us. We just have to get out of the smelly area.

Something that you personally think smells bad, or a pregnant woman whose hormones are messed up isn’t included in רוח רע.

If we put a כסוי on a something that has rotting materials in it, (such as a garbage pail) but there’s still a bad smell coming out of it, it falls into the category of רוח רע שאין בו עיקר. Today’s diapers are considered like a כסוי because everything is contained in it, but if someone uses cloth diapers, they should ask a שאילת חכם because it isn’t contained.

If someone wants to make a ברכה, they don’t have to check a little child to see if they’re dirty before making it, but if they smell that the child is dirty, they should change them.

If someone’s in middle of davening ש''ע and a child with a dirty diaper with a bad smell walks in:
1. Try to motion to someone to move the child.
2. Stop ש''ע and move to a different room and continue. It’s not considered a הפסק because you can’t daven while smelling a bad odor. If you would stop and change the child, that would be considered a הפסק.

What is the status of a bathroom?
1. Bathroom of old- didn’t have any type of plumbing system. A portable bathroom would fall into this category. The walls of these old bathrooms have the דין as if it’s the dirt itself.
a. We have to distance ourselves from the walls.
b. If there is a bad odor, it’s considered a רוח רע שיש בו עיקר so we have to move four אמות.
c. If it’s in the מזרח, you have to make sure you don't see it when davening.
2. Bathrooms of today- the חזון איש is מחמיר but other אחרונים are מקיל as to whether or not bathrooms of today (where everything is washed away) are the same as the bathrooms of old. A bathroom with plumbing isn’t considered the same:
a. We don’t have to distance ourselves from the walls.
b. You could see it when you are davening.
Can you wash your hands in today’s bathrooms? Yes, because רוח רע doesn’t apply.

IF you’re on a trip, and you don’t have any fresh water:
1. One can wash their hands in a bathroom, but should say the ברכה outside.
2. You could be יוצא נטילת ידים, but you should bring the water outside.
3. At a rest stop, since the sinks are separate from the bathroom, you could make a ברכה in the sink area.

ידים נקיות:

When it comes to the cleanliness of hands, when you want to make a ברכה, you have to be aware of two kinds of טומא:
1. Spiritual uncleanliness- if a person scratches a sweaty area of the body, his scalp, or an area that is usually covered, he must wash his hands. If he can’t wash his hands, he should rub them on a rough surface.
2. Physical dirt- if we wouldn’t want to walk out in public with that amount of dirt on us, we can’t recite a ברכה or מילתא דקדושא. There is no חיוב to wash your hands. You just remove the dirt.

Interruptions:

There are two categories:
1. After reciting the ברכה, but before doing the action that the ברכה pertains to.
a. If he’s מפסיק with דברי חול, it invalidates the ברכה.
b. If he said something on a level of קדושה, like ''אמן'':
i. Some hold that it isn’t considered an interruption because it’s on the same level
ii. Others hold that one shouldn’t say anything- even though it’s on the same level, it’s different areas, so it’s considered an interruption and he has to repeat.
iii. כף החיים- לחתכילה one shouldn’t interrupt, but if he already did, ספק ברכות להקל because it’s a דרבנן.
c. Non- word verbalization- one shouldn’t make sounds to begin with, but it doesn’t create a הפסק because they aren’t real words.
d. Humming, participating in other activities- it shouldn’t be done but doesn’t constitute as a הפסק.
2. Within the ברכה itself.

עצות on how to minimize interruptions:
1. Hot food or drink- put some on a spoon, blow on it and only when it’s cool enough should he make a ברכה.
2. When making a ברכה on a full roll, cut two-thirds of the way down, but enough that the roll should still be שלם. Make a ברכה, break off a piece, and eat.
3. Tangerine- peel it, loosen up one clove (still has the מעלה of שלם), recite a ברכה and break off the clove.
4. Packaging- take the food out of the packaging, or at least expose enough that you could eat it immediately after reciting a ברכה.
a. Commercial packaging- open it to the extent that it could be eaten right away.
b. Soda- prepare first (open, straw…), then make a ברכה.
5. Seeds- open up at least one and make a ברכה only after it’s shelled.
Even without these הכנות, the ברכה is still valid.

There’s a כלל that a ברכה should be stated עובר לעשיתם- before the action is done.

צרכי סעודה:

It’s a general rule which is necessary for the meal we’re partaking in at that moment. It doesn’t necessarily have to mean the סעודה ממש; it could be anything else necessary for the סעודה.

Things that you need at the table:
1. Salt- it’s a מצוה מדרבנן to dip our חלה in salt. If someone made the ברכה and sees that they need the salt, they can לחתכילה say, “please pass the salt”.
2. There’s a חיוב on a person to feed his animals before himself. If he made a ברכה and it was time to feed the animals, he can ask someone to go feed the animals. If there is no one else to feed the animals, he should eat a כזית and go feed the animals.
3. If someone is approaching the table, but did not yet wash their hands, and the ראש סעודה is making המוציא, he can listen, answer אמן, go wash his hands and then eat.
4. If someone washed their hands, made a ברכה and is about to make המוציא and someone says that he touched his hands, since it’s a ספק, he should go wash again to remove the ספק and then he can eat.

Even though צרכי סעודה doesn’t constitute as a הפסק, we should still minimize it.

In cases where the person already said נטילת ידים and is waiting to say המוציא, even if one has to speak out it isn’t considered a הפסק. It doesn’t invalidate anything because the goal of נטילת ידים was already fulfilled. A person can do so as long as he doesn’t have הסך הדעת.

When is it permitted to speak? Everyone holds that the ברכת הנהנין are on eating-
1. Some hold that one isn’t יוצא with the ברכה until you swallow something of that food.
2. Others hold that you’re יוצא with טעימה.
If you follow the first שיטה, once you swallow a little bit you can talk out. If go according to the second שיטה, the ברכה is חל when you taste the food. We פסקין that לחתכילה you shouldn’t talk until you swallow a little, but בדיעבד since ספק ברכות להקל, you can talk after the טעימה.

הפסק באמצע הברכה:

1. If we are מפסיק between ברוך and the שם ה', we have to repeat the ברכה.
2. If we are מפסיק between the שם ה' and מלכות, we have to repeat the ברכה.
3. If we are מפסיק between the פתיחת הברכה and the נושאי, we have to repeat the ברכה.
4. If we are מפסיק between the נושאי and the חתימה in a ברכה ארוכה, we have to repeat the ברכה.
5. By a ברכה ארוכה there’s an exception- once a person gets into the נושאי, if they interrupt so long as they don’t have הסך הדעת, it doesn’t invalidate the ברכה.

This has tremendous implications in הלכה because there are many אופנים of ברכות ארוכות. If someone comes late to shul and is behind, when can they answer?
1. If they’re in middle of פסוקי דזמרה or ברכות קריעת שמע, they can answer to ברכו.
2. If someone is saying קדיש, we can reply ''אמן. יהא שמי רבה...''.
3. By קדושה, we only say the sentence of ''קדוש קדוש קדוש'' and we’ll say ''ברוך כבוד ה' ממקומו''.
4. שמונה עשרה- we answer ''אמן'' to ''הקל הקדוש'' and ''שומע תפילה''. When the חזן says ''המחזיר שכינתו לציון'', we don’t answer ''אמן'', but we do bow down and say the words ''מודים אנחנו לך''.

While we are in the middle of ש''ע, we aren’t מפסיק for anything. If we’re in the middle of ש''ע and the ש''ץ is saying קדושה, we should stop and listen because of the כלל that שומע כעונה.

שנוי מקום: בנוגע לברכה ראשונה וברכה אחרונה

When are we מחויב to say a ברכה ראשונה on food? If you eat a משהו of food, even a small amount, you have to make a ברכה.

The only time you’ll find an exception is if you’re drinking a small amount for the sake of swallowing a pill. If you know that it takes you a lot of liquid to get the pill down, or you know that you’re going to drink more, then you do make a ברכה.

If we eat less than a כזית to taste food, like on ערב שבת, we don’t make a ברכה ראשונה on food. We should just taste the food and spit it out.

If a person knows that they’re going to eat less than a כזית of bread, do they have to wash? The משנה ברורה says that you wash, but you don’t recite the ברכה of ''על נטילת ידים''.

When it comes to a ברכה אחרונה, we don’t recite one on:
1. Solid- until we had a כזית.
2. Liquid- until we had a רביעית (approximately 3.3 oz.)
Some say that the שיעור has to be eaten תוך אכילת פרס- anywhere from two to nine minuets.

What foods will combine for a שיעור כזית?
1. אוכל ואוכל- all solids can combine to form a כזית, for example a fruit cup- all together, they make a כזית.
2. The ז' מינים are unique because you have to make an ''על העץ'' on them:
a. If we have a fruit bar where there’s a חצי זית of the ז' מינים and חצי זית of other foods, we make a בורא נפשות.
b. If we have a חצי זית of bread or a מזונות and a חצי זית of ז' מינים or other fruits, like a Fig Newton, you make a בורא נפשות.
c. If we have a חצי זית of bread and a חצי זית of other מזונות foods, you make a המוציא and על המחי'.

If someone drinks one or two ounces of wine and some other liquids- normally we would say a בורא נפשות, but the משנה ברורה is in doubt if you can even say a בורא נפשות. The משנה ברורה says that if you have a ספק on the על הגפן, you have a ספק on the בורא נפשות because the על הגפן makes the בורא נפשות פטור. ר' משה says that you should say a בורא נפשות.

Three ways to get around this:
1. Drink a משהו.
2. Drink a רביעית of wine.
3. Eat a כזית of solid food that demands a בורא נפשות.