Pirkei T’fillah: Food Brakhot

Food  #54330

For Jews it is a mitzvah to say a  both before and after eating.

In the Torah God tells Moses to teach us: "When you have eaten and you are nourished, you should bless Adonai, your God" (Deuteronomy 8.10). That sentence teaches us that we should say a  after eating. The idea that we should also say one before eating was our own; the Rabbis of the Talmud came up with the idea.

When we say  we thank God for all the food God provides.

In this unit we will consider  said over bread, fruit, vegetables and other foods. We begin with .

  is not just the bread blessing—it is the whole meal blessing. When we bless God for creating bread, we bless God for creating everything we are eating. Bread becomes the symbol of our eating all the things that God gave us.

Can you see the three letters  in these words? Sometimes the  drops out.

 he went out = when going out = the One Who takes out =

 

Practice these phrases and circle all the words that contain the root .

  

.1

    .2

   

.3



.4

     

.5

   .6

   .7

Guessing Can Be As Good As Knowing Take your best guess. Write your own English version of .

____________________________





____________________________

 

You

____________________________



____________________________



____________________________

 

____________________________



____________________________



____________________________

 

____________________________



____________________________

 

God’s name, Adonai

 +  Cosmos, + 

   + 

from

earth/land

+ 

A Story Read this story. It will help you understand .

King Solomon was looking for the right spot to build the Holy Temple. No place seemed just right. One midnight a stranger appeared in the court and offered to show the king the perfect place for God’s Temple.

King Solomon followed him out into the night. After a good deal of walking, they came to a field. The man told the king to be very quiet. As they watched, one man came to a stack of grain on one side of the field and moved a number of sheaves to a pile on the other side.

A few minutes later, a second man appeared and made a number of trips bringing stacks of sheaves back from the second pile to the first.

The king was confused, and when he turned to the stranger to ask him a question, the man had disappeared.

The next day the king returned to the field. He saw a man working on one side of the field. The king asked the man, “Last night I was walking though this field and thought I saw you carrying bundles across the field. Isn’t the middle of the night a strange time to work?”

The man answered, “I live alone and I share this field with my brother. He has a wife and a large family. I don’t need half the grain—I have only one mouth to feed. So I help him secretly.”

The king walked to the other side of the field and saw the second man working with a few of his children. The king asked him the same question. The brother answered, “My brother lives alone and must do all the work by himself. I have my whole family to help me get my work done so at night I secretly help my brother.”

At that moment King Solomon knew that this would be the perfect place to build God’s Temple.

1. Why was the field the right place to build the Temple? . What can this story teach us about ?

4

Food Rules Maimonides was a famous Jewish teacher who gathered an important collection of Jewish laws called the Mishneh Torah. Here are some rules about saying . Read them and see if you can explain the reason behind each law.

3.1 There are five kinds of grain—wheat, barley, oats and rye. The bread made from any of these grains, no matter what the style or form, is considered to be bread.

3.2 A person who eats bread must say this  before eating:

. After eating a meal with bread a person must say .

3.4 If the meal from one of these five kinds of grain is mixed with other ingredients, such as sugar or honey, as in cakes or cookies, then a different  is said:

. 4.6 If one says  over bread, it covers the responsibility to bless the other things eaten at that meal. But if a person says a  over one of the other foods,  must still be said over the bread.

1. In rules 3.1 and 3.4 Maimonides gives us a very careful definition of what is and what is not bread. Why do you think this is important? _______________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________

. In rules 3. and 4.6 we learn that  is the most important food . Just saying a  over the bread covers the rest of the meal. Why do you think this is so? What makes bread so special?_______________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________

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The  Food Chain  comes from the root . It means _________________________________________________ The words of  are not those we would expect in the  over bread. Most food  thank God for creating things. This one thanks God for making the earth “bring out” bread.

We all know that bread doesn’t grow in the ground. The earth doesn’t “put out” bread—grains grow and people harvest the grain and make bread. This special bread  thanks God for doing something that people make with the raw products supplied by God and raised by human effort.

In science we talk about a food chain. It is a chain of who eats what or whom.

Think of it like this: Grass grows.

Aphids eat the grass sap.

Ladybird beetles eat the aphids.

Ground beetles eat the ladybird beetles.

Grasshopper sparrows eat the ground beetles.

Marsh hawks eat the grasshopper sparrows.

Hawks die and their bodies nourish the soil.

Create a Jewish  chain.

Make it a chain of who helps to feed whom.

1. God creates grain, soil, sun and rain. . Farmers plant the grain.

3. _______________________________________________________ 4 _______________________________________________________ 5. _______________________________________________________ 6. _______________________________________________________ 7. People thank God. Just as every other  thanks God. It also teaches us something about our relationship with other people. What lesson can we learn from this relationship?

6

The  and its cousins The  is actually made up of two . One is the  that is said over the wine, grape juice, or other liquid (anything except water). The other is a  over  or the holiday. The Talmud tells us that we have to say the wine  before the  for . The Talmud compares the wine  to a friend we see every day and the  over to a queen. One might want to say hello to a queen first and then realize that a friend is in the room, but that would be rude. The Talmud wants us to celebrate the everyday first and then look at the special.

That is why the wine  comes before the  for . This unit explores:

(1) the  that is said over the wine (called the  even though the word  is not in the ) :

.

(2) the  said over food that grows on a tree:

.

(3) the  said over food that grows in the ground: . and (4) the  said over food items made from grain or flour that are not bread, such as cake, donuts, pizza and cookies.

. 7

Can you see the three letters  in these words?



 holy =  makes holy =  made us holy = 

Practice these words and circle all the words that contain the root .

  .1

 .

 .3 Can you see the three letters  in these words?

 he creates = to create = a creation =



Practice these words and circle all the ones that contain the root .

 .4

  .5 8

Guessing Can Be As Good As Knowing Words our God = 

ground = 



kinds of = 

create =

fruit of =  food from =  flour (but not bread) vine =  tree = 







Word Parts the = 

Take your best guess. Write your own English version of these .





___________________________________________________________  .1

__________________________________________________



.2

________________________________________________________  .3

________________________________________________________  .4

____________________________________________________  .5

_____________________________________________________



.6

Rules for  Most rules for  are written down is the Mishnah, which was compiled by a group of teachers called the Rabbis. Here are the rules from the Mishnah on the  we have been studying.

3.1 Q: What  do we say over   (fruit of the trees)?

A: Over   we say   with the exception of wine.

Over wine we say .

Q: What  do we say over   (fruit of the land)?

A: Over  . we say  with the exception of bread.

Over bread we say .

Q: What  do we say over  (vegetables)?

A: The majority voted for .

1. How do the Rabbis name the ?  2. Why do you think the Rabbis made  and  exceptions?

6.2 If a person says the blessing  over   the mitzvah has been fulfilled.

But if one says the blessing   over   the mitzvah has not been fulfilled.

In all cases, if the person says the blessing    (that all came into being by God’s word) the mitzvah has been fulfilled.

3. Why is it okay to say  over a pear?

4. What is wrong about saying   over a pea?

5. Why is it okay to use    over both a pea and a pear?

6. Why do you think the Rabbis want  to be used precisely?

10

Making the Right Choices Now it’s time to test your understanding of food . What  would you say before eating the following? HINT: In the Shulhan Arukh we find this rule. “When a person eats several different kinds of foods, each of which should have a different , only one  need be said and then the most important food determines which  is said.”

. .1 . . . .3 . .4 . .5 . .6

___Sparkling grape juice

___Vegetable soup with crackers

___Four brownies

___Sliced carrots and celery with a dill-yogurt dip

___Barbecued chicken wings with apricot dip

___Fresh raspberries

___Tofu

___Pizza with pinapple, Green olives and garlic

11

Big Practice Practice these words and phrases.

  .1

  .2

 .3

   .4

   .5

 .6

 .7

  .8

  .9

  .10

   .11

   .12

Copyright © 2008 Torah Aura Productions. Published by Torah Aura Productions. All Rights Reserved. . Illustrations © Christine Tripp and Heidi Steinberger. Cover photo © Ekyta Pawlowska.

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