From the Rav’s Desk: Should one repeat Hagafen over wine when eating a meal in two areas

1. Question: [Monday, 10^th Adar, 5781]

The following often occurs to me on Shabbos and I wanted to know what the Halacha is: After Shacharis I usually join the Farbrengen in Shul and usually wash on Challah having in mind to continue my meal at home sometime later. My question is regarding whether I need to repeat the blessing of Hagafen if I choose to drink wine when I get home, by my home meal. I know that since I had in mind to continue the meal at home, I don’t have to say Hamotzi again, but I am not sure about the wine, as ideally when you drink wine during the meal you need to say Hagafen over it and hence perhaps I need to repeat the blessing again when I drink wine at home.

Answer:

You do not repeat the blessing of Hagafen again when you drink wine at home. This applies whether you originally drank the wine only for Kiddush before washing [irrelevant of how much wine you drank, a Revius or less, such as you only had a sip for Kos Shel Bracha], and then washed and did not drink more wine during the Shul meal, and whether you drink wine also during the meal, and certainly applies if you did not drink any Kiddush wine before the meal and then during the Shul meal had wine to drink with a blessing of Hagafen. In all these cases the blessing of Hagafen continues to the next meal being that the after blessing of Birchas Hamazon covers this wine. If, however, you drank wine only before the meal, for Kiddush, and explicitly intended not to drink anymore wine afterwards [neither by the Shul meal nor your home meal], then you have to repeat the blessing even if you were to decide to drink more wine during the shul meal, and certainly if you decided to drink more wine at home. The only other time that we would rule that you would need to repeat the blessing of Hagafen is if before you began the meal in Shul you went from inside to outside in a way that the original place cannot be seen, in which case the classical rule would apply that if you switch areas for one home to another then you forfeit the previous blessing and the blessing of Hagafen must be repeated in the second area [even in the meal in Shul]. Even this, however, only applies if you did not originally drink a Revius of wine. If you did drink a Revius of wine, then it is a dispute as to whether switching places requires one to repeat the blessing, and practically we rule that the blessing is not to be repeated.

Explanation: The blessings over all foods that one eats in a meal of bread continue to count on all those foods even if one switches areas and continues his meal in a different home. This applies even to fruits and wine which in essence are not secondary to the meal and therefore require their own blessing when eaten during the meal. Nonetheless, the meal setting gives even these foods a continuous blessing status in the next meal area, as we do not consider it Hesech Hadaas from these foods when one switches areas in middle of a meal being that they are all covered by the after blessing of Birchas Hamazon. This is despite the fact that normally one who switches in middle of eating a Borei Nefashos, or even less than Revius of wine, is required to repeat the blessing, as this law only applies outside of the meal setting with bread. It is implied from Admur that the above law [that the first blessing continues to extend to the next meal setting] applies even if you only drank the wine before washing for bread, such as for kiddush, and then did not drink more wine during the meal in Shul, that nonetheless you can drink wine in your second home without repeating the blessing of Hagafen. Furthermore, it is implied from Admur that this applies even if one did not drink a Revius of wine [or Kezayis of fruits], and therefore was never obligated in an after blessing to begin with, as nonetheless the fact that the after blessing of Birchas Hamazon would potentially cover the wine if one were to drink a Revius, suffices for it to carry its before blessing over to a new area even if one has yet to actually drink a Revius of wine. The only time that we would rule that you would need to repeat the blessing of Hagafen is if before you began the meal in Shul you went from inside to outside in a way that the original place cannot be seen, in which case the above classical rule would apply that if you switch areas for one home to another then you forfeit the previous blessing and the blessing of Hagafen must be repeated in the second area. Even this, however, only applies if you did not originally drink a Revius of wine. If you did drink a Revius of wine, then it is a dispute as to whether switching places requires one to repeat the blessing, and practically we rule that the blessing is not to be repeated.

Sources: See regarding if one drank wine before the meal and then switched areas: Admur Seder Birchas Hanehnin 4:8-9; Admur 174:5; Ketzos Hashulchan 40:9-10; Michaber and Rama 178:1-2; See regarding if one drank wine during the meal: Admur Seder Birchas Hanehnin 9:16; Luach Birchas Hanehnin 6:16; Admur 178:4; Ketzos Hashulchan 41:1; M”A 178:6; Beis Yosef 178; Tosafus Pesachim 101a; Regarding if one drank wine before the meal and then began the meal: See the wording in Admur Seder Birchas Hanehnin 9:16 and Admur 178:4 “since they are secondary to the after blessing and exempt in Birchas Hamazon” which implies that the moment that one begins the meal and the after blessing of Birchas Hamazon now covers the wine drank before the meal, then the before blessing continues to be in effect even in the second meal setting, and this would apply even if one does not drink any wine during the first meal itself and only drank beforehand, with intent to drink more wine during the meal or in a way that it is exempt with Birchas Hamazon once the meal is begun as is always the law by kiddush wine; So also rules: Piskeiy Teshuvos 178:13; See also Ketzos Hashulchan 57 footnote 4; See also Vetzaruch Iyun from Biur Halacha 178:2 “Veachal” who writes in brackets that the blessing only continues if one said a blessing over the wine during the meal, seeming to imply that not only would a new blessing be required in the second areas if the blessing over the wine was said before the meal, such as by kiddush, but even if one then also drank wine during the first meal. Vetzaruch Iyun if this is indeed his intent. Whatever the case, the ruling from Admur seems clear unlike the above. Regarding if one drank only less than a Revius of wine before the meal and then began the meal: This enters us into a real dilemma in the understanding of the Halacha and of Admur. On the one hand one can argue that only if he actually drank a Revius of wine before the meal and therefore needs to say an after blessing do we say that the Birchas Hamazon of the meal carries the before blessing to another area. If, however, he drank less than a Revius then since there is no after blessing obligation, it has no connection yet to the Birchas Hamazon of the meal and therefore its blessing is not carried over. This seemingly however is a mistaken understanding, as accordingly, the law would need to be that even during the meal when one eats fruit and drinks wine the before blessings only continue to another place if one ate a Kezayis of fruits and drank a Revius of wine and therefore became obligated in an after blessing. From the fact however that Admur, nor any of the Poskim, make mention of such a stipulation of a minimum amount of eating implies there is no minimum amount and that the blessing carries over even if one only took a small bite. Seemingly the reason for this is because the mere potential fact that Birchas Hamazon would cover the after blessing if one were to eat a Kezayis/Revius is enough to extend the before blessing to another meal. Now, this same logic and ruling we would apply to someone who drank wine before the meal as well and then began the meal, even though he originally drank less than a Revius. Vetzaruch Iyun, VeHashem Yair Eiyneinu!