The Importance Of Saying Birkat HaMazon
Birkhoth Eliyahu is the book we mentioned in the lecture https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/9659202105/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1&pldnSite=1 To Support our KIRUV and Torah Teachings work please DONATE at www.BeEzratHaShem.org If you'd like to invite Rabbi Yaron Reuven to give a lecture at your synagogue, home or office. Rabbi Reuven is based out of Florida but travels to give lectures to different groups. Join one of our interactive "Interesting Torah" Whatsapp groups to get daily updates and short Torah clips that can uplift your day by texting 1.917.468.2324 or +91 93236 69880 Click here https://soundcloud.com/yaronreuven/se... To Listen to our very popular "Daily Chidush" short audio series on SOUNDCLOUD or the Podcast Channel at https://beezrathashem.jewishpodcasts.... Born in Netanya, Israel, Rabbi Yaron Reuven began his American Dream as a little boy, when his family immigrated to the United States. He went from a newspaper boy at the age of 10, to a well-known self-made Wall Street multimillionaire by the age of 23. During his time in Wall Street, he owned his own private brokerage firm, a hedge fund, and an international insurance agency. He was featured on CNBC, Bloomberg and Chinese NDTV due to his success in the financial industry. At age 26 he faced a 7-year battle for his life when a simple surgery went wrong. From that moment his life would never be the same. This moment marked the start of a series of miraculous events and an exciting pursuit of truth, ultimately resulting in Rabbi Reuven renouncing his lofty position and success in Wall Street, after 16 years, to become a full-time KIRUV rabbi. His Teshuva story is sure to catch the heart of every listener. Rabbi Reuven’s shiurim are in English and Hebrew. His classes are focused on spreading the truth and divinity of the Torah through MUSSAR, scientific proofs, and many other methods to reach each individual listener. Rabbi Reuven is the leading educator on the topic of wasting seed in the English language with over 30 hrs of content published online. Rabbi Yaron Reuven is a proud member of the Igud HaRabbonim (The Rabbinical Alliance of America), a national rabbinic organization founded in 1942. Today, our 900+ members are congregational leaders, religious teachers, chaplains, heads of Jewish organizations and communal leaders united in their commitment to traditional Orthodox Judaism. For more information please visit: https://rabbinicalalliance.org/ 00:00:00 Intoduction 00:00:08 Importance of Birkat HaMazon 00:01:59 Birkat HaMazon vs. Other Mitzvot 00:02:24 Birkat HaMazon: The Most Important Blessing 00:02:53 Halacha vs. Rabbinan & Wealth 00:03:46 Authorship and Significance of Birkat HaMazon 00:04:17 Slice Size & Blessing Obligation 00:05:11 Blessing Creates Blessings 00:05:41 Consequences of Not Blessing 00:07:08 Stealing from Hashem 00:07:34 Reward of Blessing & Personal Prayers
Transcript
0:08The significance, importance, and repercussions of a Jew saying Birkat HaMazon and if he doesn't say Birkat HaMazon cannot be overstated. A person is not allowed to benefit from anything in this world without saying a blessing. Because a blessing, in essence, is thanking Hashem but also recognizing that He is the source of everything.
1:30Guests, first course, second course, fourth course, fifth, seventh, eighth. They start eating food from the neighbors. They eat like they've been starving for a year. Comes to Birkat HaMazon, everybody's half asleep. "Do it for me. I'll hear. I'll listen to you. Do it for me. I'll listen to you." You have a short version? You have a short version of Birkat HaMazon. "I'm pregnant." "You're a guy." "We're pregnant." "I look pregnant." People steal from Hashem every day. Now, Birkat HaMazon is more important than lighting candles for Shabbat. Lighting candles for Shabbat is a minhag. A lot of people think it's a halacha l'Moshe miSinai, lighting candles for Shabbat. A woman tells you, "Oh yeah, I don't keep Shabbat, but I light candles." Okay, so they'll burn you with the candles in Gehinnom. Because they told you in Shamayim, the Torah says you have to keep Shabbat, not just light candles. Lighting candles is a nice minhag, but Shabbat is much more important. Birkat HaMazon is much more important than lighting candles. In fact, Birkat HaMazon is more important than Shema Yisrael. Birkat HaMazon is more important than the Amidah. Birkat HaMazon is the most important blessing you have in the entire Torah, because it is the only blessing that has a verse—an outright, literal verse—that says you have to do it, and...
2:53Some chachamim say that even Me'en Shalosh is another blessing for mezonot, for yayin, and for specific types of fruits, and it is also considered a Birkat Hamazon. However, halachically, it is not Birkat Hamazon; it's not the right, it's rabbanan. But Birkat Hamazon itself, the long one, is halacha. If you ate bread, you have to say Birkat Hamazon. The truth be told is that if you're smart and you want to be rich... You have to make sure to do Birkat HaMazon at least once a day. There's something called Pat Shacharit. Pat Shacharit is eating bread in the morning. Why eat bread in the morning? It says first of all, it's healthy. But even more so, it's healthy for your pocket too, to start off the day with Birkat HaMazon. Because Birkat HaMazon is made up of all the greatest things that you can possibly want for yourself. That's what Birkat HaMazon is. It's asking Hashem for a multitude of blessings. The first part of Birkat HaMazon was written by Moshe Rabbeinu. The first paragraph of Birkat HaMazon was authored by Moshe Rabbeinu himself. So, you have the ability to learn and recite one of the blessings written by Moshe Rabbeinu. The second part was composed by Yehoshua Bin-Nun. When Yehoshua Bin-Nun crossed into Eretz Yisrael, he contributed to the second part of Birkat HaMazon. The third part was written by David and Shlomo. David HaMelech and his son Shlomo HaMelech.
4:17So you have an opportunity to read the blessings that David and Shlomo put together. The last part is by the biggest tzaddikim in history. You have an opportunity to say a blessing. That's what Birkat Hamazon is. It's not something that some local rabbi from the last 20 years put together. Birkat Hamazon already goes back to Har Sinai. You say Birkat Hamazon, you're in good shape, especially at the start of the day. I make sure that people tell me, listen, what about if I only eat like a half a slice of pizza? See, you should eat a slice and a half, not half a slice. Yeah, I'm not that hungry. So don't eat then. Why? If you're gonna eat, make sure to do birkat hamazon. Why? There's no point eating without doing birkat hamazon. Yeah, but I'm in a hurry. Okay, so if you're in a hurry, don't eat. Breathe, drink a lot of water. If you're in a hurry, drink water. No, but I'm hungry. Okay, you're hungry. Then that means you have time to eat. If you have time to eat, you have time to bless Hashem. You have to make sure to bless Hashem as often as you possibly can. So much so that David HaMelech made it an obligation, if you will, that you have to bless Hashem at least a hundred times a day. A hundred times a day, a hundred brachot. Many of the tzaddikim in Yerushalayim that I met, they're makpidim on this. They actually keep this and observe this, and they literally sometimes eat extra or do something extra, or they'll smell incense a few times a day just to do a bracha. Why? Because they want to get to a hundred blessings a day. When you do a blessing, you bless Hashem. Guess what? You bless Him, He blesses you back. On the other hand, let's say you don't want to bless.
5:41when you do a bracha you bless Hashem. Guess what? You bless Him, He blesses you back. On the other hand, let's say you don't want to bless Hashem. Let's say you like pizza, you like steak, a nice kosher hamburger, or a nice schnitzel. You like it, but you don't like to bless Hashem. You don't like to bless Hashem. You asked me for consequences, right? So, I'll answer you. Resshit Chochmah says, what happens to thieves in Shamayim? What happens to them? So the Resshit Chochmah says they put them in a nice place, nice and warm, and then there are certain malachim, special malachim, that take sand, sand like the ocean sand, and they start feeding them sand to the extent of breaking all of their teeth. breaking all of their teeth, because sand is ice, is glass. They break all of their teeth while they're feeding them all the sand. And the guy's crying, the woman's crying. Why, why is this happening? And then there's a bat kol that comes from Shamayim and says, when you were stealing in the world, you weren't crying. You ate food without saying a blessing, you weren't crying. Now we're giving you food, how come you're crying? How come you're crying now?
7:08That's what happens to thieves. You took something that wasn't yours. You weren't crying before, so why are you crying now? Why are we giving you anything for free now? That's what the Reishit Chochmah says, and many other places in the Torah reinforce this message. The point being, Rabotai Hakirim, they didn't write this as a horror story. They wrote it as a reality. If you steal from Hashem, you will indeed have a problem. It's better not to eat than to steal from Hashem. You know the consequence, but you should also know the reward. A person that blesses Hashem on a regular basis is simply blessing himself. If you understand the details of what Birkat Hamazon is saying, it's literally asking Hashem for all of the greatest things that you can want: a good zivug, refuah shlema, money, success. Everything that you could possibly want in the world is inside Birkat Hamazon. Everything is in there, and there's even a section towards the end. Towards the end, you can add in Rachaman. In Rachaman, you can add something that's unique to you—a special blessing for your wife, a special blessing for your husband, a special blessing for your kids.
8:24Special section within that, you can add a Rachaman. Right where it says the Birkat Ha'oreach, right there at that section, right before the last Rachaman. You could add any Rachaman, meaning the Rachaman will do such and such for you. You can ask for whatever you want extra that's not included in it if you want a special blessing. This is also, as a side note, a very, very good tool to create shalom bayit. Why? If the husband is reading Birkat Hamazon for his wife or for the family. This is a section where he could ask for a special bracha for his wife out loud. She hears that he's asking for a special bracha for her and it makes her happy. It makes her happy because it works. Oh, okay. Next question.
