What's The Big Deal Of Not Saying A Blessing On Your Food?

0:40Says exactly what he said. What does it say? Rabbi Hanina Bar Papa said, "Whoever derives benefit from this world without first reciting a blessing is regarded as if he robs the Holy One, blessed be He, and the Assembly of Israel." So he says the basic pshat here is that if somebody decides that he wants to eat an apple and he doesn't do a blessing... As if he stole from the Assembly of Israel. Why? Because all of Am Yisrael are connected. Meaning if you do a mitzvah, all of Am Yisrael benefits from this mitzvah. If Am Yisrael is at 50%, you do a mitzvah, you bring Am Yisrael to 51%. Positive. If you do an aveirah, Am Yisrael is at 50%, you put them at 49% mitzvot and 51% aveirot. Meaning that you can change the tides for all of Am Yisrael.

2:08So, if you just stole, you now are taking away from Am Yisrael. The Gemara continues, saying to such an extent that it may not rain, meaning all of Am Yisrael can end up losing money. Because you decided that you don't need to pray or do a little thank you blessing to Hashem for eating an apple, a simple apple, a blessing that takes literally five seconds, you judged it as not so important, rabbinic in nature, or made up by the rabbis, dismissing it as not such a big deal. Well, the very same rabbis say, if you do that, just so you know, if the market crashes tomorrow, it's your fault. Now Rabbi Yosefi adds even more. in his holy perspective, he tells us something that's connected to not only this Gemara but also this Mishnah. Because this Mishnah tells us that anyone who learns from his fellow man a single chapter or a single halacha, it's a big deal. What did he teach us here? He said if you don't do a blessing, you could even turn into...

3:21What the Rambam calls someone that causes others to sin. Which the Rambam has no share in the world to come. He's the same thing as a Christian missionary. He's the same thing as the worst thing in the world. What's his name? Shapiro, Shmuley Boteach, Dweck, all of these reshaim arurim, he's in the same place as them: Dweck, Adomi, Korach. Achitofel was among those who didn't offer a beracha (blessing), and that's why he shares their fate. Do you really think you're living in this world alone? Breaking news: You're not alone. There are other people watching you. It's not just the eyes from Shamayim that watch you. Other people are also observing you. Other Yehudim are watching. Perhaps it's your kids, your spouse, your neighbor, or maybe just a random person who notices, "Oh, you're a Jew, and I'm a Jew, so I'm going to observe you for a moment." They might see you choose to enjoy a delicious sandwich without blessing Hashem. You happened to forget to do so—not forgetting to eat, but forgetting to bless Hashem. When it comes to eating, we never forget.

4:24Other Jews are watching you. Maybe it's your kids. Maybe it's your wife. Maybe it's your husband. Maybe it's your neighbor. Maybe it's just somebody random that sees, "Oh, you're a Jew. I'm a Jew. I'm going to just look at you for two seconds." And they see that you just decide to eat this, munch on this delicious sandwich, without blessing Hashem. You happen to forget. You didn't forget to eat, but to bless Hashem, you forgot. To eat, we never forget. We never forget to eat. To bless Hashem, we always forget. To eat, never. Three hours, we have time for it. For three minutes, we never have time. Three hours, seven dishes of meals to eat as much as our weight. Each one of us eats like our body weight on Shabbat. We always have time. Oh, I'm kind of tired. Can you do it for us? Can you do it for me? I'll say amen. Do it for me. I'll say, "I know why you ate so much. You have energy because you ate for three hours. Do you have anything to say?" "Thank you. We never forget, we never delay, we never forget." He says, "Somebody's watching you not doing birkat hamazon. Someone is watching you, and what happens when someone watches you? They say, 'Oh, you know, I thought that Steve over here was a tzaddik; he blesses and...'"

5:46He's not blessing, so it's probably not that important because he knows a lot of Torah, this Steve. So he doesn't bless, so it's probably not important to bless. Oh, Abba doesn't bless. The teacher is just a fanatic. My rabbi is just a fanatic. See, Abba doesn't bless, so I'm not going to bless. Ima doesn't bless, so I'm not going to bless. Joey doesn't bless. Moshe doesn't bless. Nobody's blessing anymore. So blessing is for the previous generation before I found out. Before Eiffel. We have an app now that blesses for us. So there's no reason to bless Hashem anymore. What happens if you didn't bless one time? That person who saw you didn't bless for the rest of their life. You have now contributed to them being a thief for the rest of their life. That makes a person a machti et harabim. You have a very serious, serious problem. You just made somebody a criminal permanently. And Rabbi Yosefi says, HaMachti HaRabim has no share in Olam Haba. For what? He forgot to bless Hashem one time. One time he forgot. Meaning that if you see the tzaddikim, you understand why they wrote what they wrote, why they cried on Rosh Hashanah, why they cried on Yom Kippur, why they cried almost every day.

7:12Because they were so scared of losing Olam Haba, they were so scared of other people losing Olam Haba. There's a Gemara where Eliyahu HaNavi tells one of the tzaddikim, he says, no, what do you want to know? He says, this market is full of Jews. Does anybody here have Olam Haba? Eliyahu HaNavi, who sees what's happening in Shamayim, says, no, no one. Yeah, but they're all religious. Yeah, they have no she'ailot clum, nobody. It's so easy to lose Olam Haba, Rabotai. You'd be a fool not to have Yirat Shamayim. And that's why this Mishnah says that learning one Halacha the right way can change everything. Because now, if you understood the words that came out of my mouth, that repeated what Rabbi Yosefi did to the best of my abilities, I don't think you're ever going to forget to bless Hashem. Why? It's too easy to do it and too foolish not to do it.