The After Words

Don’t let your after blessings be an afterthought

Prepared for print by Faigy Peritzman

During our Tu B’Shevat seudah, I ate one grape along with several other fruits. Do I need to say al ha’eitz for this one grape?

You should avoid eating only one whole grape, or even two or three of them, since it’s questionable if al ha’eitz is required over that quantity of whole grapes. But in the event that you did, do not recite al ha’eitz unless you ate at least four large grapes, six medium grapes, or 13 small grapes.

I’m a big fan of sucking on candies, popping one in right after finishing meals so I don’t nosh. However, I never know what to do — should I say a borei nefashos on my meal and then a shehakol on the candy, or not?

What to do depends on your post-meal plans: If you’re planning to leave the area right after the meal, recite borei nefashos, and make a shehakol when you are ready to suck the candy. If, however, you’re planning to stay in the same home in which you had your meal, then you may recite a borei nefashos after you finished sucking the candy (or candies), even if that will be a while after you finished your meal.

At a recent shul kiddush, I had a little bit of grape juice and some small crackers with liver. I’m not sure if any of it was a k’zayis. What brachah do I make after that?

If the liver and the crackers together add up to a k’zayis (approximately the volume of one fluid ounce), recite borei nefashos. If they add up to less than that amount, do not recite any brachah acharonah at all. The grape juice cannot be combined with the liver and crackers to form the minimum amount.

I’ve heard a lot of debate regarding mezonos rolls that come with airline meals. I don’t want to get up and find a place to wash and then bentsh, but if I’m eating it as lunch, do I have to?

As you noted, this is a debatable issue, and while some poskim permit eating one mezonos roll with other foods without washing or bentshing, other poskim disagree, and it’s appropriate to be stringent. If you can’t — or won’t — wash, bring along a pair of plastic gloves, and eat the hamotzi meal while wearing them. Alternatively, you can circumvent the problem by eating the roll by itself, recite al hamichyah, and then eat the rest of the meal followed by borei nefashos.