From the virtual desk of the OU VEBBE REBBE Answer: The accepted practice is like the majority of poskim that grape juice is treated like wine regarding all halachot (including, as you assume, regarding kiddush). This ruling applies to exempting other drinks from a bracha (both the brachot before and after those drinks). However, one must realize that this is not a yes or no answer. First of all, some wine and grape juice are diluted to the point that they lose the status of wine regarding kiddush and berachot, as well (see Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chayim 204:5). Since it is difficult for the consumer to know when it is too diluted, it is proper for the hashgacha on the wine or grape juice to state that it is valid for kiddush and/or that its bracha is “Hagefen.” (Some hashgachot add that it is valid even for Sephardim, who are somewhat more strict on this issue). The second point is that one needs to drink a certain amount of wine to be exempted from other drinks. The Biur Halacha (on 174:2) rules that in order for other drinks to be overshadowed by the drinking of the wine, one must drink a minimum of a m’loh lugmav (roughly, a full cheek which looks like two full cheeks), which is approximately 2 fl. oz.). If, at kiddush, one person had the requisite amount and others just had a taste of wine, then it is highly questionable whether the others are exempt from making a bracha on the drink (ibid.). It is also important that either the drinks are present at the time of the original bracha or that the person had them in mind (ibid.). A guest at a kiddush normally has in mind to eat or drink from whatever the hosts/ organizers will bring out (V’zot Hab’racha, p. 99). If a case of doubt arises, it is best to make a “Shehakol” on a solid food before partaking of the soda, etc. and include future drinks in the bracha or to have someone who didn’t drink wine make a “Shehakol” on his behalf (Biur Halacha, ibid.). Editor's note: To clarify and slightly expand a point mentioned above. If you are at a Kiddush (daytime is the issue) and you
choose to be YOTZEI with someone's Kiddush by just hearing it (without
tasting the wine at all - this works for daytime Kiddush), then you MUST say
a SHE'HA'KOL on soda, juice, water, etc. that you have at the Kiddush. This is so even if the
other drinks were in front of you and in mind at the time you heard Kiddush. Ed. note: There were communities that were persecuted by their host countries, in which the fasts were obligatory. There were other communities that lived in peace and tranquility, and the fasts were not observed. The majority of Jewish communities were able to decide on their own whether to fast on these days or not. Somewhere along the timeline of Jewish History, these fasts became obligatory for all Jews, in all communities. Yet, because these three (and not Yom Kippur, of course, Tish'a b'Av and Taanit Esther) were at one time optional, the custom among S'faradi communities developed to announce them on the previous Shabbat. ArtScroll Series • Mesorah Publications Ltd.• WORDS OF WISDOM WORDS OF WIT • by Shmuel Himelstein R' Levi Yitzchak of Berdichev once entered a shul and heard an itinerant maggid addressing the people. In his speech, the maggid breathed fire and brimstone, castigating the people for all types of sins, both sins between man and Hashem and sins between man and man. Finally, when the maggid had finished, R' Levi Yitzchak raised his voice in
prayer: "Hashem", he said, "the maggid surely didn't mean what he said
about Your people. He no doubt has a daughter of marriageable age whose
wedding he must now arrange. To raise money for this, he goes from town
to town and speaks. Grant him, I pray You, enough money to marry his
daughter, so that he will not have to continue to malign your children."
Excerpted with the permission of the copyright holder Yehuda had offered himself as a surety for Binyamin. But why would he protect Binyamin, the son of the favored wife, the brother of the hated Yosef? Why, as a Jew, would he offer his life in place of another, especially when the outcome was doubtful? Why would Yehuda consent to be a slave in a land steeped in all of life’s worst excesses? The Ohr Gedalyahu notes these constraints and Yehuda’s pitiful record with Yosef. Yet he suggests
that Yehuda’s initiative in defending Binyamin underscored the essential side of his personality. For Yehuda took public responsibility for his
brother’s misdemeanor, just as he had openly admitted his misdeeds with
Tamar. These traits of integrity, advocacy and responsibility marked Yehuda as the prime candidate for the future
monarchy. Shabbat Shaolm, Menachem Persoff, Director, Israel Center G'matriya Match EICHA ESA L'VADI TARCHACHAM V'M'A'SECHEM V'RIVCHEM V'YIPOL AL TZAVORI BINYAMIN ACHIV VAYIVCH U'BINYAMIN BACHA AL TZAVORO [The Vayigash Homepage]
|
