Notes from the Underground - Day 9 - machlokes Ohr Zarua and Rambam

A little halacha today, but first, I want to claim the rights to market an official quarantine hat.  Everyone these days is wearing gloves and masks, but, why, you wonder, do we need a quarantine hat?  Well, our local barber is closed, so in an attempt to not enter the chag looking like a menuval or a nazir, I decided to do the job myself.  I am sure some other people might get the same idea.  The official quarantine hat will cover the results of your handiwork until the hair grows back and you can get to a real barber. 

 

According to the Tana Kamma in The last Mishna in Pesachim, the bracha on korban pesach exempts one from having to recite a seperate bracha on the korban chagiga, but saying a bracha on the korban chagiga does not exempt the korban pesach from it's bracha.

 

I always thought the din of "pesach ne'echal al ha'sova" meant that the korban pesach was served like dessert, at the end of the meal, after one ate all the other food served, similar to how we eat our afikoman, which is the zecher for the pesach.   If so, it is hard to understand the Mishna.  How can the bracha on korban pesach at the end of the meal exempt the birchas ha'zevach if the korban chagiga was eaten at the beginning of the meal?

 

It would seem this Mishna is a proof to the view of the Ohr Zarua, quoted by the Rama in Hil Shechita (Y.D. 19) that if a birchas hamitzvah can be recited even after the fact, even after one has completed the mitzvah.  Rama paskens that if there is an animal that one suspects might be a treifa, then one should do shechita without a bracha and then, if the animal turns out to be kosher, recite the birchas ha'shechita after the fact.

 

The Shach (see also R' Akiva Eiger) strongly disagrees with this Rama and holds that a birchas ha'mitzvah must be recited before the mitzvah or not at all.  The Rambam paskens this way as well in Hil Brachos ch 11:

 

אין לך מצוה שמברכין אחר עשייתה אלא טבילת הגר בלבד שאינו יכול לומר אשר קדשנו במצותיו וצונו שעדיין לא נתקדש ולא נצטוה עד שיטבול. לפיכך אחר שיטבול מברך על הטבילה מפני שהיה דחוי מעיקרו ולא היה ראוי לברך

 

So what do you do with our Mishna?  The Rambam in Hil Chametz u'Matzah ch 8 writes:

 

ואחר כך מברך ברוך אתה ה' אלהינו מלך העולם אשר קדשנו במצותיו וצונו על אכילת הזבח ואוכל מבשר חגיגת ארבעה עשר תחלה. ומברך ברוך אתה ה' אלהינו מלך העולם אשר קדשנו במצותיו וצונו על אכילת הפסח ואוכל מגופו של פסח. ולא ברכת הפסח פוטרת של זבח ולא של זבח פוטרת של פסח:

 

The Rambam writes a few halachos further:

 

ואחר כך נמשך בסעודה ואוכל כל מה שהוא רוצה לאכול ושותה כל מה שהוא רוצה לשתות. ובאחרונה אוכל מבשר הפסח אפילו כזית ואינו טועם אחריו כלל.

 

According to the Rambam, which fits perfectly l'shitaso, the korban pesach was actually served at the beginning of the meal as well as at the end of the meal.  The debate in the Mishna is whether the bracha on that first k'zayis of korban pesach exempts the chagiga from its own bracha.

 

(Why do you need to eat the korban two times?  I haven't thought it through, but I am wondering if this is linked to a different issue: why does the Rambam need to mention the din of "ne'echal al ha'sova" specifically by korban pesach when in fact it is a din by all kodshim, as the Rambam himself quotes in Hil Maaseh Korbanos ch 6?  R' Soloveitchik (see Mesorah journal vol 12 p 25) explained that there is a special din by korban pesach to eat it al hasova of other kodshim, meaning, that one must eat other kodshim, like the chagiga, first,and only then the korban pesach.  All other korbanos can be eaten al ha'sova of any other foods that make up a meal.  Perhaps the Rambam has one achila of korban pesach which is the standard mitzvah of achilas kodshim, no different than the chagiga, and then has another achila to fulfill the din achila al ha'sova unique to pesach.  Still needs some work...)

 

What is the hesber of this machlokes Ohr Zarua and the Rambam?  We are so accustomed to think that a bracha has to be recited before the mitzvah that to us the Ohr Zarua sounds strange.  In fact, the Rambam's view is the more difficult one to explain.  B'shlama a birchas ha'nehenin, it makes sense to say that once you eat your food, you can no longer say a bracha.  The bracha serves as a matir -- you can't have a matir after the fact.  However, a birchas hamitzvah seems to just be praise to Hashem that we are able to fulfill a particular mitzvah.  What difference does it make if that praise is recited before doing the miztvah or afterwards? 

 

The Rambam writes in Hil Brachos 1:3

וכשם שמברכין על ההנייה כך מברכין על כל מצוה ומצוה ואח"כ יעשה אותה.

 

R' Soloveitchik explained (see R' Shachter's Eretz haTzvi p31) that by comparing the takanah of birchas ha'mitzvah to the takana of birchas ha'nehen the Rambam is telling us that the two categories of brachos are similar: just like birchas ha'nehenin is a matir, birchas hamitzvah is a matir as well.  Chazal put in a stop sign before our doing mitzvos that can only be released if a bracha is first recited.