In the second parasha , Kedoshim, of this week’s double parasha, the Torah teaches, “When you will come to the land and plant any food tree, you will treat its fruit as forbidden; for three years they will be forbidden to you; they may not be eaten. In the fourth year, all its fruit shall be sanctified to praise Hashem.” The final phrase of these verses, “all its fruit shall be sanctified to praise Hashem,” is understood by our Rabbis to be the source verse for the obligation to make a blessing prior to eating food – the obligation of bracha rishona . Based on this understanding, our Rabbis teach in Masechet Berachot that it is forbidden to eat food without first making the appropriate initial blessing. This Gemara in Berachot makes a further point. The Rabbis teach, “Anyone who benefits from this world without making a blessing first is like stealing from the holy things of heaven as the verse states, ‘To G-d is the land and everything that fills it’”. The Gemara further analyzes thi...
Rabbi Benjy Owen, Dean, Margolin Hebrew Academy-Feinstone Yeshiva of the South, Memphis, TN