Brachos 46-Halachos of Zimun, who goes first and who sits where, who passes who by a Bridge and door - a podcast by Eran Netkin

1. Who breaks bread and who leads the bentching?
R’ Yochanan says in the name of R’ Shimon bar Yochai that the baal habayis breaks the bread
and a guest leads Birkas Hamazon.
- The reason the baal habayis is the one to break the bread is because he will be generous
and cut larger pieces, which a guest would not be comfortable doing.
- The reason a guest leads the zimun is to enable him to bless the host by saying the Yehi
Ratzon paragraph toward the end of bentching.
The Yehi Ratzon includes the following requests:
a. That the host not be embarrassed in either this world or the next.
b. That he be successful with all his property.
c. That host and guests never have thoughts of sin.
2. How far does the berachah of the zimun extend?
There is a machlokes regarding how far the berachah of the zimun extends:
- Rav Nachman says it extends up to and including the leader’s response of נברך.
- Rav Sheishess says it includes the first berachah of הזן .According to Rashi, Rav
Sheishess holds that the first berachah of Birkas Hamazon proper is
הארץ) .Tosafos and other Rishonim interpret Rav Sheishess differently).
דרבנן a is הטוב והמטיב .3
The Gemara brings different proofs that the blessing ומטיב הטוב is not Biblical:
- Rav Yosef sees it from the halachah that laborers may delete it.
- Rav Yitzchak bar Shmuel in the name of Rav derives it from the fact that it is next to
the beracha ירושלים בונה ,yet it still begins with the word “ברוך “.Were it
Biblical, it wouldn’t require “ברוך “,since it would be considered a סמוכה ברכה
.לחברתה
- Rav Nachman derives it from the halachah that it is not recited in the house of a
mourner.
Siman - Cows
Farmer Brown’s cow themed bentcher guided the one leading the Zimun to go up until the end of
HaZan, a reminder to bless Farmer Brown to have lots of prize winning cattle (after all he did give big
pieces of bread out at the beginning of the meal), and instructions for his farmhands to skip HaTov
VeHaMativ and get back to the fields.

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