A Minimalist Diet

If it was ruled that it is medically necessary for a person to eat on Yom Kippur, if possible he should only eat and drink minimal amounts. According to the Star-K, the method to avoid the stricter prohibition is to eat 1.5 fl. oz. (which is less than a koseves hagasah) of food every nine minutes. A practical way for the patient to do this is as follows: Fill 1½ “schnapps cups” that are marked “1 oz. - 29 ml” with compacted bread, crackers, or cereal, and consume that amount every nine minutes. (Beverages have a different shiur.) If this minimum shiur suffices, he may not eat more. Does this individual make a berachah on this food? Further, does he make a new berachah every nine minutes?

A person who violates a prohibition and eats non-kosher or stolen food does not make a berachah. Such an utterance would not be deemed to be praise of Hashem. In our situation, however, the person eating is actually performing a mitzvah. He is safeguarding his health. He is not violating any prohibition. A berachah would certainly be warranted in this case. The Shitah Mekubetzes differs and rules that someone who eats on Yom Kippur even with a permit does not make a berachah. The halachah is not in accordance with the Shitah Mekubetzes.

The question as to whether or not the individual has to make a berachah every nine minutes is connected to this week’s daf. The Gemara in Chulin (86b) states that everyone agrees that a shochet makes only one berachah on shechitah even if he intends to shecht 100 animals or birds. This is true even if he did not shecht continuously but took a break in between to fulfill the mitzvah of kisuy hadam. The Gemara challenges this ruling by stating that someone who was eating and called out to the waiter to bring his wine so that he could bentch on a cup of wine is deemed to have completed his meal. If he subsequently changes his mind and decides to eat more he must make a new berachah rishonah. (According to some authorities, this halachah is to be applied liberally nowadays. People nowadays are flippant and constantly changing their minds. They never really make a conclusive decision not to eat unless they demonstrably show that they are finished eating by getting up from the table or something similar. Just saying “let’s bentch” may not signal the completion of a meal today.) Just as deciding to bentch is the sign that one completed his meal, performing kisuy hadam indicates that one has completed the shechitah process. A new berachah should be required when the shochet slaughters the next animal after pausing for kisuy hadam.

The Gemara answers that since one could theoretically perform shechitah on a new animal while he is covering the blood of the previous animal, kisuy hadam is not deemed to signal that one has finished slaughtering. However, one is not allowed to eat or drink while he is bentching. Therefore, saying that one wants to bentch does demonstrate that he is finished eating and drinking. Based on this Gemara, Rabbeinu Yom Tov (quoted in Tosfos D”H Mishnah 87a) rules that if someone interrupts his meal to daven he must make a new berachah rishonah when he resumes eating. One is not allowed to eat while davening, so davening is deemed to be an interruption of his meal. Accordingly, one might say that on Yom Kippur since after one ate the minimum shiur he is no longer permitted to eat until nine minutes pass, his meal or snack is deemed to be interrupted. A new berachah should be required when the next nine minutes come.

However, the halachah is not in accordance with Rabbeinu Yom Tov. Tosfos says that you cannot equate davening with bentching. The significance of bentching is twofold: A. Bentching itself demonstrates that one has finished eating. B. It is forbidden to eat while bentching. It is only because both criteria are present that we consider the utterance of “Let’s bentch” to signal the end of the meal. Davening satisfies the second criterion but not the first. Just because one interrupted his meal to daven does not mean he is finished eating. HaRav Shlomo Zalman, zt’l, therefore ruled that even if there was a period of time during one’s consumption of food that he could not eat, a new berachah is not required. Consequently, on Yom Kippur the berachah that one made on his first morsel of food will survive to the second morsel provided that the regular rules that apply when new berachos are required every day are fulfilled. (e.g. leaving one’s house in the middle of eating automatically requires a new berachah if one was eating non-grain food.)

As a note to those who, baruch Hashem, are healthy, don’t be jealous of those allowed to eat. One patient told me eating tiny amounts of food is just as torturous as not eating.