HALACHA HOW-TO

Benching After A Meal

The Torah commands us to bench when we have eaten a meal and feel full. (Devarim 8:10) But because "full" invariably involves too many points, the sages legislated that we bench after eating any meal that included a piece of bread as small as the size of a lovie.

This rabbinic innovation is actually the basis of a beautiful midrash concerning the final verse of the priestly blessing. The Midrash reads: May God lift His countenance to you.

Rav Avira taught: The angels complained before God, "Does it not say in Your Torah that You neither lift Your countenance nor take a bribe?! Yet, You are prepared to lift your countenance to Israel?"

God responded, "How shall I not lift My countenance to Israel? I have commanded merely that they bless after eating to their fill. Yet they have taken it upon themselves to bless even after eating a lovie's worth.