Berachot 36: Blessings Before Putting Eating/Drinking; Chewing on Yom Kippur

Berachot 35, also the start of Perek VI, begins with a new Mishna. It teaches us about what we say before we eat and drink. We are told that we begin with "Baruch Ata HaShem, Elochenu Melech HaOlam" and then end with different prayers depending on what we put into our mouths:

For fruit from trees, we say "Who creates fruit of the tree"; for wine alone, we say, "Who creates fruit of the vine". For fruit of the ground, we say "Who creates fruit of the ground"; for bread specifically, we say "Who creates bread from the earth". For herbs and leafy vegetable Rabbi Yehuda tells us to say "Who creates fruit of the ground", but because of their different qualities we might say "Who creates various kinds of herbs".

In today's daf, we learn more about when and how to say different prayers. With a food that has several ingredients, we bless the primary food. Over things that we have difficulty classifying, we say, "By whose Word all things came to be".

The rabbis consider whether or not we take pleasure from what we put into our mouths. Medicines follow different rules that foods. Further, people prepare or pick a food thinking about its softened, pleasurable qualities rather than its hard and unappetizing presence.

The rabbis speak of the halachot of orla, where we do not eat the fruit from trees over their first three years. Uncertain orla is not permitted inside of Israel, while it is permitted outside of HaAretz. There is a general rule that one should act in accordance with the lenient opinion in a dispute when that argument is within Israel. Thus Rabbi Akiva's lenient rules are observed over those of Rabbi Eliezer. However, when Beit Shammai share an opinion where Beit Hillel disagree, their opinion is considered as if it was not in the Mishna at all and is completely disregarded.

Rava states that there are things that we chew that do not require blessings at all. To push his point, Rava notes that we do not say blessings over the peppers or ginger that we are permitted to chew on even during Yom Kippur. Eating extremely sharp spices is not considered to be eating food.

To chew something on Yom Kippur is unimaginable today. However, we know that the rabbis have changed their interpretations of some halachot over the millennia. Yom Kippur would be a much more tolerable experience if we were permitted to chew on dried ginger, for example.