The other day, I was sitting in a restaurant and I happened to overhear the conversation at the table next to me. (They stuck us I a corner and ignored us, so I had nothing else to do...) The gentleman was lamenting the fact that many frum Jews do what they can to avoid saying Birkat Hamazon while having a meal. This is not necessarily a new sentiment, but I thought it was nice to say we should be more willing to bentsch to Hashem.
But then he took a left turn.
"Technically, if you're having a meal, you should bentsch regardless of what you are. In the times of the Gemara, people always had bread with their meals. Now... etc. etc. etc."
Personally, I wanted to grab him by the shoulders and say "When was the last time you opened a Gemara or even a Mishnah?"
What he said was wonderful, it's perfectly in line with the opinion of Rabbi Akiva. Even eating a salad or cooked vegetables, to say nothing of meat, should create the obligation to bentsch. But the halacha doesn't stop there. Chazal roundly reject his opinion and state that the only food that creates the obligation to say Birkat Hamazon is bread. End of story. It has nothing to do with the status of the meal: whether I ate challah Friday night with my seudah or a single slice of bread as my entire meal during the week.
It isn't that the rabbi's "didn't think of the possibility," they flat out rejected the proposal of rabbi Akiva. To say otherwise is nostalgic idiocy inspired by ignorance. The only question to ask is "Why? Why do we allow only bread to inspire the obligation to bentsch?"
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