Question:
Part 2 – This brachos card has a small paragraph on the very bottom. When is that said? Thank you.
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Answer:
The paragraph at the bottom is what is called a bracha achrona (the bracha – or thank you that is said after eating. There are three types of bracha achronal, based on what was eaten. The one that you see is the shortest one, and is called borei nefashos. This is the bracha that was say after eating foods that are shehakol, hodomo, and most fruits. The next type of bracha achronal is called “al hamichya”- which is the other card that you sent me, see https://dinonline.org/2020/02/19/food-brachos-card-define/, That is said on food made of the five grains, (almost all mezonos except rice) wine or grape juice, or after eating one of the five fruits that Eretz Yisroel is praised for in the torah (grapes, olives, dates, figs, and pomegranate). The third kind is “birkas hamazon” or what we call “bentching” (blessing- in Yiddish).
Getting back to your question, we say borei nifashos after eating food any food that isn[‘t included in the other two bracha achronal. There is another point to know, that we only sy the bracha if we ate or drank a prominent amount of food, this amount is called either a “k’zayis” – an olives’s worth of food, (which is about the size of half an egg or approximately 1 ounce of food) or after drinking three ounces of liquid, (except wine etc.). For example after eating half an apple, or a cup of soda we would say “borei nefashos”.
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