At the Shabbos table every week, we have 2 challahs on the cutting board,
and someone at the table makes the b'racha "haMotzi Lechem Min haAretz". We
use the principle of "shomay'ah k'oneh" for everyone to be yotzei their
*individual* obligation for birchas neheneh on the bread.
However, what is the exact vehicle for everyone at the table to be yotzei their individual obligation for lechem mishna. If it's the b'racha of haMotzei itself, isn't it a chidush that one act is motzei two different obligations? Recently, I was told that it's simply a matter of mutual kavanah by the motzei and the yotzei, but it seems to me that there must be some kind of concrete act in order to fulfill this type of obligation.
I've been told that it was the act of the motzei picking up the loaves, and through that, everyone is yotzei lechem mishna. Alternately, I was told that Rav Soloveitchik held that the act was the cutting of the bread with a knife, but I don't understand how either of those might actually work. Can you explain how each person at the table fulfills their obligation for lechem mishna on Shabbos?
warm regards,
Jeff Ram,
Jerusalem
You are raising a very good point. How exactly do the participants at the Shabbos meal fulfill their obligation of Lechem Mishnah?
The MISHNAH BERURAH (OC 274:2) writes, "The proper way to conduct oneself is for the person reciting ha'Motzi on the Challos to have in mind to exempt everyone with the blessing of ha'Motzi, and he should also say to them that they should have in mind to be Yotzei with his blessing, in order for them to fulfill the obligation of Lechem Mishnah" (the Mishnah Berurah is actually quoting the Chayei Adam). It seems from these words that having Kavanah for the blessing is all that is necessary in order to also fulfill the obligation to have Lechem Mishnah. The explanation of this seems to be that the Mitzvah of Lechem Mishnah is not necessarily to pick up the two Challos, or to cut the Challah, but to recite a blessing over two Challos (and then to eat from them, of course). When the Ba'al ha'Bayis recites the blessing over the two Challos, whoever is Yotzei with his blessing is therefore also Yotzei with Lechem Mishnah. (It seems from his words, also, that the guests do not have to have specific intent to fulfill the obligation of Lechem Mishnah. See the MISHNAH BERURAH also in OC 167:83, where he says clearly that even when each guest has one loaf in front of him, he must listen to the blessing of and eat from the Challos of the Ba'al ha'Bayis in order to fulfill the obligation of Lechem Mishnah.)
Rav Moshe Sternbuch, shlita, in Teshuvos v'Hanhagos (2:111) brings a proof to this view from Rashi in our Sugya. When the Gemara says that one must be "Botze'a" on two loaves of bread, Rashi (DH Liv'tzo'a) says "Birkas ha'Motzi." We see from here that the obligation of Lechem Mishnah is to recite the blessing over two loaves.
I hope this was helpful.
Yisroel Shaw