1. In the second bracha of Birchas Hamazon, there should be an opening of "nodeh"-thanks to Hashem and a closing of "hoda'ah"- thanks to Hashem. If one leaves out both, it is considered disgraceful. It is also wrong to conclude the blessing "Hashem, who gives lands," (bc it doesn't make Israel sound special) and wrong to conclude the third blessing with "Hashem, who saves the Jews." (more about this in #3)

2. There is a dispute if the fourth bracha of "hatov v'hameitiv" needs "malchus" -referring to Hashem as the King of the world. If the bracha if from the Torah, then it is a continuous stream of brachos following the ones before it and wouldn't require a new "malchus." But if the fourth bracha is drabanan then it is independent of the others and requires it own mention of "malchus."

3. There is a question of how to end the third blessing of Birchas Hamazon. The opening of the blessing discusses Hashem saving the Jews and rebuilding Jerusalem, but the focus of the bracha is Jersualem. Some say the collusion of the bracha could be "Hashem, who saves the Jews, " while others say it must be "Rebuilder of Jerusalem." It def shouldn't be both together, bc endings of brachos should not have two subjects. The reason is that "we don't perform mitzvos in bundles" and combine two separate praises at the end of a bracha.

4. One should mention bris, torah, and Kingship of Dovid in Birchas Hamazon. The Gemara seems to imply that women and slaves wouldn't say these phrases but that men certainly must.

5. In the 4th bracha of "Hatov V'hameitiv," we say "malchus" in the beginning of the bracha, and we also add additional references to Hashem's malchus. (Blessed are You, Hashem, our God, King of the universe, the almighty, our father, our King, ...the King who is good..) It is either to make up for the last two brachos missing a "malchus" or perhaps just for the 3rd blessings omission of malchus, bc its inappropriate to speak of Dovid's kingship and not mention Hashem's.

6.If someone forgets to mention Shabbos, Yom tov, or Rosh Chodesh in benching, and they have finished the third blessing, there is a special makeup bracha they can recite before they start the fourth bracha. However, once one began the fourth bracha already, they have to repeat the whole birches hamazon. However, a distinction is made between Rosh Chodesh and the others, as on Rosh CHodesh one is not obligated to eat a meal and so if they forget to say Yaaleh V'yavo they do not have to repeat. Only on Shabbos and Yom Tov, when we are obligated to eat a meal, does forgetting Yaaleh V'yavo warrant a repeat.

1. There is a dispute between R' Meir and R' Yehuda how much a person needs to eat to lead the benching. R' Meir says cazyis and R' Yehuda says size of an egg. R" Meir says "And you will eat" references eating (cazayis) "and you will be full" references drinking, while R" Yehuda says "and you will eat and be full" references eating size of an egg.

2. There is a Tanna'ic dispute if the words of zimmun change based on how many ppl are present. According to one opinion, we say the words never change, just like in shul the words are the same regardless of the size of the minyan. A second opinion says that we add more names for Hashem depending if the crowd is 10, 100, 1000, or 10,000.

3. When there are 4 people, the leader could say "bless Hashem" because he is talking to 3 who constitute a zimun themselves, but it is always preferable to include for an individual to include himself in his words and it is better to say "let us bless Hashem"

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21 Feb 2020