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Blessings: Scents: When To Say
Say the blessing if you intend to smell something fragrant; you may, but do not need to, say a blessing if you smell a scent in passing.  If you are outdoors and a pleasant scent of flowers comes to you, even if you did not intend to smell the flowers, as long as you enjoy the scent, you may still say the appropriate blessing.
Sleeve/Hand as Man's Head Covering
You may use your sleeve or someone else's hand (but not your own hand) to cover your head to say a blessing if you are not wearing a head covering.
Talit Gadol: Blessing when Borrowed for Aliya/Prayer Leader
If you borrow a talit, such as for an aliya or to serve as prayer leader, it is not customary to say a blessing on it.
Note If you want to say a blessing on a borrowed talit, ask the owner to “give” it to you as a gift, which you will later give back as a gift.
After-Blessings: Start Snack Inside, Did Not Intend To End Outside
If you were eating a snack inside a building and had not planned to continue eating outside but then decided to eat outside, you must say a new fore-blessing once you are outside.
Food When No One Will Bless: Selling
You may sell food to Jews even if they will not make a blessing over it (you may of course sell to non-Jews since they are not required to say a blessing on it!).
"Stretching Out" Echad in Shema
Stretch out the first line of the shema by pausing after saying “echad” and before saying Baruch shem kevod malchuto l'olam va'ed.
Note
  • It is incorrect to stretch out the “chet” + vowel sound (chaaaaaad).
  • It is incorrect (and much worse) to say a vowel sound after the “dalet” (echadihhh!), since that changes the word and by doing so, you are not saying the shema.
  • The “dalet” stops the sound and should not be pronounced as a syllable.
 
Which Fore-Blessing (Bracha Rishona) on Identifiable Produce
Say borei pri ha'eitz or borei pri ha'adama for foods made of identifiable pieces of fruit or vegetables.
Note Even if you know the ingredients in a prepared food--such as grated apples--you must see identifiable pieces in order to say a specific blessing (borei pri ha'eitz, borei pri ha'adama...). If no ingredients are visually identifiable, you must say she'hakol (or possibly borei minei mezonot).
Example Say borei pri ha'adama on a potato kugel with coarsely ground potatoes; if the potatoes are pulverized, say she'hakol.
On How Much Food To Say Fore-Blessing (Bracha Rishona)
Always say one of the six fore-blessings (bracha rishona) before eating, as long as you expect to get enjoyment or benefit from whatever you ate, even when eating:
  • Less than a minimal quantity (minimal shiur), or
  • Eating a small (kolshehu) amount of food.
Examples
  • Say a fore-blessing before you taste food you are cooking.
  • Say a fore-blessing before you taste a tiny amount of honeysuckle nectar.
Exception Do not say a fore-blessing on water that you drink with medicine.
Jewish Festivals: Kiddush: Borei Pri HaGafen after Drinking Kiddush Wine and Hesech Da'at
If you said or heard the blessing borei pri ha'gafen, finished drinking had hesech da'at, and then want to make a new blessing over the remaining wine in the cup, see Borei Pri HaGafen: Saying Again.
Note Although you may say a new borei pri ha'gafen on wine (or grape juice) that you left off drinking and returned to finish after hesech da'at, you may do so only as a simple blessing, not as kiddush (for how to make kiddush on same wine, see next halacha).
If You Forgot Ya'aleh V'Yavo
Situation
You forgot to say ya'aleh v'yavo in birkat ha'mazon for a meal that you were required to eat on a Jewish festival.
What to Do
If you have already begun the fourth blessing, you must repeat the entire birkat ha'mazon. If you have not yet said the fourth blessing, you may say a special addition that appears in many siddurim.
Fore-Blessing: Bread/Cakes of Rice Flour and Mezonot Flour
In a bread containing rice flour, if at least 20\% of the flour is from one of the Five Grains, say the fore-blessing of ha'motzi (after-blessing: birkat ha'mazon).
In a cake containing mostly rice flour, if at least 20\% of the flour is from one of the Five Grains, say a fore-blessing of borei minei mezonot (after-blessing: al ha'michya).
Talit Gadol: What the Blessing Covers
Saying the blessing on a talit gadol, while intending to cover all other talitot (whether talit katan or talit gadol), will cover:
  • All talitot that you already put on.
  • All talitot that you will put on later that day.
  • If you go out of whichever building you are in when you say the blessing on your talit, you must say a new blessing if you put on a talit (even the same talit) in a different building.
Exception You may intend for the blessing NOT to cover other talitot.
Example You say the blessing over your talit gadol on the morning preceding Yom Kippur.  You may intend for your blessing not to cover the talit gadol that you will put on just before Kol Nidrei.

Note If you don't have a talit gadol, say al mitzvat tzitzit over your talit katan.

Note If you remove your talit gadol, go to a different building, and put the talit gadol on again, you DO say a new blessing.

 
Until When May You Eat without a New Fore-Blessing
You may continue eating without saying a new fore-blessing--without a time limit--as long as you are not involved in some other activity that distracts you from eating (hesech da'at). 
Example
Situation You are eating and take a break to do work for your business or read a magazine article that involves your concentration.  
What To Do You may not continue eating unless you say a new fore-blessing.
Note This is true whether you became full at any time or not.
Fore-Blessing (Bracha Rishona): Changing Location
The fore-blessing (bracha rishona) must be said where you eat.  However, sometimes you may begin eating in one domain and continue eating in another domain. A domain may be any physically limited area (car, house, restaurant, office building) or the outdoors (highway, park, etc.). Once you left the first place, you are considered to have had an interruption of thought (hesech da'at) and are no longer eating that original snack or meal. 
Whether you say a new fore-blessing depends on your intention when you said the fore-blessing:
  • Do not say a new fore-blessing if you had intended to go to the second place, as long as the food at the second place is in the same food categories as what you already blessed on at the first place.
  • Say a new fore-blessing if you had not intended to continue eating in the second domain, even if you had planned to return to that first place and continue eating.
    Exception You do not need to make a new fore-blessing if:
    • You return to the first place and even one person who was eating with you is still there, OR
    • You had eaten bread or mezonot and then left but had not said the after-blessings of birkat ha'mazon or al ha'michya, even if no one is left from before.
      Reason Since you are required to say birkat ha'mazon or al ha'michya, you are still considered to be continuing your meal.
      Note As long as you are under the same roof, do not say new blessings on food at the new place (such as when switching seats or even rooms in a restaurant).
      Exception Even if you washed your hands and said ha'motzi at the first place, say a new blessing on food that would have required a new blessing at the first place, such as new wine or any dessert other than mezonot.

Fore-Blessings (Bracha Rishona): Food Mixtures: Main Ingredient
  1. Say the fore-blessing (bracha rishona) over the main or most important ingredient in a mixture of foods from various food-blessing categories.
  2. The blessing on the main food covers all other ingredients in the mixture.
Examples Fore-Blessing over Turkey with Cranberry Sauce
To eat turkey with cranberry sauce, saying the fore-blessing she'hakol on the more-important food (turkey) covers the less-important food (cranberry sauce). Even if you eat some of the sauce after the turkey is finished, you do not say a new blessing on the sauce.
Note If you eat cranberry sauce by itself and not with turkey, say:
  • Borei pri ha'eitz if it contains identifiable pieces of (or entire) cranberries.
  • She'hakol if the cranberry sauce has no identifiable pieces.