Why a Level 4 devoted to the Alter Rebbe ? The Alter Rebbe’s Shulchan Aruch is not a commentary on the Mehaber (מחבר) — it is a complete, self-standing Shulchan Aruch, written by the Alter Rebbe (Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi, founder of Habad, disciple of the Maggid (מגיד) of Mezeritch). Its singularity: it combines halakhah (הלכה) + טעמי המצוות + the inner dimension in a single work, and it decides with a unique talmudic rigour.
For Habad, the Alter Rebbe is הפוסק האחרון — his psak is the deciding authority. This page gathers the Rav’s way on siman ר״ז — דִּין בְּרָכָה אַחֲרוֹנָה עַל פֵּרוֹת (the law of the after-blessing over fruits), which in the Rav takes ב׳ סְעִיפִים (two seifim): the first is the law — whatever is neither a food of the five grains nor one of the five species of fruit receives one and the same after-blessing, “borei nefashot rabbot,” be it a fruit of the tree, a fruit of the ground, a vegetable, or even something that does not grow from the earth at all; and since their blessing is the same, one single blessing covers every kind eaten, and covers what was drunk as well; while the seal is said without the Name — “barukh chei ha’olamim” — because the Rishonim divide over whether a chatimah was instituted for it or whether it is simply a matbea katzar, a short formula. The second seif leaves the law for the sense of the words: what “ve-chesronan” means, how the wording divides between what sustains life and what merely gives delight, the different reading of the “yesh omrim” who attach “chesronan” to what follows, and finally the exact vocalization: “chei” with a tsere.
שולחן ערוך הרב — סימן ר״ז — דִּין בְּרָכָה אַחֲרוֹנָה עַל פֵּרוֹת
The full text of the Alter Rebbe’s Shulchan Aruch
שולחן ערוך הרב, סימן ר״ז — דִּין בְּרָכָה אַחֲרוֹנָה עַל פֵּרוֹת — וּבוֹ ב׳ סְעִיפִים
The Alter Rebbe’s own text (Sefaria source Shulchan_Arukh_HaRav,_Orach_Chayim.207), followed by our English translation. The siman comprises two seifim (ב׳ סְעִיפִים ; seif k → .207.k).
סעיף א עַל פֵּרוֹת הָאִילָן, חוּץ מֵה׳ מִינִים שֶׁיִּתְבָּאֵר בְּסִימָן ר״ח, וְעַל כָּל פֵּרוֹת אֲדָמָה וִירָקוֹת…
דִּין בְּרָכָה אַחֲרוֹנָה עַל פֵּרוֹת, וּבוֹ ב׳ סְעִיפִים:
עַל פֵּרוֹת הָאִילָן, חוּץ מֵה׳ מִינִים שֶׁיִּתְבָּאֵר בְּסִימָן ר״ח, וְעַל כָּל פֵּרוֹת אֲדָמָה וִירָקוֹת, וְכָל דָּבָר שֶׁאֵין גִּדּוּלוֹ מִן הָאָרֶץ — מְבָרֵךְ לְאַחֲרֵיהֶם "בּוֹרֵא נְפָשׁוֹת רַבּוֹת". וְאִם אָכַל כְּשִׁעוּר מִכָּל מִין וָמִין מִמִּינִים אֵלּוּ — מְבָרֵךְ לְאַחֲרֵיהֶם בְּרָכָה אַחַת, כֵּיוָן שֶׁבִּרְכָתָם שָׁוָה. וְהוּא הַדִּין אִם אָכַל וְשָׁתָה.
וּבְרָכָה זוֹ חוֹתֵם בָּהּ בְּלֹא שֵׁם, שֶׁאוֹמֵר: "בָּרוּךְ חֵי הָעוֹלָמִים", לְפִי שֶׁיֵּשׁ אוֹמְרִים שֶׁתִּקְּנוּ בָּהּ חֲתִימָה, וְיֵשׁ אוֹמְרִים שֶׁלֹּא תִּקְּנוּ, אֶלָּא הוּא מַטְבֵּעַ קָצָר:
The law of the after-blessing over fruits, and it comprises two seifim. Over the fruits of the tree — apart from the five species, which will be explained in siman ר״ח — and over all fruits of the ground and vegetables, and over everything whose growth is not from the earth — one blesses after them “borei nefashot rabbot.” And if he ate the requisite measure of each and every one of these kinds — he blesses after them a single blessing, since their blessing is the same. And the same law applies if he ate and drank.
And this blessing one seals without the Name, saying: “Barukh chei ha’olamim,” because there are those who say that a chatimah (a seal) was instituted for it, and there are those who say that none was instituted, but that it is a short formula (matbea katzar).
סעיף ב "וְחֶסְרוֹנָן", הוּא מִלְּשׁוֹן "כָּל מַחְסוֹרְךָ עָלָי", כְּלוֹמַר צָרְכֵי סִפּוּקָן, שֶׁהֵם חֲסֵרִים…
"וְחֶסְרוֹנָן", הוּא מִלְּשׁוֹן "כָּל מַחְסוֹרְךָ עָלָי", כְּלוֹמַר צָרְכֵי סִפּוּקָן, שֶׁהֵם חֲסֵרִים וּצְרִיכִים לָהֶם לְצֹרֶךְ קִיּוּם חַיּוּתָם, שֶׁאִי אֶפְשָׁר לָהֶם לְהִתְקַיֵּם זוּלָתָם, כְּגוֹן לֶחֶם וּמַיִם. וְ"עַל כָּל מַה שֶּׁבָּרָאתָ לְהַחֲיוֹת בָּהֶם", הֵם שְׁאָר הַדְּבָרִים שֶׁבְּרָאָם לְהִתְעַנֵּג בָּהֶם, כְּגוֹן מִינֵי פֵּרוֹת.
וְיֵשׁ אוֹמְרִים, שֶׁ"חֶסְרוֹנָן" הוּא דָּבוּק לְ"עַל כָּל מַה שֶּׁבָּרָאתָ", כְּלוֹמַר שֶׁהֵם חֲסֵרִים וּצְרִיכִים לְ"כָל מַה שֶּׁבָּרָאתָ לְהַחֲיוֹת כוּ׳".
צָרִיךְ לוֹמַר "חֵי" בְּצֵרֵ״י:
“Ve-chesronan” is from the language of “kol machsorkha alai” (שופטים י״ט:כ) — that is to say, the needs of their supply: that which they lack and require for the maintenance of their vitality, without which it is impossible for them to subsist, such as bread and water. And “al kol mah shebarata lehachayot bahem” — these are the other things which He created for one to take delight in, such as kinds of fruit.
And there are those who say that “chesronan” attaches to “al kol mah shebarata” — that is to say, that they lack and require “all that You created to give life, etc.”
One must say “chei” with a tsere.
הסימנים החסרים לא נדפסו בתוך הש״ע מעולם וכל מבקשם ימצאם [לקמן] בתוך סדר ברכת הנהנין מהרב המחבר זצלה״ה.
Editorial note, printed at the end of the siman: the missing simanim were never printed within the Shulchan Aruch, and whoever seeks them will find them [further on] within the Seder Birkat HaNehenin of the Rav the author, of blessed memory.
הלכה למעשה — מנהג חב״ד
The practical Habad conduct
Points of conduct that follow directly from siman ר״ז in the sensibility of the Alter Rebbe and Habad — presented at the level of principle, referring to the Rav for the detail of cases.
For the Habad Hassid — Siman ר״ז (דִּין בְּרָכָה אַחֲרוֹנָה עַל פֵּרוֹת)
- ① Seif א. “Borei nefashot rabbot” is the after-blessing of everything else: fruits of the tree — except the five species of fruit (grape, fig, pomegranate, olive, date), whose after-blessing is set out in siman ר״ח — fruits of the ground, vegetables, and even whatever does not grow from the earth at all. And because their blessing is one and the same, one who ate the requisite measure of several kinds does not say several blessings but a single one that covers them all; and the same when he ate and drank, one blessing serving for the eating and the drinking together. The blessing then closes on “barukh chei ha’olamim” without the Name: since some hold that a chatimah was instituted for it and others that it is merely a matbea katzar, one says the formula but leaves out the Name, so as not to come to a blessing in vain.
- ② Seif ב. The Rav is not content with the law: he wants the one who blesses to know what he is saying. “Ve-chesronan” is from the language of “kol machsorkha alai” (שופטים י״ט:כ) — the vital necessities without which a creature cannot subsist, bread and water; whereas “al kol mah shebarata lehachayot bahem” denotes the rest, what was created for delight, such as fruits. So the blessing takes in both orders: what one cannot do without, and what one enjoys. The “yesh omrim” read it otherwise — “chesronan” attaching to what follows — and the Rav brings both readings without deciding between them. And a last point, small and entirely practical: one says “chei” with a tsere, not with a patach.
⚠ This section sets out the Habad conduct grounded in the Alter Rebbe’s Shulchan Aruch, siman ר״ז (the real text is reproduced in §1). It does not replace a rabbinic ruling in a particular case. For any concrete question — which after-blessing follows a fruit, what to say when one has eaten and drunk together, or how to pronounce the chatimah — ask your Rav, and for Habad, a Habad Rav.