In your Insights column, you use a hyphen in Hash-m. Is this necessary? It already replaces the actual Sh-m.
Also, you bring from the Brisker Rav that Birkas haMazon
is recited after a meal consisting of any kind of food (provided that it was eaten with bread). Isn't Birkas haMazon actually on the bread itself, with all other foods patur from a bracha as tofel to the bread?
Thank you.
Moshe Schlusselberg, Monsey, NY
You are right! It is not necessary to hyphenate Hashe-m in this way. But, there are certain areas that people tend to be Machmir on themselves, because the issue weighs heavily on them. For example, some people go to the Mikvah every day, because they take Taharas ha'Guf seriously. Ashkenazim tend to avoid pronouncing Hash-m's Name, even in the context of a Pasuk or in other contexts where such mention is in no way disrespectful. And they do this out of awe for Hash-m's Holy Names, and for fear of mentioning one of them in vain.
Personally, I do not subscribe to the Chumra to which you refer, as you can see. Presumably however, the writer of Insights, likewise feels this awe when it comes to expressing any Name that denotes G-d, whether it contains an intrinsic Kedushah or not.
As for your second Kashya, the point the Brisker Rav is making is that Birchas ha'Mazon is generally made after a meal consisting of a variety of foods (not that one recites Birchas ha'Mazon on account of them), whereas the B'rachah Achas me'Ein Shalosh ('Al ha'Michyah' that he cites is a slip of the pen), is generally confined to the fruit or fruits of the seven species of Eretz Yisrael.
R. Eliezer Chrysler