(a) Before Meals:

It is customary among chassidim to examine the hands to ensure that they are clean, and then to pour water over them three times.

For meals, one pours the water [over the right hand then over the left] three times1 consecutively. A little of the water from the last pouring is left in the palm of the left hand, and with this both hands are rubbed together.2

It has by now become a universal practice among chassidim to wash the hands three times for meals while holding the vessel with a towel.3

It is our custom to dip the bread [over which one says HaMotzi] three times into the salt, rather than to sprinkle the salt on the bread.4


(b) Grace After Meals:

Cf. Siddur, p. 88ff.

Before rinsing the fingertips with Mayim Acharonim [which immediately precedes the Grace After Meals], one reads the following passages: על נהרות בבל; למנצח בנגינות; אברכה; זה חלק.5

On days when Tachanun is omitted the order is: ;שיר המעלות; לבני קרח; אברכה; זה חלק.6

For Mayim Acharonim7 one rinses the fingertips; whilst still wet they are passed over the lips — except during Pesach,8 when one makes a point of not doing so.

After Mayim Acharonim one says the verse beginning וידבר אלי.9

The Grace After Meals is said over a cup of wine,10 even when there are not ten [adult males] present [though there are three or more]. The cup is held11 — in the palm of the raised [right] hand, the [four] fingers extending upward — until the end of the blessing: בונה ברחמיו ירושלים אמן. It is then placed on the table and raised again for the blessing, בורא פרי הגפן.

In the paragraph beginning רצה, the letter ב in בעל הישועות is vocalized with a dagesh [and hence pronounced b]; in ובעל הנחמות it is vocalized without a dagesh [and hence pronounced v].12

On Rosh Chodesh and Yom-Tov (New Moon and Festivals) when one says יעלה ויבוא, the person leading the Grace After Meals raises his voice slightly while reading the following three phrases, at the end of which all present answer אמן:

(a) זכרנו...בו לטובה (the second word being pronounced bo);

(b) ופקדנו בו לברכה (pronounced vo);

(c) והושיענו בו לחיים טובים (pronounced vo).

The paragraph concludes as follows: מלך חנון ורחום אתה.

One does not respond אמן after the word יחסרנו.

The words, אבי מורי בעל הבית הזה ואת אמי מורתי בעלת הבית הזה, are said by everyone, even by a guest or by one whose parents are no longer alive.13

It has become customary among chassidim to say (in the series of sentences beginning הרחמן) the following: הרחמן הוא יברך את אדוננו מורנו ורבנו.14


(c) Other Blessings:

In the blessing שהכל, the yud of נהי-ה is vocalized with a kamatz, not a segol.15 [Cf. Siddur, p. 87.]

In the blessing בורא נפשות, the kaf in על כל מה שבראת is vocalized with a cholam, not a kamatz.16 [Cf. Siddur, p. 95.]

One does say the blessing upon seeing a rainbow (unlike those who question this practice).17 [Cf. Siddur, p. 87.]

After drinking wine and eating one of the kinds of fruit included in the Seven Species, the wording of the blessing known as Meiein Shalosh concludes as follows: ועל פרי הגפן ועל הפירות, בא"י על הארץ ועל פרי הגפן והפירות — and not ועל הפירות.18 [Cf. Siddur, p. 94.]