Q&A From the Bais HaVaad Halacha Hotline

About Face

Dayan Yehoshua Grunwald

October 21, 2021

Q At a recent wedding, I danced but didn’t eat. Would I be considered panim chadashos at one of the sheva brachos?

A Sheva brachos may be recited only if panim chadashos (a new face) is present, because the advent of a new person increases the joy of the gathering. The Shulchan Aruch (E.H. 62:7) cites three views of who qualifies:

Rambam: Someone who hasn’t yet heard the seven brachos recited for this chassan and kallah may serve as panim chadashos.

Rosh: Someone who hasn’t yet contributed to the simcha of the chassan and kallah during a meal may serve as panim chadashos.

Ran: A new person attending a sheva brachos, even if he doesn’t eat a thing, may serve as panim chadashos.

The Shulchan Aruch (ibid.) cites an opinion that Shabbos and Yom Tov are like panim chadashos, so sheva brachos may be recited at the first two meals of any Shabbos or Yom Tov day without a new person attending. The common minhag accords with this view. (See Shulchan Aruch regarding shalosh seudos.) This opinion only fits with the Rosh and Ran, so its citation would indicate that we don’t follow the Rambam.

Sefer Tziyunei Halacha writes that the halacha primarily follows the Rosh, and one only qualifies as panim chadashos if he a) eats and b) is the kind of person in whose honor an additional delicacy would be served. He needn’t eat bread, only something substantial like cake. At the same time, he writes, one who danced at the wedding and thereby brought joy to the chassan—even if he didn’t eat—cannot be panim chadashos, in deference to the Ran’s view.