Question: Based on what was recently published on “Halacha Yomit” that one may not leave one’s house while eating any type of food and if one leaves one’s house completely, one must recite another blessing before continuing to eat, is one permitted to eat a candy while traveling and or from house to house or from one’s house to the outdoors and the like, for it seems that every time one leaves one’s original place, one must recite a blessing on the candy in one’s mouth again and again?
Answer: Clearly, if one eats a candy in one’s house and after putting the candy in one’s mouth, one decides to leave one’s house, one may not do so and if one has, one must recite another blessing on the candy in one’s mouth, as we have explained in the previous Halachot. This is because one has set a location for one’s eating, i.e. inside the house, and when one leaves the house and goes out into a public domain, one must recite another blessing. However, we must now discuss a situation where the individual eating the candy was already walking when he recited the blessing on the candy and he intends to continue going from one place to another. Do the laws of changing one’s location during a meal apply to such a person as well?
This question applies to one traveling by car or walking along the way and plans to eat while traveling from place to place. Indeed, Maran Ha’Shulchan Aruch mentions this law in Chapter 178 and rules that one may do so, for such an individual did not set one place for his meal originally; rather, the location of his meal is anywhere he travels and the laws of changing location do not apply to him. The Magen Avraham explains this likewise.
The Mishnah Berura as well as Hagaon Harav Eliezer Papo in his Chessed La’Alafim write that it is permissible to do so even preferably. Based on this, one who would like to eat a candy while walking on the street may indeed do so and the blessing which one has recited on this candy will exempt it anywhere one goes. The same applies to one eating sunflower seeds and the like as one is walking on the street in that this is permissible even if one leaves one’s house and enters a public domain. However, there is room to say that one should not do so out of politeness and respectable people do not do so, especially with regards to throwing the shells of the seeds on the ground which is certainly impolite. However, regarding the blessing, there is no concern of changing one’s location during a meal.
