Halakhah su Proverbi 24:22

And when one is breaking the bread, he finishes the blessing and then breaks it. This is out of respect for a king. And accordingly it is necessary to put pleasing the Holy One Blessed Be He first before pleasing a king of flesh and blood or pleasing oneself, as it is said, “Fear the Lord, my son, and the king.”⁶⁹Prov. 24:22, i.e., in that order. Granted, here the addressee “my son” comes before the king, which seems to contradict R. Bahya’s sequence. However, he may be implying that one best looks out for one’s own interest by showing public deference to the king of flesh blood. And whoever breaks the bread before he blesses or before he finishes the blessing – he is called a glutton. About him it is said, “the greedy man [botze’a’] reviled [barekh] and scorned the Lord,”⁷⁰Ps. 10:3. R. Bahya is playing on the double meanings of the words botze’a’ – which means both “break bread” and “be greedy,” and barekh, which means both “bless” and “curse” in Biblical Hebrew. that is to say, he breaks and afterwards then says the blessing, and so “has scorned the Lord.”