Q. Hello Rav, regarding the bracha on people with unusual feature and on strange animals (meshane haberiyot), I read that you can't say it if you've seen them before. Would seeing them in pictures (not in person) make it prohibited to then say the bracha when seeing them in person? Any difference for sephardim? Thanks.
A. On question 1816 regrading this brocho when watching an unusual fighting match on a screen we wrote :
On question 1712 regarding reciting the blessing of birchas hailonos on flowering trees, we wrote; Ateres Paz (p. 224) quotes Horav O. Yosef zt’l that one recites birchas hailonos when observing the flowering fruit trees using binoculars or a monocular tube. Avnei Chen (26: 20), distinguishes between simple straight telescopes and the more evolved instruments that employ mirrors and the reflection of prisms. Pesach Hadbir (224: 10) equally permits their use for the brocho recited on a king.
Horav Shlomo Miller’s Shlit’a opinion is similar. The Rov also wrote a teshuva in Maayanei Shlomo (O.H. 77) in regards to different halachos involved in the use of mirrors and lenses.
Poskim therefore agree that watching any phenomena were we recite a special brocho on, is limited to only seeing it directly and not in a screen or a picture. (Betzel Hachochmo 2: 16, Piskei Teshuvos 224: 12)."
As is Poskim maintain that on very unusual cases you can recite the brocho again after thirty days
Rabbi A. Bartfeld as revised by Horav Dovid Pam, Horav Aharon Miller and Horav Chanoch Ehrentreu Shlit'a.
Important Numbers
