Most of us are familiar with the Havdalah ceremony of Saturday night. When Shabbat ends we say blessings over wine, a braided candle and fragrant spices. Before inhaling the fragrant spices we say the blessing “Borei Minei B’samim”- we praise Hashem for creating sources of fragrance.
In my experience the blessing is rarely said during the course of the week. This may be due to the fact that I grew up in New York where pleasant fragrances were hard to come by.
But there are many sources of pleasant fragrances. My own favorite fragrance is pizza- specifically pizza as it is removed from the oven in the pizza shop. I think that many people share my appreciation of fresh pizza. So today, to begin our study of the Halachot of the blessings that are said over pleasant fragrances we will begin with a discussion of pizza.