Kitzur Shulchan Aruch 41 קיצור שולחן ערוך מ״א

For complete bread, made from the five kinds of grain, we say HaMotzi before it and Birkat HaMazon after it. The laws of pat haba'ah b'kisnin, bread baked with condiments, will be explained in siman 48.

One must be careful not to interrupt between washing the hands (netilat yadayim) and reciting Hamotzi. But he is permitted to answer Amein to any berachah he hears. A pause long enough to walk twenty-two amot, or to go from one house to another even a short distance, and likewise speaking about things that are not needed for the meal, is called an interruption (hefsek). After the fact, if he did interrupt, it does not matter to us, as long as he did not do some action in between, and did not speak at length, for then it is a distraction (hesech hada'at) and he must wash his hands a second time.

One breaks the bread at the choicest part of the loaf, out of honor for the blessing. The choicest part is the hard place, where the bread baked well — the place opposite the split, because where it begins to bake the dough is pressed until the opposite side splits. But an old person who finds it hard to eat hard bread breaks at the soft place. Since one may not delay the cutting between the blessing Hamotzi and eating, one cuts a little around the bread like a ring, so that if he holds the piece the whole loaf rises with it. For otherwise it counts as a cut piece, and we need him to bless Hamotzi while the bread is whole: he leaves it joined to the bread and blesses Hamotzi, and after finishing the blessing he separates it, so the blessing ends while the bread is whole. Likewise, when breaking from a loaf that is not whole, he should not cut it completely before the blessing, so that at the time of the blessing it is larger. On Shabbat he should not cut into the loaf at all until after the blessing, so the loaves are truly whole. Also on a weekday, if it is a thin cake, he blesses before breaking, since there is no delay in breaking.

One should not break off a small piece, because it looks stingy. Nor a piece bigger than an egg, because it looks greedy. This applies only when he eats alone. But if he eats with many people and must give a kazayit from the piece to each one, he may break as much as he needs. On Shabbat, even eating alone, he may break as much as the whole meal needs, because of the honor of Shabbat, to show his love of the Shabbat meal, that he wants to eat much of it. One should eat the piece he broke over before eating other bread, because of cherishing the mitzvah, since he blessed over it. And it is good to be careful not to give from it to a non-Jew or to an animal or fowl.

Before reciting the blessing, a person places both hands on the bread. This is because the ten fingers correspond to the ten mitzvot connected with bread: not plowing with an ox and a donkey together; kilayim, forbidden mixtures; leket, stalks left for the poor; shikchah, a forgotten sheaf; pe'ah, the unharvested corner; not muzzling a working animal; terumah; the first tithe; the second tithe; and challah. Therefore there are ten words in the Hamotzi blessing; ten words in the verse "The eyes of all look to You"; ten words in the verse "A land of wheat and barley"; and ten words in the verse "And may He give you." When he says the Name, he lifts the bread. On Shabbat he lifts both loaves. He blesses with concentration and enunciates the hei of Hamotzi well. He leaves a small gap between the word lechem and the word min, so as not to swallow the mem. After the blessing he eats immediately, because it is forbidden to interrupt between the blessing and beginning to eat, even to answer Amein. One should eat a kazayis without interruption. The unit adds: see below, siman 50, se'if 5.

It is a mitzvah to bring salt to the table before breaking the bread, and to dip the piece over which hamotzi was said into the salt. The reason is that the table is like the altar, and the eating is like an offering, and it is said, "On all your offerings you shall offer salt." And because the table is like the altar, it is good to be careful not to kill a kinah (a bug) on it.

If someone distributes pieces of the hamotzi to those at the table, he should not throw them, because it is forbidden to throw bread. He should also not put it into his hand, but should set it down before him.

It is a mitzvah to break bread for Hamotzi on the more important bread. So if you have a cut piece and a whole loaf before you, and you plan to eat from both during the meal, and both are from the same kind of grain — even if the whole loaf is smaller than the piece and not as clean as the piece — still, break on the whole one, because it is more important. But if they are not the same kind, and the whole one is of a lesser kind — for example, the whole one is spelt bread and the piece is wheat bread — even if the piece is smaller, bless on the wheat one. And if the whole one is barley bread, even though it is lesser than wheat, since barley too is explicitly mentioned in the verse, and it is also whole, a G-d-fearing person should give honor also to the barley whole one. And how does he do it? He places the piece under the whole one and breaks from both together. If both are whole or both are cut, and both are the same kind, bless on the purer one. And if both are equal in purity, bless on the larger one.

This is the case: a person has before him bread made by a Jew and bread made by a non-Jew, and he is not careful to avoid non-Jewish bread. If both of them are whole loaves, or both of them are cut pieces, and they are also equal in size and of one kind, he blesses on the Jew's bread. But if the Jew's bread is not as nice as the non-Jew's, he blesses on whichever of them he wants. And if the host does avoid non-Jewish bread, but it was brought for a guest, it should be removed from the table until after the blessing of Hamotzi.

All the laws of precedence of the important item apply only if his intention is to eat from both of them during the meal. But if his intention is to eat during the meal from only one bread, he breaks bread on the one he wants to eat, and we do not pay attention to importance in this.