Blessings on Juice and Liquids

 

In this chapter, Rav Ganzfried discusses what blessing to say on the juices of fruits and vegetables - the liquid that results when they are squeezed, pressed, pureed or cooked.  We can summarize the rules as follows:

 

1.  Usually turning a fruit or vegetable into a liquid removes its special identity and importance. "Liquefied" is "liquidated," and the original fruit or vegetable is no more.  Therefore, the blessing on the juice is "shehakol."

 

2.  If making a broth is the usual way of eating this food, then the liquid retains the importance of the original food.  The most important use of olives is to make olive oil.  As such, it would hardly make sense to view making the oil as a "demotion" for the fruit.  Therefore, when a berakha can be made on olive oil (see 54:8), the berakha is "borei pri haetz."  (For the same reason, some authorities suggest blessing "borei pri ha-adama" on peanut butter, which is the main use for peanuts, and "borei pri haetz" on squeezed orange juice - but not on that made from concentrate, which is mostly water.)

 

3.  For a few foods, processing actually ELEVATES their berakha.  On grapes we say the general berakha on fruit, "borei pri haetz," but when we squeeze them into wine or grape juice we say the special berakha, "borei pri hagefen."  On plain wheat we say "borei pri ha-adama," but baked goods earn the special berakha, "borei minei mezonot" and bread, "hamotzi lechem min haaretz."

 

The Rishonim divided creation into four levels: animal, vegetable and mineral in the natural world, and above them, man.  Let us see how this division helps us understand our chapter.

 

The miracle of creation is particularly evident in a fruit or vegetable in its natural state.  The amazing, detailed structure of an apple reflects the incredible complexity and harmony of all living things.  The blessings "pri ha-adama" and "pri haetz" relate to this level. 

 

When we break down the fruit's remarkable structure, it is as if it is reduced from vegetable to mineral.  Its natural vitality is no longer evident, and its berakha is reduced to "shehakol," the berakha said, for example, on water.

 

But sometimes processing the fruit has the opposite effect.  In the previous chapter we explained that bread and wine are characteristically human foods.  The incredibly complex process of making bread exemplifies human ingenuity, and the ability of wine to bring out our inner selves exemplifies human spirituality.  So producing bread and wine out of wheat and grapes is a kind of promotion, elevating them from the vegetable to the human domain.

 

CHAPTER 54 - PRINCIPAL AND SUBORDINATE FOODS

 

In this chapter Rav Ganzfried explains the rule of blessings on subordinate foods.  The basic principle is that when one food is subordinate to the other, no blessing is made on the subordinate food because it is included in the blessings on the main food.  We saw one application of this principle in chapter 43, where we learned that most foods eaten during a meal are subordinate to bread and require no separate beginning or ending berakha.

 

In order to analyze this rule from a technical, legal point of view, we should ask: what is the nature of this subordination? If I eat a piece of bread only in order to mitigate the saltiness of my herring, does this mean that it is as if I do not eat the bread at all? Or is the bread merely "demoted" to the level of herring?

 

In order to examine this question, let us look at the various limitations on this rule.  In seif 2, Rav Ganzfried explains that one must actually intend that the blessing on the main food will cover the subordinate food.  This suggests that the subordinate food is still considered a separate food - after all, it requires a berakha if none was intended when the first berakha was made.  However, its importance and status are those of the main food. 

 

Likewise, in seif 3 the Kitzur rules that if the subordinate food is eaten first, a blessing is necessary.  One opinion is that the blessing is "shehakol."  The other opinion referred to by Rav Ganzfried is that we make the food's own blessing, since eating a food first indicates that it is not subordinate at all.  Again, this suggests that being subordinate removes a food's special importance (and the blessing is only the general "shehakol" - at least if this is the blessing of the main food), but it maintains a separate identity.

 

We explained in chapter 43 that the halakha esteems the individual's point of view - up to a point.  If our INTENTION is to eat the bread as a mere accompaniment to herring, then the halakha legitimizes this point of view, and adjusts the bread's importance accordingly.  But we do not have the power to remove a food's identity and individuality.  (This is accomplished only by "bitul" or nullification, as we discuss in chapter 117.)

 

As we explained in chapter 6, blessings enable us to encounter and relate to our sources of enjoyment - to notice them, not ignore them.  Judaism greatly esteems this world, and demands that we interact with and confront it.  The Torah recognizes the unique identity and importance of each human being (see chapter 24), and, to a lesser extent, the unique identity and importance of each object. Even when one food becomes subordinate to another, it retains its unique identity.

 

HARMFUL ENJOYMENTS

 

Rav Ganzfried explains that in general we do not make any berakha on olive oil, since drinking it is harmful.  The exception is someone for whom drinking olive oil is actually healthful.

 

Not everything a person enjoys is considered "enjoyment" in halakha.  Someone who is overcome by temptation to eat forbidden food makes no berakha; although he enjoys the food, this enjoyment is not a constructive one.  Likewise, someone who eats food which threatens his well-being makes no berakha.  Our primary instrument for augmenting sanctity in the world is our bodily vitality; enjoyment which damages our vitality is not the kind which achieves the connection to sanctity, which is acknowledged by a berakha.

 

When tobacco first made its way into Jewish life, many people wondered why no berakha existed on such a wonderful enjoyment.  After all, we say berakhot on smelling and on eating; shouldn't smoking and snuff fit into one of these categories? Perhaps there was a whiff of prophecy in the accepted custom NOT to say any berakha on these enjoyments, which today are considered dangerous to ones health.