Welcome to the Judaism community on Codidact!
Will you help us build our community of learners? Drop into our study hall, ask questions, help others with answers to their questions, share a d'var torah if you're so inclined, invite your friends, and join us in building this community together. Not an ask-the-rabbi service, just people at all levels learning together.
Halachically, what is bread?
I was recently doing some baking, and it led to a household discussion: what makes bread bread, as opposed to mezunot?
I wondered if it might be about ingredients. Bread, fundamentally, is made of grain, water, salt, and a leavening agent (setting aside the special case of matzah). Bread can also contain sugar and sometimes contains eggs or fat. Those same ingredients, in different proportions, are the fundamental elements of cake. If it's about ingredients, is it about proportions somehow?
I then wondered if it might be about dough as opposed to batter. Cakes and many cookies are made in a batter that is then poured into a pan or dropped onto a cookie sheet. But there are shaped cookies, and cinnamon rolls are dough-like but aren't bread.
I then wondered if it might be about the role of the product in a meal. Until modern times bread was central to most meals, while cakes and cookies are incidental. But we say motzi even over a small piece of bread that accompanies a large meal, and we say mezunot at a breakfast consisting largely of pastries.
If I am unsure about a particular food I can look up the correct blessing. My question is: what's the guiding principle? How would we work out which blessing we should say on a particular grain product if we couldn't just look it up?
1 answer
This is directly addressed in the Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chayim 168:6:
פת הבאה בכיסנין מברך עליו בורא מיני מזונות ולאחריו ברכה מעין שלש ואם אכל ממנו שיעור שאחרים רגילים לקבוע עליו אע"פ שהוא לא שבע ממנו מברך עליו המוציא וברכת המזון ואם מתחלה היה בדעתו לאכול ממנו מעט וברך בורא מיני מזונות ואחר כך אכל שיעור שאחרי' קובעי' עליו יברך עליו ברכת המזון אע"פ שלא ברך המוציא תחלה ואם אכל שיעור שאחרים אין קובעים עליו אע"פ שהוא קובע עליו אינו מברך אלא בורא מיני מזונות וברכה אחת מעין שלשה דבטלה דעתו אצל כל אדם:
Pat Haba'ah Bekisnin,[1] one blesses on it "who creates kinds of nourishment (borei minei mezonot)" and afterwards the three part bracha[2]. If one ate a quantity that others would usually use to establish [a meal], even if he wasn't satisfied by it, one blesses "who brings forth (hamotzi)" and Grace after Meals. If in the beginning his intention was to eat just a little and blessed "who creates kinds of nourishment" and ended up eating a quantity that others establish [a meal] upon, he should bless Grace after Meals even though he didn't bless "who brings forth" in the beginning. And if he ate a quantity that others don't establish [a meal] upon, even though he is establishing [a meal], he should bless only "who creates kinds of nourishment" and the three part bracha, as his own mindset is irrelevant compared to [the mindset] of all people.
(text and translation from Sefaria)
This is known as the concept of קובע סעודה, "koveah seudah", establishing a meal.
The example I've always heard is with pizza. If you're grabbing a slice out of the fridge, that's not generally considered by the average person to be a "meal". If you're sitting down and eating half a pie, though, pretty much everyone would agree that that's enough to be worth saying Birkat HaMazon (Grace after Meals) afterwards, since that's definitely a meal (and ideally you would have washed and said HaMotzi beforehand).
There are a few foods where you say Mezonot beforehand but don't bentch (say Birkat HaMazon) or say Al HaMichya afterwards, such as rice. The "Pat Haba'ah Bekisnin" concept only applies to food made with one of the five grains (wheat, spelt, rye, oat, and barley).
Note that "koveah seudah" only applies to "Pat Haba'ah Bekisnin", which is made from the five grains but doesn't look like or function as bread. If you've got a challah, pita, baguette, sourdough, or the best thing since sliced bread, they aren't considered Pat Haba'ah Bekisnin. When eating actual bread, made with more flour than water and baked in an oven, that looks like and functions as bread (and is made from one of the five grains), you say HaMotzi and Birkat Hamazon after a K'zayit or more. (Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chayim 184:6)
0 comment threads
0 comment threads