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Jan 25, 2016

Interesting Psak: HaEtz on chocolate

Rav Dov Lior has issued a psak that when eating chocolate, the correct bracha would be "Borei Pri HaEtz" rather than the Shehakol bracha we generally make. Rav Lior says this regarding all chocolates today, even chocolate that doesn't have a majority cacao.

Rav Lior's psak is based on the Mishna Brura, as the way we eat chocolate is the normal way to eat the product, and for this it was grown.

Rav Lior's psak is not new. Many before him have held this opinion. He is definitely paskening against the common custom, and should not expect too many people to change their behavior in this.

And that is not the most interesting part of the psak, in my opinion. It is the following..

Rav Lior added that for those who are uncomfortable or unclear about saying the Haetz bracha, if they eat chocolate with hazelnuts or walnuts inside, the bracha would definitely be Haetz, and one should make the bracha on the nut and have in mind to also include the chocolate. Also, white chocolate would be shehakol as it is not recognizable as chocolate, similar to the state of sugar.
source: Srugim

I admit I have made the same shehakol on chocolate with nuts as I make on chocolate without nuts. I was not aware of the difference in halacha. Do other people, who make shehakol on plain chocolate, make haetz on chocolate with nuts?

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5 comments:

  1. Rav Moshe says to make two brachos on chocolate with nuts. Like any other food that has two types in it (other than grain, where he mezonos takes precedence).

    ReplyDelete
  2. If you eat the chocolate together with the nuts, then there is only one bracha. The bracha is determined by whatever ingredient is the ikar. For something like a chocolate bar with small pieces of nuts in it, I think there is no question that the chocolate is ikar. But something like chocolate covered almonds is subjective to the eater. I make ho'eitz on those. My wife says I'm nuts (ha ha) if I think that anything can be tofel to chocolate. If both are ikar to you, then you have the trick of starting off eating them separately and making two separate brochos.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ikkar and tafel is a hard nut to crack (sorry). My litmus test is this: You ask for chocolate covered almonds, and are told that there are none available. Do you then ask for regular almonds, or raisenettes?

      Delete
  3. Didn't Rav Shlomo Zalman rule that chocolate should be Ha'Etz, but I've never seen anyone do it, including students of Rav Shlomo Zalman.

    ReplyDelete
  4. An excellent overview of the subject by Rabbi Kaganoff :
    http://www.yeshiva.co/midrash/shiur.asp?id=6500

    ReplyDelete

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