Saturday, September 22, 2012

Brachos 41a - חביב עדיף

According to most poskim if you have various fruits in front of you that have different brachos, you make a bracha on the fruit that you like the most [חביב]. If you have grapes [which is העץ] and pineapple [האדמה] and you like pineapple more, you make the bracha on the pineapple first even though grapes are one of the seven species with which Israel is blessed and their bracha is more important than the bracha on the pineapple.  [עיין שו"ע רי"א סעיף א ומ"ב סק"ט]

However, if you have before you two fruits that have the SAME bracha you DON'T make the bracha on the one you like more but on the fruit that is one of the seven species. For example - if you have grapes and apples, even if you prefer apples to grapes you still make the bracha on the grapes first since the grapes are one of the שבעת המינים.

Now let me get your head to spin.

What is the halacha if you LOVE apples a lot, you really like pineapple, and grapes are nothing you get excited about? "Nu-Nu" in the vernacular.

The Rebbetzin of the home brings out a beautiful fruit platter with those three fruits [and you are eating 'em all. Don't want to offend the Rebbetzin...]. What do you do now? If you take the apple [that you love most] then we will tell you to put it back and take a grape instead. שבעת המינים. When you take the grape we will request that you put it back and take a pineapple. You like pineapples more than grapes and it has a different bracha so it takes precedence. But then we will tell you that if you are in the realm of what is more חביב - take the apple again because you like that more than pineapple. But then when you take the apple we will tell you to take the grape again. Same bracha but שבעת המינים so it comes first.

Ad infinitum.

Ehrman goes Latin.

This is a halachic catch 22 [there are many and it fascinates me so much that I wanted to write an article on the topic but it mamesh makes me intellectually dizzy:-)].

ZUGT THE STEIPLER!!! The whole discussion is based on a mistaken premise. Indeed it is so -  If you are about to eat a pineapple and an apple, and you have two brachos העץ and האדמה you should first make a bracha on the fruit that you like more and if you like the pineapple you should make האדמה. However, when the bracha on the two fruits is the same, the העץ that he makes on the grape counts for the apple as well and not just for the grape. It emerges that in this case the halacha of making the bracha on the better liked fruit [apple] is fulfilled. So he should take the grape, make the העץ and we won't tell him to take the pineapple because of its חביבות, because when making the העץ he is essentially making a bracha on the most חביב of all as well - the apple.

עיין ספר זכרון חי סי' ב ובספר וזאת הברכה סי' מ"ז