עברית
Prayer and Blessings
When Do You Recite Mezonot?
Question
Hello, I have a few questions on this topic:
1) When do you recite Mezonot? Is it on every baked item? What if I do not know whether the pastry is made from the five grains?
2) What blessing do you recite on pita, pasta, rice, and pasta spirals?
3) What blessing do you recite on freshly squeezed orange juice? Is there a difference between juice squeezed at home and juice purchased in a store? What about juice made from concentrate?
4) If I am eating a salad that contains pasta, olives, vegetables, tuna, egg, and more, is it necessary to recite separate blessings of Mezonot, the fruit of the tree, the fruit of the ground, and Shehakol nihyeh bidvaro?
5) What blessing should be recited over grapes: borei pri haetz or borei pri hagafen?
6) What blessing is recited after a meal? Does the blessing after a meal depend on how much I ate?
Thank you very much
Answer
Greetings and blessings
1. Any baked item or cooked food, such as pasta, that contains one of the five grains, and the grain is present in a way that gives flavor to the food. If it contains only a little grain in order to hold the dish together and not to give it flavor, as in meat patties to which breadcrumbs or flour are added so that the patty will not fall apart, its blessing is not Mezonot.
2. Pita - hamotzi. Pasta, rice, pasta spirals - Mezonot. However, there is a difference between them in the after-blessing. While the after-blessing on rice is Borei Nefashot, the after-blessing on pasta and pasta spirals is Al HaMichya - Meiyn Shalosh.
3. All juices are Shehakol, except grape juice, whose blessing is Borei Pri Hagafen.
4. Only Mezonot.
5. Borei Pri Haetz.
With blessings,
Binyamin Shmueli
