Berakhot 118

Many messages have accumulated over the past few days, and this seems a good opportunity to bring them to your attention. One item in the text in our mishnah runs as follows: What blessing is to be recited over fruit? Over fruit which grows on trees we recite "…Creator of the fruit of the tree" – with the exception of wine, over which we recite "…Creator of the fruit of the vine".

Josh Greenfield writes:

It seems that there should be no need to exempt wine, since as a drink it doesn't fit into the category of fruit (and it certainly doesn't grow on trees). Wouldn't it be more logical for the Mishnah to include this exception when discussing the berakhot to be made before consuming juice and other liquids? The midrash points out that there are in fact three berakhot to be made over grapes in their various forms. Grapes are treated as fruit grown on trees, and wine has the special blessing given in the mishnah above. The appropriate berakhah for unripe grapes, because of some doubt over whether the vine they grow on actually constitutes a tree, is that used for fruit that grows in the ground. Also, is grape juice considered to be the same as wine? I'm curious to know if the Talmud at any point distinguishes between wine and other non-fermented grape products such as grape juice.

I respond:

We have already explained [Berakhot 116] why there is a special berakhah for wine (and bread). Generally speaking the berakhah "…Creator of the fruit of the tree" should not be recited over any fruit (not just grapes) that is not (yet) fit for consumption. The Talmud does not directly address the issue of fruit juices, but the major poskim [decisors] of the past half millennium do. A general (and not particularly consistent) rule of thumb can be summarized as follows: if the juice is natural and not the result of a cooking process, the appropriate berakhah is "…Creator of the fruit of the tree", since the juice is as much the fruit of the tree as the fruit from which it came. If the juice has undergone some kind of processing in which it loses its appearance as fruit, the appropriate berakhah is "…She-ha-kol…" [At whose word everything comes (or came) into being]. (This is a berakhah that we have already mentioned in passing, but have not yet studied "in depth".) The correct berakhah for grape juice is the same as for wine according to the overwhelming majority of poskim. For more detailed explanations where necessary, please consult your local Conservative Rabbi who will be delighted to be of help. I shall go into slightly more detail when we come to discuss the berakhah "…She-ha-kol…"

In Berakhot 115 I wrote the following comment about the formula for berakhot: This formula raises two difficulties: why the double reference to God both as Deity and as Sovereign, when the first would have been sufficient?

Art Kamlet writes:

This raises for me the question of why melach malchei hamlachim and hakodosh baruch hu (I think first written in Pirke Avot?) always appear together in the liturgy, but in spoken language, many say hkbh. I assume they appear together in the liturgy because they appear together in Pirke Avot? Why do they appear together in Pirke Avot?

I respond:

The phrase Melekh Malkhei ha-Melakhim Ha-Kadosh Barukh Hu occurs many times in our classical sources. Art is correct is finding it (twice) in Tractate Avot of the Mishnah. But it also appears seven times in the Babylonian Talmud – and once more without the phrase Ha-Kadosh Barukh Hu; and it appears twice in the Talmud of Eretz-Israel – once with and once without that phrase (both in the same sentence!) It also occurs half a dozen times in the Halakhic midrashim and well over a hundred times in the Aggadic midrashim.

As far as I know the phrase "King of Kings" was one of the titles of the ancient kings of Persia, such as Darius and Xerxes. God, superior to even the greatest of earthly potentates, was therefore to the sages of the early period of the Second Bet Mikdash (when Judah was a province of the Persian Empire) "The King of the King of Kings" [Melekh Malkhei ha-Melakhim]. The epithet "the Holy One, blessed be He" [Ha-Kadosh Barukh Hu] is a pious substitute for when we now use "God". Its use avoids using in secular circumstances any of the seven holy names of the Deity.

To be continued.