...is borei peri ha-adama.
This is the virtually universally-held opinion among the poskim. Actually, I couldn't find anyone who said otherwise, I'm just covering myself by using the term "virtually."
Of course, there were (mainly chassidic) poskim who held that the beracha on a potato itself is shehakol. They assumed that it was more like fungus than a vegetable, and the beracha on a fungus (like a mushroom) is shehakol, since it doesn't really grow from the ground, more like on the ground. But we don't go by that opinion regarding potatoes, we make a ha-adama on potatoes, and therefore we make ha-adama on potato chips.
Frankly it's absurd that anyone would even suggest otherwise, knowing full well what the correct beracha is, but unfortunately that's what we have to put up with regularly at The Roslyn Synagogue. And that's also why, unfortunately, no one can expect to learn halacha and how to live a Jewish life at The Roslyn Synagogue--a lot of talk about scotch, the Mets, Catholic Israel, and how all right-wing rabbis are bad, but not very much in the way of, um, you know, practical Torah observance.
I thought that if you can't recognize the original item (vegetable), then the bracha becomes shehakol. So if you showed a potato chip to someone who never saw a potato chip, they wouldn't recognize it as having come from a potato, and therefore the bracha would be shehakol.
ReplyDeleteYou are correct but it depends on the circumstances. Basically, if the appearance of the vegetable has been significantly altered, then the beracha becomes shehakol. So in the case of mashed potatoes, applesauce, and other foods where the source vegetable has been pulverized into oblivion, we apply the test of "would someone who never saw mashed potatoes recognize that they came from a potato." If he wouldn't, because it's just a ground mush, then the beracha is shehakol. If there are recognizable pieces of potato, then it remains ha-adama.
ReplyDeleteBut that's only relevant where a significant alteration has been made, such as grounding or mashing. Simply slicing a vegetable and frying it doesn't count, and the test of "would someone recognize it" doesn't even come into play. After all, someone who has never seen a raisin would certainly not know that it came from a grape, yet the beracha on a raisin is unquestionably ha-etz, not shehakol.
Again, all people need to do is look in any book on berachot, and they will find out what the correct beracha is. There is no need to rely on bizarre halachic pronouncements. As Rabbi Block himself is fond of saying, "when someone tells you something, ask, 'what's your source?'" I think that can certainly apply to what he says, at least as much as he wants you to apply it to what everyone else says.