01 Nov KASHRUS QUESTIONS OF THE WEEK

 Do you ever have it where two people can be eating the same food, but need to make different brachos?

There are many examples. I’ll give you an example in hilchos 

brachos.

Let’s say you have two fruits on the table, an apple and an orange.

They’re not one of the sheva minim and they’re both borei 

pri ha’etz.

Which do you make a bracha on? You’re going to eat both and have them both on the table, so which do you make the bracha on? The halacha is you make the bracha on the one you like better. So let’s say you and I are sitting at the same table. You and I are both going to eat an apple and an orange, but you like apples better and I like oranges better. So the halacha is, the one who likes the apple makes the bracha on the apple and the one who likes the orange makes the bracha on the orange.

There certainly is a level of objectivity in hilchos brachos.

Does one need to cover their head when making a bracha?

You can’t make a bracha without wearing a yarmulke. If you don’t have a yarmulke available, you can take your sleeve and put it on top of your head. You can’t use your hand because one body part can’t cover another.

Eating bread without washing. Can you hold the bread in paper?

Eating bread with just covering your hands is only permissible when water is not available. But wherever water is available, let’s say on a plane, you can’t just say well I want to eat the roll. It isn’t easy to get to the water on the plane, but that doesn’t give you permission to just cover your hand and eat the bread. Only if water is not available, do you have the right to cover your hands and not wash. If you’re on the highway and there’s really nowhere to pull over and get water within twenty minutes of where you are, then you can eat the bread. Your hands have to be covered with a bag or with gloves.