01 Jun KASHRUS QUESTIONS & ANSWERS WITH RABBI MOSHE ELEFANT

HOW DOES ONE
DETERMINE
WHAT BRACHA
TO MAKE ON A
PRODUCT?
If it’s not obvious,
you have to know
the ingredients that
are used to make
the product and you
have to understand
the processes used to
make the product. Without both of those
pieces of knowledge, there’s really no way
to know what bracha to use. We at the OU,
even though we spoke about not having the
ability to have brachos on labels, have a list
of many of the products that we certify the
proper Brocha. We have them listed on the
web and we have a hotline that anyone can
call at any time to find out the proper bracha.
WHAT BRACHA DOES ONE MAKE
ON SUSHI? POKE BOWL?
That’s a serious issue and it’s a very commonly
asked question. The question is really based
on what is the main ingredient. Sometimes,
the halacha makes it easy for us because if

you have a food that has a mezonos, that’s
the bracha you’re going to make. But even
though rice is mezonos, the halacha that a
mezonos always is the primary bracha only
applies to something like a cookie or cake.
Rice is a mezonos that doesn’t have that
rule. Since rice doesn’t have that rule, we’re
back to our question, what is the proper
bracha on sushi? It really depends on what
the main part of the food is to you. There are
rabbonim that suggest it may be different in
Japan than in the US. In Japan, rice may be
the most important part of the meal. If it’s
the most important part of your meal, you
would probably have to make a mezonos. If
it’s not that way, then maybe the fish or the
vegetables are most important. Therefore,
what I personally recommend is that a

person should make separate brachos; make
a mezonos for the rice, make hadama for
the vegetables, and make shehakol for the
fish. One more point, let’s say you have rice
vegetables and fish and you can identify
that the vegetables are insignificant, then
you could make an argument that you don’t
have to make a bracha on the vegetables.
But again, because it’s so complicated, you
should make separate brachas.
PLEASE EXPLAIN THE WORD
“GLATT”- IS IT STILL SHAYACH
TODAY?
Very, very much! Not only is it relevant today,
but it probably has more applications today
than it originally did. Glatt is a Yiddish word
for “smooth” which means that whenever
you slaughter an animal in a Kosher way, part
of the process is that the lungs are examined
to determine that they’re healthy. Certainly,
if the lungs have a perforation or a hole, then
it isn’t kosher. Sometimes when the lung is
examined, there is not necessarily a hole, but
it’ll have lesions attached to the lung. So it’s
not clear what those lesions represent.
Do they have a hole under them or not? Is
it healthy? Glatt requires that the lung be
completely smooth, without any lesions.

And that’s why, typically in beef that’s
slaughtered in the United States, the
percentage of Glatt meat is so low. The reason
it’s so low is because the animal is checked,
and by the time we finish all this checking,
they’re going to get a very low percentage
of Glatt animals. A very interesting piece of
information is that Glatt for Ashkenazi Jews
is a custom. As far as Halacha is concerned,
Ashkenazim don’t require meat that is Glatt;
it’s more of a custom that we keep nowadays.
For Sephardim, it’s not a question of custom,
it’s a question of law.
That’s why very often you’ll see Bet Yoseph.
It requires that the lung be very smooth,
without any lesions. So that’s what Glatt
means and that’s why Glatt is as relevant
today as it ever was.