26 Dec KASHRUS QUESTIONS & ANSWERS WITH RABBI MOSHE ELEFANT

Pizza: Hamotzi
versus Mezonos.
Which bracha?
If the dough for the
pizza is old fashioned
dough, flour and water, it’s going to be a
question of hamotzi.
If it’s made with a
different type of
liquid, such as fruit
juice, apple juice or
milk, this a shailah.
The shailah is, on
one hand you could
be maikel (lenient)
because it’s not
regular dough. But
on the other hand,
the issue now is Keviahs Seudah (eating
a meal) – how much are you eating of
the pizza. If it is a meal, even if it’s made
with fruit juice or milk, you’re going to
have to wash and make hamotzi.
Therefore, it’s best to do what most

poskim say: If you’re eating only one slice
and you know that the dough that was
used to make that pizza is made mainly
with fruit juice or milk, you can make
a mezonos. For two slices, I don’t see
how one could be lenient. (Somebody
just told me, interestingly, that there
are different
customs here
in the United
States than
those in Israel.
In Israel, most
people do not
eat more than
one slice of
pizza and that
is considered
their meal. If
one slice of pizza is your meal, no matter
how the pizza is made, you should wash
and make a Hamotzi. In the United
States, many people would consider a
meal to be two slices, and one slice is
considered a snack.)

Does the OU allow music to be
played at restaurants they certify?
Many restaurants want to have an
ambiance and they want to have
live music playing. What’s the
OU’s policy when certifying these
establishments and how do they
go about it?
In the teshuvos of the Igros Moshe, Reb
Moshe Feinstein zt”l, & in the teshuvos
of the Shevet HaLevi, Rav Wosner zt”l,
understand that from the gemara in
Mesechta Gittin it comes out that one
should never listen to any music live or
taped when wine is being served, and even
perhaps when wine is not being served.
The Chelkas Yaakov’s opinion is that since
there was no taped or recorded music in
the time of Chazal there’s no reason to
be machmir, to be strict, about recorded
music ever. This is pretty much what
everybody follows. Rav Wosner adds that
since we live in a time when people have
all sorts of pressures and music helps us get
into the right mood, this would be another
consideration to be lenient. At the OU we

believe that there is no room for leniency
to have live music, where wine is served,
unless it’s a Seudas Mitzvah. I recently met
with a new restaurant that wanted the OU
supervision and they wanted to be able to
have live music in the restaurant. We told
them that they could not have live music
if we are certifying them unless they are
having a sheva brachos in the restaurant,
and the entire restaurant is being taken
over for the sheva brachos. They cannot
have live music if the party is only taking
part of the restaurant because there are
other customers in the restaurant that are
not there for the Seudas Mitzvah.