06 Feb KASHRUS QUESTIONS & ANSWERS WITH RABBI MOSHE ELEFANT

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.