09 Jun KASHRUS QUESTIONS OF THE WEEK WITH RABBI MOSHE ELEFANT

What is Pas Yisrael and why do people specifically observe it
during Aseres Yemei Teshuva? What is and what isn’t included
in Pas Yisrael?
During Aseres Yemei Teshuva, where all of us are trying to do better and
be better and be more careful, we are careful about
Pas Yisrael. Pas Yisrael means bread, bread that was
baked by a Jew. So if you have an oven that was turned
on by a Jew, even though the Jew is not the baker, the
Jew wasn’t even there when the bread was baked, the
Jew doesn’t own the bread, that’s enough for it to be
Pas Yisrael.
Furthermore, Pas Yisrael
is not limited to bread. Pas Yisrael includes cookies, cakes,
pretzels, all of the foods that need to be baked. That’s where
you will have an issue of Pas Yisrael, and that’s where during
the Aseres Yemei Teshuva you should try to be careful to only
eat foods that are Pas Yisrael. The OU on its website has an
extensive list of all the products that we certify as Pas Yisrael.
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.