Priority in Blessing Over Two Types of Bread

Question

If someone wants to eat both wheat bread and barley bread, over which should he say the brachah of Hamotzi?

Answer

If the wheat bread is a whole loaf, untouched, he should say the Hamotzi blessing over the wheat bread and eat from it. If the wheat bread is only a slice or a chunk, but the barley bread is an uncut loaf, he should place the wheat slice beneath the whole barley loaf, recite the blessing over both together, and cut from both of them.

Source: Shulchan Aruch Orach Chaim 168:1¹.

Notes

Even if the chunk of wheat bread is larger than the whole barley loaf (e.g., a bread roll), it is still preferable to bless over both together (Mishnah Berurah 168:4²).

All of this applies when the person intends to eat both breads. If he plans to eat only one of them, he only makes the blessing on the bread he intends to eat.

This requirement to prioritize wheat over barley is a clear requirement in halachah (me'ikar hadin), not an enhancement of the mitzvah (mitzvah min hamuvchar). What this means in practice is that someone who deliberately does not do so is considered a transgressor.

Additional Notes

If someone wants to eat wheat bread and rye bread (or bread made from spelt or oat flour), he should make the blessing over the wheat bread, even if the wheat bread is only a slice or chunk and the rye (or spelt or oat) bread is a whole loaf. In such a case he does not need to bless over both together as with barley bread, because rye, spelt, and oats are considered of lesser status than barley. Only wheat and barley are explicitly mentioned in the Torah verse in Devarim (Deuteronomy 8:8), which elevates their status as the special produce of the Land of Israel.

Question

If someone has before him both a whole, uncut loaf and a slice or hunk of bread (both made from the same flour), over which should he say the Hamotzi blessing?

Answer

• If he wants to eat both, he must make the brachah over the whole loaf and eat from it.

• If he plans to eat only one of them and does not care which, it is a mitzvah min hamuvchar (enhancement of the mitzvah) to recite the blessing over the whole one.

• If he specifically wants only the slice or piece, he does not need to recite the brachah over the whole loaf.

Notes

The same principle applies to any food of the same type: if there is a whole one and a broken one available, we make the brachah over the whole one.

Additional Details

If someone has two halves of bread but no whole loaf, before making the brachah he should join the halves together with a toothpick or something similar --- but only if this will give the impression that it is one whole loaf.

This can also be done on Shabbat if there are no whole loaves available, to fulfill the requirement for lechem mishneh (two whole loaves) at each meal.

If two loaves became stuck together during baking, and now one is whole while the other is incomplete, it is better to separate them before making the brachah and recite the blessing over the whole one, because a whole object that appears whole is of greater status than a larger object that is clearly imperfect. (And what a spiritual lesson that is...)

Priority in Blessings Over Fruits

The Torah singles out seven species of agricultural produce of the Land of Israel for praise. These are known as the shivat haminim, and they are, in order: wheat, barley, grape, fig, pomegranate, olive, date (honey):

 אֶרֶץ חִטָּה וּשְׂעֹרָה וְגֶפֶן וּתְאֵנָה וְרִמּוֹן אֶרֶץ זֵית שֶׁמֶן וּדְבָשׁ

"A land of wheat and barley and grape and fig and pomegranate; a land of olive oil and honey"

Someone who wants to eat both a fruit of the Seven Species and a fruit that is not one of the shivat haminim should make the brachah on the fruit of the Seven Species, even if the fruit of the Seven Species is only half a fruit while the other fruit is whole. This brachah exempts the other fruit and both can then be eaten (first the fruit that the brachah was made over.)

(This differs from the case with wheat bread, because bread is the basis of the entire meal and halachah recognizes bread's special status.)

Someone who wants to eat several fruits from the shivat haminim should recite the brachah over the one that is mentioned closest to the word "Land" in the verse above. For example, a person with a grape and a fig should make the brachah over the grape, covering both. However, if the person has a fig and an olive, the olive takes precedence as it is right after the word "Land" whereas fig is several words away.

Fun Fact:

The brachah over a fruit of the shivat haminim exempts any other fruit the person intends to eat as well, even if he made a mistake and made the blessing over the fig (for example) rather than the olive.

But... intention matters!

For example, if there's a bunch of grapes on the table, and a bowl of apples, and the person takes an apple, recites the blessing, and takes a bite --- and only then decides to eat a grape, he has to repeat the brachah.

Why?

Because halachah assumes that if he had intended to eat the grape, he would have recited the brachah over the grape, as it's from the shivat haminim. The fact that he didn't prioritize it proves that he had NO intention of eating the grape; therefore, it wasn't covered by the brachah on the apple at all.

The Torah sees us as thoughtful human beings who, ideally, infuse intention into all of our actions. Of course we might sometimes fall short of that ideal but thoughtfulness remains the default position.

Footnotes

1. Shulchan Aruch – A classic code of Jewish law compiled by Rabbi Yosef Karo in the 16th century. ↩

2. Mishnah Berurah – A major halachic commentary on the Shulchan Aruch’s Orach Chaim section (dealing with the halachot commonly encountered in daily life), authored by Rabbi Yisrael Meir Kagan (the Chofetz Chaim). ↩