Last Updated on November 1, 2021
Jewish blessings for food. Which bracha or prayer should I be reciting?
If you are mostly secular in your religious beliefs, or not Jewish, you may not know that in the Jewish religion there are many blessings for food. Not only do Jews bless bread and wine and give thanks and bless the meal they have just eaten with a prayer known as ‘Grace After Meals’ (Hebrew: Birkat HaMazon), they also have blessings for many other types of food. Blessings on food are recited daily, on the Sabbath and on Jewish Festivals.
There is a blessing for fruit that grows on trees, for vegetables that grow in the ground, for bitter herbs on Passover, for pomegranates and fish over the New Year. It is traditional to bless every type of food before you put it in your mouth – even water. There is a separate type of blessing for cereal, a blessing for apple strudel, for apricot preserve and for dried fruit. There aren’t thousands of blessings but every type of food fits into a category and the appropriate blessing for that category is recited.
- A first-timers guide to the Sabbath dinner
- Sabbath and festival candle lighting times
- The Jewish festivals – Rabbi Tzvi Wainstein and Rabbi Makor tell us more
- Weekly Torah portion
These are the main blessings for food that are recited on a daily basis:
Shehakol – a general blessing for food
בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה ה’ אֱלֹהֵינוּ מֶלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם |
| Blessed are You, Hashem, our God, King of the universe, through Whose word everything came to be |
Haadama – a blessing for produce grown in the ground
בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יְ‑יָ אֱ‑לֹהֵינוּ מֶלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם בּוֹרֵא פְּרִי הָאֲדָמָה |
| Blessed are You, Hashem, our God, King of the universe, Who creates the fruit of the ground |
Haeitz – a blessing for fruits that grow on trees
בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יְ‑יָ אֱ‑לֹהֵינוּ מֶלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם בּוֹרֵא פְּרִי הָעֵץ |
| Blessed are You, Hashem, our God, King of the universe, Who creates the fruit of the tree |
Mezonos – also a general blessing for food
בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יְ‑יָ אֱ‑לֹהֵינוּ מֶלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם בּוֹרֵא מִינֵי מְזוֹנוֹת |
| Blessed are You, Hashem, our God, King of the universe, Who creates species of sustenance |
Hagefen – a blessing on wine
בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יְ‑יָ אֱ‑לֹהֵינוּ מֶלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם בּוֹרֵא פְּרִי הַגָּפֶן |
| Blessed are You, Hashem, our God, King of the universe, Who creates the fruit of the vine |
Hamotzi – a blessing on breadבָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יְ‑יָ אֱ‑לֹהֵינוּ מֶלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם הַמּוֹצִיא לֶחֶם מִן הָאָרֶץ |
| Blessed are You, Hashem, our God, King of the universe, Who brings forth bread from the earth |
My good friend Leah, on Olah Hadasha (English: new immigrant), a Liverpudlian a.k.a a ‘Scouser’ living in Haifa, often has ideas for helpful website content – this topic – blessings for food was her idea. Thanks Leah.
