[Avodah] [Areivim] kosher cabbage

[Prof. Levine]

[The following are four emails originally submitted to Areivim, but
bounced here by RYL in response to mod request. -micha]

At 01:24 PM 7/21/2010, Ben Waxman wrote:
>This isn't rocket science. If you know that the tomato is tevel then
>you make a bracha. If you don't know with 100% certainty, you don't.

And how is one supposed to know with certainty anything about the status
of fruits and vegetables that are exported to the US?

Micha and others told me that one can buy some Israeli produce in
Costco. When you take terumos and meiseros, how do you know if you
should or should not make a brocha. And, if you do not make a brocha,
then this entire business of trying to tie a Mitzvah to making a brocha
seems to fall away in this case.

YL

At 01:24 PM 7/21/2010, Ben Waxman wrote:
>This isn't rocket science. If you know that the tomato is tevel then 
>you make a bracha. If you don't know with 100% certainty, you don't.

And how is one supposed to know with certainty anything about the 
status of fruits and vegetables that are exported to the US?

Micha and others told me that one can buy some Israeli produce in 
Costco. When you take terumos and meiseros, how do you know if you 
should or should not make a brocha. And, if you do not make a brocha, 
then this entire business of trying to tie a Mitzvah to making a 
brocha seems to fall away in this case.

YL

[Email #2. -micha]

At 01:33 PM 7/21/2010, Ben Waxman wrote:
>However a mitzva can be done without a bracha. If someone puts on
>tefillin without making a bracha, he has fulfilled the mitzva of
>putting on tefillin. If you seperate terumah without making a
>bracha, you have fulfilled the mitzva.

Even if Terumah was already taken?

YL

[Email #3. -micha]

At 01:07 PM 7/21/2010, Micha Berger wrote:
>> Even if Terumah was already taken?

>Of course. Berakhos aren't me'aqvos.

My point was that if teruma was already taken, then separating teruma a
second time does not seem to me to be a mitzva. Thus, in those cases
where one is in doubt and teruma was indeed already taken, it seems
to me that one has not done any sort of mitzvah by separating teruma a
second time.

Thus, if one buys Israeli produce that is exported to America, it seems
that one should not make a bracha and that one may not even fulfill
a mitzva by taking teruma without making a bracha, since teruma may
already have been taken.

YL

[Email #4. -micha]

At 12:45 PM 7/21/2010, Ben Waxman wrote:
>In practical terms, anything sold in the shuk, even stuff sold is stalls
>without a heksher, has probably been tithed already. So the question is more
>theoretical than real. I had situations where something was bought, erev
>Shabbat, from places without a teudah and of course we forgot to take
>terumah. My posek told me that b'dievid we could eat it.

So how can you make a brocha given that it is a sofek?

And this may be why Rav Schwab said what he said, namely, that it is
not clear if one should or should not make a brocha on fruits and
vegetables that are exported to the US.

YL

At 12:45 PM 7/21/2010, Ben Waxman wrote:
>In practical terms, anything sold in the shuk, even stuff sold is stalls
>without a heksher, has probably been tithed already. So the question is more
>theoretical than real. I had situations where something was bought, erev
>Shabbat, from places without a teudah and of course we forgot to take
>terumah. My posek told me that b'dievid we could eat it.

So how can you make a brocha given that it is a safek?

And this may be why Rav Schwab said what he said, namely, that it is 
not clear if one should or should not make a brocha on fruits and 
vegetables that are exported to the US.

YL