[Avodah] Al Haaretz v'Al Peiroteha

[kennethgmiller at juno.com]

In the thread "kosher cabbage", R' Liron Kopinsky wrote:
> ... the psak I saw (in the shulchan aruch not the KSA) stated
> that for fruits grown in EY, when saying Al HaEtz afterwards
> you should say "Al Haaretz v'Al Peiroteha" regardless of where
> they are being eaten.

R' Zev Sero responded:
> And when drinking Israeli wine. ... But not when eating Israeli
> baked goods, because most wheat in Israel is imported.

In other words, for Israeli wine, the bracha ends "v'al p'ri gafnah",
but the bracha for baked goods does *not* end "v'al michyasah".

Now let's look it up...

In Orach Chayim, the Mechaber 208:10 says to say "peiroseha" after
Israeli fruit. Magen Avraham 16, Beer Hetev 14, Mishneh Berurah 51-54,
and Aruch Hashulchan 6 all give various comments on this, but *none*
of them extend this to wine or to baked goods.

Why is this? One possibility is that they were distracted by a different
question, that of how the standard bracha after wine should end. (See
all the nosei keilim on both 208:10 and 208:11 for more on that.) But
regardless, why didn't they mention baked goods?

Baked goods are indeed mentioned in Kaf Hachayim 208:58, where he says
that the minhag is to use all three of these: "... and in Al Hamichya,
the minhag is ["nohagin"] to end with Baruch Atah Hashem Al Haaretz V'al
Michyatah... and so ["v'chayn"] in the bracha on fruit the minhag is
["nohagin"] to say V'nodeh L'cha Al Haaretz V'al Peirotehah. And in the
bracha on wine V'nodeh L'cha Al Haaretz V'al Pri Gafnah..."

So who are we following? The several poskim who mention only fruit,
or the one who says all three? I understand that it is true today that
"most wheat in Israel is imported", but I doubt whether it was so 100
or 200 or 500 years ago. I suspect that we all follow the Kaf Hachayim,
except that today we lack the *opporetunity* to make all three changes.

I would like to suggest that RSZ is correct, and his reason is correct,
but I fear that many people may misunderstand. If the agricultural
and economic reality changes, and at some point in the future most of
Israel's flour is domestic and not imported, then the proper thing will
indeed be to say "Al Haaretz V'al Michyasah" on cake which he knows to
be made of Israeli flour. (And, I suppose, "Al Haaretz V'al Mezonosehah"
in Birkas Hamazon after Israeli bread.)

When that day comes, and I hope it will be soon, I fear that many people
will not know about this Kaf Hachayim, and mistakenly think that there
was some sort of gezera against that text, when in fact "michyasah"
is no more wrong than "gafnah" is.

I just noticed that Rav Moshe Feinstein discusses the question of
changing the bracha, both for cake and bread made of Israeli wheat,
in Igros Moshe YD 3:129:4. He paskens against it, but I'd rather not
quote him, because I do not understand how he reaches that conclusion,
unless he also opposes saying Gafnah after Israeli wine.

Akiva Miller