Blessings · Waking and the table

What blessings are said before eating? The six

The six blessings

Judaism asks us to pause before we eat and name where the food comes from. Rather than one blessing for all, there are six, each fitted to a kind of food: hamotzi over bread; mezonot over foods made from the five grains; hagafen over wine and grape juice; ha'etz over fruit that grows on trees; ha'adamah over produce that grows from the ground, such as vegetables; and shehakol — 'by whose word all came to be' — over everything else, from water to meat to fish.

Where they come from

The framework belongs to the Mishnah, Berakhot chapter 6, the section of the Oral Torah devoted to blessings over food. There the sages sort the world's foods into these categories and give each its wording, so that a Jew always has a way to bless whatever is set before them.

What to do

Before eating, ask what the food is made from, and choose the berachah that fits: bread takes hamotzi, a cracker or cake takes mezonot, an apple takes ha'etz, a carrot takes ha'adamah, wine takes hagafen, and when in doubt shehakol covers a great deal. The finer questions — which food falls where — are worth bringing to your rabbi.

Source: Mishnah, Berakhot chapter 6.