When walking through the aisles in the supermarket, one will see many new bread items made from a variety of healthy ingredients. One such example is rice or millet bread which is not made with any wheat flour. What beracha is made on these products? Is it hamotzei because it is bread or a different beracha since it is not made with the five grains?
Five Grains The five grains are wheat, barely, spelt, oats and rye.1 The beracha on these foods when eaten raw are hadama.2 If they are cooked and made into a dish the beracha is mezonos.3 When they are made into flour and used to made bread the beracha is changed into a hamotzei,4 since it is being used for an important function (the making of bread).5
Rice There is an uncertainty when chazal says “orez,” is it rice and when chazal says “dochen,” is it millet, or the opposite?6 Because of this, some say that one should only eat it when it is made into a glob during a seuda7 or make a shehakol on them.8 However, the majority of the poskim maintain that orez is rice and dochen is millet. Therefore, the beracha on rice is mezonos when it is cooked,9 and the beracha achrona is a boreh nefoshos10
1 Magen Avraham 208:1, Taz 2, Mishnah Berurah 208:2, Aruch Ha’shulchan 9. 2 Mishnah Berurah 208:15. 3 Shulchan Aruch O.C. 208:2. 4 Aruch Ha’shulchan 24. 5 Mishnah Berurah ibid. 6 Kitzur Shulchan Aruch 52:17, Mishnah Berurah 208:25, see 26. 7 Bach, Taz 208:11, Shulchan Aruch Harav (Seder Birchos Haneinen 1:11), Kitzur Shulchan Aruch 52:17. 8 Mishnah Berurah ibid, Shulchan Aruch Harav ibid. Refer to Biur Halacha “al.” 9 Magen Avrham 10, Taz 8, Elya Rabbah 9, Birchei Yosef 6, Shulchan Aruch Harav (Seder Birchos Haneinen 1:11), Gr’a 21, Mishnah Berurah ibid, Biur Halacha ”ad,’’ Aruch Ha’shulchan 22, Teshuvos V’hanhugos 1:186 (quoting the opinion of the Chazzon Ish), Shevet Ha’Levi 10:43:4-5, Yabea Omer O.C. 8:22:1, Vezos Ha’beracha pagesd 107:108, 241-242, Rivevos Ephraim 3:123. The Rivevos Ephraim 7:26:5 says that Horav Moshe Feinstein zt”l made a mezonos on a mezonos food and a hadama on a vegetable and then he ate the rice. Refer to Rivevos Ephraim 8:471:11 who says maybe Horav Moshe’s custom was for rice cakes not on regular rice.
1 (the beracha on rice cakes is beyond the scope of this discussion).11 The minhag ha’olom is that mezonos is recited on rice.12 The beracha for millet is hadama.13
Why is Rice Mezonos? Rice is grown on a grass plant. So shouldn’t the beracha be a hadama?14 Since rice is similar to the five grains in that it is filling,15 the beracha on rice is mezonos.
Rice bread When rice is made into flour and used in making bread, the beracha on the bread is a mezonos.16 It is different than other grains in that if fills one up, but since it is not one of the five grains, the beracha is not hamotzei.17
Millet Bread Although rice flour is a mezonos, this is not so for millet flour. Millet does not have the filling capabilities of rice;18 therefore, the beracha on millet flour is shehakol even when the flour is made into bread,19 and the beracha achrona is boreh nefoshos.20 An additional reason for the beracha of shehakol on millet bread is because it is not the derech to make millet bread.21
10 Shulchan Aruch 208:7, Ben Ish Chai ibid, Mishnah Berurah 29. If one made an al hamichyah on rice he was yotzei (Birchei Yosef 208:7, Sharei Teshuva 208:9). Some say even if one bentched on rice he was yotzei b’dieved (Rivevos Ephraim 7:76:1). 11 Refer to Igros Moshe E.H. 1:114, Be’er Moshe 5:54, Ohr L’tzyion 2:14:21, Pischei Halacha 34, Vezos Ha’beracha page 108, Pnei Ha’shulchan page 249. The opinion of Horav Yisroel Belsky Shlita is that rice cakes are mezonos. 12 Magen Avraham 208:9, Ben Ish Chai Pinchas 1:18, Shulchan Aruch Harav (Seder Birchos Haneinen 1:11), Teshuvos V’hanhugos ibid. 13 Refer to Mesechtas Berochos 37a, Nishmas Adom 51:9, Mishnah Berurah 33, Aruch Ha’shulchan 21. Some say millet is mezonos but this is not l’halacha (Biur Halacha “al,” Shar Ha’tzytion 208:38, Aruch Ha’shulchan ibid, Shevet Ha’Levi 10:43:5). One who wants to make a mezonos is not rebuked for doing so (Biur Halacha ibid). See Igros Moshe O.C. 1:65, Y.D. 2:25. 14 Aruch Ha’shulchan 21. 15 Rosh Mesechtas Berochos 6:8, Shulchan Aruch 208:7, Mishnah Berurah 28, Aruch Ha’shulchan 21. 16 Shulchan Aruch 208:7, Sharei Ha’beracha page 588. 17 Mishnah Berurah 28. 18 Aruch Ha’shulchan 24. 19 Rosh Mesechtas Berochos 6:8, Shulcuhan Aruch 208:8, Mi’en Omer 1:page 280. 20 Shulchan Aruch 208:8, Kitzur Shulchan Aruch 52:17, see Magen Avraham 12. The same applies to other beans which are made into flour (Mishnah Berurah 35). Refer to Sharei Ha’beracha page 588. See Igros Moshe Y.D. 2:25. 21 Magen Avraham 12, Taz 11, Mishnah Berurah 33, Aruch Ha’shulchan 24.
2 The product which is made by Food for Life and certified by the KOF-K is made from both rice and millet flour. The correct beracha is a mezonos and the beracha achrona is boreh nefoshos, since the main ingredient is rice flour.