The Blessing over New Fruits (part II)
- Once a person has recited theשהחיינו blessing on new
grapes, he does not repeat it when drinking grape juice squeezed from the
grapes of the same season, even if he has waited forty days so that the taste
of the grape juice has improved and he feels more pleasure in drinking it than
he did in eating the grapes. The pleasure of eating the grapes and drinking
the wine are considered one because he knew, when eating the grapes, that they
would be used for wine. Nevertheless, there are poskim who disagree and hold
that theשהחיינו blessing should be recited because the pleasure of drinking
the grape juice is greater than the pleasure of eating the grapes. Therefore,
it is a good practice to recite the שהחיינו blessing on a new fruit before
drinking the grape juice squeezed from new grapes which have already been
tasted. In any case, everyone agrees that when the שהחיינו blessing is recited
over new grape juice, it is not recited when eating fresh grapes. This
discussion has addressed the issue of drinking grape juice-not wine-that has
been squeezed from new grapes. Once the grape juice turns to wine, theשהחיינו
blessing is not recited when drinking it, even if the new grapes had not been
tasted at all and a person were certain that he was drinking new wine. The
reason is that this year’s new wine is not readily distinguishable from older
wine, and the poskim were concerned that a person might err and recite
theשהחיינו blessing on old wine, which would be a ברכה לבטלה . - The שהחיינו blessing is not recited over bread baked from
new flour because such bread cannot be distinguished from bread baked from old
flour. - We recite the שהחיינו blessing even over new fruits that
require the blessingבורא פרי האדמה rather thanבורא פרי העץ if it is clear that
they are new fruits, if there is joy in eating them and if they are not stored
for long periods, like watermelons and other melons. - Theשהחיינו blessing should be recited on fruits that are
ripe because it is then that they are best to eat. But if, בדיעבד theשהחיינו
blessing was recited on a fruit before it was ripe, there is no need to recite
the blessing again if the fruit was ripe enough to warrant the blessing of
בורא פרי העץ orבורא פרי האדמה .
