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Frozen Grapejuice

Do frozen grape juice ices get the beracha of hagafen or shehakol?

Answer:

This question involves a dispute among poskim.

According to some poskim, the correct berachah is shehakol. This is ruled by the Birkei Yosef (Orach Chaim 202:2), the Ben Ish Chai (Year 1, Matos 10), the Shevet Halevi (9:39, who rules that shehakol should be made on account of a safek), and Sheraga Hameir (3:32; 8:113).

However, it appears that most authorities rule that the blessing is borei peri hagafen. This was the ruling given by Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach (cited in Ve-aleihu lo Yibol, Vol. 1, p. 110), Kinyan Torah Behalachah (2:108), Shevet Hakehasi (6:123), Rav Chaim Kanievsky (Aseifas Yitzchak, Cheshvan 5768), Mekor Haberachah (Shut 2), and Avnei Yashfei (ibid., Kislev 5768), who explains that because the ice is licked, the manner of consumption is drinking, and therefore the blessing is surely hagafen, and adds that even if the ice is bitten and chewed, hagafen should be made (based on the principle that this berachah is valid bedieved even for grapes).

Some poskim leave the matter as being a safek: See Peri Megadim (Eishel Avraham 202:11, who writes that the question is whether to make a hagafen or borei peri ha'eitz); see also Sha'arei Haberachah 18:8; Chukei Chaim, Orach Chaim 3:38.

Therefore, although the issue remains unresolved, it appears that one who makes borei peri hagafen (certainly for licking the ices, and even for chewing them) is acting properly.

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