SheHechiyyanu on a New Fruit
There's a popular perception - which often comes into play on the second night of Rosh HaShanah - that one says a SheHechiyyanu on any fruit that one has not eaten in a year (however one defines such). I'm not sure where this idea comes from.
The Shulchan Aruch (OCh 225:6) states that any fruit that does not newly come into season each year (or part thereof), even if one has not eaten from it for a long time, does not carry with it the bracha of SheHechiyanu. Piskei Teshuvos (225:17-18) lists several rules governing the bracha on a new fruit:
- One does not say a SheHechiyyanu on a fruit, vegetable, or legume (!) that grows during all seasons of the year, even if it was seasonal until only modern times, but has now had its season extended through advanced technology, such as greenhouses, and is thus available in the market year-round, even if sometimes it is more expensive or uncommon.
- Seasonal fruits and vegetables that are stored in refrigerated containers, and that can thereby be acquired in the market year-round, are ineligible for the bracha of SheHechiyyanu, unless the fresh fruit that is available only during part of the year is clearly superior in taste or appearance than the refrigerated.
- One does not say the bracha on fruit that is pickled, preserved, or otherwise processed in any way through which it would not be recognizable that the fruit came from the new crop.
- Seasonal fruits that are out-of-season in one country but are imported from another country in which the fruits are now in-season are eligible for the bracha if 30 days have passed since he last ate this species of fruit. However, if the overall availability is such that the fruit is available throughout the year with no interruption, it has the same status as an aseasonal fruit.
These regulations would appear to make saying the bracha of SheHechiyyanu on a fruit more complicated.
Labels: Halacha, Minhag Yisroel, Rosh HaShanah
posted by Josh M. @ 7:11 PM
2 comments
2 Comments:
My sister came home from school with this one, which bothered us mightily. Basically, it's saying that there is no circumstance where you'd say shehechayanu these days, because what is a "seasonal" fruit? You can get anything at any time of year, if you're so inclined.
So what do we do for a shehecheyanu on Rosh Hashana, one wonders?
I'm sure there still exist fruits that have been insufficiently commercially successful to make them available year-round, but don't know what they may be.
One can still also use the method of wearing a new garment.
The concern that there might not be an obligation to say a SheHechiyyanu on the second day of RH is based on a shitah of the geonim that virtually everyone from Rashi on down rejects, so that even if one is unable to acquire a "real" SheHechiyyanu, the halachic consensus is that the bracha should still be said.
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