On the Chocolate Trail

I was surprised to learn that another topic omitted from my Jewish education–all the years of religious school to seminary to the active rabbinate–I had no idea that Jewish texts discussed chocolate. It turns out that they do.

In Jewish literature’s legal genre known as responsa, questions and answers surface that are related to cocoa, chocolate and cacao. Here are a few of those issues that pretty observant people would turn to:

Question: When non-hechshered (certified) chocolate covers a pill, may the pill be taken?

Answer: Yes, for health reasons.*

Question: Is a child before the age of Bar Mitzvah, thirteen years, required to wait the customary six hours after a meat meal before eating dairy, or may he be allowed to eat milk chocolate before the six hours pass?

Answer: No, if the child is old enough to understand the issue. Yes, if needing to eat it for health reasons.**

Question: May one drink hot chocolate before reciting shacharit (morning prayers) since the custom is not to eat prior to shacharit?

Answer: Yes, if the chocolate is needed to give strength.***

Question: What is the correct blessing for chocolate covered raisins or almonds. Some say that it may be necessary to clarify which is the ikar, the essential element, the chocolate or the fruit.

Answer: Rav Moshe Feinstein argued that both ingredients are primary and therefore both b’rachot should be recited.****

Question: Which blessing should one recite over chocolate alone? Since chocolate comes from a tree one might think the blessing should be for fruit from a tree, known as ha’eitz: Baruch atah Adonai Eloheinu Melech haolam, borei p’ri ha’eitz. Blessed are You, Adonai, our God, Ruler of the Universe, who creates the fruit of the tree. However, since the chocolate bears no resemblance to the cocoa pod or bean (the fruit of the cacao tree), some argue that the customary blessing should be the generic shehakol:

Baruch atah Adonai Eloheinu Melech haolam, shehakol nih’yeh bidvaro. Blessed are You, Adonai, our God, Ruler of the Universe, by whose word everything comes to be.

Answer: This practice of using shehakol developed in the days when chocolate was consumed as a beverage and remains the custom today.

This classic literature guides tradition-minded Jews regarding chocolate restraints as well as chocolate appreciation.

For further materials two full responsa texts and summaries of the other responsa material from the The Responsa Project at Bar Ilan University (with permission) at the section of this blog that provides supplementary materials for On the Chocolate Trail.

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*Tzvi Pesach Frank, Sheelot U’teshuvot Har Tzvi Yoreh Deah 79.

**Ovadia Yosef, Sheelot U’teshuvot Yabea Omer, Section Three, Yoreh Deah 3.

***Ibid., Section 4, Orach Chaim 12.

****Moshe Feinstein, Sheelot U’teshuvot Igrot Moshe Orach Chaim 3: 31.