Talmud - Berakhot 44a ברכות מ״ד א׳

MISHNA: If they brought salted food before him to eat first and bread with it, he recites a blessing over the salted food and thereby exempts the bread, because the salted food is primary while the bread is secondary to it. This is the principle: Any food that is primary and a secondary food is with it, one recites a blessing over the primary and, in so doing, exempts the secondary from its own blessing.

GEMARA: The Gemara asks: And is there a circumstance where salted food is primary and bread is secondary? Generally, no meal has a salted food item as its primary component. Rav Aḥa, son of Rav Avira, said that Rav Ashi said: This halakha was taught with regard to those who eat fruits of Genosar, which are extremely sweet and which would be eaten along with salted foods in order to temper this sweetness. They would eat bread along with those salted foods.

On a related note, the Gemara employs hyperbole in praising the fruits of Genosar. Rabba bar bar Ḥana said: When we would go after Rabbi Yoḥanan to eat fruits of Genosar, when we were one hundred people together, each and every one of us would bring him ten fruits, and when we were ten people together, each and every one of us would bring him one hundred fruits, and every hundred of the fruits would require a basket of three se’a to hold them. Rabbi Yoḥanan would eat them all, and was prepared to swear that he had not tasted any food. The Gemara asks: Does it enter your mind that he claimed that he had not tasted any food? Rather, say that he had not tasted any sustenance. Due to their delicious taste, he was still not satiated.

The Gemara continues to wax hyperbolic: Rabbi Abbahu ate fruits of Genosar until the sweet, lush fruits made his skin so slippery that a fly would slip from his forehead. And Rav Ami and Rav Asi would eat them until their hair fell out. Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish would eat them until he became confused. And then Rabbi Yoḥanan would tell the household of the Nasi about his condition and Rabbi Yehuda Nesia would send the authorities after him and they would take him to his house.

On a similar note, the Gemara relates: When Rav Dimi came from Eretz Yisrael to Babylonia he said: King Yannai had a city on the King’s Mountain, from which they would take six-hundred thousand bowls of sardines for those cutting figs off the trees during the course of the week from Shabbat eve to Shabbat eve. There were so many workers, and the fruit was so sweet, that they needed such a vast quantity of salted fish to enable them to continue with their work.

On the subject of the King’s Mountain and Eretz Yisrael, when Rav Dimi came from Eretz Yisrael to Babylonia, he said: King Yannai had a tree on the King’s Mountain from which they would remove forty se’a of pigeons from three broods each month. When Rabbi Yitzḥak came from Eretz Yisrael to Babylonia he said: There was a city in Eretz Yisrael named Gufnit, in which there were eighty pairs of brothers who were priests, married to eighty pairs of sisters, who were all from priestly families. And to assess the frequency of that phenomenon, the Gemara relates: The Sages checked from Sura to Neharde’a, and with the exception of the daughters of Rav Ḥisda, who were married to Rami bar Ḥama and his brother Mar Ukva bar Ḥama, they could not find a similar case. And, even in the case that they found, although they, the sisters, were the daughters of a priest, they, the brothers were not priests. Throughout virtually the entire country of Babylonia, they could not find a similar circumstance.

On the topic of salted food, Rav said: Any meal in which there is no salt is not considered a meal. Rabbi Ḥiyya bar Abba said that Rabbi Yoḥanan said: Any meal in which there is no cooked item with gravy (Rashi) is not considered a meal.

MISHNA: One who ate from the fruit for which Eretz Yisrael was praised, grapes and figs and pomegranates, recites the three blessings of Grace after Meals, as he would after eating bread; this is the statement of Rabban Gamliel. And the Rabbis say: One need only recite one blessing abridged from the three blessings of Grace after Meals. Rabbi Akiva says: The three blessings of Grace after Meals are not restricted to bread; rather, even if one ate boiled vegetables, but it is his primary sustenance, he recites the three blessings of Grace after Meals. Additionally: One who drinks water to quench his thirst recites: By whose word all things came to be. Rabbi Tarfon says: He recites: Who creates the many forms of life and their needs.

GEMARA: The Gemara asks: What is the reason for the opinion of Rabban Gamliel? The Gemara responds: As it is written in the verse that deals in praise of Eretz Yisrael: “A land of wheat and barley, vines, figs, and pomegranates, a land of olive oil and honey” (Deuteronomy 8:8), and it is written: “A land in which you will eat bread without scarcity” (Deuteronomy 8:9), and it is written: “And you will eat and be satisfied and then you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land He has given you” (Deuteronomy 8:10). Rabban Gamliel concludes from here that the fruits for which Eretz Yisrael was praised are included in the mitzva to recite a blessing after eating. Since that Torah portion alludes to three blessings, fruit also requires three blessings.

And what do the Rabbis hold? The verse: “A land in which you will eat bread without scarcity,” concluded discussion of that matter, and the mitzva: “You will eat and be satisfied and then you shall bless,” applies only to bread. And if so, according to Rabban Gamliel as well, doesn’t “land” conclude discussion of that matter? Rather, that verse is necessary in order to exclude one who chews raw wheat from the obligation to recite Grace after Meals. Even according to Rabban Gamliel, it does not have the legal status of bread.

Rabbi Ya’akov bar Idi said that Rabbi Ḥanina said: Anything that is from the five species of grain, at the start, one recites over it: Who creates the various kinds of nourishment, and at the end, one blessing abridged from the three blessings of Grace after Meals.

Rabba bar Mari said that Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi said: Anything that is from the seven species for which the Eretz Yisrael was praised, at the start, one recites over it: Who creates fruit of the tree, and afterward and at the end, one blessing abridged from the three blessings of Grace after Meals.

Abaye said to Rav Dimi: What is the formula of one blessing abridged from the three blessings of Grace after Meals? He said to him: Over fruits of a tree one recites:
For the tree and the fruit of the tree,
and for the produce of the field,
and for the desirable, good and spacious land that you gave as a heritage to our ancestors
that they might eat of its fruit and be satisfied with its goodness.
Have compassion, Lord our God,
upon Israel Your people and upon Jerusalem Your city,
and upon Your Temple and upon Your altar.
May You rebuild Jerusalem, Your holy city, swiftly in our time,
and may You bring us back there rejoicing in it
as You are good and do good to all.

After eating products baked from one of the five species of grain, one recites: For the nourishment and sustenance and for the produce of the field, and he concludes: For the land and for the nourishment.

However, the question was raised: In terms of conclusion, with what does he conclude the blessing? As one does not conclude a blessing with two themes, with which of the themes should he conclude the blessing? When Rav Dimi came from Eretz Yisrael to Babylonia he said: Rav would conclude the blessing on the New Moon: Blessed…Who sanctifies Israel and the New Moons. Apparently, one can conclude a blessing with two themes. What does one recite here?

Rav Ḥisda said: For the land and for its fruits. Rabbi Yoḥanan said: For the land and for the fruits. Rav Amram said: They do not disagree; rather, this blessing, for its fruits, is for us, in Babylonia, and this blessing, for the fruits, is for them, in Eretz Yisrael.

Rav Naḥman bar Yitzḥak strongly objects: They, in Eretz Yisrael, eat and we, in Babylonia, recite a blessing? How can we, residents of Babylonia, recite a blessing for the fruits of Eretz Yisrael while eating the fruits of Babylonia? Rather, reverse the opinions: Rav Ḥisda said: For the land and for the fruits, and Rabbi Yoḥanan said: For the land and for its fruits.

Traduction : The William Davidson digital edition of the Koren Noé Talmud, with commentary by Rabbi Adin Even-Israel Steinsaltz.

Berachot 44a explores which blessing takes priority when salted foods and bread are eaten together, followed by legendary tales of the fruits of Genosar.