Jordana Wietschner asks: What's the deal with washing or not washing for pizza?
I am assuming that your question is not just about whether or not you must wash your hands before eating pizza, but rather, which beracha to make before eating it, hamotzi or mezonot? This is a good question, which as I am sure you can imagine does not have a simple answer, otherwise, like bread or pretzels everyone would recite the same beracha, but of course they do not!
Just to illustrate the lack of unanimity over this food, I will share with you the following personal anecdote. My four-year old son recently learned about the beracha of mezonot in school. After every new beracha they learn the teacher has the children prepare a food for that new beracha. But unlike the other berachot, all the children know that mezonot is special, because when they learn about mezonot they will take a class trip to the pizza shop! After his trip to the pizza shop my son came home with lots to tell us, but he was also deeply disturbed. He told my wife and me that night, “The Morah didn’t do the right thing. She told us to make a mezonot on pizza but you are supposed to make a hamotzi (this is what we do in our home)”. And of course, they are both right…perhaps.
The halachot of berachot in general are far from straight forward, and are at times quite complex. As is the case with pizza, when it comes to figuring out the proper beracha, the devil is often in the details. We will therefore outline in brief some of the major factors which are taken into consideration in this particular case.
The reason there is so much discussion over what beracha to recite over pizza is because of the nature of the food itself. Pizza is considered by most to be in the in between category comprised of those things which are neither definitively hamotzi nor necessarily mezonot, this category of food is referred to as “pat haba b’kisnin”, lit. Bread which comes in the form of a pocket, (or, "filled dough"). Pat haba b’kisnin, which includes an array of baked goods, possesses many of the same qualities as bread, and yet is not regarded like bread completely, because they do not serve the same purpose as bread, but are normally eaten as a snack or dessert.
Before we can discuss what beracha one makes on pat haba b’kisnin and when we treat it like bread and when we do not, we first have to define the term bread or “hamotzi”, in general. Bread is by definition: Made of the five grains (barley, wheat, oat, spelt and rye), is something which most people will make a meal out of, and has “bread-like” qualities (as opposed to something like noodles or farina). When it comes to bread, one must make a hamotzi regardless of why they eat it or how much of it they eat.
Those foods which are similar to bread in appearance and consistency, but which do not normally constitute a meal and are deemed more like "snack foods" or dessert, are referred to as pat haba b’kisnin. The Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim,168 discusses in detail which foods are considered pat haba b’kisnin. There is not a clear consensus over what exactly is classified as pat haba b’kisnin. According to some Rishonim it is literally filled dough, like a pie or turnover. Others feel that it includes anything made with dough which was kneaded with juice, honey, milk, sugar, oil etc. if one can taste these ingredients in the dough, (as opposed to bread which is generally much simpler and less sweet). Still others feel that a food's consistency determines its classification, and thus dry, brittle or crumbly products are considered pat haba b’kisnin. The Shulchan Aruch concludes that a food with any of these characteristics is treated like pat haba b’kisnin.
The Gemara Berachot, 42a concludes that one makes a mezonot over any food which is considered like pat haba b’kisnin so long as he does not make a meal out of it. It is important therefore before reaching any conclusion on pizza to first determine if it meets the criteria of pat haba b’kisnin and how and when one is considered to be making a meal out of it, (or, being kove'a seuda).
The Shulchan Aruch rules that the standard one uses for how much is, or is not, considered a seuda is objective and is dependent on what most people consider to be the amount normally consumed over the course of a meal. However, this objective standard, of course, depends on which group of people we are talking about, as eating habits differ greatly between different groups of people and do not mean the same thing for the young and the old alike, (Biur Halacha). (Although the Biur Halacha makes no distinction between men and women, one might assume that he would agree that what constitutes a seuda for each of them varies because the quantity they generally consume during a meal differs).
At the very end of Siman 168 the Shulchan Aruch refers to an item called "pashtida" which is baked with either meat, fish or cheese. According to the Shulchan Aruch one recites a hamotzi over this dish, which is defined as dough which is folded over and stuffed with the items mentioned above (pizza, which is made of dough and cheese seems to fit this description). It is unclear though whether or not the Shulchan Aruch would require a hamotzi only if one made a meal out of this dish (like other pat haba b’kisnin foods), or even if he just ate it casually as a snack or at the end of the meal. According to the Magen Avraham, unlike pat haba b’kisnin, this dish requires a hamotzi even if one is not kove'a a seuda over it, since it is normally eaten as a meal. However, the Taz disagrees and says that pashtida should be treated as any other pat haba b’kisnin and therefore one would make a mezonot over it unless he were eating it as a meal. The Mishna Berura rules that unless one is clearly eating pashtida casually, at the end of the meal like a snack food, then he should recite hamotzi on it even if he is not being kove'a seuda (like the Magen Avraham) because unlike other foods, which are pat haba b’kisnin, these foods are normally eaten as a meal.
Based on the above, Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach is quoted as saying (Halachos of Brochos, pg. 500, fn. 47) that since in Israel pizza is normally eaten as a meal unto itself one should recite a hamotzi before eating it and a birchat hamazon afterwards. In America, where pizza is sometimes eaten as a snack and sometimes as a meal one should, in the opinion of Rav Auerbach, only make a hamotzi on pizza if he is eating it as a meal, otherwise he should treat it as he would any other pat haba b’kisnin.
Based on everything mentioned above, it would appear that if one is eating pizza for her meal she should wash and recite a hamotzi on it, for whether or not we view pizza as regular pat haba b’kisnin or as pashtida, once a person has determined to be kove'a seuda on it the beracha is a hamotzi. What still remains unclear though, is what a person should do if all they plan on eating is one slice of pizza as a snack or to hold them over until the next meal. Although there seem to be many poskim who hold that since pizza is categorized as "meal food" (as it is classified by Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach) and therefore deserves a hamotzi in all cases, one should consult their Rav for guidance in this particular situation.
