''Ikar v'tafel'' ( he, עיקר וטפל, , primary and secondary) is a principle in

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...

that governs the proper

blessing In religion, a blessing (also used to refer to bestowing of such) is the impartation of something with grace, holiness, spiritual redemption, or divine will. Etymology and Germanic paganism The modern English language term ''bless'' likely ...

that is assigned to any particular food prior to consumption.

Overview

Prior to consuming any food or beverage, a

Jew Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""T ...

must recite a blessing to express his or her gratitude to

God In monotheistic thought, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. Swinburne, R.G. "God" in Honderich, Ted. (ed)''The Oxford Companion to Philosophy'', Oxford University Press, 1995. God is typically ...

for providing sustenance; additionally, because the entire world is believed to be in the possession of the Almighty, specific praise must be offered to God prior to deriving benefit. There are different blessings for each of the different

halachic ''Halakha'' (; he, הֲלָכָה, ), also transliterated as ''halacha'', ''halakhah'', and ''halocho'' ( ), is the collective body of Jewish religious laws which is derived from the written and Oral Torah. Halakha is based on biblical comman ...

food groups: * bread * other grain products * wine and grape juice * fruit and nuts * vegetables * all other foods and drinks When an individual eats two foods together, one of which is primary and the other of which is subsidiary to it, only one blessing is recited, as stated in B.

Mishna The Mishnah or the Mishna (; he, מִשְׁנָה, "study by repetition", from the verb ''shanah'' , or "to study and review", also "secondary") is the first major written collection of the Jewish oral traditions which is known as the Oral Torah ...

Berachot 6:7, "Whenever a primary food 'ikar''is accompanied by a subsidiary food 'tafel'' the blessing is recited on the primary food, exempting the subsidiary food." arc, כל שהוא עיקר ועמו טפלה מברך על העיקר ופוטר את הטפלה While the laws governing this principle are complex, some of its basic rules are straightforward. It pertains only to foods eaten in a combined form. One who has a cookie and

tea Tea is an aromatic beverage prepared by pouring hot or boiling water over cured or fresh leaves of ''Camellia sinensis'', an evergreen shrub native to East Asia which probably originated in the borderlands of southwestern China and north ...

must make two blessings, one on each of the items. It is when one is eating something akin to

apple pie An apple pie is a fruit pie in which the principal filling ingredient is apples. The earliest printed recipe is from England. Apple pie is often served with whipped cream, ice cream ("apple pie à la mode"), or cheddar cheese. It is gene ...

beef stew A stew is a combination of solid food ingredients that have been cooked in liquid and served in the resultant gravy. A stew needs to have raw ingredients added to the gravy. Ingredients in a stew can include any combination of vegetables and m ...

stuffed cabbage A cabbage roll is a dish consisting of cooked cabbage leaves wrapped around a variety of fillings. It is common to the cuisines of Central, Northern, Eastern and Southeastern Europe and much of Western Asia, Northern China, as well as parts ...

, which are foods consisting of multiple parts (crust and pie, beef and potatoes or meat and cabbage, respectively) that the principle of ''ikar v'tafel'' is applied (

Aruch Hashulchan ''Arukh HaShulchan'' (Hebrew: עָרוּךְ הַשֻּׁלְחָן r, arguably, עָרֹךְ הַשֻּׁלְחָן; see ''Title'' below is a work of halacha written by Yechiel Michel Epstein (1829–1908). The work attempts to be a clear, orga ...

'' 212:1, 2).

References

Jewish law principles Jewish blessings Hebrew words and phrases in Jewish law Talmud concepts and terminology {{Judaism-stub