275. Breaking Bread

41:8 The mitzvah is to break the more important loaf. Therefore, if there is a whole loaf and a partial loaf, if one intends to eat from both during the meal and if they are of the same type of grain, then one should break bread using the whole loaf, even if it is smaller and/or of a lesser quality than the partial loaf. If the loaves are of different types of grain, one should generally use the one of the superior grain. For example, if the partial loaf is wheat and the whole loaf is spelt, one should use the partial loaf of wheat. However, if the whole loaf is barley and the partial loaf is wheat, we have a stalemate. Yes, wheat is superior to barley but barley is also named explicitly in Deuteronomy 8:8. That plus the fact that the barley loaf is whole place it on par with the partial loaf of wheat. The best course of action in such a case is to use both loaves, placing one beneath the other and cutting through both. If one has two loaves that are both whole or both partial, and both are of the same grain, one should use the loaf of higher-quality flour. If they are of the same quality flour, he should use the larger of the two. 41:9 If one has both Jewish-baked bread and non-Jewish-baked bread, assuming that he eats non-Jewish-baked bread and that the loaves are similar in terms of status (whole vs. partial, species of grain, size), then he should say the blessing over the Jewish-baked loaf. If the Jewish-baked loaf is of lesser quality than the non-Jewish-baked loaf, then he can say the blessing on whichever he prefers. If a host doesn’t eat non-Jewish-baked bread but he is serving it to a guest who does, he should not place it on the table until after hamotzi.