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Why do we make a Haadamah and not a Haetz on a banana, considering that they are a fruit and it grows on a tree?
Does the fact that bananas were generally unknown in Europe until relatively recently meant it lacks a mesorah as to its bracha?
They don’t grow again the next season from the same plant, so halachically it is not an eitz.
It is because the part of the banana plant that bears the banana does not grow new bananas the next year – the fruit grows directly from the root each year.
for more info read this article (if it posts) http://rabbikaganoff.com/archives/1527
The tree doesn’t last from year to year.
Here’s what Wikipedia has on the subject:
The plants are normally tall and fairly sturdy and are often mistaken for trees, but their main or upright stem is actually a pseudostem that grows 6 to 7.6 metres (20 to 24.9 ft) tall, growing from a corm. Each pseudostem can produce a single bunch of bananas. After fruiting, the pseudostem dies, but offshoots may develop from the base of the plant. Many varieties of bananas are perennial.
I guess we should determine which varieties of banana are perennial and which aren’t.
A better question is what bracha is said for a papaya.
The tree lasts for only 2 years. If it were a fruit, it would be subject to the laws of Orla, meaning its fruits could not be eaten for the 1st 3 years (i.e. could never be eaten)
A rebbe of mine says he went to a banana orchard, and the bananas came from the same stems as the previous years’ fruit, so he thought it should be haeitz.As Dash said, maybe it differs from plantation to plantation.
I’ve heard, as JayMatt19 said, that a papaya had better be hoadama, otherwise they’re assur as orlah.
Papaya is a 3 year plant, so if planted in teves we could enjoy it’s fruits post orla, were it to be deemed a fruit. The banana is a two year plant, and in no way could we ever eat it if it had a din of orla.
A better question is what bracha is said for a papaya.
Well we can ask him… papaya_bar abba, what do you say?
snort.
JM19,
Most would still be orlah, and unless we could ascertain it’s status, al pi rov we would have to asser. (I’m going on what I’ve heard, nothing solid.)
Do bananas and papayas grow in E”Y?
The only practical Nafko Mino I can see coming out of this discussion, is given that we continue to hold that a banana is “HoAdomo”, whether if someone accidentally blessed “HoEitz”, could s/he be Yotzei b’Di’Eved? since there could be some grounds for a banana being “HoEitz”; Akin to someone who in error blesses “HoAdomo” on chocolate, is Yes Yotzei b’Di”eved, since chocolate is basically a cocoa bean which come from the earth. [Obviously this wouldn’t not apply to white chocolate].
Like cane fruits (the banned raspberry) it is not eitzo kayam mishana leshana, and consequently Hoadoma. The confusion arises from the corm which protrudes above the ground, but it is still just a root.
Derech Hamelech: Papayas grow beautifully in Eretz Yisrael. A good friend of mine grows it in her front garden in Raanana. They actually make a Haadama bracha on it.
They grow in my home state. If you have seen one, there is no bark only fleshy growth from the roots. The plant itself can live from year to year but only produces fruit consistently on new growth. On banana plantations they cut it down each year so that they can reliably harvest a crop every year. The other fun haodama plant is pineapples. Look up a picture of the plants, they are very cute.
The banana tree is a machloikes rishonim because as several posters mentioned, the stem either dies or is cut down each year after harvest and it regrows the next year from the original roots. It can grow up to 40 feet in one season, and looks like a tree but is actually a vine (the thick foliage around the vine make it appear thicker than it really is) Scientifically, bananas are actually not classified a s a fruit, but as a berry. The gemara classifies a tree for halachic purposes as something that the avzasah remains from year to year. There is a machlokes between Rashi and the Rosh whether this refers to the stem or the roots. We make a huadamah misafek as this satifies all the shitas at least bdieved. If one made a haetz by mistake on a banana, he may not make a huadomoh, because he was yotze according to one shitah, and as far as the other shitah, we say safek brachos lehakel. The same shailah applies to strawberries-although it does not look like a tree, it has the same issue as a banana and may be classified halachikly as a tree. See R Bodners sefer on hilchos brachos, and R’ Felders tape on the topic who raises an interesting nafka minah lihalachah.
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