Janet,
Your family experience may be prescriptive for you. It is not prescriptive
for me.
If you are interested to learn more about the issues I mentioned, here are
two url's you can look at:
http://www.friendswithdiabetes.org/guides.html - download the pdf Tishrei
5764 part 2 in the Tishrei section. This is written from the (litvishe)
Ashkenazi standpoint, does not mention that anyone else holds differently,
and includes in a box on page 2 some examples of how big a kezayis is for
different bread types according to this shita.
http://www.berachot.org/halacha/13_shiurkazayis.html
The first part of this goes into quite some detail about the (litvishe)
Ashkenazi method of calculating a kezayis. Toward the bottom of the page
the Sephardi method is discussed. Near the top they also have a diagram
illustrating how different a kezayis looks depending on the original shape
of the food, i.e. a kezayis of matzo looks a lot bigger (still by the
Ashkenazi method). In the middle of the page are detailed explanations of
how to calculate a kezayis for different shapes of foods according to the
Ashkenazi shita.
Here are a few important sentences from this article, which the author notes
are summarized from Rav Bodner's "Halachos of K'zayis":
"if someone ate less then a k'zayis of bread he is not required, nor
PERMITED to bentch."
"Knowing how much food equals k'zayis is not an easy matter. A k'zayis is a
measure of volume. (Volume - the amount of space the item occupies). Two
items which when measured have the same volume; will often not be perceived
as such."
"The Mishna Berura and most Poskim rule that with regard to brocha achrona
we adopt the most stringent view, not to make a brocha achrona unless one
ate an amount equal to ½ an egg."
Thank you,
Ellen
"Janet Wilder" > wrote in message
...
> On 9/6/2010 11:55 AM, W. Baker wrote:
>> Ellen > wrote:
>>
>> : "W. > wrote in message
>> : ...
>> :> Ellen > wrote:
>> :>
>> :> : Correct, it is not required to eat anything that would be injurious
>> to
>> :> one's
>> :> : health.
>> :>
>> :> : I have been trying to find a way to still be able to wash for
>> bread,
>> :> with
>> :> : the blessing, and say the full grace after meals, on the sabbath,
>> :> without
>> :> : losing control of my BG, because it just doesn't feel "shabbosdik"
>> to me
>> :> to
>> :> : not do this. I don't care if I don't eat bread during the week.
>> :>
>> :> : The halacha is, to make the blessing on the bread and say the full
>> grace
>> :> : after meals, a kezayis of bread (based on the halachic definition
>> of
>> :> bread,
>> :> : which is also different depending what custom one follows, but all
>> have
>> :> in
>> :> : common that the dough must include one or more of wheat / rye /
>> spelt /
>> :> oats
>> :> : / barley and be made with water) must be eaten. To additionally
>> say the
>> :> : blessing on washing the hands prior to blessing and eating the
>> bread,
>> :> two
>> :> : kzeisim (= a beitzah) must be eaten.
>>
>> When you go to a kosher restaurant or when there is a dinner at the shul
>> or a wedding or other catered aaffair, there is a hand washing station
>> that has a bowl of small pieces of bread or those little tiny round disks
>> of bread for you to eat for our motzi and that qualifies you for the
>> bentching. This loos like much less than your half a cheet of rye matzo.
>> maybe your shul is more machmir than my Orthodox one in NYC, but I
>> wonder.
>> No one ever told me to eat more than a pinch of the roll at a Friday
>> night
>> shul dinner. I am truely puzzled. i know thaat at Pesach there are all
>> kinds of minimums for assorted symbolic foods, and the Jewish Diabetes
>> Organization gives some vry small, permissible leser quantities for those
>> with diabetes that are accepted. I suggest o look at that group.
>>
>> Wendy
>
> I grew up with a diabetic mother and two diabetic aunts. All were
> daughters (and sisters) of a rabbi. The amount of bred they had to eat for
> hamotzi and bentchen was the size of an olive. That's a little ball of
> bread. Pesach was a square of matzo about 4" x 4" to satisfy the
> commandment.
>
> Ellen, if you are so worried about the carbs in the bread your rebbe says
> you need to eat, cut out some of the other carbs in your meal.
>
>
>
> --
> Janet Wilder
> Way-the-heck-south Texas
> Spelling doesn't count. Cooking does.