Q: What is the proper brocha for Food-For-Life Ezekiel Bread (flourless)?
A: The proper brocha for sprouted grain Ezekiel Bread is Hamotzi.

It depends upon how much the grains are sprouted. I believe that I told the story of my attempt to convince Rav Belsky that typical beer should be kosher for Pesach (for Sephardim) due to its being produced from plants rather than grain. He understood my argument, but didn’t buy it, because malt, after the kilning and de-awning, looks like grain, and the flour made from it looks like flour. So how much is sprouted grain sprouted? If it’s really made from fresh sprouts, then if one used (kosher lePesach) wine yeast rather than bread yeast, would that make Ezekiel bread kosher lePesach (by Sephardic standards? Somehow, I don’t think so. But it does open intriguing possibilities.

Halakhically, bread is made from ground flour of the 5 species of grain (exactly what those are is a matter of some debate, but, without a doubt, wheat, barley, and spelt are on that list), water, leavening agents, and salt. It also has to be baked. If it has too many other flavors added or if does not have the doughy appearance of bread, then it is considered “pat haba bikisnin” which is only hamotsi if eaten in sufficiently large quantities. But the ground 5 grains and the baking are lacking it is never hamotsi.

The definition seems to arise from the way people commonly eat “bread” — the staple of the diet. It is unclear if the definition was permanently fixed at some point in history or if it changes with the changing habits of the majority of people (which people anyway?).

Sprouted grains are probably indeed shehakol, because that is not the normal way of eating grains (the normal way of eating grains is to grind them and cook them into cake-mezonot or bread-hamotsi). Now, I don’t understand exactly how this Ezekiel 4:9 bread is made — is it made from ground sprouts or from whole sprouts? If whole sprouts, then probably shehakol, but if ground sprouts, then I’m not sure that that is different enough from regular bread to warrant not saying hamotsi (or at least mezonot)…

> 3. Alert: Food For Life makes an Ezekiel bread certified by the
> Kof k which uses only sprouted grains. Since no actual grain is
> being used, only the sprouts, a Shehakol and Borei Nefashos
> should be said. We do not wash over this “bread” as well.’

…and straight from the packaging:

> There are 18 amino acids present in this unique bread - from
> all vegetable sources - naturally balanced in nature.

Uh, hello? *18* amino acids. That’s chet yud, chai - life, to anyone who’s counting gematriyot.

As stated elsewhere on the loaf’s package:
“This Biblical Bread is Truly the Staff of Life.”

Some of my friends eat Ezekiel 4:9 on a regular basis, and not to take away from Rav Eidlitz, but, apparently there is a makhloket re: if it’s motzi or shehakol since there are both “malted” and “sprouted” barley listed as ingredients.

A very accurate halakhic definition of lechem, anyone?

Unleavened bread can be made in a few minutes, while bread leavened with wild yeast can take six hours or more. A starter requires a certain degree of knowledge and effort to maintain, and in the days before refrigeration would have needed constant flour refreshments, making it potentially wasteful in times of need. It seems unlikely that people struggling to survive would bother with leavening.