Q. Rov Shlit’a. My father due to his advanced age and health condition can’t eat anymore the different fruits he used to eat when he was younger. What is the correct thing for him to do on Rosh Hashana in order to recite the different “Yehi Ratzon” prayers on those fruits as he did all the years?
A. Shulchan Aruch O.H. 583:1 rules based on Talmud Kerisus 6a, that one should eat on Rosh Hashana different types of fruits and herbs whose names remind us of the needs that we must pray for to Hashem during the Day of Judgment.
Before the eating, one is to recite a “Yehi Ratzon” or a small prayer asking Hashem for that purpose.
Poskim indeed write that if someone is unable for whatever reason that may be to eat that food, one may just look at it and then recite the proper indicated prayer.
Bais Yosef (ibid) therefore quotes a version of the Talmud (Kerisus 6a) that mentions only looking and observing the produce.
See next question.
Rabbi A. Bartfeld as revised by Horav Shlomo Miller, Horav Dovid Pam, Horav Aharon Miller and Horav Chanoch Ehrentreu and Horav Kalman Ochs Shlit’a
Important Numbers
