Q. Does Rav Miller Shlita also hold that you don't make a brocho on flavored chewing gum (as in Listerine strips see prior question 1739)? Don't you eat and enjoy the flavoring agents and sweetener mixed with the gum?
A. Contemporary Poskim disagree whether a blessing must be recited before chewing gum. Many maintain that since Shulchan Aruch (O. H. 202: 15) rules that; “One recites shehakol on sugar, and shehakol is also recited when sucking sweet sticks.” Since sugar or other sweetening and flavoring agents are sucked and swallowed when chewing the gum a shehakol should be said. (Igrois Moshe, O.H. 2: 57, Yabia Omer 7: 33, 9: 108, Or L’Tzion 2: 14: 8.
However, Birkas Hashem (Maamorim 1) maintains that since the gum’s taste is first absorbed into one’s saliva before being swallowed and saliva, even if flavored, is not something upon which a blessing is ever recited, therefore no brocho is said. Shulchan Aruch (210:2) rules that for tasting alone, no blessing is recited. Magen Avraham (9) explains that when the item in question is not swallowed, there was no enactment for a blessing, and refers to Rema (567: 3) which discusses chewing cinnamon sticks. Some have brought this as a proof that one should not recite a blessing over chewing gum, for it is comparable to the cinnamon sticks, which give off taste that is swallowed with a person’s saliva. Zera Emes (87) includes the chewing of a “sweet stick that moistens the mouth, and is spit it out after it is fully chewed” in the ruling of Rema.
Other Poskim also agree, since chewing gum is not considered to be your normal “hanoas achila,” or the way in which food is typically enjoyed. (Yaskil Avdi 8: 20: 54; Yitzchak Yeranen 37. See also Rabbi Chaim Tabasky, “Gum,” Ask the Rabbi, Beit El Yeshiva Center’s Yeshiva.org, 2 Kislev 5767). Some Poskim differentiate between regular and sugar-free gum.
Horav Yisroel Belsky zt’l is quoted asserting that hard gum requires a blessing, while soft gum does not. The reason for the difference is that pieces of the candy shell of hard gum are treated as candy and are actually eaten when chewing it.
Horav Shlomo Miller’s Shlit’a opinion is that chewing gum is not considered an eating act and no brocho is recited.
Rabbi A. Bartfeld as revised by Horav Shlomo Miller Shlit'a
Important Numbers
