Ikar v'tafel (Hebrew:עיקר וטפל,lit. 'primary and secondary') is a principle inJewishlaw that governs the properblessing that is assigned to any particular food prior to consumption.[1]
Prior to consuming any food or beverage, aJew must recite a blessing to express his or her gratitude toGod for providing sustenance; additionally, because the entire world is believed to be in the possession of the Almighty, specific praise must be offered to God prior to deriving benefit.[2]
There are different blessings for each of the differenthalachic food groups:
When an individual eats two foods together, one of which is primary and the other of which is subsidiary to it, only one blessing is recited, as stated in B.Mishna Berachot 6:7, "Whenever a primary food [ikar] is accompanied by a subsidiary food [tafel], the blessing is recited on the primary food, exempting the subsidiary food."[3]
While the laws governing this principle are complex, some of its basic rules are straightforward. It pertains only to foods eaten in a combined form. One who has acookie andtea must make two blessings, one on each of the items. It is when one is eating something akin toapple pie,beef stew orstuffed cabbage, which are foods consisting of multiple parts (crust and pie, beef and potatoes or meat and cabbage, respectively) that the principle ofikar v'tafel is applied (Aruch Hashulchan 212:1, 2).
