What bracha does one make on injera?

Question

Injera is a fermented flatbread usually made out teff, a grass. It takes the place of bread at a meal and has the shape of bread (תוריתא דנהמא). Would one still make ha'adama on it?

Answer 1

There is a debate, whether its blessing should be borei peri haadamah or shehakol (see also the discussion in Berakhot 37a). The reasoning is that teff is not edible on its own, but you have to grind it and then process it. Therefore, R' Yitzhak Yosef rules citing his father that it should be haadamah, and this is what his followers say:

ואם הטף מגדלים אותו במיוחד עבור זה לעשות ממנו פת, וזה עיקר גידולו, יש לברך על פת זו בורא פרי האדמה, וכדעת רבינו ירוחם, שכל שאינו ראוי לאכילה אלא ע"י ריסוק או ניפוח, וכך דרכו, אין ברכתו משתנית. ומברכים בפה"א.‏

And if teff is grown especially for producing bread of it, and this is the main reason for its production, one has to bless for this bread borei peri haadamah. And according to Rabbeinu Yerucham's view, everything which is not suitable to be eaten just by grinding or puffing, and this is its nature, its blessing doesn't change and we bless borei peri haadamah.

On the other hand, if it's not its only purpose to be grinded and processed into bread, but are consumed cooked as well, it should be shehakol:

אך אם עושים אותו מדוחן וכיוצא, שאין מגדלים אותם בעיקרם בשביל הפת שהם מיני קטניות שעושים מהם בישול, בזה יש לברך עליו שהכל נהיה בדברו, ואחריו בורא נפשות.‏

But if they make it from millet or similar plants, which are not mainly grown for the bread, since they are legumes of which one cooks food, one has to bless upon them shehakol nihyeh bidvaro and after it borei nefashot.

Most other communities rule that it is shehakol in any case (see Mishneh Torah Berakhot 3:10, Orach Chayim 208:8), because the teff was processed to such an extent, that you can't identify it anymore in the final product (see a similar ruling for bamba).