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Two questions:

  1. One is not allowed to eat in a restroom. Does this apply to actually putting food into one's mouth or merely having food in one's mouth? If I am chewing gum and want to go to the bathroom, is it necessary to spit out the gum first?
  2. Would I be allowed to make a bracha with a sucking candy in my mouth? Would it be different if I moved the gum or candy to the side my mouth?
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Tzvi, these are both good, but distinct, questions. You should ask them separately. –  YDK Apr 10 '11 at 4:38

2 Answers 2

up vote 3 down vote accepted

Orach Chaim 172:2 - you should remove the candy from your mouth and make a Bracha. If it is chewed and unappetizing to remove, you may push it to the side of your mouth and make a Bracha.

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May one chew gum on a fast day?

The authorities debate the question of whether chewing constitutes “eating” in the Halachic sense. Hacham Ovadia Hedaya (1890-1969), in his work Yaskil Abdi, rules that chewing gum is not considered “eating,” and thus one does not recite a Beracha before he chews gum. Hacham Ovadia Yosef, however, in his work Yabia Omer (vol. 7, Orah Haim 33), disagrees, and rules that if one chews gum coated with sugar or other sweetening agent, he must recite the Beracha of She’hakol. By the same token, it would be forbidden to chew sweet chewing gum on a fast day. One may, however, chew a substance that has no flavor, such as wax used by people wearing braces, as this certainly does not constitute “eating.”


According to the of the Yaskil Abdi where you do not make a Bracha on chewing gum as it is not considered eating then you would be allowed to chew gum in the bathroom.

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I think you still have to demonstrate why you think the parameters of what constitutes eating should be the same for making a beracha and going into the bathroom. –  Isaac Moses Apr 10 '11 at 6:47

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