Nine Days III - Rules of Eating

Eating During The Week in Which Tisha B'Av falls (WWTBF)

Including a very brief summary of the "After Tisha B'Av" rules

By Rabbi Avi Billet

The following lists have been compiled based primarily on the codes as laid out in the Shulchan Arukh and the Mishnah Brurah.

Eating Meat

1. Generally speaking it is forbidden to eat meat during the Nine Days, except under special circumstances, such as a Seudas Mitzvah (Pidyon HaBen, Bris, Siyum). (OC 551:10)  However, during the WWTBF, though these events may take place, it is customary to limit the amount of participants to close relatives. A minyan of non-relatives may be included, but every other participant – beyond the relatives and minyan – eats dairy. (OC 551, MB 77).
2. Meat can even be eaten under these circumstances on Erev Tisha B'Av, but not as the last meal before the fast begins. (551:10) The Mishnah Brurah recommends the meat meal take place before midday (OC 551, MB 78)
3. Parve food which is cooked in a meat pot may be eaten (551:MB 63)

Drinking wine and other alcoholic beverages

1. One does not drink wine, except at a Seudas Mitzvah as noted in the previous section.
2. All other alcoholic beverages are permitted (Rama 551:11)
3. According to the Shulchan Arukh, one may drink wine as part of a "bentching over wine" [during the week] and one may use wine for havdalah. The Rama, however disagrees. (551:10) He suggests that if wine is used for Havdalah, a child should drink it, unless there is no child present (in which case the one saying havdalah should drink). Otherwise it is customary to use beer for havdalah. (Remember to say the bracha "She'hakol"!)
4. One may bentch with wine at Seudah Shlishis – certainly if in time to drink it on Shabbos, and even if Shabbos is over when bentching takes place, because we don't (in the latter case) drink the wine.
5. One may drink wine on the Shabbos before Tisha B'Av. MB records a debate as to if one is drinking wine during Seudah Shlishis, and the meal extends until after Shabbos is over, but the person has not yet bentched and certainly has not ended Shabbos: Magen Avraham says if everyone else has ended Shabbos, he should stop drinking wine, while other Acharonim suggest that if he will still be saying "Retzeh" in his bentching, which indicates his Shabbos has not yet ended, he may still drink the wine. (OC 551: MB 56)

Erev Tisha B'Av eating

1. The restricting rules which will be described apply only to the FINAL meal a person eats on Erev Tisha B'Av. Any other meal after which a person still intends to eat is treated like a regular Nine Days or WWTBF meal. (552:9)
2. According to the Shulchan Arukh – the FINAL meal on Erev Tisha B'Av must follow these rules: 

• Not more than one cooked item
• No fish (or meat or chicken – of course) (552:2)
• You may have a number of different raw fruits (552:4)
• There is a custom to have lentils with eggs cooked in them because these are considered "mourners' foods" (552:5) Rama recommends "hard boiled eggs."
• A person who can handle it should just have coarse bread with salt, and water. Rama records the custom (not a law) to dip the egg in ashes, a practiced extracted from a teaching based in Eicha 3:16 - וַיַּגְרֵס בֶּחָצָץ שִׁנָּי הִכְפִּישַׁנִי בָּאֵפֶר. "Indeed, He has made my teeth grind on gravel, and caused me to wallow in ashes." It is customary to sit on the floor (or a low chair) for this meal (552:7), and not to eat in a company of 3 that would require a zimun (552:8)

3. For the meal(s) which take place earlier in the day, Rama writes that the Minhag (custom of) Ashkenaz (communities) is to eat a full meal BEFORE Mincha, and to eat the FINAL meal AFTER Mincha. It is important to eat more during that full meal, as one does in preparation for Yom Kippur, so one is well satiated in advance of the fast day. (552:9)
4. Even if one ate the FINAL meal, it is permissible to eat afterwards unless one explicitly stated (doesn't have to be these words) "I am finished eating, and I am eating no more." A thought process to this effect is meaningless, according to Rama – it is only applicable if it was expressed aloud. MB records that the Vilna Gaon and Ba"ch disagree, believing that a non-verbal acceptance of this nature is binding on the individual. However, MB concludes (553:1) that there is a difference as well between a "thought in the mind" and "acceptance of the heart." If one thinks, "OK, I'm done. I am full and I don't need to eat more," that is meaningless. But if one accepts in one's heart, "I am finished eating. The fast begins for me now" – this is binding.

After the Nine Days are over

According to the Shulchan Arukh, one may cut one's hair and do laundry immediately after the fast ends. (551:4) MB says that eating meat and drinking wine are certainly permitted right away (551:36). However, he records a minhag (custom) not to cut the hair or do laundry until midday on the 10^th of Av. (551:37)

When Tisha B'Av falls on Shabbos and is observed on Sunday - on the 10th of 

1. Havdala is said as it is at the end of Yom Tov - bracha on wine and Hamavdil
2. Since when "9 B'Av" ends is the 11th of Av, because Sunday is the 10th, all the restrictions of the 9 days will end right away (shaving, laundry, music, etc)
 3. There is an opinion that one should wait until the morning before eating meat and drinking wine (exception being for the havdalah wine)
4. We say Kiddush Levana at the end of Tisha B'Av. However, unlike after Yom KIppur when we extend the fast of Yom Kippur (in a sense) through saying Kiddush Levana and THEN breaking our fast, after Tisha B'Av we break our fast first and THEN say Kiddush Levana.

Why Eat Kosher?

Parshat Shmini

by Rabbi Avi Billet

According to my Concordance, the root word "Kosher" appears three times in the Bible (in Esther and Ecclesiastes) – not once in the Torah. Ask anyone with a decent familiarity with the Torah how many times "the laws of Kosher" are discussed in the Torah, and you'll get a few different answers, ranging from three to close to ten.

As much as the word "Kosher" is not utilized in the Torah, the terms which are employed are "tumah" and "taharah" as well as the negative form of "not-tahor" – referring to all the different kinds of permutations of animals which are fit (literal meaning of "kosher") or unfit for Torah-abiding-consumption.

 In its discussion of these laws at the end of Parshat Shmini, the distinction between tameh (oft-translated as "spiritually impure") and tahor ("spiritually pure") is invoked, as a distinction is made between animals which are permitted to be consumed and animals which are forbidden to be eaten.

 In his commentary on the Torah, Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch has a 17-page essay (Feldheim edition) on the lessons and laws that are derived from these distinctions. He also makes reference to a similarly lengthy discussion on the subject in his book "Horeb" – Chapter 68, Forbidden Foods.

 In Horeb, Hirsch profoundly states that the dietary laws have nothing to do with health. In fact, he claims that if one ingests the "impure" foods, "you may be more nourished and better fed, but the animal instinct will be aroused more strongly within you, and your body becomes more blunted as an instrument of the spirit… You become 'tameh,' impure, less capable of your holy mission, and you should really be 'anshei kodesh,' [people] of sanctity, members of a great, holy institution."

 Along similar lines, his commentary on the Torah cries out that "the reason for these laws is not bodily health, but the moral integrity of our souls… to ensure the spiritual and moral health of our souls." Guarding what one eats doesn't assure a spiritual holiness, but it gives one the ability to attain it. "Tumah" – the spiritual impurity addressed by the Torah – is largely defined as death, and contact with death. But it is also an idea, notion, or conception (as Hirsch puts it) that is not something concrete, that is associated with certain living animals and creatures – the ones we would nowadays call "unkosher."

 In the Orthodox world, "Kosher" does not need much of a sales pitch. Efforts of the kashrus organizations have made accessibility to kosher foods in the United States a fairly easy endeavor. In the non-Orthodox world, there are many who only buy kosher, and there are also many who do not. Some claim it is too hard, some claim it is too expensive. These arguments are sometimes true and sometimes not true.

 At the same time, living in a society in which people are well aware of, and on top of outbreaks and scares associated with foodstuffs (including in vegetables), we can drop the notion that some people have that kosher is "healthier."

 With few exceptions, such as the process of manufacturing wine and the mixing of dairy and meat (and, of course, the proper preparation of the meat of "tahor" animals), "kosher" means that the ingredients do not include "tumah" animals or their byproducts, or that the food in question was not cooked or processed on machinery or in utensils in which the same animals or their byproducts were cooked or processed (unless the machines or utensils were kashered first).

 While some may claim to understand all the sentiments behind "tumah," most will readily admit they do not. At the same time, we are happy to add that if it is important enough for God to spend so much time in his Torah discussing these rules, they are clearly there for our benefit.

 And if, as Hirsch argues, ingesting only "tahor" animals and ingredients sets our bodies up for, and allows them to achieve a spirituality level that is impossible if we are fueled by "tameh" ingredients, those looking to achieve such a status – whatever it means and however it may be defined, will only view the kosher laws as a gift rather than a burden.

 This is a question of spiritual health and not physical health. And as true spirituality is more or less defined by the Torah, rather than an emotional feeling some people who are "spiritual" sometimes speak of, observance of these rules in nourishing the body is the first ticket towards achieving the Torah prescribed nourishment of the soul that we hopefully yearn to achieve in our lifetimes.