Hotel Breakfast on Erev Shabbos: Is It Considered a Seudah Gedolah?
Question
Hi, I just arrived at my hotel, and they are offering an elaborate breakfast. Am I allowed to eat it on Erev Shabbos, or is it considered a seudah gedolah that is forbidden? Can you please also share with me the sources
Answer
Thank you for your question.
In order to answer your question accurately, I would like to first differentiate between a seudah regilah, meaning an ordinary meal that one eats, and a seudah gedolah, a more elaborate meal.
With regard to a seudah regilah (a meal similar to what one normally eats during the week, both in quantity and in the manner of eating), min ha-din, one may eat such a meal on Erev Shabbos until Shabbos begins. Nevertheless, there is a mitzvah to refrain from beginning such a meal from the beginning of the tenth halachic hour, which is half an hour before Minchah Ketanah.
In the winter month, when the days are short, one should refrain from eating such a meal even a full hour before Minchah Ketanah if he feels that eating such a meal will leave him without an appetite for the Shabbos seudah.
If one began eating before the tenth hour, one does not need to stop when the tenth hour begins. One may even begin the meal knowing that it will continue into the tenth hour.
Having a te’imah, something light to eat, is permitted even after the tenth hour. So, for example, one may eat bread or mezonos up to the amount of a beitzah, or other foods, such as fruit or meat, even in larger quantities. There is no mitzvah to refrain from this, as long as it will not take away his appetite for the Shabbos seudah.
Similarly, if someone is hungry and needs to eat lehashkit ra’avono, to settle his hunger, he may eat even a meal. He should, however, not eat too much so that he will still have an appetite for the Friday night meal.
All this is with regard to having a normal weekday meal. However, a seudah gedolah, a meal larger or more elaborate than one usually eats during the week, has a different halachah. (This is with regard to a seudas reshus, not a seudas mitzvah, such as sheva brachos etc.)
HaGaon HaRav Fried shlit”a writes (Azamroh Lishmecho, issue #344) that one may not have a seudah gedolah shel reshus on Erev Shabbos, even in the morning.
So this raises the question that you asked regarding eating in a restaurant or hotel on Friday: do we consider such a meal as a seudah gedolah, and would therefore be prohibited even in the morning?
HaGaon HaRav Fried shlit”a writes (Azamroh Lishmecho, issue #344) that it seems that, since one does not drink wine at these meals, they are not considered a seudah gedolah and therefore permitted. We can bring proof for this idea from the wording of the Levush in siman 582, who refers to a seudah gedolah as a “seudah shel mishteh,” a meal that includes drinking wine.
The Pri Megadim, in Mishbetzos Zahav, se’if katan 1, does write that a seudah gedolah does not necessarily have to include wine. However, the proof he brings for this is not conclusive.
The source of this Halacha is from the Shulchan Aruch
שולחן ערוך אורח חיים הלכות שבת סימן רמט סעיף ב
אסור לקבוע בערב שבת סעודה ומשתה שאינו רגיל בימי החול, ואפילו היא סעודת אירוסין, מפני כבוד השבת, שיכנס לשבת כשהוא תאב לאכול; וכל היום בכלל האיסור. הגה: וסעודה שזמנה ערב שבת, כגון ברית מילה או פדיון הבן, מותר, כן נ"ל וכן המנהג פשוט. ולאכול ולשתות בלי קביעות סעודה, אפילו סעודה שרגיל בה בחול, כל היום מותר להתחיל מן הדין, אבל מצוה להמנע מלקבוע סעודה שנהוג בה בחול, מט' שעות ולמעלה.
Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim, Hilchos Shabbos, Siman 249, Se’if 2
It is forbidden to sit for a meal and of drinking (wine) on Erev Shabbos that one is not accustomed to having during the week, even if it is a seudas eirusin, this is out of respect for Shabbos, so that one should enter Shabbos with an appetite. This prohibition applies throughout the entire day.
Rema: A meal that has a fixed time that falls on Erev Shabbos, such as a bris milah or pidyon haben, is permitted. So it appears to me, and this is the established custom.
Eating and drinking without sitting down to a set meal, and even beginning a meal of the kind one normally eats during the week, is permitted throughout the day according to the strict halachah. However, it is a mitzvah to refrain from sitting down to a normal weekday meal from nine halachic hours onwards.
Source
- Shulchan Aruch and Rema, Orach Chaim 249:2.
- HaGaon HaRav Fried shlit”a, Azamroh Lishmecho, issue 344.
- Levush, siman 582.
- Pri Megadim, Mishbetzos Zahav, se’if katan 1.
