Does a Guest Own the Food He is Served?

Can a guest take home food that is served?

Shalom!

Thank you for your question.

According to most sources, a guest becomes the owner of the food he is served. As such, he can eat it or take it home, whatever he prefers. In fact, the famous example proving that a guest owns the food he is served is that a guest can take such food and use it to marry (“Kiddushin”) a woman.

Nevertheless, le'halacha it might not be entirely true that a guest owns the food he is served. Since There is another famous teaching related to this, which says that a guest may not take the food he is served and then serve it other members of the host’s family. This ruling derives from a passage in the Talmud where some guests who were served a small amount of food but decided to give it to the host’s son. When the host saw that his son had seemingly taken all the food, leaving the guests hungry, he hit his son who then died as a result. Both parents then committed suicide. Based on this story the rabbis forbade one to take food from the host.

So le'halcha it  depends on how and where the food is served.  The food on a buffet or serving platter remains the property of the host, while food that a guest leaves on his plate belongs to the guest to do as he pleases. This is based on the assumption that a host desires to provide his guest with food to satisfy his hunger at that eating session- not for the guest to take home to satisfy his hunger for another week! One should conduct oneself in this manner. Therefore, one may eat as much as one wants to eat at a Kiddush (within reason!)  but one should not take any food home unless it is clearly an amount that the host would not mind or one secures permission.

Chullin 94a; Rema, EH 28:17; Be’er Heitiv, EH 28:31; Gra, EH 28:50; Aruch Hashulchan , EH 28:5; OC 170:19, Mishna Berura 170:40