The Obligation to Eat Meat on a Holiday

The following responsum is reprinted from Tomeikh KaHalakhah volume 3.  Tomeikh KaHalakhah is UTJ’s series of volumes of responsa (teshuvot) promulgated by the Union For Traditional Judaism’s Panel of Halakhic Inquiry.

This question focuses on the issue of whether or not there is an actual obligation for one to eat meat as part of the commandment “You shall rejoice (ve-samahta) in your festival” (Deut. 16:14). The Talmud states, “Rabbi Yehudah ben Betera says that at the time the Temple stood there could be no ‘joy’ (simhah) unless meat was consumed as it is said in Scripture (Deut. 27:7), ‘You shall offer peace offerings there [and you shall rejoice].’ But now that the Temple is no longer standing there can be no ‘joy’ unless wine is imbibed as it is said in Scripture (Psalms 104:15), ‘wine gladdens (yesamah) the heart of man’” (Pesahim 109a). Just before this passage the Talmud says, “A man is obligated to enable his children and the members of his household to rejoice on the festival, as it is said in Scripture, ‘You shall rejoice in your festival.’ With what shall one do so? With wine.” The Tosafists (Tosafot, s.v. be-meh) infer from this that wine functions as the means of festival joy now, as meat did when the Temple stood and the people were able to bring their festival offerings (shelamin, see Tosafot s.v. ve-zavahta; it should be noted that Tosafot, Yoma 3a, and Rabbenu Nissim, Sukkah 21a in the pages of the Rif, rule that even when the Temple is standing there is not an absolute obligation to eat meat).

This, however, relieves a person only of the Scriptural obligation to eat meat on the festival. In another place, one of the Tosafists notes that in his individual opinion (nir’eh li) eating meat on the festival when the Temple is not standing is a rabbinic obligation (Mo’ed Katan 14b, s.v. aseh; see Hagigah 8a-b and Tosafot, s.v. mi). This also seems to be the opinion of Maimonides (although he writes more descriptively than prescriptively), who combines the two requirements of meat and wine (Hilkhot Yom Tov, 6:18; see Hilkhot Hagigah, 2:10; this is also the view of Rabbi Ya’akov ben Asher, Arba’ah Turim Orah Hayyim 529.). Yet this combination seems to go against the sense of Pesahim 109a, as noted in Tosafot, where the two requirements are presented as distinct from each other. This was noted by Rabbi Yosef Karo, who does not resolve the problem (Bet Yosef on Arba’ah Turim Orah Hayyim, 529, s.v. katav ha-Rambam). That is undoubtedly why Rabbi Karo—who tries to follow Maimonides as much as possible and who, in his own commentary on Mishneh Torah, Kesef Mishneh, went to great lengths to defend Maimonides from his critics, who accused him of departing from the teaching of the Talmud on various points—nonetheless does not codify the opinion of Maimonides in his own code, Shulhan Arukh Orah Hayyim, 529. If one follows the Shulhan Arukh alone, then, there is not even a rabbinic commandment to eat meat on the festival. Nevertheless, Rabbi Yoel Sirkes tries to answer the puzzlement of Rabbi Karo over the Talmudic basis for Maimonides’ statement by supplying other examples of where it seems to be assumed in the Talmud that eating meat is an integral part of festival rejoicing, even when there is no Temple standing (see Bah on Arba’ah Turim Orah Hayyim, 529, s.v. katav ha-Rambam; for example, see Hullin 83a and Rashi thereon s.v. beyom and Shabbat 118b). Whether Rabbi Sirkes himself is recommending following Maimonides, however, is difficult to determine. (Rabbi Moshe Sternbuch, Mo’adim U’zemanim vol. 7, #111, also provides an interesting, but forced, explanation of Maimonides’ position. He suggests that Maimonides understood the Talmud in Pesahim 109a to be saying that when the Temple stood, one could fulfill the mitzvah of rejoicing only by eating the meat of the peace offering, because it combined aspects of both the spiritual and physical. However, when the Temple is not standing, and no sacrificial meat is therefore available, the mitzvah can be fulfilled by consuming nonsacrificial meat.)

In Responsa Havot Yair #178, Rabbi Yair Bachrach was asked about a case in which the shohet in a town fell ill before Passover and the townspeople would be left without meat. However, there was a man who was familiar with the laws of ritual slaughtering, but did not have “permission” (kabbalah) to slaughter. Could this man do the slaughtering? Rabbi Bachrach responds that for the mitzvah of eating meat on a holiday, if there is no question about the kashrut of the meat, the “permission” could be waived. Other authorities who hold that it is obligatory to eat meat on a holiday include Rabbi Shlomo Luria (Yam Shel Shlomo, Beitzah, ch. 2, siman 5), Rabbi Ya’akov Ettlinger (Arukh La-Ner, Sukkah 42b), Rabbi Yosef Babad (Minhat Hinukh, mitzvah 488), Rabbi Barukh Ha-levi Epstein (Torah Temimah, Deut. 16:14, ot 63), Rabbi Ovadiah Yosef (Responsa Yehaveh Da’at 6:33) and Rabbi Moshe Sternbuch (Mo’adim U’zemanim vol. 7, #111). There is even an interesting dispute among these authorities as to whether the mitzvah may be fulfilled nowadays only by eating red meat, which is similar to the meat of the sacrifice in the Temple (Rabbi Bachrach, Rabbi Babad, and Rabbi Sternbuch), or whether eating poultry will also suffice (Rabbi Ettlinger and Rabbi Yosef). However, Rabbi Shalom Mordechai Schwadron rules that since the destruction of the Temple, the eating of meat on a holiday is not required (Da’at Torah, Yoreh De’ah 1:10). This view is also expressed in Pit’hei Teshuvah, Yoreh De’ah 18:9, citing Shnei Luchot Ha-Berit, Hatam Sofer to Shulhan Arukh Orah Hayyim 249:6 in the name of the Ketav Sofer [Rabbi Avraham Shmuel Binyamin Sofer], and Sha’agat Aryeh, siman 65 by Rabbi Aryeh Leib Ginzburg. This view is also expressed by in Magen Avraham, Orah Hayyim 696:15; however, he holds the exact opposite position in Orah Hayyim 249:6 and ibid. 529:3. Therefore, there is sufficient support for a vegetarian to refrain from eating meat on a festival (for an interesting argument against vegetarianism, especially on Passover, however, see Ibn Ezra’s comment on Exod. 8:22).

An interesting anecdote on this matter was once told to me by Rabbi Moshe Tendler about his late father-in-law, the renowned halakhic authority, Rabbi Moshe Feinstein. It seems that Rabbi Feinstein did not normally eat meat (it is not clear whether his reasons were purely physiological or whether they were spiritual, like those of the late Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook and his disciple “the Nazir”). Nevertheless, in order to fulfill the rabbinic obligation to eat meat on a festival, maintained by some of the Tosafists and Maimonides as we have seen, Rabbi Feinstein would eat a minimal portion of meat about one hour after completing his dairy festival meal. However, it can be said that just as he decided to be personally stringent about eating meat (i.e., following the view that it is a requirement since the opposite halakhic view certainly does not say it is prohibited to do so), so perhaps vegetarians can decide to be personally stringent and not eat meat, especially if their vegetarianism is based on spiritual reasons (see Nahmanides’ comment on Lev. 19:2; cf. Nedarim 10a and Y. Berakhot 2.9). In fact, Rabbi Yisrael Meir Kagan, Bi’ur Halakhah 529:2 s.v. keitzad, seems to find a compromise position by ruling that nowadays there is no obligation to eat meat on a festival; however, if one does eat meat, it constitutes the fulfillment of a mitzvah (the same idea is expressed in Shulhan Arukh Ha-Rav Orah Hayyim 529:7). Therefore, again, since a vegetarian is not obligated to eat meat, it is his or her prerogative to refrain from doing so and avoid the opportunity to fulfill a mitzvah.

On a more hypothetical level, one can ask whether or not, when the Temple is rebuilt, even vegetarians would be required to eat from the festival sacrifice (hagigah) and on Passover from the Paschal lamb. The Talmud states (although it is not codified by Maimonides in Hilkhot Hagigah, a point noted by Rabbi Yehudah Rozanis in his commentary, Mishneh Le-Melekh thereon, 2.1; see Responsa Hatam Sofer, Orah Hayyim #124, for a suggested reason) that “Rabbi Ami said that every man who owns land [in the land of Israel] is to make the festival pilgrimage [to Jerusalem and, therefore, he would be obligated to eat from the festival and Passover sacrifices], and whoever does not own land need not make the festival pilgrimage” (Pesahim 8b re Exod. 34:24). One of the Tosafists explains that this is why Rabbi Yehudah ben Betera did not make the festival pilgrimage (see Pesahim 3b, Tosafot, s.v. me’alyah). Thus, following this view, a vegetarian could sell his (it is not a problem for female vegetarians because they do not have the obligation to make the festival pilgrimage) real estate in the land of Israel just before each festival and then repurchase it after the festival in the same way we sell our hametz before Passover and repurchase it afterwards. In other words, in this view, the festival pilgrimage and the meat eating connected with it is one of the commandments whose necessary circumstances one may legally avoid (mitzvot), as opposed to commandments whose necessary circumstances one may not legally avoid (hovot, see Maimonides, Hilkhot Berakhot, 11.2).