Rabbi Eli Mansour, "When Should One Recite Kiddush and Eat the Shabbat Meal when Accepting Shabbat Early?"
David Shasha
When Should One Recite Kiddush and Eat the Shabbat Meal when Accepting Shabbat Early?
By: Rabbi Eli Mansour
Rabbi Mansour is an Ultra-Orthodox rabbi in the Brooklyn Syrian Jewish community whose writings are widely disseminated in the Yeshiva world. He maintains a great anxiety over the differences between Sephardim and Ashkenazim relating to ritual practice, as the following article clearly shows.
I have examined two examples of his difficulty in recent months:
The following article is yet another prime example of the Ashkenazi-Sephardi divide and Rabbi Mansour indeed goes out of his way to make sure that we hear both sides of the argument.
The matter of beginning the Sabbath early when summer arrives is a matter of contention between Ashkenazim and Sephardim. Ashkenazim hold that we must hew to the precise time of sunset while Sephardim set a time prior to sunset when prayers and Kiddush can be recited.
The Sephardim show flexibility in the matter given that Shabbat represents an important time for family to get together. Beginning the meal late in the evening would make it difficult to have small children awake to participate as they often are sleeping by sunset during the summer months.
Ashkenazim hold strictly to the set time of sunset and do not show flexibility.
Rabbi Mansour – as is usually the case – is forced to hold by the Sephardi ruling, but he does not seem to be happy with it. He adds to his discussion the rulings of the Mishnah Berurah and the ROSH in order to assert his deep and abiding love of Ashkenazi tradition. The unspoken understanding here is that the Ashkenazi stringency and inflexibility is to be desired even though the Sephardic rabbis have ruled otherwise.
Underlying this conflicted view is a religious fundamentalism that holds to the principle that ritual is not a conventional process to be defined by the parameters of the Law, but is a quasi-magical process that is connected to occult metaphysical values.
In spite of the clear Sephardic ruling, Rabbi Mansour presents the Ashkenazi ruling in order to emphasize the desirability of the stringent position.
DS
Many communities have the practice of accepting Shabbat and
reciting Arbit before sundown on Friday afternoon during the summer months.
Rather than waiting until after dark to recite Arbit, as we normally do, these
communities recite Arbit and begin Shabbat after Pelag Ha'minha (approximately
one and a quarter hours before sundown).
If one begins Shabbat before sundown, may he
recite Kiddush and begin his Shabbat meal immediately, or must he wait until
dark?
The Shulhan Aruch (267:2) rules explicitly that
even when one begins Shabbat before sundown, he may nevertheless recite Kiddush
and conduct his meal immediately, and need not wait until nightfall. However,
the Mishna Berura (267:5) cites some authorities who require that one eat at
least a Kezayit (approximately 1 oz.) of bread after nightfall. According to
this view, the obligation to eat three meals on Shabbat requires that they be
eaten on Shabbat itself, and not during the period on Friday afternoon that one
added onto Shabbat. Hence, one should ensure to eat at least a Kezayit of bread
– the minimum amount that constitutes a "meal" – after dark, in order
to fulfill the obligation of the Shabbat meal. (Hacham Ovadia Yosef cites this
stringent position, as well.)
Often, when a person accepts Shabbat early, he
returns home and begins his meal within a half-hour of nightfall, in which case
an interesting Halachic question arises regarding the obligation of Keri'at
Shema. The Mitzva to recite the evening Shema begins at Tzet Ha'kochavim (nightfall),
and Halacha forbids beginning a meal within a half-hour of Tzet Ha'kochavim out
of concern that one might forget to recite Shema as a result. Thus, if a person
returns from the synagogue on Friday night within a half-hour of nightfall, he
should perhaps be required to wait until after nightfall, recite Shema, and
only then begin his meal.
Maran (author of the Shulhan Aruch) addresses
this question in his work Bet Yosef, where he rules that one may, in fact,
begin his Shabbat meal within a half-hour of nightfall on Friday night.
According to the Rosh (Rabbenu Asher Ben Yehiel, Germany-Spain, 1250-1327), one
may fulfill the evening Shema obligation before sundown, so long as he recites
the Shema after Pelag Ha'minha. Although Halacha does not follow this view, and
requires that the evening Shema be recited specifically after nightfall, we may
nevertheless rely on this view with respect to the prohibition against
beginning a meal within a half-hour of nightfall. Once a person has recited
Arbit and has thus fulfilled his Shema obligation according to the Rosh's view,
he may then begin his meal within a half-hour of Tzet Ha'kochavim. (Needless to
say, when one recites Arbit before nightfall he must repeat the Shema after
nightfall.)
Summary: When one accepts Shabbat and recites
Arbit on Friday afternoon before sundown, as is customary during the summer
months, he may recite Kiddush and begin the Shabbat meal immediately upon
returning from the synagogue. He must repeat the Shema after nightfall, and, according
to some authorities, he should eat at least a Kezayit (1 oz.) of bread after
nightfall.
From Daily Halacha, April 21, 2013