#106: Eating Bread on Shabbat (Part 1)
- We began discussing last week some of the halachot surrounding the Shabbat meals (seudot Shabbat). The Shulchan Aruch (274:4) writes that one must eat bread at the Shabbat meals. Ideally, one should eat bread at least the size of a "k'beitzah" (amount of an egg; calculated at approximately 55 cubic ounces (cc) in volume, according to most Ashkenazi poskim, who calculate this in volume rather than weight; some Sephardic poskim calculate in weight) at the first two Shabbat meals. One can also fulfill the mitzvah with eating just a k’zayit of bread (size of an olive, which is calculated as half a k’beitza; around 27 cc) (Magen Avraham 291:1, Mishnah Berurah 639:23; Yalkut Yosef 274).
- Whether one eats a k’beitzah or k’zayit, either way, one should eat at least a k’zayit within the span of “kedei achilat peras” (amount of time to eat half a loaf of bread) at some point in the meal, which is ideally no more than two, and perhaps four minutes, though some are lenient up to nine minutes (Shemirat Shabbat K’hilchatah 54:30; https://www.star-k.org/articles/kashrus-kurrents/2164/a-halachic-guide-to-seudas-shabbos-and-lechem-mishna/; The Radiance of Shabbos, p.84). Seudah shelishit, may have different rules than those discussed in this post and will be discussed in more detail in the future.
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Dedicated by Fran Broder as a zechus for the hostages to be released safely to their families and may everlasting peace come to Eretz Yisrael in the merit of learning Hilchos Shabbos.
