08 Oct WHAT AN UNUSUAL FRIDAY!

This erev Shabbos is
unique. Normally on
Friday, especially in the
afternoon, it is a time
when we try to abstain
from any serious eating
for it is very preferred to
sit down to the Shabbos
meal with a tei’avon, to have a hearty
appetite. This causes the meal to be enjoyable
and thus a greater honor to the Shabbos. The
Kitzur Shulchan Orech recommends that
one should give the digestive system a rest
once a week and he further recommends
that a good idea is to skip lunch on Friday
so as to have a better appetite for the seudas
Shabbos. The Gemora also tells us of a
family who regularly sat down to a serious
meal on Friday afternoon and they came to
a bad end.
However, this Friday is the exception.
Since it is erev Yom Kippur, it is a big
mitzvah to eat throughout the day and the
Gemora even teaches us that one who eats
on erev Yom Kippur is considered like he is
fasting.
Why is it a big mitzvah to eat on erev
Yom Kippur? The simple reason is because
it helps us to be able to fulfill the great
mitzvah of fasting on Yom Kippur. This

also explains why the eating is considered
like fasting; since there is a Talmudic rule of
hechsher mitzvah k’mitzvah, the preparation
of a mitzvah is like the mitzvah itself. So,
our eating in preparation for the fast is like
fasting itself.
In Tefilas Zakkah, we ask Hashem that
the diminishment of our body fat and blood
during the 25 hour fast should be considered
like a sacrifice that we offer before Hashem.
Since there is a mitzvah to fatten a korbon, a
sacrifice, before we bring it to the altar, in a
similar way our eating on erev Yom Kippur
is fattening our sacrifice in honor of Hashem.
The Sefer Hatodah says that we eat on
erev Yom Kippur to celebrate the gift of
atonement that Yom Kippur brings for us.
Many explain that Yom Kippur is really
another Simchas Torah, since it was on Yom
Kippur that Moshe Rabbeinu came down
with the second luchos, the second set of
tablets. As such, we should have festive
meals in honor of the Torah. Since we can’t
do this, we compensate by having the festive
meals on erev Yom Kippur. We should
remember this reason when we eat heartily:
that we are doing it also in honor or the Ten
Commandments. Another reason suggested
is that when we eat before the fast and then
completely desist from eating, the transition

is even more challenging and therefore even
more rewarding.
There are possible halachic differences
between the reasons. Is there a mitzvah to
eat the night before Yom Kippur? If it is
merely in preparation for the fasting, it is
questionable whether the night before is that
helpful. But if it is compensatory for the
holiday of the giving of the second luchos,
then we should certainly celebrate the night
before like for any yomtov which has both
an evening meal and a day meal. There is
also the question of whether women have the
mitzvah to eat. If it’s to prepare for the fast,
the women certainly have to prepare as well.
If however it is compensatory, then since it is
a positive command limited by time, women
would be exempt. Halachically, we should
add to our eating even the night before and
women should certainly eat then as well.
On Yom Kippur, when we ask for a New
Year of life, we try to repair the original sin
that brought death to mankind: the eating
of the forbidden fruit of the eitz hadas. We
make the repair in the positive and in the
negative. Since Adam and Chava ate what
was wrong, we fast to atone for the forbidden
eating. Then, we also eat correctly fulfilling
the mitzvah of eating on erev Yom Kippur
atoning yet in another way for the sinful

eating of the forbidden fruit.
So, let’s enjoy festive meals this Friday, a
quite unusual event, and may it help to bring
all of us a gmar chasima tovah u’mesuka, a
seal of long life, good health and every kind
of sweetness.