Shavuos - Eating Dairy
QUESTION: What is the best way to fulfill the custom of eating dairy on Shavuos?
ANSWER: The most common methods for “fulfilling” the custom to eat dairy foods on Shavuos are by eating dairy Yom Tov meals, or by serving dairy “Mezonos” foods after making Kiddush on Shavuos morning (and consuming a regular Yom Tov seudah with meat later). This latter method is suggested by the Darchei Teshuva (YD 89:19) as the preferred way to fulfill the minhag of eating dairy foods on Shavuos while partaking of the ideal seudas Yom Tov.
For more on this topic please read Rabbi Avrohom Gordimer’s excellent article “Eating Dairy on Shavuos” featured in the 5777 – 2017 Shavuos Consumer Daf HaKashrus.
After eating pungent, strong-tasting cheese one should wait before eating meat, the same amount of time that one waits between meat and milk, regardless of the cheese’s age. The following chart shows which cheeses require waiting: Aged Cheese List – Kosher.
____________________________________________________
The Gerald & Karin Feldhamer OU Kosher Halacha Yomis is dedicated to the memory of Rav Yisroel Belsky, zt"l, who served as halachic consultant for OU Kosher for more than 28 years; many of the responses in Halacha Yomis are based on the rulings of Rabbi Belsky. Subscribe to the Halacha Yomis daily email here.