Mincha - Meals Prior To

QUESTION: May one begin a meal if they did not yet daven mincha?

ANSWER: With respect to this halacha, we must differentiate between three categories of meals:  

A meal where one does not eat bread, or one eats a k’beitza (egg volume) sized piece of bread or less: There are no restrictions on eating this type of meal before mincha. 

A regular meal where one eats more than a k’beitza of bread: (The Shulchan Aruch refers to this as a seuda ketana.) According to the Shulchan Aruch (OC 232:2), before davening mincha, one may not begin this type of meal after midday. (It should be noted that one may not daven mincha until a half hour after midday.) The Rema disagrees and says it is the common practice to allow eating such a meal before mincha. Rema writes that perhaps the basis for being lenient is because there were people appointed to walk through the streets and announce when it was time for mincha. Although this is no longer practiced, nevertheless poskim write that if one is accustomed to daven with a minyan at the same time every day, the same leniency applies (see Aruch Hashulchan OC 232:16). In this case, the Kaf Hachaim (233:34) writes that the custom of many Sephardim is also to be lenient if one is accustomed to daven at a set time with a minyan. If an Ashkenazi does not daven with a set minyan, and has not yet davened mincha, he may not begin this type of meal within three hours of sunset (Aruch Hashulchan), and a Sephardi should not eat this meal from midday. 

A meal that has many guests and typically lasts a long time, such as a wedding or pidyon haben, and one eats more than a k’beitza of bread: (The Shulchan Aruch refers to this as a seuda gedolah.) Usually in this case one does not have a set minyan, therefore one may not begin eating this type of meal from midday and on unless one first davens mincha. However, in this situation, Rav Shlomo Zaman Auerbach zt"l allowed one to eat by setting an alarm to serve as a reminder to daven later in the day. As soon as the alarm rings, one must daven, or reset the alarm once again. (Ishai Yisrael 27:19 and footnote 64.).

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