Eruv Tavshilin - Food Types

QUESTION: Can any cooked food be used for the Eruv Tavshilin?

ANSWER: Shulchan Aruch (OC 527:4) rules that for eruv tavshilin one may only use a cooked food that is ordinarily eaten together with bread (melafes es ha’pas). Examples of this would include meat, fish and eggs. Although Shulchan Aruch also lists cooked apples as acceptable for eruv tavshilin, the Mishnah Berurah (527:18; Beiur Halachah s.v. tapuchim) points out that today, in most locations, it is uncommon to eat cooked fruit with bread. Therefore, unless one lives in a country where this is common, one may not use cooked fruit for the eruv tavshilin. The Mishnah Berurah (Shaar Hatziyun 527:22) notes that boiled potatoes are eaten as a side dish and not together with bread, so these too may not be used. The Aruch Hashulchan (OC 527:9) adds that since cooked carrots (tzimmes) are not ordinarily served with bread, they may not be used. Many have the practice of using an egg, since it satisfies the requirement of being eaten with bread and it will also qualify in size. An eruv tavshilin must be at least a kezayis (olive sized portion, equivalent to half the size of an average egg). Even a small egg is larger than a kezayis.

____________________________________________________

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.