A Zimun for Travelers

Question: Can travelers have a kevi’us to obligate them in zimun?

Discussion: Shulchan Aruch317 rules that a group of travelers, where each person is riding on their own animal and eating while actively traveling, is not considered a kevi’us and will not have an obligation for zimun. Magen Avraham318 is unsure whether the same applies to travelers who eat a meal while sitting together in one moving wagon, for, although they are eating together, perhaps in this case there is also no kevi’us because they are not eating in a fixed and settled manner. A joined meal eaten by boat travelers, though, is considered a kevi’us. Mishnah Berurah adjudicates this uncertainty by ruling that when traveling by wagon, zimun may be recited. However, Hashem’s Name (Elokeinu) should not be said, even should there be ten people in the wagon.

In our times the most common modes of travel are via car, bus, train, or airplane. We must therefore determine if these means of travel are considered similar to a wagon, or if they are similar to a boat, which will determine whether Hashem’s Name (Elokeinu) may be said in a group of ten.

The Acharonim provide two explanations in the distinction between traveling by wagon and traveling by boat.

A wagon is constantly moving along the road while, in the eyes of the halachah, a boat is considered to be stationary, for to the observer it appears to remain in one place while resting on the ever-shifting water.319 According to this reason, a moving train, bus, or car is considered similar to a wagon, as they too move along the road. Zimun recited by a group traveling together in one of these modes of transportation would therefore, based on Mishnah Berurah’s ruling, omit mention of Hashem’s Name. The status of zimun on an airplane, though, remains unclear, for, similar to a boat, perhaps here too the halachah would consider the wind currents as moving and carrying the inherently stationary airplane through the air. Thus, like on a boat, passengers eating together would be able to make a zimun with mention of Hashem’s Name.320

A wagon continually sways back and forth as it travels, making it difficult for a meal to be eaten in the setting of a kevi’us, that is, in a fixed and settled manner. A boat traveling on a calm day, peacefully, allows people to calmly enjoy their meal. In stormier waters, though, when the boat is rocking back and forth in the water, eating in a manner of kevi’us is impossible. If, on the other hand, the trip in the wagon would be a comfortable ride, people eating while sitting in the wagon would indeed have a kevi’us. Based on this approach, some Poskim say that people eating when traveling in a train,321 a car, or a bus,322 are considered to have a kevi’us, provided that the ride is a smooth one.

317 193:3.

318 167:27, cited in Mishnah Berurah 193:26.

319 Shulchan Aruch Harav 167:16. See Bava Metzia 9b.

320 Ohr Letzion II, 13:19 (Bi’urim).

321 Aruch Hashulchan 167:26.

322 Sha’arei Haberachah 5:29, footnote 72, cites R’ Shmuel Wosner who permits a zimun on a train, and applies this ruling to these other modes of travel.