277. Gluttony and Ettiquette

42:2 We must not eat or drink like gluttons. We shouldn't eat or drink while standing. Our tables should be clean and nicely covered even if the food we are eating is nothing special. One should not hold and eat from a piece of food larger than the size of an egg, nor should we hold our food with one hand and break off pieces of it using the other hand. We should also not drink a whole cup of wine at a time, as that is gluttonous. (At this point, the Kitzur Shulchan Aruch discusses the proper number of mouthfuls to drink a cup, considering two proper and three haughty. However, this presupposes the size of the cup and the strength of the wine; this may not be applicable as written given the size of our cups and/or the strength of our alcoholic beverages. See Mishnah Brurah 170:22 and Shaarei Tziyon 170:20 for more guidance in this area.)

42:3 After taking a bite out of a piece of bread, one should not put it on the table, give it to a friend, or put it back on the serving tray, as others may be repulsed by this. Similarly, one should not drink from a cup and then give it to someone else to finish. People should be careful not to drink others’ dregs and in this case, the recipient of the cup may feel pressured into drinking from it. (This only precludes handing the cup to another person. If one person puts the cup down and the other takes it of his own volition, then it’s his own decision to do so – Mishnah 170:37.)