Q&A: Eating on the Night Before the Fast
Eating on the Night Before the Fast
Question
Hello. I fell asleep without intending to go to sleep (I also hadn’t prayed the evening service), and woke up around one at night. It seems to me that in such a case I’m allowed to eat even though I didn’t make a condition beforehand, since I had no intention of accepting the fast. Is that correct?
Answer
I’m not sure I understood the question.
There is no need to formally accept the fast on the Seventeenth of Tammuz. This is not a dream fast.
As I understand it, there is also no need to decide in advance not to fast if one chooses to do so. The question of whether it is proper for you to fast or not is a different question. In principle, it is proper to fast unless there is a good reason not to.
Discussion on Answer
I really did mean to ask about eating before dawn.
I can’t believe the genius Michi didn’t understand such a simple question.
I think it’s because he answered in the morning. So what’s the point of answering something that’s already passed, when it’s a practical halakhic question for the moment… 🙂
So I, the genius, really don’t understand what the problem is. Why not eat at night?
Because it’s well known that it’s a problem if you didn’t stipulate in advance that you would eat at night!!!!
https://ph.yhb.org.il/05-07-04/
Now I understand the question. This reasoning is forced on its face, since simply speaking the fast does not depend on formal acceptance. Especially since nowadays this entire fast is a custom, and the custom is to fast from the morning, and nobody in the world fasts from the night. In any case, if you happened to fall asleep and didn’t go to sleep intentionally, then it is in any event unreasonable to say that you accepted the fast upon yourself, since going to sleep was not planned.
Isn’t he asking about eating before dawn…?