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Q&A: On the Obligation to Eat Meat on a Jewish Holiday

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This is an English translation (via GPT-5.4). Read the original Hebrew version.

On the Obligation to Eat Meat on a Jewish Holiday

Question

Is there an obligation to eat meat at both holiday meals? Or is it enough at only one of the meals?

Answer

The obligation itself to eat meat on a Jewish holiday is not clear. Is it only a means of rejoicing? (That is what appears from Maimonides, Laws of Yom Tov 6:17.) And does this apply nowadays, when there are no peace-offerings? (There is a contradiction about this in Magen Avraham and many others.) True, some wrote that it applies only during the daytime, but it seems to me that the source for this distinction is rather questionable. In Sukkah 48a they distinguished regarding the joy of the festival, that at night it is rabbinic. (See Sha’agat Aryeh no. 68, and in contrast Avnei Nezer no. 424, subsec. 9-10, and others.)
And someone who does not enjoy meat, it seems obvious to me that he is not obligated.

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Questioner:
Regarding what you wrote, that someone who does not enjoy meat is not obligated — do you mean someone who does not like meat? Or do you mean someone who does like the taste of meat, but does not see eating meat as an enjoyable form of celebration?
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Rabbi:
Since there is a dispute whether there is any obligation at all nowadays to eat meat, and especially if meat is only a way of attaining joy and not an obligation in itself, it seems to me that there is certainly room to be lenient (or to be ethically stringent and not eat meat). That is how I conduct myself.

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