Question: May a person eat leftover Shabbos meat in the Nine Days so as not to violate the prohibition of bal tashchit (wastefulness)?
Rabbi Yaakov Spivak
Rosh Kollel, Kollel Ayshel Avraham
Monsey, NY
Answer: The gaon Rabbi Shimon Grunfeld, zt”l, was asked this same question (Responsa Maharshag, vol. 4, Orach Chayim, responsum 20). His questioner, a noted scholar, cited the Bnei Yissaschar (by Rabbi Zvi Elimelech Shapira, the Dinover Rebbe) who quoted Sefer Ikrei Dinim in the name of Kol Eliyahu, where we find a view that a person should eat meat during the Nine Days that is left over from Shabbat.
He cites as proof the Talmud, which discusses “evarei besar nechira – limbs of meat from an animal killed by stabbing” not shechitah (Chullin 17a). The Children of Israel were permitted to eat such meat before they entered Eretz Yisrael, as Deuteronomy 12:21 states, “Ki yirchak mimcha hamakom asher yivchar Hashem Elokecha lasum shemo sham, ve’zavachta mi’bekarcha u’mitzoncha asher natan Hashem lecha ka’asher tziviticha, ve’achalta bi’she’arecha bechol avat nafshecha – If the place where Hashem, your G-d, chooses to put His name will be far from you, you may slaughter from your cattle and your sheep that Hashem has given you, as I have commanded you, and you may eat within your cities according to your heart’s desire.”
The Gemara asks if limbs of animals that were stabbed before the Jews entered Eretz Yisrael remained permissible. The Gemara concludes with the word “Teiku,” which stands for “Tishbi yeva’er kushiyot u’ve’ayot” and means that the prophet Elijah, who lived in Tishbi (a town in the territory of Naphtali), will personally resolve this particular question when he heralds the arrival of Moshiach.
The Rosh (Chullin, ad loc. siman 23) notes that this passage in the Gemara is practically relevant nowadays. Suppose someone vowed to abstain from eating meat during a certain period of time, but some meat was left over from the time before he made his vow. Or suppose beit din decides to prohibit a certain substance, but some of the food from before the prohibition was enacted remains. Can such meat be eaten?
Since the Gemara concludes its discussion with “teiku,” it would seem that we should be lenient and allow this meat to be consumed. But do we?
The questioner points out – and Rabbi Grunfeld agrees – that the Gemara cannot be taken as proof for the proposition that meat can be eaten during the Nine Days. He notes that we would never assume, for example, that a person can eat chametz as long as the chametz existed before Pesach began!
Indeed, the Sages even extended the chametz prohibition to wheat of Kardunita, which, Rashi (Pesachim 7a) explains, is hard wheat that grows in the mountains of Ararat that does not easily become chametz. So the time frame within which the prohibited item was acquired doesn’t even matter in regards to rabbinical prohibitions.
If so, how could the scholar quoted by the Bnei Yissaschar suggest that meat or wine could be consumed if they existed before the Nine Days started?
Rabbi Grunfeld suggests distinguishing different kinds of cases. He argues that we should differentiate between regular Torah prohibitions and prohibitions that the Torah specifically only forbade starting at a certain time in history. Furthermore, we should distinguish between Torah prohibitions and prohibitions that arise due to a personal vow or enactment of beis din.
When a person prohibits an item to himself by taking a vow, he is making something perfectly permitted prohibited. The same is true when beis din prohibits something. For these kinds of cases (which concern rabbinic, not biblical, prohibitions), we can ask if the person or beis din meant to prohibit items owned before the vow or enactment took effect just like the Gemara is unsure if Hashem intended meat that was stabbed before the Jews entered Eretz Yisrael to be prohibited after they entered it.
Regular Torah prohibitions, however, are an entirely different matter. The Torah clearly always prohibits chametz on Pesach and food on Yom Kippur and Tisha B’Av no matter when one acquired the food.
How, then, could a scholar have suggested that eating leftover meat during the Nine Days is okay? Because eating meat during this time period is not, strictly speaking, prohibited. Eating meat is only forbidden after chatzot on Erev Tisha B’Av. As for the rest of the Nine Days, the Sages enacted a “fence” to ensure our discomfort and make us mourn the destruction of the Holy Temple.
That being the case, it’s possible that the Sages only made their enactment vis-à-vis meat that a person will acquire or cook, not meat he already owned or cooked.
(Rabbi Grunfeld notes that we cannot make the same argument regarding wine during the Nine Days since many people have extensive stocks of wine and, if they would be permitted to drink any bottle they acquired before the Nine Days, the entire minhag of aveilut during this time period would be cast aside.)
Mourning during the Nine Days is not a din but a minhag started by our Sages after the Churban, and they allowed us to eat meat and drink wine at a seudat mitzvah such as a brit, a pidyon ha’ben, or a siyum. Therefore, arguably, a person can eat meat that was prepared for Shabbat and then was left over after Shabbat for reasons beyond his control (e.g., he was incarcerated on Shabbat for a minor offense). The food is considered left over from a seudat mitzvah and should be permitted.
Rabbi Grunfeld adds: “We must also state that to waste food is a prohibition of bal tashchit. … Our Sages never intended the custom of aveilut to override a clear prohibition.” This permission, however, only extends to eating food that will spoil.
The fact that bal tashchit is the cause of a leniency during the Nine Days demonstrates how meticulous the Torah is regarding the money of a Jew – “chassa haTorah al mammon Yisrael” (Chullin 49b).
Nowadays, though, we have refrigerators and freezers, so bal tashchit is not really a concern. As long as food is properly wrapped up and stored, they can be saved and eaten after the Nine Days.
We pray that just as the Torah treats the money of a Jew with scrupulousness, so should Hashem treat the tears and pleas of His Jewish nation with scrupulousness and redeem us from our exile, with the coming of Moshiach, may he come speedily in our days.