Communal Seder with Intermarried Couples
March 31, 2009 This morning’s question came from Trieste and concerned the presence of intermarried couples at a communal Pesach seder.
By way of background, Shemot 12:16 states in part: 
The Talmud (Beitzah 21a) interprets the final word of the passuk to mean that one may cook on Yom Tov for fellow Jews, but not for gentiles. Chazal added a decree against inviting gentiles to meals on Yom Tov, because you might add to the amount of food you prepare in order to accommodate them. If you perform an additional act of cooking by preparing an extra pot of food that will be eaten by gentiles, you will have acted outside the scope of the Torah’s license to cook on Yom Tov. (If, however, you merely add food to an existing pot, that is not an additional act of cooking.) Moreover, you may invite gentiles on Shabbat, including a Yom Tov that falls on Shabbat, because you are not cooking in any event. The question from Trieste concerned the synagogue’s custom of hosting a communal seder on the second night of Pesach, typically attended by about 200 people. To our dismay, the questioner states, a noticeable percentage of attendees are intermarried couples, where the gentile spouse has not converted at all, or not converted acceptably. The questioner cited the Shulchan Aruch’s prohibition against inviting gentiles to a Yom Tov meal, except one’s own servants or maids, because of the concern of adding a pot. The questioner asked whether maybe the gentile spouses in the synagogue may be treated as no different from the servant or maid in the Shulchan Aruch, especially insofar as one invitation to the seder is sent per household, so the gentile spouse is effectively riding the coattails of the Jewish spouse. (Rabbi Kermaier questioned the logic of the questioner’s attempted resolution. If there are 200 guests and 25 are gentiles, it would seem inevitable that you would risk preparing an extra pot of food, unlike the servant/maid situation discussed by the Shulchan Aruch.) The answer came in four segments. First, it suggested that the questioner remain cognizant of a perception issue independent of the cooking problem. If there is a custom to invite intermarried couples to the seder, it implies the community’s acquiescence in intermarriage. Second, it is indeed forbidden to invite gentiles to (non-Shabbat) Yom Tov meals because of the decree that you may increase your cooking, but there are three circumstances in which the gentile may attend the Yom Tov meal: (a) If it did not occur to the Jew at the time of cooking that the gentile may come. Footnote 4 cites the Shulchan Aruch, which in turn cites the Rambam, for the proposition that you may feed a gentile who pops in on Yom Tov uninvited, because you did not cook extra for him. This exception obviously does not apply to the Trieste case, where the community is sending invitations to the seder. (b) There is no problem if the individuals doing the cooking are gentiles and the only role of a Jew is to serve as mashgiach and/or light or add to the fire for purposes of avoiding the prohibition of bishul akum. Footnote 6 observes that this exception works only for Ashkenazim, as Sephardim, following the Shulchan Aruch, hold that it is bishul akum unless the Jew plays a substantial role in the cooking process, such as placing the pot on the fire. In this connection, Rabbi Kermaier recalled that, in his days at Yeshiva University, Sephardic students asked Rav Ahron Soloveitchik (1917-2001) whether they could eat in the cafeteria, which relied on the Ashkenazic interpretation of Bishul Yisrael. According to what Rabbi Kermaier heard, Rav Ahron permitted them to eat, lest there be another “girush Sefarad” (Spanish exile). (c) If the food arrives at the venue, already cooked, before Yom Tov, and is merely warmed on a “plata” on Yom Tov, then there is no problem. Third, if the gentile may be invited to a Yom Tov meal because of one of the exceptions discussed above, it is appropriate to encourage him to eat, just as one would encourage a Jew. Fourth, citing R. Ovadia Yosef (1920-), the teshuva notes that one should avoid giving gentiles the matzah used for the bracha on the commandment to eat matzah, because gentiles are not obligated to eat matzah, and giving them some of this matzah (as opposed to another piece of matzah) would imply a lack of devotion to the mitzvah.
|
