Meat at a Siyum During the Nine Days

Question

I have seen that people are very lenient regarding eating meat at a siyum during the Nine Days, and that even people who were not directly connected to the learning eat meat. I would like to know the parameters of this leniency. For example, if someone made a siyum in a restaurant, may everyone in the restaurant eat meat, even if they had no connection whatsoever to the siyum?

On a similar note, I have been learning Sefer Yehoshua with a chavrusa once a week for over a year. We try to learn b’iyun, asking questions about what is unclear, and we study the major meforshim so that we can arrive at a clear p’shat in what the Novi is teaching. We are at the end of the last perek, and be’ezras Hashem we will be completing Sefer Yehoshua a few days before Rosh Chodesh Av. I am a rosh kollel, and we have a seudah every Rosh Chodesh in the kollel, sometimes fleishigs and sometimes not. I would like to know whether we can make a fleishige seudah for the siyum on Sefer Yehoshua with the talmidim of the kollel.

Thank you.

Y. K.

Rav Sternbuch

The heter of eating meat at a siyum during the Nine Days has been seriously misunderstood, so I would like to explain the parameters of this din clearly.

M’dina d’Gemara (Shabbos 118b), the idea of eating at a siyum was intended for the talmidim who learned together. The minhag later developed that others who are invited by those participating in the siyum may also join the seudah. Those individuals may eat meat at the siyum during the Nine Days, and if they complete a masechta during the Nine Days, they do not need to postpone the siyum until afterward.

However, those who have little or no connection to the siyum have no heter to eat meat and doing so constitutes a pritzas geder. For example, someone who hears a siyum over the telephone is not considered to have participated and may not eat meat on that basis. Likewise, someone who attends a siyum but does not eat meat there may not go home afterward and eat meat. Similarly, if children under bar mitzvah make a siyum, they themselves may eat meat during the Nine Days, but adults may not rely on such a siyum to permit themselves to eat meat.

You mention the question of siyumim in restaurants. I have heard that there are restaurants that regularly make siyumim during the Nine Days so that they can continue serving meat as usual. The people who simply walk in have no connection to the siyum and there is no heter for them to eat meat.

Rav Zafrani 

I would like to humbly add a small point to the Gemara that Rav Sternbuch cited. The Gemara (Shabbos 118b) quotes Abaye as saying, “Tesei li,” that whenever he saw a talmid chochom complete a masechta, he would make a Yom Tov for the rabbonon. When the Gemara uses the expression tesei li, it generally refers to a middas chassidus.

It would therefore seem from the Gemara that the primary purpose of a siyum was to strengthen the chaburah that learned the masechta together, not those who were uninvolved.

Accordingly, it is not proper for someone who had no connection to the limud to eat meat during the Nine Days. Furthermore, if the talmidim can arrange to make the siyum before the period during which meat is prohibited—namely, before the Nine Days for Ashkenazim and before shovua shechal bo for Sefardim—that is preferable.

As a final thought, Chazal teach us (Taanis 29a), “Just like when Av comes in, we reduce simcha, so too, when Adar comes in, we increase simcha.” Chazal appear to equate the increase of simcha in Adar with the decrease of simcha in Av. What is the deeper meaning of this comparison?

The Sefas Emes explains that the increase of simcha in Adar is directly connected to the decrease of simcha in Av, because the avodah of both periods corresponds to the level of the Shechinah. A person who takes the time during the days of Av to reflect upon and truly feel the tremendous loss brought about by the departure of the Shechinah following the destruction of the Bais Hamikdosh will experience profound joy in Adar when celebrating the gilui Shechinah revealed through the miracles of Purim and Pesach.

May we be zoche to see the rebuilding of the Bais Hamikdosh speedily in our days.