Misconception: It is a time-honored custom to eat a milchig (dairy) meal on Shavuot.
Fact: The original Shavuot dairy custom, apparently first recorded in the thirteenth century, was to precede one of the Shavuot meat meals with some dairy. A full dairy evening meal seems to first be mentioned in the late nineteenth century, and dairy daytime meals likely appeared in the twentieth century.
Background: In the Mishnaic period, the custom was to have a considerable amount of meat on Shavuot. This is evident from the fact that in the course of discussing the prohibition of slaughtering an animal and its offspring on the same day (“oto ve’et beno”; Vayikra 22:28), the Mishnah (Chullin 5:3 [83a]) notes that there are four days in the year with particularly high meat consumption necessitating one to inform a purchaser if an animal’s mother or offspring had been sold that day: erev Rosh Hashanah, erev Simchat Torah, erev Pesach and erev Shavuot. Clearly, in the Mishnaic period, Shavuot was a day of heavy meat consumption.
The reason meat was consumed on Shavuot in the Mishnaic and Talmudic periods, and the reason many of the codifiers (e.g., Magen Avraham 529:3) maintain that one should eat meat on Shavuot nowadays, relates to the mitzvah of “simchat yom tov”—being joyous on the holiday. This Biblical commandment is derived from the verse “You shall rejoice on your festival (vesamachta bechagecha), you, and your son, and your daughter . . .” (Devarim 16:14). The Sefer HaChinuch (488) says the mitzvah applies to both men and women in all times and in all places.
Chazal explain how to fulfill1 this obligation (Pesachim 109a):
It was taught in a baraita: A person is obligated to bring joy to his children and household members on the holiday, as it says, “vesamachta bechagecha.” With what does he gladden them? With wine. Rabi Yehudah says: men with what is appropriate for them and women with what is appropriate for them. Men with wine and women with what? Rav Yosef taught: in Bavel with colorful clothing and in the Land of Israel with pressed linen clothing. It was taught in a baraita: Rabbi Yehudah ben Beteira says: when the Temple exists, there is no simchah except with meat [of sacrifices] . . . and now that there is no Temple, there is no simchah except with wine.
A straightforward reading of this passage would seem to imply that the requirement to eat meat only applies to sacrificial meat, and that today, when unfortunately, there are no sacrifices, men fulfill the obligation with wine and meat is not relevant. This appears to be the position of the Beit Yosef (OC 529; Shulchan Aruch OC 529:1). However, Rambam (Hilchot Yom Tov 6:17–18 and mitzvat aseh 54), quoted by the Tur (OC 529), opines that although the essence of the Torah’s commandment is to eat sacrificial meat, in the absence of sacrifices there is still a mitzvah to eat meat on yom tov,2 as he writes: ein simchah ela bebasar ve’ein simchah ela beyayin—there is no simchah except with meat and no simchah except with wine.3
Tosafot (Moed Katan 14b s.v. aseh) say that nowadays, in the absence of sacrifices,4 the mitzvah of simchat yom tov is only rabbinic. The Sha’agat Aryeh wrote that even today (he lived in the 1700s) it is Biblical (except for the first night of chag when it is rabbinic [siman 68]), although not necessarily fulfilled via consuming meat (siman 65), and women are obligated in simchat yom tov as well (siman 66). The Darchei Teshuvah (YD 89:19) reports hearing the Divrei Chaim say that the Sha’agat Aryeh’s logic (siman 65) was not convincing and that one is required to eat real meat on yom tov. The Biur Halachah (529: s.v. keitzad) says that in the absence of the Beit Hamikdash, there is no obligation to eat meat, but if one does so, he fulfills a mitzvah.
The Torah Temimah (Devarim 16:63) deduces from the Talmudic language of “ein simchah ela bebasar” rather than “ein simchah ela beshlamim” that even in the absence of the Beit Hamikdash there is a mitzvah to eat meat, and in the Talmudic period the sacrifice was the means to fulfilling this requirement. The statement in Pesachim that today simchah is with wine means that when there were sacrifices, meat alone sufficed, while today wine is needed in addition to the required non-sacrificial meat. Maharshal (Yam Shel Shlomo, Beitza 15b [2:5] p. 113, 2021 ed.) similarly said that it is patently obvious that meat is a central component of simchah, and that post-Churban (destruction of the Beit Hamikdash), wine was added to help overcome the sorrow of the exile.
The majority opinion seems to be that even today meat is required, and according to most authorities, this means mammalian meat, not fowl or fish.5 Others, such as Yad Ephraim (YD 1, s.v. ela im kein) and Rabbi Ovadia Yosef (Yechaveh Da’at 6:33) say that fowl may suffice.
The above applies to all yamim tovim. Regarding Shavuot, the Gemara (Pesachim 68b) says that despite the general debate regarding how to balance feasting and spirituality on yom tov, on Shavuot it is obligatory to have a component of feasting. To illustrate this, the Gemara mentions Rabbi Yosef’s practice of having the best calf prepared for his Shavuot meal.
Notwithstanding the ancient practice of eating meat on Shavuot, mention of a custom to have milk, or milchig, on Shavuot6 is at least 800 years old. The thirteenth-century Rabbi Elazar of Worms, the Rokeach, reports that on Shavuot his great-uncle ate cheese, then ate bread dipped in wine to clean his mouth, and then immediately ate meat (Derashah L’Pesach, 5766, p. 39; cf. p. 110). Also in the thirteenth century, Rabbi Avigdor HaKohen of Vienna (teacher of Rabbi Meir of Rothenburg; Perushim U’Pesakim L’Rabbeinu Avigdor Tzarfati, p. 478, 5756 ed.) finds an allusion to dairy on Shavuot from Bamidbar 28:26 in which the initial letters of the middle three words spell chalav (milk).7 The thirteenth/fourteenth-century Kol Bo (52; p. 218 in 5769 ed.) and Orchot Chaim (ed. 5769, p. 103) mention a custom to eat honey and milk on Shavuot because the Torah is compared to honey and milk (Shir Hashirim 4:11).8 The Maharil (d. 1427; Hilchot Challah, par. 7; Machon Yerushalayim 5749 ed., p. 85) mentions this custom in passing, and the fifteenth-century Leket Yosher (Hilchot Yom Tov: 35; p. 235, 5770 ed.) cites his teacher the Terumat Hadeshen as eating fish fried in butter on Shavuot (as well as requiring mammalian meat for simchat yom tov).
The Rema (d. 1572; OC 494:3; see Machatzit Hashekel 494:7) writes that some9 locales have a custom to precede the Shavuot festive meat meal with dairy on the first day10 of Shavuot. He suggests a rationale11 that is not intrinsically related to dairy but is rather a pretext for two loaves of bread: by having dairy followed by meat, one will be required to eat two loaves of bread, which in turn commemorates the “Shtei Halechem” that were brought in the Mikdash on Shavuot (Vayikra 23:15–22). (This is because after eating dairy, leftover bread must be removed and new bread used for eating meat [Shulchan Aruch, YD 89:4; Iggerot Moshe, YD 1:38].) This aligns with the concept that each holiday post-Churban includes a remembrance of the Temple service for that holiday. On Sukkot the lulav is used all seven days, on Pesach there are two cooked foods to remember the Pesach and Chagigah sacrifices, and on Shavuot we remember the Shtei Halechem.
Subsequently, the custom of dairy on Shavuot is widely attested to,12 with endless reasons being proffered and a vast literature analyzing it.13
The Mishnah Berurah (494:12) quotes a reason in the name of an anonymous “gadol.” He says that when the Jews went home after receiving the Torah and learning the rules of kashrut, they had no kosher meat and thus ate dairy, and on Shavuot we commemorate that.
It is evident from the descriptions in the Rema and Mishnah Berurah (494:14) that the custom they were familiar with was not a milchig meal but a milchig appetizer followed by a meat meal, without bentching but merely switching tablecloths (Magen Avraham 494:6; Mishnah Berurah 494:16). As Rabbi Yitzchak Yosef (Yalkut Yosef, Moadim, OC:13: Hilchot Chag HaShavuot:16, 5748, p. 444) summarizes:
“Our custom is to eat some dairy, and after kinuach (cleaning the mouth) and hadachah (rinsing the mouth) as required,14 we eat meat. And it is a mitzvah to eat mammalian meat on yom tov.”
Rabbi Moshe Sternbuch (Moadim U’Zemanim, 8:319 [pp. 79–80]) suggests that pre-Sinai, milk was prohibited because of eiver min hachai (see Bechorot 6b), and to demonstrate our appreciation that dairy became permitted with Matan Torah, on Shavuot dairy is eaten.
The early-twentieth-century American Rabbi A.L. Hirshovitz (Otzar Kol Minhagei Yeshurun, 1918, p. 185) suggests that milchig is the food of the modest, even ascetic, who make do with little, and the custom of dairy serves as a reminder that this trait should be adopted, as it will enable one to successfully cling to the Torah, which was given on Shavuot.
The Klausenburger Rebbe (Rabbi Yekusiel Yehudah Halberstam, d. 1994) suggested (Shefa Chaim [5768] 1:102:4) that a possible reason for eating milchig on Shavuot is that it is in the zechut of accepting the Torah on Shavuot that we merited the Land of Israel, a land flowing with milk and honey.
The custom of having dairy followed by meat on Shavuot became a deeply rooted tradition that raised halachic challenges. Some argued that it was too risky, and suggested abolishing the dairy custom.15 Others felt it was so significant that they were willing to introduce leniencies to simplify having both dairy and meat on Shavuot. Kol Bo (quoted in Ba’er Heitev 494:8) says that one need not wait a full six hours between meat and milk on Shavuot; Rabbi Menachem Mendel Chaim Landau reports (Vaya’as Avraham, p. 333) that his grandfather (Rabbi Avrohom Chiechanover, d. 1875) told him that if he had napped, he could eat dairy on Shavuot even if fewer than six hours had elapsed since he ate meat;16 the Rema (YD 97:1) permitted baking a small amount of dairy bread; and, as noted, Magen Avraham waives the normal requirement of bentching between milk and meat. Most posekim disagree and say that all normal rules regarding separating milk and meat apply—and this is the normative position. The Aruch HaShulchan (OC 494:5) warned against these leniencies. Kitzur Shulchan Aruch 103:7 and Ba’er Heitev (494:8) advise caution so as not to violate any prohibitions while fulfilling this custom. Iggerot Moshe (OC:1:160) and Kitzur Shulchan Aruch (46:11) say it is preferable to bentch between the dairy and meat. Peri Megadim (Eishel Avraham, OC 494:6) says Shavuot is no exception and one must wait the usual time after meat or hard cheese before dairy or meat respectively.
This custom is now taken so seriously that it has generated detailed questions. Shu”t Mekadesh Yisrael (Rabbi Y.D. Harfenes; 5758) was asked: Is it sufficient to have milk or cheese or must one eat a dairy mezonot? (siman 70); must one eat dairy on the second day of yom tov? (71); if one will be unable to eat both dairy and meat, which takes precedence? (72); and (73) may one eat a meat meal at night and then have only a milk meal in the day?
Most of the suggested reasons are relevant irrespective of whether there is a full dairy meal or dairy and meat consecutively at the same meal. However, the fact that the sixteenth-century Rema gives the Shtei Halechem reason, a reason that only works if dairy precedes a meat meal, indicates that at least for the first 300 years of this custom it did not involve a dairy-only meal. By the late nineteenth century, Darchei Teshuvah (YD 89:19) knows of a custom to eat a dairy meal at night and meat during the day, and he disapproves of it because he thinks there is a mitzvah of simchah at night as well.
All of the many reasons for milchig notwithstanding, many of the codifiers (e.g., Magen Avraham 529:3; Darchei Teshuvah, YD 89:19; Biur Halachah 529 s.v. keitzad) opine that to fulfill the mitzvah of simchat yom tov, one should (also) eat meat on Shavuot. After summarizing all the issues in a comprehensive discussion, the Darchei Teshuvah (YD 89:19) suggests that one should have meat meals both at night and during the day, while fulfilling the dairy custom by having a dairy “kiddush” (without bread) after davening, waiting an hour (and cleaning the mouth), and then eating the main yom tov meat meal.
Based on the Gemara in Pesachim, wine is also an important component of simchah nowadays. The Mishnah Berurah (529:11) states one should drink wine in the middle of the yom tov meal in addition to the wine of Kiddush at the beginning of the meal. Rabbi Moshe Feinstein (Iggerot Moshe, OC 3:68) implies that one should have meat and wine every day of the chag, including Chol HaMoed. Rabbi Yaakov Kamenetsky (Emet L’Yaakov, 529: note 483) is quoted as saying that it is commendable to have wine at every yom tov and Chol HaMoed meal (grape juice counts) and meat (not fowl) each day of yom tov and Chol HaMoed (and even if one does not particularly enjoy meat).
Rabbi Moshe Sternbuch (Moadim U’Zemanim 1:29, Teshuvot V’Hanhagot 5:153) disagrees with their position regarding Chol Hamoed. He says that on yom tov (but not Chol HaMoed) there is an obligation to have a meal (i.e., with bread) that includes meat and wine; in addition, on yom tov and on Chol HaMoed one fulfills the mitzvah of simchah by doing what brings him to simchah, whether it be meat, chicken, fruits, wine, grape juice, hiking, singing, dancing, et cetera. There is no specific frequency or obligation, but when done, it fulfills a mitzvah, as does bringing joy to one’s wife and children.
The Torah implies, and Rambam says it explicitly, that there is another component to true simchah. The pasuk that teaches the mitzvah of simchah has an important ending (Devarim 16:14): “And you shall rejoice on your feast; you, and your son, and your daughter, and your servant, and your maid, and the Levite, and the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, that are within your gates.” It is clearly not just referring to your family and friends. Rambam says (Shevitat Yom Tov 6:18): “When a person eats and drinks [on yom tov], he is obligated to feed converts, orphans, widows and others who are destitute and poor.”17t But a person who locks the gates of his courtyard and eats and drinks with his children and his wife, without feeding the poor and the embittered, is not engaged in simchah of a mitzvah, but rather in the simchah of satisfying his own appetite. Regarding such a person, the verse (Hoshea 9:4) states: “Their sacrifices will be like the bread of mourners, all that partake thereof shall become impure, for they kept their bread for themselves alone.” This happiness is a disgrace for them, as the verse states (Malachi 2:3): “I will spread dung on your faces, the dung of your festival celebrations.”18
Furthermore, Rambam says (Shevitat Yom Tov 6:20), “When a person eats, drinks and celebrates on a festival, he should not let himself become overly drawn to drinking wine, mirth and levity, saying, ‘whoever indulges in these activities more is increasing [his observance of] the mitzvah of rejoicing.’ For drunkenness, profuse mirth and levity are not rejoicing; they are frivolity and foolishness. And we were not commanded to indulge in frivolity or foolishness, but rather in rejoicing that involves the service of the Creator of all. Thus, [Devarim 28:47] states, ‘Because you did not serve G-d, your L-rd, with happiness and a glad heart with an abundance of prosperity.’ This teaches us that service [of G-d] involves joy. And it is impossible to serve G-d while in the midst of levity, frivolity or drunkenness.”
Notes
1. Rabbi Yosef Dov Soloveitchik (Shiurim LeZecher Abba Mori z”l, vol. 2, pp. 203–204, 2002 ed.) distinguishes between actions (ma’aseh) of the mitzvah, such as eating meat, and the emotional fulfillment (chalot) of the mitzvah by being in a joyous mood.
2. The Beit Yosef (OC 529, s.v. katav haRambam) expresses surprise that Rambam did not understand the Gemara as he did. See Aruch L’Ner, Sukkah 42b, for a defense of Rambam’s position.
3. The colloquial phrase “ein simchah ela bebasar veyayin—there is no simchah without meat and wine” is technically not Talmudic, but the idea is expressed in this Rambam. Rambam also says that simchah includes giving candy and nuts to children and buying beautiful clothing and jewelry for women.
4. And in the time of the Beit Hamikdash for ritually impure people who could not eat sacrificial meat (Minchat Chinuch 488:2).
5. E.g., Rambam, Chagigah 2:10; Minchat Chinuch, 488:9; Chavot Yair, 178; Divrei Chaim quoted in Darchei Teshuvah 89:19; Ba’er Heitev in the name of the Bach, 551:28; and Rivevot Ephraim, 1:350:1 quoting Rabbi Moshe Feinstein.
6. There is also a custom to have dairy on Chanukah (Rema, OC 670:2). Some had a custom to have dairy on erev Pesach, as that would make one sleepy, leading to napping during the day and remaining awake on the Seder night (Sefer Matamim, Yitzchak Lipiatz, 1889, p. 27a). Rambam’s father mentions a custom to have milk on Purim (http://hebrewbooks.org/pdfpager.aspx?req =22994&st=&pgnum=9).
7. Kitzur Shulchan Aruch (103:7), 600 years later, also cites this reason. The pasuk describes bringing bikkurim on Shavuot. It is worth noting that two of the three pesukim prohibiting meat and milk together are in the same pasuk with bikkurim (Shemot 23:19 and 34:26).
8. In Berachot 63b, Torah is compared to butter, and in Devarim Rabbah [Ki Tavo] 7:3 and Shir Hashirim Rabbah 1:19, it is compared to honey, milk, water, wine and oil.
9. Some editions have “bekamah”—in some locales—while others have “bechol”—in all locales.
10. The Rema and most other sources seem to emphasize that this custom is only on the first day. Minhag Yisrael Torah (vol. 2, p. 367) does cite a few sources that also include the second day.
11. The Peri Chadash (494) says this reason is weak and prefers the older reason of Torah compared to milk, and notes that Torah is also compared to water and wine (Ta’anit 7a).
12. This custom originated in Ashkenazic lands. It eventually spread to Sephardic lands, although it was not as rigorously followed (Rabbi Shemtob Gaguine, Keter Shem Tob, vol. 4–5, pp. 15–16). Notable exceptions are the Yemenites, who find the Shavuot dairy custom strange (Rabbi Yosef Kapach, Halichot Teiman, p. 31), and the Adenites (Otzar Minhagei Aden, 5773, 11:10 [p. 107]), who did not eat dairy but did have honey and other special sweet treats.
13. A good rule of thumb is that the number of reasons given for a particular custom is inversely proportional to the accuracy with which the true reason is known. To illustrate this, Rabbi Yaakov Meidan once quipped: “I know nine reasons to read Rut on Shavuot and only one reason to read Esther on Purim.” Sefer Matamim (Yitzchak Lipiatz, 1889) lists nineteen reasons for eating dairy on Shavuot. Shu”t Mekadesh Yisrael (Rabbi Y.D. Harfenes, 5758, pp. 188–89) offers seventeen, and quotes the Shulchan Aruch HaRav (494:16) as stating that many reasons are said for this custom. Kuntres Matamei Moshe (Rabbi Moshe Dinin, 5753) gives 149 (!) reasons for this minhag.
14. It may also be necessary to wash one’s hands (Shach, YD 89:9; Aruch HaShulchan, YD 89:8).
15. Torat Chaim to Chullin 83 and Orach Mishor, both cited in Darchei Teshuvah, YD 89:19.
16. There does not seem to be a halachic precedent for this ruling.
17. Nearly identical sentiments are expressed in the Shulchan Aruch (OC 529: 2, 3). The Mishnah Berurah (529:17) adds that in some places there is a commendable custom to take up a collection before a chag on behalf of the poor of the city.
18. Rambam expresses similar sentiments in Hilchot Megillah (2:17): “It is preferable for a person to be more liberal with his donations to the poor than to be lavish in his preparation of the Purim feast or in sending portions to his friends. For there is no greater and more splendid happiness than to gladden the hearts of the poor, the orphans, the widows and the converts. One who brings happiness to the hearts of these unfortunate individuals resembles the Divine Presence, which Yeshayahu 57:15 describes as having the tendency ‘to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive those with broken hearts.’”
Rabbi Dr. Ari Z. Zivotofsky is a professor of neuroscience at Bar-Ilan University in Israel.