[Avodah] Picnics, restaurants, shops, and desks

[kennethgmiller at juno.com]

R' Zev Sero wrote:

> Reviewing the halachot in siman 640, it occurred to me that it
> should be permitted to have picnics on sukkot, and even to eat
> in restaurants without a sukkah.

I recently responded to the above, citing Rav Moshe Feinstein, in Igros Moshe OC 3:93, who says that one may *not* do so, and that the heter for "holchei derachim" exists only for one who has a real "l'tzorech" need, such as for business, but not for "tiyul v'taanug b'alma" - a mere enjoyable outing.

But over Yom Tov, a different approach occurred to me: I have reviewed that Igros Moshe, and it seems that at no point therein did Rav Moshe mention anything about what sort of eating the questioner might do while on this taanug outing.

It seems rather straightforward to me, that the p'tur of Holchei D'rachim -- which was the source of both RZS's question and the Igros Moshe's psak -- refers specifically to the chiyuvim of sukkah, namely, eating a seudas keva and sleeping. It would be preposterous, for example, to suggest that this Igros Moshe forbids *women* from such an outing on Sukkos. Women have no chiyuv to be in the sukkah to begin with, so it does not make sense to invoke Holchei D'rachim to explain why they cannot go on an outing.

If so, then shouldn't the same apply to a man who plans to eat only achilas ara'i on his outing? In other words: It seems to me that the Igros Moshe prohibits a man from going on a pleasure trip IF that man intends to rely on Holchei D'rachim to eat a seudas keva while on that pleasure trip, but the Igros Moshe is NOT making a total ban on such trips, provided one's eating is limited to achilas arai.

Would others agree?

Akiva Miller

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