[Avodah] Kevius seudah on meat, cheese, potatoes, etc.

[Micha Berger]

On Sun, Oct 16, 2011 at 01:28:20PM -0400, Zev Sero wrote:
> In siman 639 the Taz quotes the Tur, who quotes RP (would that be
> Rabbenu Peretz?) that while we pasken like the conclusion of the
> gemara that there is no such thing as kevius for fruit, there is in
> principle a kevius for meat or cheese, and one who makes his meal of
> such foods needs a sukkah.  Then the Tur says that notwithstanding
> this, since it's not the derech to make a meal of such foods, one who
> does so is patur from sukkah.  Now it seems to me that this does not
> apply nowadays....

RRW asked a similar question back in
<http://www.aishdas.org/avodah/vol03/v03n083.shtml#14> (1999):
> Has anyone considered modifying Kevias se'udo in light of the metzius
> that today's society is not koveia on betzius haPas - Except that this
> is a halachic requirement to do so?

> IOW, the metzius in ancient tiems was to break bread as a formal way of 
> beginning a se'udo.

> Nowadays, it's unusual to make bread the "ikkar" of a typical meal....

> EG, what prevents someone say on the atkins diet from being kovei'
> his se'udo on a nice, thick, juicy steak?

To add a further complication, RGS posted in a pas haba bekisnan
conversation <http://www.aishdas.org/avodah/vol06/v06n020.shtml#09>
(2000):

> Pesachim 105a
> Rav said: Just like Shabbos is kovei'ah for ma'aser, it is kovei'ah
> for kiddush.

> See also Beitzah 34b.

If Shabbos or YT can be qov'in se'udah on anything eaten like a meal,


A half-baked seed of a chiddush: Maybe qevi'as se'udah isn't the se'udah
itself. Meat is the centerpiece of the meal. True even in Middle-Eastern
eating styles when everything is eaten off pieces of flat bread (pita,
laffa, etc...) The foundation of a building isn't the building. Perhaps
what necessitates Sukkah is something about the meal which gives it a
formality, regardless of one having the substance of the meal.

Otherwise, exaplain why fruit was ever more of a se'udah than
meat-on-rice?

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             If a person does not recognize one's own worth,
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