[Avodah] questions regarding pidyon haben

[Zev Sero]

kennethgmiller at juno.com wrote:

> I have heard of, and seen, people who bring home food from a bris or
> from a kiddush. But I thought that it was simply a way of helping that
> person snack, helping them to *feel* like they had attended. 
> But the way you explain it, as being a real minhag, confuses me. If I
> would attend a bris during the Nine Days, and bring some meat home for
> someone who was unable to attend, surely they would not be allowed to
> eat it. Is there a real value in bringing food home, beyond the social
> aspect?

See Ramo OC 568:2.  It is clear from this Ramo that eating food from a
seudas mitzvah is not the same as actually being there, and therefore one
could not eat meat on a day when the local minhag is not to eat it.  But
from the fact that he has to say so, it seems that there is a real value
to eating such food, i.e. that the person does get some schar for having
participated in the se'udas mitzvah, even if it's not a full participation.
I recall seeing somewhere, I don't remember where, that although normally
if the seudas bris is over then tachanun is said at mincha, if there are
people present who were sent food and have not yet eaten it then tachanun
is not said.  (Obviously this does not extend to the next day; one can't
just stick the food in the freezer and omit tachnun until Erev Pesach!)

-- 
Zev Sero                      The trouble with socialism is that you
zev at sero.name                 eventually run out of other people’s money
                                                     - Margaret Thatcher