[Avodah] Inviting nochrim on yomtov

[Zev Sero]

On 23/08/2010 10:34 PM, T613K at aol.com wrote:

>my understanding is that  you are not allowed to cook for them on
> yom tov but if you cooked  before yom tov, you can put the food on the
> table for everyone including the non-Jewish guests. The second seder
> is more of a problem because you have to warm up the food on yom tov.
> The first seder is less of a problem because you put the food on the
> heat before yom tov started.

> Anyone who follows the link RYL provided will see that it says you
> can't /cook/ for goyim on yom tov, it doesn't say you can't invite
> them to your table.

I see how you got that impression, however it's inaccurate.  Since it's
forbidden to cook for a goy on yomtov, it is therefore also forbidden
to invite him, as a gezera lest you cook extra for him.  Like any gezera,
you can't get out of it just by saying that the thing Chazal worried
about won't happen.

However, if a goy shows up uninvited, I know of no requirement to
evict him, and no reason not to allow him to join the meal.


> I would also like to ask what you would do with a non-Jew who is both
> A. planning to undergo an Orthodox gerus and is in the process of
> learning and also B. currently married to a Jew who is on the way to
> becoming a BT.

It seems to me that he can be informed of the halacha, and that this
is the reason he has not received and will not be receiving any formal
invitation, and therefore that he shouldn't sit back and wait for one
but should take matters into his own hands and show up at a home where
he knows he will be welcome.   (Anyone far enough in the process that
he "needs" a yomtov meal surely has at least one family where he is
familiar enough to be sure of a welcome.)

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