[Avodah] Eating Before Shofar

[Zev Sero via Avodah]

I have to admit that this is one of the Lubavitcher customs that
puzzle me.   All year, not just on Shabbos but also on weekdays,
the official Lubavitch minhag is to allow eating before davening
(after saying sh'ma, on weekdays in tefillin), on the grounds that
it's difficult to daven properly without it.  In the Tzemach Tzedek's
words, "it's better to eat in order to daven, than to daven in order
to eat".  If you find that you're davening in order to get to breakfast,
you'd do better to get breakfast over with and then daven with kavanah.

And yet on Rosh Hashana, when one often doesn't get to kiddush until
2 or 3 in the afternoon, and when one needs kavanah in davening more
than ever,  Lubavitchers fast until kiddush!  I don't understand it.
If you can make it on Rosh Hashana, why not on any other day?  And if
you can't daven on an empty stomach on a weekday without thinking about
breakfast, then how can you daven on an even emptier stomach on Rosh
Hashana without thinking about lunch?



-- 
Zev Sero               KVChT
zev at sero.name