Page 154 - Chayei Adam LAYOUT sivan 5782

Chayei Adam - K’lal 144 - Laws of Erev Yom Kippur

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]1[ The posuk says “afflict your souls on the ninth day of the month, in the
evening”. The Torah should have more appropriately written “on the ninth of the
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month, in the evening, fast, until the evening”. Since the Torah wrote “afflict” on
the ninth of the month, it implies that one should fast on the ninth, but really,
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Yom Kippur is on the tenth of the month. Chazal have a tradition that on the
contrary, it is a mitzva to eat on the ninth of the month; Hashem wanted to give
us reward for eating as if we fasted. Yet, a mitzva which a person physically enjoys
like eating on Shabbos or yom tov is not as great as a mitzva which is painful, as
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Chazal teach us that reward is commensurate with the pain. [So,] had the Torah
written that we should eat on the ninth of the month, we would only be rewarded
for fulfilling a mitzva of eating. Therefore, [Hashem] changed the posuk and
expressed eating with an expression of affliction so that our eating should be
considered like a fast in the eyes of Hashem, so that He will reward us as if we
fulfilled a mitzva with pain and oppression. Therefore, it is a mitzva to eat and
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have more meals. If one vowed not to eat meat except on yom tov, he may eat
meat on erev Yom Kippur during the seuda ha’mafsekes, but not in the
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morning. It appears to me that since we are accustomed to eating meat for the
morning meal as well, and when someone vows, he intends his vow to be in line
with the prevalent custom, it is permitted [to eat meat] during the morning meal
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as well. One who didn’t make an explicit vow, but is generally accustomed to not
םדו רשב

1. Vayikra 23:32 3. Berachos 8b, Yoma 81b, Rosh Hashana
9a, Pesachim 68b
2. Then, it would have implied that the
fast begins at nightfall after the ninth day, just 4. Avos 5:23. Although the Torah could
as the Torah says (Shemos 12:18) “on the have explicitly commanded us to eat and we
fourteenth [of Nisan] in the evening, eat would be rewarded just as we are for eating
matzos'' which instructs us to eat matzos the on Shabbos and yom tov, the reward for a
night following the fourteenth. Here, however, difficult mitzva is still greater, and the Torah
the Torah commands us to afflict ourselves on therefore defined eating on erev Yom Kippur
the ninth, in the evening, implying that the as a difficult mitzva. (Pri Chadash).
command applies to the ninth of the month as
well (Tosofos). 5. According to some, the mitzva of

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