Is it permitted to cook for the second day’s meals before the first day’s meals and taste the food?

In the previous shiur we learned that one is permitted to cook more than necessary for the first day’s meal. The heter is to add more food to the pot before placing it on the fire, or to add food to the pot after being placed on the fire, if the additional food improves the taste or quality of the food already in the pot.

But if one is only cooking for the second day’s meals?

This poses a serious problem because the heter above is based on ribui shiurim – cooking more than necessary, it is not a heter to cook solely for the second day. As a result the idea of tasting was suggested. If one was to cook (on the first day) solely for the second day and taste the food after cooking, thereby deriving pleasure from the food on the first day, it would seem to permit its cooking. Again the problem is an apparent case of äòøîä – trickery, because one is cooking solely for the second day without deriving substantial benefit from that cooking.

So what’s the halacha?

It is not so simple. Many poskim hold that it is äòøîä and forbidden. [1] Many other poskim conclude that one may cook before the meal (on the first day) and eat a portion thereof.

The Shulchan Aruch HaRav [2] and others say that the prevalent custom is to cook for the 2^nd day but add certain stipulations, as follows.

• Must not verbally say that one is cooking for the 2^nd day.
• Must not add to the pot once on the fire, because one intends eating a small amount and the additional amount is purely for the 2^nd day.
• Must cook before the 1^st day’s meal, not after. The reason is because ideally one could eat the food today, on the first day, and cooking after the Yom Tov meal is clearly for the 2^nd day – a äòøîä. If however one really wishes to eat a portion of food on the first day one may cook after the meal as well.

As for heating cooked food, see further.

What about preparing things for the second day without doing a melacha?

The Rama writes [3] that one may not bring tables from the sukkah into the house on the last day of Sukkos because one is “preparing” on the 1^st day of Yom Tov for the 2^nd day. The poskim explain that the Rama means that one may not place legs and boards to form the table, but to carry them from the sukkah to the house is not hachana (preparing). [4]

Likewise, the Magen Avraham writes one may not arrange candles for the night (2^nd day Yom Tov) on account of hachana, even though this does not involve a melacha. [5]

May one remove frozen food from the freezer on the first day for the night meal?

It is not feasible to remove frozen food from the freezer at night because it will not be ready on time for the night meal.

Rav Ezriel Auerbach shlita rules that it may be taken from the freezer on the 1^st day because such a small action is not called hachana.

But the halacha says that one may not bring wine on the 1^st day for the 2^nd?

True, the Magen Avraham [6] does say that and it is cited by the Mishna Berura [7] and other poskim, but it is possible they were referring to wine drawn from a barrel, which is a significant action, but bringing a wine bottle is permitted.

When may one heat the food for second day Yom Tov?

It is customary to only heat the food after nightfall because heating it during the day is clearly for nighttime. If one needs to feed children or the elderly that cannot wait for nighttime, it may be heated during the day.

What about laying the table for nighttime?

Even though a set or laid table looks beautiful and dignifies the Yom Tov, nevertheless it is obviously being done for nighttime and ossur. However, one may cover the table with a tablecloth because that is done for first day Yom Tov as well.

May one prepare on first day Rosh Hashana for the second?

The halacha considers the two days Rosh Hashana as a single holy day and as two individual days; both l’chumra.

One may not prepare on the 1^st day for the 2^nd, because they are two separate days.

On the other hand, an egg laid by a hen on the first day of Yom Tov may be handled and eaten on the second day, because one of the days is intrinsically a weekday. But an egg laid on first day Rosh Hashana is ossur because the two days are one long holy day. [8]