This week everybody knows that the minhag (custom) is not to eat meat or drink wine, although the Gemara says that the halakha (Jewish law) applies only to Seudah mafseket, which means the last Seudah before the fast. Actually, this year, you could eat meat and drink wine at the last Seudah before the fast because it’s Shabbat. But if it weren’t Shabbat, one would not be allowed to do so, mi-dina de-Gemara—that’s the halakha. But the minhag of Israel is to add to that; each community has different customs. The accepted practice in general is, from Rosh Chodesh (new month), not to eat meat or drink wine.
There was a video from Hacham David Yosef circulating this morning in which he says something I’ve always said, but I’m happy that somebody more chashuv (respected) than me could say it too. But I always said that I am very upset that some restaurants that want to save business during these days offer a very special service. It’s called a siyum (completion) service. When you go at a certain time, there’s going to be someone making a siyum. We know that if somebody is making a siyum, then it’s a Seudah mitzvah (mitzvah meal). If it’s a Seudah mitzvah, then it’s allowed to have meat and drink wine. So they have a siyum service. They tell you that at 8 p.m. someone will be making a siyum, and everybody in the room, 200 people, can eat meat.
So the chiddush (novel insight) door is that every night of the week they have—some places have live DJs on Thursday and free drinks on Mondays; here, every night they have the siyum service, only one week a year. How convenient. I always felt this was very, very wrong. Hacham David Yosef said this. I’m going to paraphrase exactly what he said, but I would like to put it this way: If you eat meat during this week, you violate a minhag. That’s it. It’s not good, but you violate a minhag. But if you use a siyum to eat meat, that’s asur. Completely asur. Why? Because you’re making fun of the Torah. You’re using Torah for your own benefit and making fun of it because, first of all, it doesn’t work. You have to listen to the siyum. Most people aren’t listening to the siyum at all; they’re just coming for the food. You have to listen to the siyum. You have to be really invited by the person making the siyum as a close friend who is coming to celebrate. And worst of all, the restaurant doesn’t even invite you. They invite the guy who finished the siyum to partake in the meal. So the person who finished the siyum isn’t even having his own Seudah. He isn’t the one inviting the people to his Seudah; it’s not his Seudah. The guy who finished the thing says, “Okay, I gotta go to the next restaurant. Maybe it’s going for another hundred bucks somewhere else.” Everything is so wrong, and we use the Torah against the spirit of the Torah. That’s asur.
And therefore, it’s better to eat meat. I didn’t say, “Eat meat.” I know people are there. The rabbi said you could eat meat. No, I didn’t say that. It’s better to eat meat and drink wine and violate a minhag than to use the Torah for a benefit against the spirit of the Torah. Therefore, it is completely wrong to do that. If you want to eat meat, just eat meat. You’ll violate a minhag. Minhag is your problem. But at least you know you’re in the wrong. Here, you think you’re in the right. When I say “you,” chas v’shalom (God forbid), I don’t mean anybody here; I mean these people. Therefore, we are against this custom. We do not do these things. We don’t use the Torah for a benefit.
I have somebody who texts during class many times. He knows I don’t like that. So what does he do? He has a Gemara like this, and he texts me. I said, “Listen, don’t use the Gemara to hide the texting. Use something else. Take a newspaper. Take a Guinness record book. Whatever you want. But don’t use the Gemara. It’s better if you text without the Gemara. Using the Gemara to hide the text? No good.” So that’s the idea behind this halakha. May Alav HaShalom (peace be upon him).