The Little Known “LBOE” Shabbos Obligation – Do it Tonight!

By Rabbi Yair Hoffman for 5tjt.com

Everyone loves Shabbos, and almost everyone knows about the obligation to taste of the Shabbos food on Fridays. In fact, the Friday pre-Shabbos tasting (FPST) is a great Mitzvah.

LESSER-KNOWN COUSIN

But the FPST has a lesser-known cousin. That obligation can be called the Shabbos LBOE obligation. And, unfortunately, even though the Mishna Brurah mentions it (in Siman 250:2) – it is often ignored. It is ignored, because no one seems to know about it.

EVEN THE NEW EDITION OF THE DIRSHU IGNORES IT

Most Seforim store owners are aware of the fact that the Dirshu Mishne Brurah has pretty much taken over the Mishna Brurah market. Who wants to buy an old set of Mishna Brurah, when one can buy a new version with the opinions of all of the recent Gedolim discussed on the other side of the page. In fact, the Dirshu has become so popular that they offer a Mahadurah Chadasha – a new edition of it. And yet, even still the Shabbos LBOE obligation is ignored by the Dirshu editors too!

What about the Ohr Olam English Mishna Brurah? Do they cite the LBOE obligation on Shabbos? They do, of course, translate it in their translation – but they do not have a footnote about it. What about in their summary of each Siman in the back? The answer is, “Yes!” They do mention it.

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PART OF THE OBLIGATION OF KAVOD SHABBOS

The LBOE Shabbos obligation is part of the Mitzvah of Kavod Shabbos although it is certainly part of Oneg Shabbos as well. It is first elaborated upon in the Zohar in Bereishis 48b. The Mishna Brurah cites as his source, the Shulchan Shlomo – written by Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Mirkesh – the former Av Beis Din of Mir. The Shulchan Shlomo is kind of like a Kitzur Shulchan Aruch but on each of the Shulchan Aruch’s Simanim. The Shulchan Shlomo clearly based his ruling on the Zohar and was a major advocate of printing Siddurim with sections and commentaries from the Zohar. In this author’s opinion it did not make it big, because the Shulchan Shlomo predated the Vilna Gaon and thus could not take into account the Vilna Gaon’s opinions. Nonetheless, this very valuable Sefer is highly regarded by the Mishna Brurah.

What many people are thinking now is: “Okay, Hoffman stop it already. You are already 20% into the article, and you still haven’t told us what LBOE is. Just cut to the chase, already! We have no more patience for you and your silly abbreviations.”

Okay. The LBOE obligation stands for Little Bit Of Everything – which means that at the Friday Night Seudah there is an obligation to taste a little bit of everything that was prepared for the evening Shabbos Seudah. For those who doubt it, we will now translate the section in the Zohar (Bereishis 48b).

“And on the night of Shabbos, the person must taste from all of the foods that were prepared for the honor of Shabbos in order to demonstrate that the Shechina that is called “Sukkas Shalom” encompasses all types of shefa – abundance – that comes from the sphere that is called “Shalom.” He must, however, make sure that he does not sully and eat of the food that was prepared for the day meal. Some say that two foods must be saved for the two meals of the day, and that is proper. And certainly if he can leave more foods for the day meal and eat of other foods at night – this is certainly proper.”

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We see from this Zohar that the LBOE Shabbos obligation is fundamentally different from its more famous aforementioned cousin the Friday pre-Shabbos tasting (FPST). We see this from the fact that the Zohar forbids tasting of the Shabbos day meal. The LBOE obligation also has different reasons entirely. The reasons for FPST is to ensure that the food is good, and perhaps to show that the pre-tasting, in and of itself, is also part of Kavod Shabbos. The LBOE obligation is to demonstrate the nature of the Shechina and its inherent nature of sheaf – abundance.

May we all merit shefa – abundance in every spiritual aspect of our lives. May we implement the shefa in the physical aspects of our lives to enhance our ruchnius as well. We can do this at tonight’s meal by tasting just a little bit of everything that was purchased, baked or cooked lekavod Shabbos!