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Lag B’Omer

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Rabbi David Sperling

Iyyar 11, 5772
Question
Dear Rabbi I know a person who is not Jewish who happened to see an invitation I received to a Lag B’Omer event which includes all the festivities, food, etc. and expressed a desire to attend this event, which is put on by a shul.I know we are not to cook for a non Jew on a festival or invite them to eat with us, so I didn’t know what to do. Am I permitted to take them with me if I attend? If this is not permitted I can handle the situation in a way that will not offend this person. I want always to do the right thing
Answer
Shalom, Thank you for your question. The problem of inviting non-Jews to festival meals applies only to the festivals that are Yom Tov - that is the festivals that have forbidden labour connected to them, such as the first and last days of Passover, Succot and Shavuot. The other festival days, such as Hanukah, Purim and certainly Lag B'Omer have no forbidden labour attached to them, and so one may invite a non-Jerw to a meal on these days. This being so, you may bring the non-Jewish person to the celebrations - but it might be a good idea when introducing them at the party to inform people that they are not Jewish so as to avoid any embarrassment that could arise. This can be done in a nice way by saying something like "Shalom, I'd like you to meet my friend who has come to see how we Jews celebrate our festivals". Blessings.
את המידע הדפסתי באמצעות אתר yeshiva.org.il