Interesting Psak: what is Cholent?

Cholent. Not too many shailos can come up with cholent. Maybe if a drop of milk spilled into your bowl of cholent you would ask if it is kosher. Maybe you might have a question about how to heating or wrapping your cholent on Shabbos. Those, though, are really shailos external to the cholent.

As Kikar reports, nowadays cholent is commonly consumed in ways it never before was. Cholent is no longer just a Shabbos lunch food. Nowadays cholent gets served at weddings and bar mitzvahs throughout the week, it gets served as a social food on Thursday nights, it accompanies shiurim often on Thursday nights at "mishmar" but also at other times...

A question was sent to a number of gedolim asking about a person who committed to not eating cholent during the week - he wanted his cholent to remain special for Shabbos - can he eat cholent at a wedding he participated in where cholent was served. His friends had asked him why he wasn't eating, and when he explained what he had committed to, they claimed that the pareve cholent served at the wedding is not the same as the cholent he eats on Shabbos and is therefore not the subject of his commitment - only fleishige cholent would be the subject of his commitment. The question presented to various gedolim was does this person need hataras nedarim, an annulment of vows, in order to eat pareve cholent at upcoming simchas, or perhaps his commitment does not include this type of pareve cholent.

Here are some of the various responses from the rabbonim asked:
Rav Mendel Shafran and Rav Moshe Shaul Klein both answered saying that cholent is cholent and his commitment applies equally to pareve cholent as it does to fleishige cholent.

Rav Shmuel Eliezer Stern and Rav Naftali Nussbaum said it needs research to figure out what people call cholent. Personally I think it is clear that people also call pareve cholent "cholent", and if their answer is that it depends on how people call it, the answer would be that pareve cholent is equally cholent for this issue.

Rav Yitzchak Zilbershtein said we don't necessarily need to consider what people call it but a beis din should debate the issue - if a person commits to making cholent for his friend or for a shiur, can he fulfill his commitment by making a pareve cholent or only by making a fleishige cholent?

Rav Mordechai Gross answered that "cholent" is only fleishige cholent. A person in this situation could eat the pareve cholent, should he so desire, without annulling his vow.

------------------------------------------------------
Reach thousands of readers with your ad by advertising on Life in Israel

------------------------------------------------------