It’s very common, especially for those who stay up learning the entire night on Shavuos and daven with neitz, that they go to bed after Shacharis, and they only want to start the Yom Tov meal after they wake up. Does one need to be careful to wake up before chatzos and start the meal before chatzos, or is it ok to start later on in the day?
The Shulchan Aruch (334:1) rules: If a house catches fire, if it is Friday night before one has eaten the meal, he may save enough food for three meals. If it’s the morning, he may save enough food for two meals, and if it is Mincha time one may only save enough food for one meal. The Mishnah Berurah (s.k. 2) writes in the name of the Bach: If it’s after chatzos [midday], even if one hasn’t eaten his second meal of Shabbos, he is only allowed to save enough food for one meal (the Bach is of the opinion, that after chatzos, one can no longer fulfil the mitzvah of the second meal of Shabbos). The Mishnah Berurah concludes that the Pri Megodim is unsure about this. The Pri Megodim asks on the Bach, that the second meal of Shabbos should be no different to the first, and just like if one doesn’t eat a seudah at night he can make up for it in the day (see Rema 291:1), similarly, if one didn’t eat his second meal before chatzos, he should be able to make up for it after chatzos? The Pri Megodim concludes, that the Olas Shabbos leaves off that the Bach is tzorich iyun [difficult to understand and needs more looking into].
The Mishnah Berurah (288:2) writes further in the name of the Bach: “If the chazon does lots of singing, and the tzibbur doesn’t end up leaving shul on Shabbos until after chatzos, the chazon is acting wrongly. All the more so on Yom Tov (כל שכן ביו''ט).” Over here, the Bach doesn’t explain what the כל שכן is, however, at the beginning of Hilchos Shabbos (242:1) the Bach writes: According to the Smag and Rabbeinu Yerucham, on Shabbos there is also an obligation of חצי לה' וחצי לכם – “Half for Hashem and half for yourself”. The Bach argues and maintains that Shabbos needs to be split a majorityלה' and only partly לכם , with this, we can understand why he writes by Yom Tov כל שכן. On Shabbos if one delays the seudah until after chatzos he violates the prohibition of fasting on Shabbos, whereas on Yom Tov one violates the din of fasting, as well as the din of חצי לכם , therefore, delaying until after chatzos on Yom Tov is worse.
Based on this, on Shavuos when everyone agrees that there needs to be חצי לכם (see Pesachim 68a), certainly one needs to be careful to start the Yom Tov meal before chatzos. However, perhaps if one fulfils his obligation of חצי לכם by sleeping, perhaps there is no obligation to wake up before chatzos. If one made kiddush and ate something after Shacharis in the morning before going to sleep, he isn’t fasting, and certainly there is less need for him to wake up before chatzos. However, the rest of the family needs to be careful to make kiddush and eat something before chatzos.
The Aruch HaShulchan (288:2) is mechadesh, that just like shalosh seudas [the third meal of Shabbos] on Shabbos needs to be after chatzos (see siman 291), similarly, the second meal of Shabbos needs to be before chatzos. We learn the obligation to have three meals on Shabbos from the fact thatהיום is written three times by Shabbos: ויאמר משה אכלוהו היום, כי שבת היום לה', היום לא תמצאוהו בשדה and each one of the three meals has a fixed time. The Aruch HaShulchan asks why no other poskim bring this. He concludes, it’s certain that one needs to start his second meal before chatzos. However, even according to the argument of the Aruch HaShulchan, on Yom Tov when there is no such pasuk, perhaps the Aruch HaShulchan agrees that there is no need to start the meal before chatzos.
They bring from R’ Chaim Kanievsky zt”l that it’s good to start the Yom Tov day meal of Shavuos before chatzos. However, they explain that it’s because there are those who are stringent to eat three meals on Yom Tov. Therefore, those who don’t do this, it would seem they may be lenient and start the meal after chatzos, as long as they make kiddush and eat something in the morning after Shacharis before going to sleep.
(Based on a shiur given by R’ Yom Tov Sanger shlita, Shavuos 5784)
