QUESTION

New York, NY

Can one have a Purim Seudah late in the day, and have it enter into the Shabbat meal?

ANSWER

Yes. This is the principle of poreis mapah umekadeish (Shulchan Arukh OC 271:4), that if one is in the middle of the meal on Friday towards sunset, he or she can spread a cloth over the bread, make Kiddush, and continue eating. The following is a guide for how to do this.

SHORT VERSION (for long version, with sources and discussion, see below)

1. One may have the Purim seudah in the late afternoon
2. Stop eating before sunset
3. Bring out two loaves of bread
4. Spread a cover over all the bread
5. Kiddush – Have you been drinking wine during the Purim seudah?
   1. Yes -> Say Kiddush WITHOUT בורא פרי הגפן but WITH holding a glass of wine
   2. No -> Say Kiddush as normal, WITH Borei Peri HaGafen
6. Bread – Do NOT make HaMotzi, but have two loaves
7. Eat a kebeitzah (or kezayit, bedieved) of bread after Kiddush
8. You can finish your bread immediately, even before Tzeit HaKokhavim
9. Birkat HaMazon – Did you ate a kezayit after Tzeit?
   1. Yes -> Say רצה. Do NOT say Al HaNissim in the second berakhah.
      • Al HaNissim can be added in HaRachaman at the end
   2. No -> Say Al HaNissim, not Retzeih

Davening

10. You MAY NOT daven Kabbalat Shabbat after the Shabbat meal.
11. You MAY daven BOTH Kabbalat Shabbat and Ma’ariv between the Purim meal and the Shabbat Meal (right before poreis mapah). You do not say another HaMotzi or Borei Peri HaGafen when you return to the meal.
12. You MAY daven Kabbalat Shabbat before poreis mapah and then Ma’ariv at the end of the Shabbat meal.
13. My advice would be to do the last option: Kabbalat Shabbat while at the table (or at least Lekha Dodi and Mizmor Shir), and then to do poreis mapah and then Ma’ariv after the Shabbat meal. This could be a very nice experience, singing Kabbalat Shabbat with everyone seated at the table, and then lead into Kiddush.

LONG VERSION

May one have the seudah in the late afternoon?

First, we should note that regarding the timing itself in the late afternoon in general, Rema in Shulchan Arukh OC 695:2 writes that it is best to do the seudah when the day is still long and eat the majority of the seudah during the day. Nevertheless, this is just one Minhag among a range of minhagim, and some poskim specifically prefer the end of the day for the seudah, especially if it means having a nice meal when done then. There is definitely a practice when Purim falls out on Friday to go from Purim seudah into a Shabbat meal and to do poreis mapah. I have done it in the past and will be doing it this year. I feel that it enables you to have a more serious Seudat Purim and Seudat Shabbat. For more detail, see the footnote.¹

Poreis Mapah – A How To Guide

To now turn to the key points to attend to when one does poreis mapah and moves from the Purim meal to the Shabbat meal:

1. Stop eating before sunset
   • Once the time of Kiddush comes – which is sunset when Shabbat starts – you may not eat without making Kiddush. – Shulchan Arukh OC 271:4 – אסור לטעום כלום קודם שיקדש, אפי’ מים. ואפי’ אם התחיל מבעוד יום, צריך להפסיק, שפורס מפה ומקדש
2. Bring out two loaves of bread
   • Although you will not be making המוציא (see below), the practice of starting the meal with two loaves of bread is independent of the berakhah
3. Spread a cover over all the bread
   • This is the poreis mapah part
   • The Kiddush needs to introduce the Shabbat meal and define the eating afterwards. Thus, the bread, which represents the seudah, must be covered and only “brought to the table,” i.e., uncovered after Kiddush is made.
4. Kiddush – Have you been drinking wine during the Purim seudah?
   1. Yes -> Say Kiddush WITHOUT בורא פרי הגפן but WITH holding a glass of wine
      • This is the mekadeish part
      • Kiddush still requires you to hold a glass of wine -this is independent of whether you will be making the berakhah over it or not.
      • Source – Shulchan Arukh OC 271:4 – ואם היו שותים יין תחלה, אינו אומר אלא קידוש בלבד בלא ברכת היין
   2. No -> Say Kiddush as normal, WITH Borei Peri HaGafen
5. Bread – Do NOT make HaMotzi –
   • Since you have already been eating bread at the Purim meal
   • Have two loaves, as mentioned above.
   • This is debated. Some say that Kiddush causes an interruption and you do say HaMotzi. But the ruling is that you do not. Source – Shulchan Arukh OC 271:4 – – וי”א שאף כשמקדש על היין אינו מברך המוציא. Mishnah Berurah #18 – דס”ל דקידוש לא הוי הפסק. וכיון דספק ברכות להקל יש לתפוס כהי”א [אחרונים]:
6. Eat a kebeitzah (or kezayit, bedieved) of bread after Kiddush
   • Source Shulchan Arukh OC 291:1 – זהיר מאד לקיים סעודה שלישית ואף אם הוא שבע יכול לקיים אותה בכביצה. Mishnah Berurah 291:2 – וי”א שאפילו בכזית יוצא ידי הסעודה ונכון להחמיר לכתחלה אם אפשר לו:
7. You can finish your bread immediately, even before Tzeit HaKokhavim
   • Since you accepted Shabbat, you can fulfill the mitzvah of Seudat Shabbat right away
     • Source – Shulchan Arukh OC 267:2 – ובפלג המנחה יכול להדליק ולקבל שבת בתפלת ערבית ולאכול מיד
   • Some say that it is ideal to eat a kezayit after Tzeit so that the mitzvah can be fulfilled when it fully Shabbat
     • See Mishnah Berurah 267:5 – ויש חולקין וסוברין שיזהר למשוך סעודתו עד הלילה ויאכל כזית בלילה וטעמם דכיון דהג’ סעודות ילפינן ממה דכתיב אכלוהו היום כי שבת היום לה’ וגו’ בעינן שיקיים אותם ביום שבת עצמו ולכתחלה נכון לחוש לדבריהם:
8. Birkat HaMazon – Did you ate a kezayit after Tzeit?
   1. Yes -> Say רצה. Do NOT say Al HaNissim in the second berakhah.
      • Al HaNissim can be added in HaRachaman at the end
      • Normally, when Shabbat did not follow Purim, but the meal extended into the night, we would say Al HaNissim in the second berakhah, since we would go by when the seudah began, i.e., in the daytime, when it was Purim.
      • Source: Shulchan Arukh OC 695:3 – אומר על הנסים בברכת המזון בברכת הארץ; ואם התחיל סעודתו ביום ומשכה עד הלילה, אומר: על הנסים, דבתר תחלת סעודה אזלינן
      • Nevertheless, here it is competing with Retzeih, which should be added based on when the seudah ended. It is considered competing because Purim and Shabbat are on different days. In this case, since Retzeih is the weightier addition (you would need to repeat if you didn’t say it), it wins out.
      • Source: Mishnah Berurah 695:15 – כשחל פורים בע”ש ומשכה סעודתו עד הלילה חייב להזכיר של עכשיו דהיינו רצה וא”כ איך יאמר על הניסים דהוי תרתי דסתרי וכיון דאין הזכרת עה”נ חמור כ”כ לכן יאמר רק של שבת. וכ”ז אפילו כשלא התפלל עדיין ובפרט אם התפלל מקודם בודאי אינו כדאי להזכיר אח”כ עה”נ בבהמ”ז וכדלקמיה:
   2. No -> Say Al HaNissim, not Retzeih

Davening

9. You MAY NOT daven Kabbalat Shabbat after the Shabbat meal
   • Kabbalat Shabbat is about receiving Shabbat, and you cannot say it after Tzeit HaKokhavim, and Shabbat has already begun
10. You MAY daven BOTH Kabbalat Shabbat and Ma’ariv between the Purim meal and the Shabbat Meal (right before poreis mapah).
    • You do not say another HaMotzi or Borei Peri HaGafen when you return to the meal
    • Davening Ma’ariv it is not considered an interruption (although this is a matter of debate, this is the way we rule), and when you return from davening to the meal you are not required to make any new berakhot. (If there is a היסח הדעת, you lose consciousness that you have to return to the meal, you would have to make berakhot when you return.)
    • Source Shulchan Arukh OC 178:2 – אבל אם הניח מקצת חברים…ולכן מי שפסק סעודתו והלך לבית אחר… כשחוזר לסעודה א”צ לברך
    • There is a benefit that it would make the Shabbat meal totally distinct. However, I would not advise it, because:
      • It would make it hard to get back into eating once you had a big meal and interrupted it like this.
      • Given the various debates regarding hefseik it is better to not be mafsik if you don’t need to
11. You MAY daven Kabbalat Shabbat before poreis mapah and then Ma’ariv at the end of the Shabbat meal.
    • That way you are saying Kabbalat Shabbat before Tzeit and Ma’ariv after everything so there is no interruption in the meal
12. My advice would be to do the last option: Kabbalat Shabbat while at the table (or at least Lekha Dodi and Mizmor Shir), and then to do poreis mapah and then Ma’ariv after the Shabbat meal
    • This could be a very nice experience, singing Kabbalat Shabbat with everyone seated at the table, and then lead into Kiddush

¹ Regarding the range of minhagim and the acceptability of all of them, Beit Yosef says explicitly writes: הכל לפי המנהג: “all is according to the custom.” Darkhei Moshe does note that when Purim falls out on Erev Shabbat the Minhag is to do it in the morning (so it doesn’t conflict with the Shabbat night meal), but that when it falls out on other days of the week, it is fine to do it towards evening time as long as the majority of the meal is eaten in the day. In contrast, Terumat HaDeshen (110) writes that the practice is to start in the late afternoon, and that there is a reason to specifically eat the majority after nightfall. Finally, it should be noted that a number of Achronim explicitly defend the practice of eating in the late afternoon, and it is also known that some gedolim would specifically make a point to eat the meal at the end of the day.