Question: Is it permissible for
combat soldiers fighting in Gaza to eat meat during the Nine Days?
Answer: In general, it is
forbidden for Ashkenazim to eat meat from 1 Av (Mishnah Berurah 551:58) and for
Sefardim from 2 Av (Kaf Ha-Chaim ibid. #125).
A soldier in Tzahal, however, is not defined as Ashkenazi or Sefardi but
as a soldier, and it is permissible for a combat soldier to eat meat if it is
needed to give him strength. And this is
also the ruling of Colonel Ha-Rav
Eyal Krim, head of the Halachah Department of Tzahal (Kishrei Milchama
3:56). And the Military Rabbinate also
ruled this way.
Question: Can non-combat soldiesr
eat meat?
Answer: There is a Chiddush of
Maran Ha-Rav. It once happened that there
were two restaurants for workers, one Kosher and one not Kosher, and many of
the non-religious Jewish workers ate in the Kosher restaurant. During the Nine Days, however, meat was not
served in the Kosher restaurant, and the workers who wanted to eat meat would
eat in the non-kosher restaurant. The
Rabbi, who was responsible from the Poalei Mizrachi, asked Maran Ha-Rav Kook:
Is it permissible to serve meat in the Kosher restaurant so that the
non-religious Jews would not eat the Treif meat? Rav Kook said that it is permissible since it
is a Mitzvah to save Jews from eating Treif.
Any such meal is therefore considered a Seudat Mitzvah at which one may
eat meat during the Nine Days, and even you - the Rabbi - would be allowed to
eat meat there (Moadei Ha-Re'eiyah pp. 539-542)! One could say, based on this, that a meal
during which a combat soldier eats meat in order to give him strength to wage
war is considered a Seudat Mitzvah, and at a Seudat Mitzvah even a non-combat
soldier would be permitted to eat meat.
If Rav Kook had given such a ruling, we would certainly accept it, but
he did not. So the non-combat soldiers
must still refrain from eating meat.
