Daily Halacha - Laws of Rosh Hashanah, 22 Elul 5777

What is Eruv Tavshilin?

When a holiday falls on Friday, our Sages forbade cooking in a separate pot or baking bread for Shabbat, unless one has prepared an Eruv Tavshilin. This means setting aside bread and a cooked dish before the holiday for Shabbat, to demonstrate that one isn't beginning to cook or bake for non-holiday purposes during the holiday itself, but rather completing food preparation that was already initiated. The custom is to set aside both bread and a cooked dish. If, however, one only set aside a cooked dish for the Eruv, one may still bake and cook on the holiday for Shabbat. But if one only set aside bread, some authorities forbid even baking on the holiday, while others permit at least baking. Since this is a rabbinic doubt, we rule leniently [Yalkut Yosef Siman 527].

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