Daily Halacha - Laws of Blessings, 10th of Cheshvan 5778

Is it permissible to allow a secular person to eat without making a blessing?

Someone who is in the business of selling food, such as a restaurant or hotel, and non-blessing observant people come to eat without washing their hands, can be lenient in this matter for several combined reasons.

However, if a person brought his own food to work and a secular person asks to taste what he brought, one should be stringent in this case. But if this strictness might cause the secular person to develop hatred toward Torah scholars, one may be lenient [Yalkut Yosef Shabbat 1, Section 246].

Is it permissible to eat in a public street?

One who eats in the marketplace is disqualified from giving testimony [Kiddushin 40b, Shulchan Aruch 34]. According to the basic law, this prohibition applies only when eating while walking, but if one sits at a table in the marketplace, a person is not disqualified from giving testimony.

Nevertheless, Torah scholars and yeshiva students should not eat even while sitting at a table placed in the marketplace or on a bus, so as not to cause themselves to be looked down upon by others [Responsa of the Rishon L'Tzion 2, p. 468].

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