Q. I saw someone make kiddish on Shabbas day for many people at a "kiddish" at shul. He only took a very small sip of wine (for sure not a "maleh lugmov" (cheek-full).
1. If nobody else there drank any wine, is there any opinions that he or anyone else there fulfilled the mitzvah of kiddish and is able to then eat other foods?
2. I didn't have in mind to drink any of the wine from that Kiddish cup. Should I have grabbed the cup right away, made the "HaGefen" bracha and drank the rest of the wine in order to "save" the kiddish for everyone? (I generally don't like to drink from other people's cups (germs!) and I also felt it to be inappropriate to do in front of someone who is otherwise on a much higher level than me (age/wisdome/position, etc).
3. Given that I was uncertain if it was a proper kiddish and I felt uncomfortable taking the Kiddish cup or asking for wine, I chose to make my own kiddish with a shehakol on some Beer. Its not like I ever made an official neder to only use wine/grape juice, but I've never used anything myself other than wine/grape juice in the past. Is it okay to use this "lower level" option simply to allow myself to enjoy the kiddish foods, or would it be necessary (or preferred) to avoid the kiddish foods altogether and wait until I get home to make a kiddish on wine before the seuda?
thanks again!
A. 1. Shulchan Aruch (O. H. 271: 13) rules that one has to drink a “male lugmov” or a complete cheek-full of wine to comply with kidush. Mishna Berura (ibid. 64) opines that even bedieved or after the fact one does not comply and so maintain many Poskim. However, Beis Yosef (ibid.), Tashbatz (4: 32), Yechave Da’as (3: 40), Ohr Letzion (2: 182) and others are of the opinion that even if no one drank as when the cup spilled, you comply after the fact.
2. Horav Shlomo Miler’s Shlit’a opinion is that if you had in mind to be yotzeh with the kidush, but not to drink wine, and therefore when you changed your mind to save the kidush, you recited the brocho and drank a shiur, the kidush would have been corrected and saved, according to most opinions.
3. Horav Shlomo Miller’s opinion is that you do not have to be matir neder (absolve from promises) for changing occasionally from drinking wine or grape juice, in case of need, as when there is no wine, or in your particular case to other beverages. The above is correct if the drinks are “chamar medino” and are being consumed widely in that location, especially when you drink a full shiur of them.
Rabbi A. Bartfeld as revised by Horav Shlomo Miller Shlit”a
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