- Q. We must add the following part to the answers above.
“Does it make a different if the olives are lightly chewed or well-chewed? Does it make a difference if they are eaten by themselves or with garlic or in something (e.g. cottage cheese)?
A. The Arizal (quoted in Kaf Ha”Chayim 24:43) writes that olives cause amei haaretz to forget, but if one eats them with the right kavanah or intention, on the contrary they help one to remember. We should intend “Kel Elokim Matzpatz, which has the same Gematriya (417) as zayis, and this intention counters the forgetting power of olives.
Horav Shlomo Miller”s Shlit”a opinion is that there is no prohibition on eating olives and “roggil” could be even less than thirty days.”
We can add to the above that Sefer Hazikaron (Siach Hassodeh 2: 11) quotes from Mogen Avrohom (170: 19), similarly to the above in the name of the Arizal. He mentions that all the Tanaim and Amoraim that consumed olives, did so with the right kavanah and intention, and therefore, on the contrary it helped them remember.”
The Rov added that the above would definitely apply when eating a seudas mitzva.
Rabbi A. Bartfeld as revised by Horav Yaakov Hirschman, Horav Dovid Pam, Horav Aharon Miller, Horav Chanoch Ehrentreu and Horav Kalman Ochs Shlit’a
Important Numbers
