Siman 289

And his table should be set in the morning on the Shabbat day in honor of the second meal, and the beds made, and for us, the chairs upon which one sits should stand arranged as if one is expecting an honored guest, and a tablecloth spread over the bread as in the night meal. And the sages said in Pesachim (105a): that the honor of the day takes precedence over the honor of the night, such as if he does not have much wine or types of delicacies—he should leave them for the day meal (Rashi) and not for the night meal, and likewise all good foods that can be prepared for the day meals—they take precedence over the night meal, and see what I wrote in siman 271, section 9. And one should not ask that if the honor of the day takes precedence over the honor of the night, why is kiddush at night from the Torah and during the day from the rabbis. For this is not because of the meal, but rather because of the entry of the Shabbat, and on the contrary, the kiddush of the day is only because of the honor of the meal, for if not so, what place is there for this kiddush, since they already sanctified it at its entry, but certainly the kiddush is for the honor of the meal.

And the reason that the honor of the day takes precedence, it seems to me, is because the primary meals are during the day and not at night, (see Tosafot at the end of Avodah Zarah, s.v. 'bat yoma') and furthermore, at night he had already eaten during the day on the eve of Shabbat, and it is impossible for the meal to be as dear to him as during the day of Shabbat. And furthermore, in the Mikdash the primary recognizable sanctity was during the day, as they offered the musaf sacrifice then, and not at night, when there was no service of Shabbat. And furthermore, the primary strength of time is during the day, as is found in Shabbat (89b) in the debate of Yitzchak in the time to come: "Subtract half for the nights etc." see there, and in Eruvin (65a) "We are day workers" see there.

And also during the day one must recite kiddush over a cup of wine before the meal by rabbinic decree, and they supported this from the verse "Remember the Sabbath day to sanctify it" (Pesachim 106a), see there. And it is not because "day" implies day and not night, for a day is twenty-four hours, as it is written: "And it was evening and it was morning, one day," but rather because this word "day" is as if superfluous, for it could have written: "Remember the Sabbath to sanctify it." And the reason for this kiddush is for the honor of the day and the meal, as I wrote in section 1, and I found a proof for this from the Sheiltot Yitro (siman 54) which the Rashbam cited in Pesachim there, and this is his wording: "Bring a cup of wine and bless and drink for the sake of the honor of Sabbath, to distinguish between the character of Sabbath and the character of a weekday." Thus far his words. Behold, the essence of the kiddush is only for the sake of honor. Therefore, it contains only the blessing of "borei pri hagafen," and in the Gemara there they called it "Kiddusha Rabba" by way of euphemism, and furthermore because this blessing is present in all kiddushim (Rashi and Rashbam ibid.). And there are those who say before the kiddush the verses of "Remember the Sabbath day," and there are those who begin "Therefore He blessed," even though it is in the middle of a verse, for their intention is not for the verse but rather to precede with words. And there are those who say "A Psalm of David, Hashem is my shepherd," and there are those who say the passage of the bazikhin. But from the Gemara there it is explicitly proven that they did not say anything, and only opened with the blessing of hagafen and drank. (For it says there: "Rabbi Ashi happened upon... since for all blessings they say borei pri hagafen first... he leaned and drank," see there. And regarding the bazikhin, we explained in siman 283 that it is not correct to say it before midday, see there, and so I saw in my youth great men who said nothing before this kiddush.)

And after the kiddush he shall wash his hands for the meal over lechem mishneh just as at night and dine. There are those who are accustomed to eat sweets after the kiddush, such as lekach and other foods, and if he eats immediately he does not require an after-blessing for this, as we have clarified this above in siman 176; see there. However, if he eats after a period of time—it is obvious that he requires an after-blessing. Indeed, we have already written in siman 249, section 12, that the mind of the early authorities was not at all comfortable with the eating of sweets after kiddush, but rather that after kiddush he should wash his hands and eat the meal; see there. And before kiddush—it is forbidden to taste anything, even water, just as at night. However, before the prayer it is permitted to drink hot drinks because the obligation of kiddush has not yet fallen upon him, and before Musaf—it is forbidden until he recites kiddush, as I have written in siman 286.

For this kiddush, one does not recite kiddush over bread, and even though at night one may recite kiddush over bread—there, there is a recognition that it is kiddush because of the blessing of kiddush, but during the day when there is only the blessing that he recites over HaMotzi—if so, the kiddush is not recognizable at all. Therefore, in a place where wine is not available—one should perform kiddush over whiskey or beer or other beverages, even though at night we did not permit this according to all opinions, as some hold specifically over bread when there is no wine, as was written in siman 272, but in the morning—everyone agrees for the reason that was explained, and even if it is not chamar medina, for what loss is there in this, since there is only its blessing here, and in any case there will be a recognition for kiddush, and so wrote our teacher, the Beit Yosef, in his great book, see there. (And see Magen Avraham, subsection 3). And according to this, it appears in my humble opinion that if there is no beverage at all—he can recite kiddush even over milk so that there will be a recognition, and if there is no beverage at all—he eats without kiddush, meaning that he recites 'HaMotzi' over the bread and intends for the sake of kiddush, and that is to say that before this he shall not eat anything, for what can he do since he has nothing. And if he also has no bread—he shall eat other things, for what is there for him to do (ibid., subsection 4).