The Shulchon Oruch quoting a gemorroh says that 9 beAv pushed off to Sunday one can eat Shalosh Seudos “ke`Shlomo Hamelech be`es malchusoy”.
What does this mean? Surely it is not only refering to the amount one can eat – there must be an additional point here? What does this expression imply?
Many thanks
Answer:
The Gemara is referring to the fact that generally the last meal before the fast is the seuda hamafsekes, and wine and meat are prohibited, as well as any 2 cooked items. In this scenario however one may eat a royal feast with meat, wine, and many cooked foods.
However there may be a deeper meaning as well:
The Gemara in Taanis 29b discusses the scenario we found ourselves in this year with regards to Tisha Bav. Most years before Tisha Bav we have a Seuda Hamfsekes , a seuda of aveilus where we sit on the floor and eat alone. So what happens when Erev Tisha Bav is on Shabbos? מעלה על שלחנו כסעודת שלמה המלך בשעתו, we enjoy a feast as great as the table of Shlomo Hamelech. While it is clear we push off Tisha Bav until Sunday, this gemara still seems perplexing. After all this is Shabbos Chazon and Tisha Bav and many customs of aveilus do apply. We don’t shave or wash for Shabbos, according to many this Shabbos one may only learn Inyanei Tisha Bav and Aveilus. So why the feast for Seuda Shlishis?
The Gemara one daf later in Taanis tells us כל המתאבל על ירושלים זוכה ורואה בשמחתה. If you mourn over it you will rejoice in its rebuilding. When? Many have mourned and died before Mashiach has come. Maybe it means לעתיד לבא, but that too is doesn’t seem to be the simple reading. R’ Tzaddok Hakohen writes that this means one who mourns properly, can see, taste and feel a little bit of the Geula immediately, as he is mourning.
Aveilus for the Churban means feeling a longing for Hashras Hashchina, for the גילוי שכינה of the Bais Hamikdash. This longing itself is a little bit of the rebuilding, the beginning of seeing the Hashgacha of Hashem in our lives. The Gemara in Brachos 33a tells us כל מי שיש בו דעת כאילו נבנה בית בימיו, one who has Daas, to see the Yad Hashem in the Churban, in hiding, is on the way to seeing the Yad Hashem in the open.
That fateful day the Bais Hamikdash was destroyed, we accomplished this. This is why as soon as the the Mikdash was destroyed, Mashicah was born [Talmud Yerushalmi Brachos 2-4]. As soon as we got the message and cried out, the geula has begun. The Navi Yeshaya preceded the Gemara in describing this. In the moving Haftorah of Achron Shel Pesach [Yeshaya 10 – 11] we read, והלבנון באדיר יפול – Levanon, the Bais Hamikdash, will fall. But from that Tree chopped down, ויצא חוטר מגזע ישי – the staff of Yishai, of Moshiach has already sprouted forth.
The Shabbos before Tisha Bav is called Chazon, Vision. This is the Shabbos that from within the Galus we see beyond the Galus. That we understand that from behind the הסתר פנים will emerge גילוי שכינה. So on this Shabbos we eat what the Medrash calls Seudas Tisha Bav, when we eat meat and drink wine, and in our minds we have already returned to the times of Shlomo Hamelech, גילו שכינה and to Binyan Bais Hamikdash, במהרה בימינו אמן.
