Question:
Are we allowed to go to a bar to drink with non Jews?
Answer:
For sefardim it is halachically prohibited, as one of the laws that chazal gave us to separate us from the gentiles is not to drink beer etc. in the house of a gentile. A bar would be included in this. Even for Ashkenazim, it is not advisable and frowned upon for a Jew to go to a bar to drink with non Jews, for numerous reasons. The environment of a bar will pull him to befriend the wrong type of people, to relate to them when they are at their worst, and it can eventually cause him to do things that he would otherwise do. However from a technical halachic standpoint the actual drinking is permitted according to some poskim, as long as you know that drink is kosher.
mechaber 114:1 ?!!!!
See the Rema on that seif, also Aruch Hashulchan ibid Y:D114- 11, Kuntris Bais Halevi Yoreh Deah pg. 74. This is according to the minhag of the Ashkenazim, for the Separdim it would be Halchically forbidden. Even for Ashkenazim, I am in no way condoning or encouraging anyone to go to a bar and drink with non Jews. Dovid Hameleh starts off tehillim saying אַשְֽׁרֵי-הָאִישׁ אֲשֶׁר | לֹא הָלַךְ בַּעֲצַת רְשָׁעִים וּבְדֶרֶךְ חַטָּאִים לֹא עָמָד וּבְמוֹשַׁב לֵצִים לֹא יָשָֽׁב:, “Fortunate is a man that does not go in the counsel of the wicked, and does not go in the path of the sinners, and does not sit in the company of the mockers”. This definitely includes not going to a bar and hanging out with non Jews! Going to a bar can bring the person to many serious aveiros, and it is not the place to look for company. However according to the Ashkenazi minhag I can’t say that there is a specific prohibition on it.
many poskim say ashkenazim are machmir for the mechaber
this is not just a mussar issue for ashkenazim – its a serious chashash issur
there are sefardim who look on the website for psakim, when a psak is given shouldn’t it be specified in the original answer that the ikar hadin is only applicable for ashkenazim?
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