Motzoei Tisha Be’av Nidcha

By Rabbi Chaim Chazzan

Are the things prohibited during the nine days forbidden on Motzoei Tisha Be’av (when Tisha Be’av is pushed off), or may we eat meat, wash clothes etc?

In a regular year when Tisha Be’av falls out during the week, one shouldn’t begin any on the things prohibited in the nine days until chatzos (halachic midday) of the day after Tisha Be’av[1]. However when Tisha Be’av is pushed off one only needs to refrain from eating meat and drinking wine[2] (other than at a seudas mitzvah) at night, but Monday morning one may eat meat and drink wine.

All other matters which are prohibited during the nine days such as taking a haircut, washing laundry, wearing freshly laundered clothes, bathing for pleasure, listening to music and making shehecheyanu are permitted[3] on Motzoei Tisha Be’av in this year’s kvius.

Although as mentioned,  we refrain from drinking wine even in this year’s calendar, the custom[4] is that the one making havdalah on Motzoei Tisha Be’av drinks the wine himself and does not give it to a child to drink (as one should lechatchila do on Motzoei Shabbos during the nine days).

The reason[5] for the distinction between meat and wine and all the other prohibitions is that the nine days have ended so there is no reason to refrain from all the other prohibitions. However meat and wine remain prohibited as it is not appropriate to gorge on delicacies so soon after the mourning on Tisha Be’av[6], similar to a fast that a person accepts upon himself as a form of teshuva when he is enjoined not to eat meat or drink wine the night after the fast. This applies on the night following a personal fast because the fast is as a replacement for a korban by which the night follows the day[7]. This is in contrast to public fasts (other than Tisha Be’av) that weren’t established merely as atonement and therefore the night does not follow the day.

Alternatively[8], being that on Tisha Be’av Klal Yisrael are like onanim (one who loses a close relative ch”v before the burial) and an onen can’t eat meat the night after the burial, so too the night following tisha Be’av.