Reminder: Don’t Forget To Make An Eruv Tavshilin

Ordinarily, on Holidays we are permitted to prepare only the foods necessary for that same day.

This year, Shavuot falls out on a Friday, and the Shabbat meals must, as always, be prepared before Shabbat.

Special action is required, so that we may prepare the Shabbat meals on Friday. The Eruv Tavshilin ceremony, performed on Thursday, June 1st, before sundown, renders this permissible.

More information on how to perfom an Eruv Tavshilin in the Extended Article.

An Eruv Tavshilin is a Halachic device which allows one to cook food on the Festival for use on the Shabbat that immediately follows.

To allow one to cook on the Festival for use on Shabbat, one must prepare an Eruv Tavshilin which serves as a reminder that the cooking done on the Festival is for Shabbat only.

This Eruv consists of bread and something cooked, for example, a boiled egg or a piece of fish, and is prepared before the onset of the Festival.

It symbolically serves as the beginning of the preparation of food for Shabbat. Thus, any subsequent cooking done on the Festival is considered to be a continuation of the preparation begun before the Festival.

In the Diaspora, if the first day of Shavuot falls out on a Friday, one must prepare an Eruv Tavshilin on the afternoon before Shavuot so that one can cook on the Festival for Shabbat the first of the intermediate days.