Honey and (soya)milk under your tongue (in-cheek)

Ribbie Danzinger

Thu, May 29 2008, 5:57 pm

I know, maybe this should be in the controversial section, or at least the intellectual section, but my question is, if I make a cheesecake with tofu and soya milk, am I yotzei Shavuos, or do I have to make a second day yom-tov (Hashem yatzilenu)?

Title edited because people were probably taking it too seriously

Raisin

Thu, May 29 2008, 6:21 pm

yeah I never really understand the point of soy cheese cakes. You can make yummy desserts that do not involve fake dairy products.

I htink you should eat a kzais of cheese or milk or yogurt to be yotzei on your milchig obligations. 2 days of yom tov in the hot summer is just way too much.

louche

Thu, May 29 2008, 8:12 pm

I checked with the (in)famous Rabbanit Louche (of the Lucha Popular por la Vida Lechedik), who darshans through gezerah shavah that, just as there is no mitzvah to eat potato products per se on Chanuka, so too there is no mitzvah to eat cheesy desserts (in the second meaning of the word) on Shavuot. Thus, just as making fat-free potato latkes on Chanuka is completely mssing the point, so too is making dairy-free "cheesecake" on Shavuot missing the point.

In the case of one whose health will be endangered, chas veshalom, by consuming diary products, she is permitted to eat dairy-free cheese or cheesecake alternatives while the rest of the mesubin eat dairy products, so as not to give the impression of being poresh min hatzibbur. One whose custom is to eat dairy during the year, even if seldom, and whose health will not be endangered by consumption of dairy products, there is no justification for her to consume non-dairy substitutes.

In either case, there is no mitzvah to overindulge in desserts, be they cheesy or made of cheese. One whose health or figure will be endangered, Chas veshalom, by consumption of such desserts can be yotzei with a kezayit of skim milk in coffee. Why she would want to be yotzei in this way is a question that beyond the scope of this teshuvah.