Q. Shulchan Aruch mentions that if you sing during the meals of Chanukkah shirot and praise tunes, the meal becomes a seudat mitzvah. How many songs do you have to sing? If you don't sing but say a dvar Torah, or learn from a sefer when eating alone, does that count?
A. Indeed Shulachan Aruch (O.H. 670: 2) mentions that the meals one eats during Chanuka are considered only a Seudas Hareshus or discretionary and optional act. Remo (ibid.) maintains that if one sings or recites praises to Hashem they became a mitzvah banquet. Mishna Berura (ibid.9) quotes from Maharshal that a seuda eaten with the intention of honoring Hashem for the miracles of Chanuka, or for publicizing those historical miracles is deemed to be a Seudas Mitzva. Therefore as long as one mentions either by a single praise, song or a Chanuka dedicated D'var Torah the intention of the repast, it becomes a Seudas Mitzva.
Horav Shlomo Miller Shlit"a added that even a meal that you always eat at that time, will accordingly turn into a Mitzva feast.
Rabbi A. Bartfeld as revised by Horav Shlomo Miller Shlit"a
Important Numbers
