And Yet

About ten years ago on a Motzai Shabbos I was at a Camp Morasha Melaveh Malkah. They know how to do it up: the food just kept coming. It was mostly Chinese food, trays and trays brought out and devoured. I was standing next to Rabbi Pesach Oratz, Z"TL, and I must have said something self conscious about the menu, from which I was indulging. He produced, as if from no-where, a challie roll wrapped in a napkin and said, "This is my Melave Malkeh." To me that kind of sums up the man. He was there because it was the right thing to do. On the other hand, over-eating was wrong. So, he planned ahead and stuck to his guns. He made it seem simple.

My yetzer harah is telling me that I have to eat pizza for Melave Malka, that there is no choice. Also, an inner voice is telling me that there's a mitzvah to eat on erev Yom Kippur and it's erev Yom Kippur. It doesn't really make sense that this should apply to the night of the ninth. And yet.