Q: Is it befitting for a ben-Torah to eat in a pizza shop or a restaurant?

A:
Let me explain something to you. If you’re a yeshiva bochur, a kollel man, or a working man who wants to to do what’s right, make yourself a sandwich before you go out of the house in the morning. Take the sandwich along with you and eat the sandwich for lunch. Why waste money on a restaurant? I don’t understand that! For years and years I ate sandwiches that I took with me into the yeshiva every day. Why not?! It costs a load of money to eat in a restaurant. You’re not חס על ממון ישראל?! You’ll need that money for yourself. For more important things than pizza or restaurant food.

Secondly, if you’re eating in a place where leitzim come together, there’s no excuse for that. It’s a moshav leitzim and there’s no excuse for you to sit in such a place! ובמושב ליצים לא ישב. You can’t sit down over there! Especially in some restaurants and pizza places where girls – frum girls – come. Frum girls at this table and yeshiva boys at another table. Not good at all. Not good at all!

And therefore, the best thing is, take along something from the house, a lunchbox, and eat it where you’re able to sit by yourself, in the office or some other place. And you don’t have to spend any money. And you don’t have to associate with the wrong people either.

TAPE # E-172 (November 1998)