Q. A friend’s wife does not usually prepare supper for her husband. Therefore, he takes care of his own supper by eating in yeshiva or elsewhere. One day, he comes home and his wife has prepared a beautiful milchige supper for him. However, due to not expecting this, he ate a piece of chicken prior to coming home. He still has to wait almost six hours before it will be permitted to eat milchigs. May he eat the supper now? Wait a lesser time? Or should he offend his wife by not eating what she worked hard to prepare?
A. Horav Shlomo Miller’s Shlit’a opinion is that it would not be permitted for the husband who had some chicken, to partake on a milchig supper before the amount of time he usually waits has transpired.
Although we do find that sometimes it is permitted to do something usually proscribed, such as omitting the truth for the purpose of keeping the peace, it does not apply necessarily to all other prohibitions.
The correct advise is that the husband should nicely and respectfully explain the reason why he cannot partake on the milchig parts of the meal. There are other ways to compensate a spouse for the efforts done and maintain sholom bais.
Rabbi A. Bartfeld as advised by Horav Shlomo Miller Shlit’a