Q. If someone drinks grape juice for kiddush or eats challah instead of wine, what is the halacha about eating the se’udah or meal?

Do we have to eat the meal within 72 minutes of making the bracha or the kiddush?

A.  Remoh (O.H. 273: 3) rules that after reciting Kiddush one should eat on site immediately Poiskim disagree as to what is considered immediate. Mogen Avrohom (ibid. 5), quoting Maharil maintains it is literally right away, while Ohr Letzion (2: 20: 24) maintains that less than one half an hour is still called immediate. They also disagree as to length of time that would constitute a hefsek or disconnection and require another Kiddush recitation.  Maharika’sh (Erech Lechem 273) maintains that the span is seventy-two minutes or the common length of digestion. However Ginas Verodim (3:2) suggests that the duration of wine digestion may be shorter. Poiskim also try to explain why the lengthy recitation of the Hagada on the Seder night, is not a hefsek between the first Kidush cup and the seudah. Yalkut Yosef (Shabbos 4 p. 300) and others maintain that a wait that forms part or serves as preparation to the meal is not considered a Hefsek. Many Poiskim also mention as a determining factor the intention of the person at the time he was making Kidush (Shmiras Shabbos Kehilchoso 2: p. 174 et. al.).

Horav Shlomo Miller’s Shlit”a opinion (as also other Poiskim) is that if one recites Kidush and drinks a Reviis of wine (a minimum of 86 c.c.) it would already be considered as reciting Kiddush in a Seudah. It is better to drink a Melo Lugmov or a cheek full of wine followed by a complete reviis. He added that the fact that Shulchan Aruch (O.H. 471: 1) rules that one should not drink wine on Erev Pesach from the beginning of the tenth hour (around 3.00 P.M.) as it may spoil the appetite, shows that it may take even three hours or more for the wine to fully digest. Therefore if you drink a full cup of wine (containing preferably a Melo Lugmov plus a Reviis) during Kidush, you may latter wash and eat your Seudah.

Rabbi A. Bartfeld as revised by Horav Shlomo Miller Shlit”a