– Q. Dear Rabbi. A group of elderly and ill residents in our old age home, who are allowed by all opinions to eat on a fast day even on Tisha Beav and they sit together in a table, can they recite Birchat Hamazon together and say the brachot of Mezuman (Rabotay Nevarech) etc.

A. Horav Shlomo Miller Shlit’a opinion is that although they are allowed to eat they should avoid eating together and thus giving the appearance of a seuda or a happy occasion.

Rabbi A. Bartfeld as revised by Horav Yaakov Hirschman, Horav Dovid Pam, Horav Aharon Miller, Horav Chanoch Ehrentreu and Horav Kalman Ochs Shlit’a.