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Four different reasons are given for the mitzvah to eat on Erev Yom Kippur. Rabbeinu Yonah (1) records three of those reasons.
The first reason is to show the great joy of knowing that the time for our atonement has arrived.
A second explanation is that on other Yomim Tovim there is a meal to celebrate the joy of the mitzvos but since on Yom Kippur we cannot have that meal we hold it on Erev Yom Kippur.
A third rationale is to strengthen our bodies before the fast. Hashem knows that fasting is difficult and therefore, commanded us to eat the day before Yom Kippur, in order to ease the affliction (2)
The last reason is recorded in Shibolei Haleket. He writes that the reason for the mitzvah to eat on Erev Yom Kippur is to make the fast more difficult (the opposite of the previous explanation). There are a number of practical ramifications that emerge from these different reasons. One case would be a person who is ill and will eat on Yom Kippur.
The Eliya Rabbah (Rav Eliyahu Shapira’s gloss on the Shulchan Arukh) suggests that someone who eats a lot the day before the fast has a harder time refraining from eating on the fast day, therefore the person who spends the ninth of Tishrei eating is credited for having additional inuy.
Others point out that Yom Kippur is a holiday, a day on which we really should be eating and drinking.
Since we cannot eat and drink on Yom Kippur, we “make up” for it on erev Yom Kippur.
We explore the halacha of eating on the Erev Yom kippur and the chassidic dimension.