Seudat mitzvah Seudat mitzvah A seudat mitzvah (, "commanded meal"), in Judaism, is an obligatory festive meal, usually referring to the celebratory meal following the fulfillment of a "mitzvah" (commandment), such as a bar mitzvah, a wedding, a "brit milah" (ritual circumcision), or a "siyum" (completing a tractate of Talmud or Mishnah). "Seudot" fixed in the calendar (i.e., for holidays and fasts) are also considered "seudot mitzvah", but many have their own, more commonly used, names. Attendance at a "brit milah" (circumcision) and its subsequent "seudah" is of such great significance that Rabbi Moshe Isserles ("the Rama") notes ("Yoreh De'ah" 265:12) that
Milkhemet Mitzvah yet plowed their field before the war. All of these exemptions are given only in the case of "Milhemet Reshut." Talmud Scholars of both the Jerusalem and Babylonian Talmuds discussed the nature of the wars commenced by the Israelites during the biblical era (Tanakh) generally tend to describe the conquest of the Land of Israel in the Book of Joshua as Mitzvah Wars, while the wars fought by King David were meant to expand his kingdom, hence regarded as discretionary wars. Modern scholars also suggested that Mitzvah Wars originally signified a religious act. Questions about the halakhic justification for war