Q&A from the OK Consumer Hotline – Dairy Meal Before Meat Meal

Q. If I plan to have a fleishig meal after a milchig one, must I bentsch and start a new seudah, or can I simply clear the table, wait, and then serve meat?

A. The Magen Avraham writes that it is not necessary to recite Birchas HaMazon and begin an entirely new seudah. One may proceed to eat meat by clearing the table, rinsing out the mouth, ensuring that the tablecloth and utensils are changed (and waiting the amount of time one usually waits between milchig and fleishig).[1]

Others, however, follow the view (based on the Zohar) not to eat dairy and meat in the same seudah. Accordingly, they bentsch, wait an hour[2] and then begin a separate fleishig meal. This is also the minhag in Chabad.[3]

[1] Magen Avrahom 494:6, brought in Mishna Berurah 494:16.

[2] The hour can include time before bentching, from after one finished eating the dairy.

[3] Igros Kodesh, vol. 20, p. 289.