Note 817 — Chapter VIII · THE HEBREW SABBATH

The Talmud (Tractate Pesachim, 105 a) indicates that some superstitions attached to the afternoon of the Sabbath as a dangerous time for the consumption of food. During the early Middle Ages Jews in northern France, Lorraine, and Germany, but not in Provence, Narbonne, or Spain, refrained from eating and drinking on Sabbath afternoons. See D. Kaufmann, “Was the Custom of Fasting on Sabbath Afternoon Part of the Early Anglo-Jewish Ritual?” Jewish Quarterly Review, 1894, vi, 754-756.