Halakhah do Rodzaju 26:31

Performance of certain mizvot, including circumcision, is traditionally accompanied by a celebratory meal.¹²The covenants entered into between Isaac and Abimelech and between Jacob and Laban were accompanied by festive banquets designed to demonstrate and to promote a convivial relationship between the covenanting parties. See Genesis 26:31 and 31:54. R. Yitzchak Meir Schorr, Koveẓ Bet Aharon ve-Yisra’el, Nisan-Iyar 5761, p. 114f., suggests that circumcision is similarly accompanied by a celebratory repast because of its covenantal nature. It seems to this writer that each of the miẓvot requiring a celebratory repast is imbued with a covenantal aspect and that it is for that reason that precisely those miẓvot are accompanied by a festive meal. Hokhmat Adam 149:24 emphasizes that the repast should be a meal in the halakhic sense of the term, i.e., that it must be served with bread as distinct from a collation consisting of coffee or whisky and pastries or the like. He adds that a person who can afford a proper repast but seeks to economize by offering his guests less than usual "does not act properly" and that R. Elijah of Vilna protested against such behavior.¹³Shitah Mekubbeẓet, Beiẓah 16a, cites Ritva in asserting that the sustenance ordained for an individual on Rosh ha-Shanah is exclusive of any expenses incurred in fulfilling a miẓvah just as it is exclusive of expenditures incurred in honoring the Sabbath and the festivals. See also R. Moshe Bunim Pirutinsky, Sefer ha-Brit 265:161.