Are women obligated to eat שלש סעודות on Shabbat? Are they obligated to eat a מלוה מלכה on Motsei Shabbat?

Question: Are women obligated to eat שלש סעודות on Shabbat? Are they obligated to eat a מלוה מלכה on Motsei Shabbat?

Introduction: There is an obligation to eat 3 meals on Shabbat. The pasuk in Shemot (16:25):

וַיֹּ֤אמֶר מֹשֶׁה֙ אִכְלֻ֣הוּ הַיּ֔וֹם כִּֽי־שַׁבָּ֥ת הַיּ֖וֹם לַיהוָ֑ה הַיּ֕וֹם לֹ֥א תִמְצָאֻ֖הוּ בַּשָּׂדֶֽה׃

While discussing the מן in the desert, the Torah mentions the word היום three times. Based on this the Talmud says that there is an obligation to eat three meals on Shabbat. However, this mitzvah is a מצות עשה שהזמן גרמא, time bound in nature and most of these type of mitzvoth are not obligatory for women. Is that the case here?

Answer: 

Rabbeinu Tam says that despite it being time bound, women are obligated in this mitzvah since this mitzvah is connected to the miracle of the מן in the desert. Since women were also part of and benefited from that miracle, they are obligated to perform that mitzvah. Rav Ovadia quotes a number of other Rishonim who agree with this position and adds the fact that the pasuk above says “אכלוהו היום”, which presumably was Moshe speaking to all of the Jewish people, both men and women. Interestingly, while agreeing with the outcome, but disagreeing in the reasoning, Ramban and Ran say that women are obligated in שלש סעודות because as we learned last week in regards to Havdala, there women are obligated in all of the מצות עשה of Shabbat. The connection between "זכור" "ושמור" teaches us that anyone who is obligated in the negative commandments of Shababt, are obligated in the positive commandments as well. Since time bound exemptions certainly do not allow women to violate the negative commandments of Shabbat, they must be obligated to fulfill all of the positive ones.

Rav Ovadia writes that all Rishonim agree with this and women are obligated just as men are to eat three meals on Shabbat. Maran Beit Yosef in Shulchan Aruch concurs. This extension would also obligate women in לחם משנה, the obligation to start each Shabbat meal by reciting המוציא לחם מן הארץ over two whole loaves of bread.

The obligation to eat a meal after Shabbat as a מלוה מלכה, as a means of ushering out the King is a full fledged obligation. The Talmud in Shabbat (119b) says (loosely translated) “one should set his table nicely and completely on Friday afternoon for the Friday night meal, even though he just needs to eat a כזית of bread. Similarly, one is obligated to set the table on Motsei Shabbat fully and nicely even though he only needs to eat a כזית as מלוה מלכה. The Talmud in Pesachim (103a) says that just as one ushers in and out a king, we should usher in Hashem at the beginning and end of Shabbat. Rav Ovadia writes that clearly the three meals of Shabbat are connected מלוה מלכה and just as women are obligated in the three meals, they are obligated in מלוה מלכה.

Conclusion: Rav Ovadia concludes that women are obligated in שלש סעודות and מלוה מלכה. For the מלוה מלכה one should preferably eat at least a כזית of bread. If for some reason you cannot eat bread, one can eat כזית מזונות or even fruit.

(Summary based on יחוה דעת חלק ד' סימן כה')