836. Socializing and Eating with Students
A melamed (Torah teacher) is restricted from kibitzing with his students during play and eating and drinking together with them. This limitation would seem difficult to uphold for a melamed who spends most of the day with children, and in practice, exceptions are commonly made. Poskim explain that the constraint on eating with the children applies only to actually joining them for a meal or drink on a regular basis. It doesn’t limit a melamed from taking his meals while students are present; it applies only to eating at the same table. Practically, a teacher may also sit together with students in a non-social atmosphere, while each eats their private meal.
In the Shulchan Aruch it speaks of a Pesach seder meal that includes a teacher and his students; if the restriction of eating and drinking with students would unilaterally apply, such a situation would not be halachically sanctioned. A clear exception is made for a meal that is a seudas mitzvah (a meal for a mitzvah [occasion]), and to a melamed dining occasionally with students for other reasons.