The Mitzvah of Eating Matzah - Judaism

The following is an excerpt from a forthcoming work by Rabbi Melamed, Peninei Halacha Pesach, translated into English. The entire volume will, God willing, appear in time for next Pesach.

The mitzvah of eating matzah (plural: matzot) on the night of the fifteenth of the month of Nissan is stated explicitly in the Torah: “In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, in the evening, you shall eat matzot.” (Exodus 12, 18) The Torah also says “You shall eat matzot for seven days.” (Exodus 12, 15)

Yet, chazal used the Torah’s exegetic principles, given for the elucidation of the Torah and for making halachic deductions from it, to show that this verse does not mean to command us to eat matzot all seven days, but rather that matzah is the principal food one is to eat during Pesach instead of bread. A person who does not want to eat matzot is not duty-bound to do so, but is allowed to eat just fruits and vegetables, and meat and dairy products, as he wishes.

The simple meaning of this would seem to be that one who eats matzot all seven days of Pesach does not thereby fulfill a mitzvah, and that this is what chazal meant when they said that eating matzah during the seven days is “voluntary” (Pesachim 120a) - that is, not obligatory. Nevertheless, many major halachic authorities have written that, while it is true that eating matzah is obligatory only on the night of the Seder, and that is why our sages instituted recital of the special blessing “al achilat matzah” only for the eating of matzah on Seder night, nonetheless, one who eats matzah on the other days of Pesach is still fulfilling a mitzvah, even if it is not obligatory.

According to this perception, what our sages meant when they said that eating matzah on the seven days of Pesach is “voluntary” is that, by way of contrast with the obligation to eat matzah on the night of the fifteenth, on the rest of Pesach a person is free to decide whether or not he wants to fulfill an additional mitzvah by eating matzah. According to this view, the verse retains its simple meaning, as is written, “You shall eat matzot for seven days.” (Exodus 12, 15) This is how Ibn Ezra and Chizkuni explained the verse; this is also implied by what the Rosh wrote. This was also the practice of the Vilna Gaon. It should be noted that even they held that the mitzvah consists of eating a kazayit of matzah at each festive meal; eating more than that does not constitute an addition to the mitzvah.(1)

^{--------------------------------------------------------------------}

1) This matter is explained (Pesachim 120a), by applying one of the exegetical principles used for deriving laws from the Torah, viz., whenever the law of a particular case was singled out for specific mentioning by the Torah, even though the law of that specific case could have been known because it was included in a more general category, this comes to teach something about the entire category, not only about the specific instance that was singled out. The initial general rule is “you shall eat matzot for seven days,” and yet the Torah also says, “For six days you shall eat matzot, and on the seventh day there shall be an atzeret (a ‘stoppage/refraining’ - from work) for the Lord your God.” Thus, the seventh day was excluded from the general principle, so that there is no mitzvah to eat matzot on the seventh day. The fact that the seventh day was excluded from the original general category comes to teach about the general category, that the mitzvah to eat matzah is not uniform throughout the seven days, but only on the night of the fifteenth is it a mitzvah to eat matzah, for a third verse states, “In the evening you shall eat matzot.” (Exodus 12, 18)

Most rishonim and acharonim did not mention that one who eats matzah during the seven days of Pesach fulfills a mitzvah, implying that there is no mitzvah in such eating. Yet many rishonim and acharonim did mention this mitzvah, including: Ibn Ezra (Exodus 23, 15), Chizkuni (Exodus 12, 15). In the Responsa of Rosh (23, 3), he attributed to Geonim the explanation for the fact that we do not lay tefillin during chol hamoed Pesach as being because there is already another ‘sign’ then, viz., the mitzvah of eating matzah. The same is said in the name of the Vilna Gaon (Ma’aseh Rav 185), quoted by Mishna Berura (475, 45). See also in the book HaSeder HeArukh, (Part 1, chapter 78, 7-14).

Judaism	Kislev 6, 5770 / November 23, '09