Allowed or Forbidden: The controversy surrounding soft matzos
Just before Seder night, Rabbi Shai Tahan was asked "Is it permissible to eat the soft matzahs" and replied at length: "The answer to this is a division between the customs of the Jewish communities."
The full explanation inside
David Berger, in collaboration with Shuva Israel
05/04/2022
Tuesday, 05 April 2022, 10:08
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"There is much evidence from the words of the Gemara and the Fusaks that until recently the matzahs that all the people of Israel would eat were soft and thick matzahs" (Photo: ShutterStock)
Many times, in our daily lives, halakhic questions arise and topical doubts arise.
Rabbi Shai Tahan, head of the Shaare Ezra Kollel and head of the Arazi Lebanon Teaching House, makes the laws accessible to us and answers questions asked in and out of the beit midrash.
And today: eating soft matzah on Passover.
Question
:
Every year on Seder night we have in the family a recurring argument: Is it permissible to eat the soft matzahs.
Some members of the family claim that since the prohibitions hold that there is a chametz prohibition in it, it is therefore worth aggravating it.
I wanted to know if the Honorable Rabbi could make us a Seder in this Halacha in preparation for Seder night.
Answer
:
Peace and blessings.
We begin by saying that there is much evidence from the words of the Gemara and the Fusaks that until recently the matzahs that all the people of Israel ate were soft and thick matzahs.
It is probably hard to believe that while our matzahs are very thin, it is mentioned in the Gemara (Pesachim 7: 1) and Halacha (Mark Thessalonians 5: 5) to prepare matzah that is as thick as a tefah (according to Rav Chaim Na'a is 8 cm).
Moreover, the matzahs that were eaten in ancient times - were quite similar in appearance to our pitas, so much so that the Gemara says that if a person finds a patzah on Passover and does not know if it is matzah or pita - it can be prepared for eating, and today we can not go wrong Their appearance is completely different, and it is proven from this that today's matzah, which is thin, dry and crunchy - is not at all similar to the matzah that was eaten at the time of the Gemara.
The issue of the softness of the matzah is explicitly stated in a clear mishnah for Chafetz Chaim (C. Tefo SKG) regarding the law of the eating lesson that the matzah should not be crushed even if it is soft and made of sponge To make the middle matzah thick and soft that was enough for all those involved in the house, and as the words of Hak Yaakov (ibid. Sec. 26).
But here the baby asks: If so, what has changed this night from all the nights in ancient times, that on all nights they would eat soft and thick matzah, whereas this whole night is dry and thin matzah.
And the answer to this is a division among the customs of the communities of Israel: some still held the custom of their ancestors in their hands, such as members of the Yemenite community and some of the rest of the East, while Ashkenazis from European countries who made it worse for several reasons.
Some have written that since today matzahs are mass-baked for all of Israel, they feared that these matzahs would become stale or hard, so it is better to make them thin and dry, then their freshness remains for a long time (Minchat Asher, Passover Haggadah C.T.).
Some have written that today we are not proficient in baking the soft matzahs and therefore it is worth avoiding them (Minchat Asher, Rash "z Auerbach).
In fact:
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