Some thoughts about matzah

Rabbi Reuven Leigh Even though we label the festival of Pesach as “The Festival of Matzot”, and the Torah associates the seven (or eight) days of Pesach with the eating of Matzah many times, the Talmud (BT Pesachim 120a) explains that Matzah is required only for the Seder night, and for the rest of the festival it is an optional extra. Not so much that you should eat Matzah, but rather if you want to eat bread, eat only the Matzah variety. Moreover, the Talmud derives the obligation to eat Matzah on the Seder night from the verse that requires the Korban Pesach to be eaten together with Matza and Maror (Bamidbar 9:11). One sage suggests that after the destruction of the Temple and the inability to bring a Korban Pesach, there is no longer a Biblical obligation to eat Matzah and it is maintained as a Rabbinic enactment (just like Maror). However, the dominant opinion is that Matzah on Seder night remains a Biblical commandment even after the destruction of the Temple because of the additional verse: “in the evening they shall eat matzot” (Shemot 12:18). This distinction between the obligatory Matzah of Seder night and the optional Matzah of the rest of Pesach gives rise to an interesting dispute. The verse instructs us: “And you shall watch over the Matzot” (Shemot 12:17) which the Talmud explains to mean that one must “guard” the flour from the moment it comes in contact with water and prevent it from rising (BT Pesachim 40a). This was the original meaning of the term “Shmurah Matzah” which was later expanded to include guarding from the time of grinding the wheat and then further expanded to include guarding from the time of harvesting the wheat. Some authorities ruled that Shmurah Matzah is necessary only for the obligatory Matzah of the Seder night and one can make use of what they termed “Matzah Peshutah” for the rest of Pesach. In contrast, other authorities maintained that the requirement for Shmurah Matzah applies for the whole of the festival. From the above we see that everyone agrees that one should use Shmurah Matzah for the Seder night and for that reason, many people

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