Rabbi Aryeh Lebowitz

And the Magan Avram says that not only does the giver have to be living in the community for 12 months, in order for a person to be eligible to receive ma'oz chitim, he needs to have been living in the community for 12 months.

However, the smack holds that only 30 days.

If the poor person's there for 30 days, that's enough.

We give matzah when he's been there even for such a short period of time.

So that's the basis of the minhag.

The question is, what is the nature of the minhag?

Is this just another halacha in Hilcho's tzedakah?

Is it some other type of halacha?

So it seems that there are three possibilities as to what the basis of the minhag of ma'oz chitim is.

Possibility number one, and I guess the most obvious one, the one that we would most quickly associate it with, is a din of tzedakah.

In fact, the Chalk Yaakov writes in the start of the Shulchan Aruch that if it's a person becomes that if a person intends to stay in the community for a long time, so he immediately becomes—you don't have to go through the 12-month waiting period—

he immediately becomes a member of the community.

But the Ramah doesn't have to spell that out, says the Chak Yaakov, because it's obvious.

It's already written in Yerudea.

We already have that in Hilchas Tzedakah.

So since the Ramah already told us this in Hilchas Tzedakah, why would he have to mention it here?

from the Chok Yaakov that this is a Din in Tzedakah.

Meaning, if you're going to tell me that the reason the Ramah doesn't have to mention some of the details of Ma'oz Chitim in Ilchas Pesach is because it's already covered in Yerudea in Ilchas Tzedakah, obviously you will hold that Ma'oz Chitim is a Din in Tzedakah.

The question then, of course, begs itself, why isn't this Halacha in Yerudea also?

Meaning, it should appear in Yerudea, not only in Orekhaim.