Chapter 1: What prompted the discussion about Ashkenazim eating Sefardi matzos?
So last year, shortly before Pesach, I got an email from a Sephardi Talmud of mine, someone who graduated several years ago, with a link to an article on a website that says, And the Sephardi Talmud just wrote in the heading to the email, What else are you guys going to steal from us? We have all the best ideas.
So the truth is, if we could steal something from them, I would take the kidney as a thing. I wouldn't mind fruity pebbles on Pesach. But the question arose, is an Ashkenazi allowed to eat Sfari matzah? So it happens to be, when you raise this question, a lot of people have no idea what you're talking about. They've never seen Sfari matzahs. They don't know what a Sfari matzah is.
If you've never seen it, what a Sfari matzah is, and not all Sfari meet Sfari matzahs, by the way, but what a Sfari matzah is, it basically looks like a large pita or a lafa. It has that level of thickness to it. It's less than an inch. It's not like challah, but it's like a pita. It has a certain thickness, and it's soft. So the question is, is this kosher fresh ganazim?
Now wait a second, if it's soft, everyone's going to say, pita, pita is chametz. A pita is only chametz because you let it sit for 18 minutes to rise, for the dough to rise. The safari matzos are very thick and compact. It's not like fluffy, like pita bread, because it wasn't given time to rise. By the time 18 minutes came around, it was already fully baked. It's just that they make it thicker.
They don't tafka flatten it as much as possible to make it like a cracker. The question is, is this okay? So it all starts in a Brice, a Masech, a Pesach, and a Daphlam, and a Vavambe is going over, and a Zayin, and a Malaf. We have a Machlokas, a Beisham, and a Beis Hillel.
Beisham says, that you're not allowed to make thick bread on Pesach, because you're never going to be able to protect Rashi, right? So you're never going to be able to protect from Chimut. Rashi and Beitzchavbe is also, you're never going to be able to protect it from Chimut if it's thick. So if it's a tefach thick, then that's a, well, it doesn't say a tefach, it just says Passover.
Beisul says it's fine, you're allowed to make thick bread on Pesach. Whoa, we Paschal like Beisul always, right? So this looks good. The Gemara says, how thick is thick? So Rufuna says, thick means a tefach. So a teffach, that's right, it's about three and a half inches. The size of your fist with your thumb on top of it is a teffach.
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Chapter 2: What is a Sefardi matzah and how does it differ from traditional matzah?
Your thumb lying on top of it, not sticking out. But that's significant. Our chalas sometimes aren't even a teffach thick. So Beisul allows even making that, even making Passover, right? So the Gemara says, Rav Yosef calls it, Rav Yosef disagrees, and he holds that, no, you can't learn matzah from lechem hapanim.
Because Imam Rube's reason, Yom Rube Sheinan's reason, lechem hapanim obviously was matzah, by the way. Right? That's where we get the number, tefah. Lechem hapanim was matzah. Had he known lechem hapanim was matzah? Well, obviously, we know that it's matzah, but the greatest riot that it's matzah is, they had it year-round. You're never allowed to leave the shulchan empty from lechem hapanim.
So, they had it on Pesach also. Had they ever on Pesach, This is matzah, it wasn't chametz. So the Gemara says, Rav Yosef, you can't compare the two, because the Lech Mapanim, the Kohanim were in charge of that, and Kohanim was reasoned, they're going to be very careful to make sure that there's no chimutz.
But you can't trust just regular people to ensure that there's no chimutz if they're making something a tefach thik. So Rav Yosef disagrees. So he does not think that it's a tefach thik, it's something less than that.
Chapter 3: Is it kosher for Ashkenazim to eat Sefardi matzah?
The Orzeruah quotes from Rabbeinu Aviyah Ezri, He says, you're not allowed to make a teffach. You have to make it less than a teffach. We Paschal like Rav Yosef. We reject the idea that you're allowed to make matzos that are a teffach thick. And in fact, Yosef quotes this as well, that you're not allowed to make matzos that are a teffach thick, but less than a teffach. is okay.
Now, still, this is way, way thicker than the Svartimatzes. So, in later Tzkufos, they started to make thinner matzos. Why did they start making thinner matzos? So, first of all, those Rishonim that hold that Pas Ava means any thickness at all. There's some Rishonim that hold Pas Ava means Pas Meruba. No matter what level of thickness, it's going to be a problem.
So we try to stay away from thicker matzos. That's one reason why we stay away from it. And probably also because of the Din of Shemur, that you have to be Shomer from Chimutz. That's the Shulcharach Paskins. Part of Shemur matzos, you have to be Shomer from Chimutz. You have to protect it very carefully from Chimutz.
The best way to protect it is to make the kind of matzo that could not ever become a Hametz because it's so thin and you bake it so quickly it never would possibly have a chance to become a Hametz. Now, can't make tefach wide matzahs. Notable, the Ramah doesn't say a word. The Ramah is silent. You just can't make matzahs that are tefach thick. why can't you make a tefach thick?
Maybe the maybe the heat of the fire is not going to completely go through and through, but there's going to be some dough inside that's going to become while it's baking. If it's less than a tefach, then you're good. So then he says, let's say even you should be careful about. So what does the Mishavur tell us? pachos mitafach, still it's k'dai to be careful about.
If you made pachos mitafach, matzah zeder pachos mitafach, b'di yaved, Mishra Bruh says, b'ferish, you're allowed to eat it. With that, there's no problem. If you made more than a tefach, and it's not chametz, you check, and it's not chametz, there's no dough pockets in there, but it's more than a tefach, so Mishra Bruh says, machlok saposkem, whether you're allowed to eat it.
But if it's less than a tefach, then you're allowed to eat it.
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Chapter 4: What do the sources say about the thickness of matzah during Pesach?
But it's still, less than a tefach, we still try not to make. But how much less than a tefach? Are you allowed to make the Sephardi Matzahs? The Sephardi Matzahs are much, much less than the Tevach. So are you allowed to make the Sephardi Matzahs?
So in Halicha Shlomo, in Seydel El Pesach, in Matzah, when he discussed the Seydel El Pesach Matzah, Petresh Pe'alif in Halicha Shlomo, it says in the Devar Halacha section, The minig of Ashkenazim is to make it as thin as possible. And an Ashkenazi should never be makel to eat a matzah that's thicker than the normal matzahs.
However, you know, if you have, and they discuss this, what do you do if you have a difficult time eating matzah? Right? Should you, can you be makel? So that's, but he's, Rosh Hashanah says, we have a minag already, the Ashkenazim have such a minag, that we don't eat matzah that's thicker than the thinnest possible matzahs.
So it's the hiddur that we have, that we always try to buy the thinnest possible matzahs. So isn't it so clear that this is really the Ashkenazi practice, and that this is a hakbada that Ashkenazim are required to have?
As recently as the Mishra Brura, Rav Shachter points out, the Mishra Brura in Taf Pei Vav, on the Halach and Shulchan Aruch, Shulchan Aruch talks about what the sheer is of a kazayis, how big is a kazayis. So some say a kazayis is a chatzi beitza.
So on that halacha, the Mishra Brura, Tzivkat and Gimel talks about where the Ramah says that if you have vegetables that have air pockets, you need to crush the air pockets to make sure that you get a kazayis of actual vegetable for your kazayis of marar.
So Mishram Brewer says, If there's an air pocket in your matzah, you need to crush the air pocket also, because the air doesn't count toward the gazayis. Even if your matzah is soft and spongy, but there's no big pocket of air, then you don't need to crush it. If you have like a sponge cake matzah,
You don't need to crush it. It's fine. As long as there's no big air pocket. That's it. He doesn't say, No, he just says, that's it. You have a soft matzah. Mishmur is Mephurash.
Then you're allowed to use a soft matzah. It's Maseach Uvituma that you're allowed to use a soft matzah. He never has a Havamin in that too. His discussion, B'er Lach, is not to use matzahs less than a tefach.
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Chapter 5: What are the differing opinions among scholars regarding thick matzah?
So suddenly Mishmur disagrees with Rav Shlomo Zalman on this. One could argue. One might be able to make that argument. So Rav Shechter has a tshuva dated Purim Katon Shinas Tavshin Ayin Aleph, where Rav Shechter discusses this issue. And he points out, The Shulchan Aruch talks about what bracha you make on a cracker. Like a matzah cracker. What bracha do you make on a cracker?
So the halacha is a cracker. You make a mizonos, a brittle piece. That's one of the definitions possible because it's something that's brittle. So you would make a mizonos on it, unless you kaveh asud on it. By Ashkenazim, we always eat matzos that are crackers. So the Akronim write that lel ha-seider, we're obviously being kovei ha-sud on the matzo. The thicker part of the sud is the matzo.
So Melu, we're allowed to make ha-mozi on it. But many Svardim eat matzos that are thicker. Al-pipashtos, the reason they're doing that is because it's ha-mozi. If it's thin, it's a mizono's food. The Svardim are very mocked about this. He says, I think it's posh that the Ashkenazim are allowed to eat these Sephardi matzos. He doesn't mean to say that we have to make them crackers.
It just means that it should be thinner than a teffach. Or even thinner than an etzba.
I think the Shari Chuvah, the Berheit, one of the Nosiketlim says that when the Ramah says it should be even thinner than thinner than an etzba, means it should be thinner than, I mean, even thinner than smaller than a tefach. He means thinner than an etzba. Thinner than an etzba means less than an inch. An etzba is about an inch. The Sfarimatz is way less than an inch.
Like a centimeter, a little more. Right? So that's all it means. That's all you need to have. And then he points out to this Mishra Brunner that talks about the soft matzos. Aye, what about being Mishan of the Minach? Our Minach always was that we eat brittle, very thin matzos.
So Rosh Hashanah has an unbelievable line over here. He says, If you have a shul that has a red parochas and you change it to a blue parochas, you can say, oh, they changed the Minach. No, they redecorated. That's not changing the Minach. We don't have a minag to eat cracker matzahs. That's another kind of matzah. You have this kind of matzah, that kind of matzah. It's just what we happen to eat.
It's not a minag. You could make the argument that it is a minag because it's a chumrah. It's a chumrah that we're eating something that would never possibly have any flower pockets or anything like that. So the greatest raya, I think, that the Sephardi matzahs are kosher is what does the word korech mean? So we think korech means sandwich.
Why do we think korech means sandwich? Because we use Ashkenazi matzahs. But the word korech in Hebrew doesn't mean sandwich. It means wrap. You're supposed to wrap the carbon Pesach in the matzah. How do you wrap it in a matzah if you're eating cracker? What it means is you wrap it in a laffah, like the Svati matzahs. You know what they had with the carbon Pesach?
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