Chapter 1: What is Shemura Matzah and its significance?
Today we're going to talk about Shmura Matzah. Be'ez Hashem, tomorrow we'll start talking about Chol Moed, so that we can be all ready for Chol Moed. Okay, we've got to take care of that problem. The Torah, in addition to the obligation of the Torah to eat Matzah on Pesach, the Torah also requires that we be Shomer, the Matzah.
the implication of the idea of being Shomer is that we have to make sure not only that not ferment and turn into chametz, that's just the idea of matzah, but that there needs to be some sort of shmira l'shma, that we need to do some sort of shmira on the matzah. So, you know, a lot of times people will ask, do you only eat shmura over Pesach, or do you eat any matzah that says OUP? So...
what's the difference? A lot of people don't know.
What's the difference between Shmura Matzah and Hand Shmura, Machine Shmura? Well, we know one is made by hand, one is made by machine. But is there a difference in Halacha between Hand Shmura, Machine Shmura? Is there a difference in Halacha between Hand Shmura or Hand Not Shmura? You can't even find it.
I don't think they even make such a thing. But Hand Matzahs that maybe aren't Shmura, theoretically, you could make such a thing. What's the idea of eating only Shmura Matzah over Pesach? What is the status of Shmura Matzah? So the Torah is very clear that we have to watch the matzos. The exact nature of the Shemira though is a Machlokas Aposkin.
The Rambam writes on the simplest level that we have to watch the matzo from an early stage and make sure it doesn't become Hametz. And that's Shemira. Shemira is just Shemira that it doesn't become Hametz. Rashi, however, Rashi says no. It's much more than that. That it's not sufficient just to watch the matzah and make sure it doesn't become chameis.
You have to make sure, you have to watch the matzah having in mind l'shem matzah. That you're watching this l'shem mitzvah matzah. You ever been to a matzah bakery? What do they do at every step? They're saying l'shem mitzvah matzah, right? They're doing everything l'shemah. And that's shmira. Shmira means not just I'm protecting it. I'm just watching, making sure it doesn't become chameitz.
I'm imbuing it with a l'shma. And Rashi's approach seems supported by the Gemara of Pesach from the Amalchess. The Gemara says that a person can't be Mekai in his mitzvah of Matzah with the chalos of a carbon toad or the rikikei nazir, because they weren't made l'shma. What does it mean they weren't made l'shma? The halach is they weren't allowed to be chameitz.
So what do you mean they weren't made l'shma? They weren't Meaning, you don't need, if all Shmira is to make sure that they're not Chamaids, the Chalistad, Rikik and Nazar also couldn't be Chamaids. So obviously, someone watched them to make sure they weren't Chamaids. Alamai, you see, that's a riot to Rashi, that it's more than that.
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Chapter 2: What are the differences between Hand Shmura and Machine Shmura Matzah?
what level of supervision you need. But the Ha'aros Shevidei Esh, on the commentary of the Talmud Arashput, says that whether a non-Jew is allowed to bake the matzah while under a Jew's supervision may be enough to mean that. A Jew will watch and make sure that the non-Jew is doing everything properly. That's Shemira from Chivotz, making sure that there's no Chemetz.
But if the actual Maisa must be done Lishma, well the guy is the Lach Bar Lishma, he's unable to make sure that it's done Lishma. So to be able to protect it from fermenting, that's good, but the Lishma element in Rashi's level of Shimur, you don't have it. However, even that Naftamin is not so clear, because unlike other mitzvot, where the Asiya must be done Lishma, where the
Action must be done l'shma. Over here it seems that the shmira must be done l'shma. Whoever said that the shmira must be done by the person who's actually making the matzah, maybe shmira just means the guy who's overseeing needs to oversee it l'shma. That could be that. That's all it means. Let's take a look at the mitzvah Yud. Oh, Yud, he discusses this.
Practical halacha, halacha l'maysa, the maharil, in Hilchas Tikun HaMatzos, in the Primagaddon, Mishpzot Zav, Simen, Taf Samach, Sivkat Nalif, says that when watching the matzah, a person should verbalize as they're watching over the matzah, the same mitzvah's matzah.
That if you don't have that intention while you're baking the matzah, that you're doing it for the mitzvah, you don't fulfill your obligation to shmur a matzah, it doesn't count as shmur a matzah. So we pass Kamal HaLach and we show like Rashi that the Shemira is not only that it should be Shemira from Chimot, it should be a Shemira Lashma.
At what point do you need the Lashma, the Shemira Lashma? So this is a further Machlokas in the Rishonim. The Rif and the Rambam say that you have to watch over this Shmira that you need, needs to be done from the moment that it's cut from the ground.
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Chapter 3: What does Halacha say about the status of Shmura Matzah?
Shulchan Aruch says that we should follow that. Make sure from the time that it's cut from the ground, it doesn't come into contact with water, it doesn't become Chameitz, that nothing should happen to it from that moment. And that's what we advertise as Shmura Matzah. Any Shmura Matzah you see in the store, anywhere, machine shmura, hand shmura, all of it is shmira, mishas, ktzira.
From the time that it was cut from the ground, that's shmura matzah. The rush, however, says that the watching only has to be done from the time you grind it up into flour. Because if you have raw stalks of wheat that were never ground into flour, so they can get wet, they're not going to become chametz. Only once it becomes flour is it in danger of becoming chametz.
So, says the Rosh, the Shemira is only required from the time that you make it into wheat. Shulchan Aruch says that at the very least you should try for that, meaning, But Shulchan Aruch and Tophim Gimel says, minimally try to attempt to get matzos that are baked under at least that level of supervision, that from the time that they were ground up into flour, that there was a Shemira.
Most machine matzos, even if it doesn't say Shemira, are made under that level of supervision, that from the time it was ground up into wheat, that it was protected very carefully. Now, it may not be that it was done Lashma, but at least it was protected very carefully from that point on.
The She'ulta Sravachaygon in Parshat Tzav, She'ulta Ayin Vav, says that watching isn't even necessary until the flour comes into contact with water. It's the most making sheep. that once the flour comes into contact with water, that's when you really need to be on guard, and that's where the chi of Shemira kicks in.
Again, however you understand the chi of Shemira, whether it be according to the Rambam, just protecting it, make sure it doesn't become a chametz, or according to Rashi, that's where you start saying that you're doing it l'shema. That's what we refer to as Shemira Mishas Lisha. If you ever hear that phrase, Shemira Mishas Lisha, Shemira from the time of the kneading.
It's not literally from the time of the kneading. It should be, because as soon as the flour comes into contact with the water, the kneading needs to be done right away. In reality, our flour very often is washed prior to packaging, and that comes obviously before the kneading. Now, any such washing would turn the flour into real chametz.
That's why flour, when people say, I don't sell chametz gum or mustamah, they shouldn't sell flour either, raw flour either, because pre-washed flour is probably real bonafide chametz, already. That's the way they use special flour that's not pre-washed flour in the matzah bakery.
So even though the Mechaber says that a person could buy regular flour from the market, Mechaber postings that if you don't have matzah on Pesach, You don't have anything to bake with.
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Chapter 4: How does Rashi's view on Shemira differ from the Rambam's?
You can buy flour from the marketplace and make matzah, just make something, bake it quickly, under 18 minutes. You could do that b'dyavid b'dyavid. We don't pass it that way. If you buy flour nowadays from the supermarket, you're buying chametz. That's chametz gomer because we have pre-washed flours. That's in terms of the levels of supervision. So, okay, so you've got to eat Shmura Matzah.
When must you eat Shmura Matzah? So at the Seder, it's very obvious, very clear, that in order to fulfill the mitzvah of eating Matzah, you need Shmura Matzah. Whether it be machine or hand, whatever it is, you need Shmura Matzah at the Seder. What about the rest of Pesach? So the Torah certainly says we have to be careful not to eat chametz the rest of Pesach.
But what about Matzah that was made v'shma throughout the rest of the days of Pesach? So, on the simplest level, The mitzvah of Achilles matzah is only on the first night. After the rest of Pesach, there's Nisr Hametz, there's no mitzvah of Achilles matzah, so there should be no reason to have to eat matzah that was made l'shma, Shmurah matzah for the rest of Pesach.
So why is it that some people are makvid, that they only eat Shmurah matzah for the rest of Pesach? So the Be'er Lacha quotes from the Vilna Gaon that the Vilna Gaon only ate Shmura Matzah throughout Pesach because he was concerned that water might have fallen onto the grain during some step of the process and it would be a problem of Chameitz. That was really a concern of Chimeitz.
He thought Shmura Matzah, you have to be Hoshesh throughout the rest of Pesach that it wasn't that it might have been Chameitz. However, nowadays that wouldn't be a problem at all. Because our Shmur Matzah, our non-Shmur Matzah, we're pretty certain is not Chameitz. It's just that it wasn't made L'shma. It wasn't made L'shei Mitzvot Matzah. That's the only thing that it's missing.
So although the Shulchan Aruch says that there's no requirement to eat matzah at any time on Pesach, other than the keziahs that you eat at the seder, the Mishabrura in Simmon, Taf Ayin He, Sivkatan Mem He, and Simmon Taf Reish, Lamed Tes, Sivkatan Chavdal, quotes from the Vilnagon, that although there's no chiyuv to eat matzah at any time other than the night of the seder, there is a chiyuv mitzvah.
of Achillus Matzah throughout all seven days of Pesach. And that's why many people are mocked that they might as well eat only Shmurah Matzah throughout the rest of the days of Pesach because there's a Qiyam Mitzvah with each Keziah of Matzah that you eat throughout the rest of the days of Pesach. What about Mashi Matzah? So all handmade Matzah that we sell today is Shmurah Matzah.
And many machine matzahs are also shmura matzah, but that's questionable to begin with. There is a discussion in the post, is it even shy for machine matzah to be shmura? Why? Because if shmura means that the asiyah is l'shma, that it's made, the baking is done l'shma, well, a machine can't do l'shma. You can do l'shamah if you're the one that's sticking it in the oven.
But if it's all done by a machine, so the machine doesn't have the power to make it l'shamah, according to some postkin. So that was a big tumult in the postkin. That maybe if you turn on the machine, and when you turn on the machine, you do l'shamah, maybe that's good enough. But maybe that's only good enough for the first run that comes through.
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