Accumulation status of matzahs
Hello Rabbi.
Every year, people confuse their minds with the hard matzahs versus the soft matzahs.
This week someone told me that he eats hard matzah like the custom of our ancestors (for that matter, Sephardim), who ate hard matzah, and that he does not change from their custom.
Of course, I immediately answered him with a Michael-Abraham answer:
I eat soft matzoh. And I too continue the custom of my ancestors. My ancestors ate the matzoh they liked the most and I also eat the matzoh I like the most. (Or another possibility – my ancestors ate the easiest-to-eat matzoh they had and I also eat the easiest-to-eat matzoh I have)
A. Did I answer him fairly? (Am I right?)
B. When does an explanation turn from something true into a joke?
The first explanation is a joke because our ancestors did not know soft matzahs. The second is possible. But the second is also not parallel to the swimsuit example. You are not claiming that there is value in eating what is available, only that there is no problem with it. Therefore, you should have basically answered that there is no point in hard matzahs, as if we had pink matzahs. Therefore, there is no need to preserve the tradition of our ancestors, and there is no need for the logic of swimsuits.
By the way, I was amazed at how much I liked soft matzahs better. To me, they tasted horrible. I tried them once and immediately quit.
I understand. In fact, in the swimsuit example, the simplistic side violates the tradition of our ancestors according to the Midrashic method. In this example, he does not violate the tradition, but at most he just makes it difficult for himself. (Perhaps it could be said that there is value in eating the lightest matzos possible so that one can eat all the matzos without a problem, but that is a halakhic matter and less of a tradition) (By the way, I think they completely exaggerated the whole matzos lesson thing. It is already a kind of joke that people discuss whether an olive is half an egg or a third of an egg and then go to the supermarket and buy small olives. As if there is no connection between olives in reality and olives in halakhic law. And they also discuss whether the Rambam's coin weight measured the matzos… Kudos to the Rambam for checking, but everyone has a weight today. I really don't understand why all this discussion is in this darkness. Maybe the rabbi will write his opinion even though it is not related to the original topic? I can open a new thread if it is better)
Regarding the taste of matzos – I don't think anyone really enjoys eating matzos. I think it's more about how easy it is to eat and the texture in your mouth than the taste. After all, you have to push 2 of these into a matzah maker.
Why the joke? From several places it seems that they baked thick matzah, and it must certainly be soft (otherwise it would be really hard). The Gemara also in Birchot 38 a.a. means that there are nights when it is difficult that "pass" both as bread and as matzah, and in Pesachim 7 a.a. we see in the commentary that it is not always possible to distinguish between bread and matzah. And to say that their bread was like hard matzah is pushing it.
As for taste, it varies from brand to brand because the baking methods are different. If you tried "the matzah of our ancestors" and it is still horrible, then my arguments will be silenced 🙂
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