Q&A: The Measure of an Olive-Bulk
The Measure of an Olive-Bulk
Question
Hello,
Does the Rabbi have a lesson on the currently accepted measure of an olive-bulk?
How is it estimated?
I’m sure that if the Rabbi has an article on this, it would be very helpful.
The amounts people say today that you have to eat are just crazy…
Answer
I don’t have a lesson on this. But I don’t see what there is to get tangled up about here. Take a reasonable measure and follow it. Hysteria is certainly not the correct measure. Half of a machine-made matzah is an olive-bulk (some say a third is enough), and eat it within four minutes (which is entirely reasonable). And 85 grams is a quarter-log volume (R. Chaim Naeh).
Discussion on Answer
There is also a dispute about the egg itself, and also about the ratio between an olive-bulk and an egg. I didn’t get into the whole topic here, but these are the accepted measures. See, for example, an article here: https://www.zomet.org.il/?CategoryID=290&ArticleID=387
I understood that R. Chaim Naeh’s measure for a quarter-log volume is 75
cc.
What they once calculated as 86 cc turned out to be some kind of error in calculating the dirham.
I think that’s what Peninei says.
Is the dispute between half a matzah and a third of a matzah because of the dispute about half an egg versus a third of an egg?
Because if so, Maimonides’ opinion is not a third of an egg but less than a third of an egg, and according to his view there is no reason at all to invent the idea that nature changed (just generally speaking, that nature changed significantly like that is, as far as I know, not biologically realistic).