Text Study

Texts on Eating Matzah

Matzah is discussed in Jewish sources over the course of centuries

By Jeffrey A. Spitzer

These are the texts referred to in the article "Eating Matzah At the Seder."

Biblical Verses on Eating Matzah

Exodus 12:15

Seven days shall you eat unleavened bread; the first day you shall put away leaven out of your houses; for whoever eats leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that soul shall be cut off from Israel

 

 

Exodus 12:18

In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at evening, you shall eat unleavened bread, until the twenty-first day of the month at evening.

 

 

Exodus 13:6

Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, and in the seventh day shall be a feast to the Lord.

 

 

Exodus 13:7

Unleavened bread shall be eaten seven days; and there shall no leavened bread be seen with you, neither shall there be leaven seen with you in all your quarters.

 

 

 

Exodus 23:15

You shall keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread; you shall eat unleavened bread seven days, as I commanded you, in the time appointed in the month Abib; for in it you came out from Egypt; and none shall appear before me empty.

 

 

Exodus 34:18

The Feast of Unleavened Bread shall you keep. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you, in the time of the month Abib; for in the month Abib you came out from Egypt.

 

 

 

Leviticus 23:6

And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the Feast of Unleavened Bread to the Lord; seven days you must eat unleavened bread.

 

 

Numbers 28:17

And in the fifteenth day of this month is the feast; seven days shall unleavened bread be eaten.

 

 

Deuteronomy 16:3

You shall eat no leavened bread with it; seven days shall you eat unleavened bread with it, the bread of affliction; for you came out of the land of Egypt in haste; that you may remember the day when you came out of the land of Egypt all the days of your life.

 

 

Deuteronomy 16:8

Six days you shall eat unleavened bread; and on the seventh day shall be a solemn assembly to the Lord your God; you shall do no work in it.

 

Rabbinic Texts

 

Mekhilta, Pischa 8 (Lauterbach)

One verse says "Seven days you shall eat matzah" and one verse says "Six day you shall eat matzah." How can both of these verses be maintained? The seventh day was included (in the first verse) but then excluded (from the second verse). That which is excluded from a more inclusive statement is meant to teach us about the whole statement. So, just as on the seventh day it is optional (r'shut), so on all of the other days, it is optional. Does this mean that it is optional on the first night also? The verse "In the first month, on the fourteenth day in the evening, you shall eat matzah" (Exodus 12:18) fixes it as an obligation (hovah) to eat matzah on the first night.

 

 

Bavli Pesachim 28b

Has it not already been said "Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread"? Then why does the Torah say "You shall eat no leavened bread (hametz) with it"? When one is obligated to eat matzah, there is also a prohibition against hametz; when there is no obligation to eat matzah, there is no prohibition against hametz.

 

 

Shulhan Arukh Orah Hayyim 475:1

One washes ones hand and makes the blessing and takes the matzot... in hand and makes hamotzi and on eating matzah. Then one breaks from the top, complete matzah and the broken middle piece, both together... One eats an olive's bulk from each of them while reclining. If one cannot eat matzah equivalent to the bulk of two olives together, eat the one for hamotzi first and then the one on eating matzah. Then one takes an olive's bulk of bitter herbs... and makes the blessing on eating bitter herbs and eats it without reclining. Then one takes the third matzah and breaks a piece from it to wrap with the bitter herbs.

 

 

Shulhan Arukh Orah Hayyim 462:4

Eggs and other liquids are all considered like fruit juice (which lead to rotting, not leavening). Rema: But in our communities, we do not knead (matzah) dough with fruit juice... And one should not change from this unless in a time of emergency for the sake of a sick or old person who needs this.

 

 

Bavli Pesachim 40a

[Rava] said to those who were turning over the sheaves of wheat (during the harvest), "When you flip them over, do so for the sake of the mitzvah." From this we can reason that watching is required initially from the beginning to the end.

 

Jeffrey Spitzer was the founding editor of the Texts section of MyJewishLearning.com and now serves as a contributing editor.