Yachatz: Breaking the Matzah, Ein Ma’avirin Al HaMitzvos, and Lechem Oni

Transcript

Today, today we're going to learn what is yachatz. We all know what yachatz is. Technically, what you take is the matzah and you break it. Which matzah? On Shulchan Aruch it's brought down, the middle matzah, matzah emtzai. The Torah brings it down, middle matzah. Before we get into machloikesin about this yachatz, middle matzah, I just want to tell you what the goal of the shiur, so to speak, is. We're going to try to explain why yachatz, why yachatz, and after we explain why yachatz, we'll explain the different halachos about yachatz, different shittas maybe, once we understand properly what yachatz is. So let's begin with the Gemara. The Gemara says the reason for yachatz is, Lechem oni, ma darko shel oni bifrusah. Just like an oni, he eats bifrusah, he eats broken pieces of bread, so therefore we eat our matzah, broken piece of bread. The problem is, we're not eating the matzah now. If you wanted to break the matzah, so then you would break it by motzi matzah. Which we do anyway. You break the matzah. We don't do a whole matzah. So it's anyway ma darko shel ani beprusah. What's the idea of breaking the matzah all the way in the beginning, before even saying the Haggadah? Yesh omrim, many Acharonim discuss this, there's another reason for lechem oni: lechem sheonin alav devarim harbeh, bread that you say many things about it. What's the many things? That's the Haggadah. So therefore the Haggadah is said on the matzah, which is lechem oni. And because also there's a pshat of lechem oni, mah oni darko beprusah, so already you make the darko beprusah originally. Reb Shlomo Zalman seems to learn like this. Many Acharonim learn like this. It's a big chiddush. Yeah, Reb Shlomo Zalman's a pshat. Again, I know others say it also, but I'm just, if you need a mareh makom, it's here. It's one of the shiurim that they bring here from Reb Shlomo Zalman. It's what the Acharonim say, which is very big chiddush, because it comes out that you're putting together the two reasons of lechem oni, which is not really true. I mean, it's lechem oni, lechem sheonin alav devarim harbeh. You need to break it, because don't forget you're saying Ha lachma anya. When we start the Haggadah, we say lechem oni, and we start which nekudah of lechem oni? Not shelo hispik betzekam. We say it about the lechem oni part. So therefore we break it to show lechem oni, lachma anya. That's one pshat that the Acharonim say. But these are the two reasons found in the Gemara. We're breaking the matzah. One is ma, darko shel ani, right? Just like the derech of the ani is the prusah. The second reason is, lechem sheonim alav devarim harbeh. That's why it's called lechem oni. Also, learn the Beis Yosef brings a third reason, k'dei sheyisha'alu ha-tinokos. The chiddush that the tinokos should—what are you breaking the matzah? We didn't start the meal yet. K'dei sheyisha'alu ha-tinokos. So this is— You might, according to two ta'amim, could explain two ta'amim. I know, I know, I know. And then— I know. But that's exactly what I just said. What else? That's exactly what I just said. I just said that l'choira, even the two ta'amim—I mean, the two different ta'amim—they're not mixed together, unless because ha lachma anya, so we're saying that it's lechem oni, and the ani is darko b'prusah, so therefore that's how Rav Shmuel Zalman learns. Ha lachma anya, we're saying lechem oni, oni, oni. We don't only say just the Haggadah; we're also stressing that it's lechem oni, the beginning, so we break it to show that it's lechem oni. Similar. Okay, this is the facts that it says. I'll show you an interesting thing. I just started off by telling you it's supposed to break the middle matzah. This is brought down in the Shulchan Aruch. The Tur brings it down. The Bach brings down the shita of the Smag that says you should break the top matzah. You're supposed to break the top. Says the Bach, what is the reason for the—

The reason for the smag is because ein ma'avirin al hamitzvos. You're not supposed to ma'avir al hamitzvos; it's halacha to break it, so you should break right away the first matzah. Why are you skipping the first matzah to break the second matzah? Let's tackle the machlokes. Let's tackle the machlokes if there's a din of ma'avirin al hamitzvos, yeah, or you break the middle matzah. What are the arguments? L'choira, the Bach is bringing a smag, and the smag is saying good, ein ma'avirin al hamitzvos. So what's the reason of the Tur and the Shulchan Aruch, the pasken, that we break the middle? I don't get it, but he holds ein ma'avirin al hamitzvos even on the same... two teliyasim, if I touch one, I put down that one? He says that then you would hold? There's a mitzvah to break the matzah, so what are you skipping the first matzah? Break the matzah. That's the question. So the pashut pshat you have to say is, and could be — shkam rabosai — could be, nu, could be you could come and say that the Shulchan Aruch held it's not a mitzvah. If it would be a mitzvah, you're right, by a mitzvah there's a halacha, ein ma'avirin al hamitzvos. Ein ma'avirin al hamitzvos. There's a mitzvah to go break the matzah. It's a minhag, it's a custom. Could be on a custom there would be no halacha of ein ma'avirin al hamitzvos. So now what's the pshat in the smag? So then, once you say this yesod, so then what's the pshat in the smag? It could be there's an interesting Rambam. The Rambam says, and even on a minhag, over lo sasur. Even on a minhag, over lo sasur. Tosafos, dvarim asher gidlucha, is the takanos beis din, vhaminhagim. So it could be a minhag which the Anshei Knesses HaGedolah set up. So it could be this is a real old minhag, meaning from lechem oni based on the Gemara. So it could be there's a din of lo sasur, and if there's a din of lo sasur, meileh there'll be a mitzvah, and therefore mavirin al hamitzvos applies. What does the shita of the Shulchan Aruch, the Tur, then learn? So we can come and say karka. They learn that there is no lo sasur, which is a machlokes rishonim, not like the Rambam. In other words, it's talui if a minhag has lo sasur. Okay. There's Brisker Torah about this. There's an issur lo sasur on minhagim, brachos, takanos, halal, right? If you make a bracha on a minhag, okay, we'll do this a different time. This, lichora, is the pashut way to learn. How serious is this minhag? I want to tie in a different pshat. What's the reason that there's a machlokes if you're allowed to skip the top and go to the bottom? Is yachatz a mitzvah ma'aseh, that you should make yachatz, or it's that it should be a broken matzah? Lichora, ma oni daka b'prusa — go and breaks it. He has the broken. Break it. It's broken. That's what he has. So is yachatz a mitzvah to go do? In order to be ma'ani darka b'prusa, did everybody understand what I said till here? I'm rushing a little bit because I'm not allowed to really say shiur today, and I have to go to the doctor. But you understand what I want? You say lo sasur, everybody ... Okay, so what's the other shita that ...? Maybe there is no lo sasur. Well, maybe that was the minhag itself. Maybe that was the minhag itself. That kind of was. It's like the break second. Maybe it's right, maybe. Whatever. Okay. He's not wrong, because I have a pshat. I don't want to say it like that, because it says that the yachatz is for lechem. So there's a סיבה to break בדווקא the second. There's ta'amim. No, so then there's a special ... Ein מעבירין על המצוות is not when you have to go for the ... I was going to say that at the end of the shiur. Same thing like you're taking out tefillin or ... Right, if you have to go to the second one, then you have to go to the second one. All right, we'll talk about it. I mean, the mitzvah is to be yachatz the middle one, maybe. Okay. Al kol panim, we're going to get to it. Now, so I'm clarifying: is the mitzvah the ma'aseh, or is the mitzvah that it should be? What is the mitzvah?

So I want a taina. I want a taina. There's an interesting, I saw an Aruchos in my home. I saw in the Shulchan Aruch HaRav, very big chiddush. When you break the matzah, so what do we do? We take half of the afikoman and we hide it. What do you do to the other half? Leave it. Huh? Leave it there. What do you do? You're not going to eat it now. What do you do with it? So the Shulchan Aruch HaRav says that what you do is you put it, you put it back into the kaarah, like this. The lechem she'onim alav devarim harbeh will go on this. The lechem she'onim alav devarim harbeh will go on this. It comes out that if it's only al lechem oni, meaning the start of is the lechem she'onim alav devarim harbeh on the yachatz, so there's no mitzvah to go break it. The mitzvah is only that it should be broke, only like a hechsher mitzvah; it's not a chiyuv. Hasheini, if you say that the taam is ma darka shel oni beprusah, meaning that you're supposed to make darka shel oni beprusah, maybe it's the ma'aseh. Let me say it one more time. I know you don't get it, because what I'm doing is I'm putting together three things. I'm putting together three things. It goes like this: if it's lechem she'onim alav devarim harbeh... And therefore, on the yachad, which is lachma anya, you say that Haggadah. So what is the ikur? The ikur is the Haggadah on this lechem oni, and lechem oni is b'prusah. That's already the second reason there. Wait a sec. So meileh, there's no chiyuv to break; it's the chiyuv it should be broken. It shouldn't be broken at all. Tell you, if you learn that the ikur is that the thing should go on lechem oni, and lechem oni is darka shel oni b'prusah, so therefore the main nekudah really is, is the heichi timtza that it's broken. That's all the ikur is. But if you're learning that lechem oni means darko shel oni b'prusah, you have to let me talk. If you don't let me talk, how am I supposed to explain to you something if you don't let me say the words? Let me talk. But if it's lechem oni, that it's darko shel oni b'prusah, and the taich is that there's a kiyum in making the darko shel oni b'prusah, it's not that the Haggadah should be said on lachma anya, which is darko shel oni b'prusah. It works the other way around. Darko shel oni is b'prusah, and I'm making the lachma anya, so it's actually a mitzvah to go and make the lechem oni. The question is, you see what Reb Shlomo Zalman is doing is, he's combining the two reasons. So the question is, how do you combine it? Do you combine it starting from lachma anya, lechem she'oniin alav devarim harbeh, or it starts off the other way around? What you do is you make the darko shel oni b'prusah, and you explain that this is called lachma anya, so the cutting and the breaking is a chelek of the lachma anya, the making of it. According to this reason, can you put the half also? That's what I'm going to get to. That's right, we're going to talk about it. It's exactly what we're going to talk about. Okay, let's say it one more time. If the ikur is to have the Haggadah on a lachma anya, and lachma anya means darkishvani b'prusa, so then the ikur is just that it should be a prusa that you say in the Haggadah. But if you learn it starts the other way around, that darkishvani b'prusa means I should go and make ani b'prusa, I make it, and I'm showing that's called lachma anya, and then I say, I break it, I go, ha lachma anya. The breaking of it is showing the lachma anya. So maybe the breaking of it becomes the chiyuv, becomes the ma'aseh that you're supposed to do, is to make it lachma anya.

Maybe you'll see it a little better. The Rama brings down that in case you have a shvura, it's good enough. You don't have to break it. But the Maharshal in siman pei ches brings down that you'mechuyav to take a sheleimah and make it a prusah. What are they arguing? They're arguing this yesod. Go ahead, read the Rama, in the end of tof ayin hei. You don't have to break it. You have to wait. Everybody has to wait. Tof ayin hei. Haga: ... zecher l'achmas ... osim ... eizeh rishonah o shniyah o shlishit, u'manichim ha'rishonah ... v'ha'shniyah v'ein safah, v'ha'shlishit ... v'im shniyah lo nikeres, v'ochlin osan gam כן ... v'im nishberah achas mehen, lochin osah l'shniyah, u'vilvad shelo yitfos ... What? Sorry, what? Yeah. Oh, you see, that doesn't make a difference. If it breaks, it breaks. Big deal. Ready to convert? You like my voice? The Rama says it's broken, okay. But the Maharshal says, no, no, no, no. You need a full one. Comes out a me'iridik chiddush. According to the Rama, the ikar is not to break it. The ikar is, d'lav hachi b'shvurah; it has to be broken. The ikar is the kiyum is that should be a broken thing. Lechem oni, peirush, you're saying the Haggadah on a lechem oni. Mashein kein, according to the Maharshal. You're making lachma anya. Ho lachma anya d'achalu, which I hold is a very big chiddush. It comes out, people make yachatz, right? And then they say, Ha lachma anya. I would say, according to the mashal, while you're doing, you should say, Ha lachma anya. Chiddush lahalacha. Why while again? Because that's what you're saying. You're saying, I'm making it lachma anya. Ho, lachma anya. I broke it. This is lachma anya. And we're doing after. Why can't you just hold it and say, Ha lachma anya? This is the lachma anya. Ha lachma anya is, I'm explaining what it is. But I'm telling you it's not what it is; it's what I'm doing to it. According to the mashal, it's what I'm doing to it. Chiddush lahalacha. By the way, I told over my chiddush yesterday to the big rabbanim in Borough Park about eating the less than a year. It was a big hit. Everyone's going to start doing it this year. You will see this. Big hit. Why not? Bishlema the matzah, the matzah you can't do, because once you ate the kezayis, you're finished. But here, each one is a zecher. It's a good horaah. About the Rambam you're saying? No. Okay, now, the kitzur, yeah, this we did yesterday. We did this yesterday. Okay, now, so it comes out, according to the mashal, Ho lachma anya. Look at minhagim. I want to see different minhagim. I'm getting a chance to look yet. I'm sure there's got to be minhagim that either you first make yachatz, and then you say maggid, you start the Haggadah. What, you remember that some people, as they say, Ha lachma anya, there is two minhagim, could be. Before breaking or after breaking. Oh, you see, this is it. This is my point. You're saying yes. He's saying no, before the breaking or after the breaking. That's what he's saying. You're breaking, then you say Ha lachma anya. Right. Some people... What? After is also good. Even after is good. I'm explaining what I just did, or after. The idea is that it's going back on explaining why I'm splitting. Okay. Now, according to this, I think we can understand the sugya of mavir al hamitzvos. Because if you learn that the ikar is not to break it, so there's no mavir al hamitzvos. There's nothing. The whole thing is it should be broken. Mah she'ein kein, if you learn that there's a mitzvah to break, so there you have the sugya of mavir al hamitzvos. It could be that's the machlokes. Nothing to do with minhag and not minhag. It has to do with what's called yachatz. If yachatz is a mitzvah, then ain't mavirin al hamitzvos. If there's no mitzvah, yachatz is a me'eila. Now, the only thing is, I have to clarify the Rambam. Does the Rambam mean that even l'chatchila doesn't make a difference to have yachatz, or l'chatchila it's mashmi you should have a whole matzah? Which means this could be a personal l'chatchila, because you have shleimim and shemurim, and it costs less money, right? Maybe Rav Shach is speaking about l'chatchila. Oh, maybe he's speaking about l'chatchila, and the Rama is speaking about bedi'eved. No, no.

I don't know if that's true. It could be, but I don't know if that's mukhach. I'm just clarifying, in the Rama itself, maybe l'chatchila you taka should take a full one. I don't know. You have a good heter. Instead of using a shalem for yachatz, someone doesn't have, he should use a broken matzah for yachatz. Why is she ruining a shalem? It costs more money. What for? But seriously, the only thing is, the way the Rama says it, it's mashma yachatz. Anyway, it's no... So why say you take three shleimim? Unless that's the way they used to... maybe in the old days, in the stam, they baked it at home, they were shleimim. No? What are you chayav shacht in the Rama? You like my mechakir in the Rama? Okay. What is the Rama? A taf ayin hei, the end of taf ayin hei. Okay. Now, I saw Reb Shlomo Zalman Auerbach brings a very interesting thing in the Rishonim. Yiftzes hamatzah b'yadoi v'loy b'sakin. That's one reason. There's another reason. Pri Megadim, siman taf ayin gimel, eshlav ram. Pri Megadim, why? V'hu mipnei shedarkai ani l'tzayer b'yaday. Ba'ayin b'Kaf HaChaim, se'if katan kuf chaf, that the reason is, lo sanaf aleihem barzel, so therefore you can't have a knife. So he asks the kasha, what do you mean, but all year round — brings from the Rivos Ephraim — all year round we do make with a knife; we don't cut challah with a knife. So he brings down, but this is different. Why? Because since it's eaten with the karban Pesach, the matzah is eaten with the karban Pesach, so the karban Pesach is korban; it's more korban than the regular. B'chiddush, the whole table is a korban, and the bread is like a mizbeach, and if we put the salt and then got some ma'ases, like — you guys know all this stuff. What do you mean, not supposed to know? ... What's your question? You could cut the meat by korban Pesach, break the bones, but not with a knife. ... The matzah ne'echales im korban Pesach. V'keivan sheyesh bo shaychus l'kodshim, sha efshar la'asos bah es haremez shelo yisanaf aleihem barzel, ma she'ein kein b'shar hashanah. Okay. I have a teretz to the kasha. I have a few terutzim. First of all, the Pri Megadim is saying that what the ani does is b'yad. Wait a minute, that's only the way we learned the pshat, the ani goes and breaks it. So there's a kiyum in the ma'aseh of darko shel ani. But if you learn the main thing is that it should be a broken piece of matzah, because that's the difference. So what's the difference how you do it, right? Mimeila, we can answer, ein kashya, l'sanah aleihem barzo. Why? All year round, the mitzvah is not to cut the challah. The mitzvah is to go and cut the challah. It's like a temtza to eat it. However, here there's a chiyuv to go, mimeila it's a din of lo sanah aleihem barzo. Now, the what? One is how you get to it, and the other one is how you do it. That's right. And one is, there's a chiyuv darko shel... The Pri Megadim is where I got my yesod from, l'choira. I mean, I got it before the Pri Megadim, but once I see the Pri Megadim, it's a big, it's a big ta'ni de'mesayea li, that it's not stam darko shel ani b'prusa. It's not stam darko shel ani b'prusa that it is; there's to make it darko shel ani b'prusa. Okay. With this, I want to go and say a machataych. L'choira, it's darko shel ani b'prusa. Once b'prusa, he breaks it. Before he eats it, he breaks it. So I ask you a kashya, so then do it by motzi matzah. Do it by motzi matzah. Why are we doing it early? So bishleima if you learn like the ta'am, k'dei sheyisha'alu tinokos, very geshmak, k'dei sheyisha'alu tinokos, which the Beis Yosef brings from the Kolbo, we taka do it early. Like, why are you breaking the matzah now if we're going to eat later? Good, fine. Mashein kein if you learn the ta'am of lachma anya...

It's not a kashya why you're doing it now, right? I told me it's your third taanis. Where did the kiddush? Remember yesterday I was telling you that when does the beginning of the seudah? When does the seudah start? Tell me it starts. Matzah. It starts the seudah when? The matzah. He breaks the matzah, the karpas. Mameila, you can come and say that, ha lachma anya, now we're starting the meal. Now the Haggadah is a definition to explain the matzah. We're starting now, you're right. You make kiddush, we ate karpas and hors d'oeuvre, like k'derech melachim. Now we're starting to eat the matzah. Wait a minute, there's lechem she'oni, dvarim harbeh. You understand? You have a whole lechem she'oni, dvarim harbeh, is the taich, that's a motzi matzah. We're starting motzi matzah. The thing is, before you start, yeah, right, you break the matzah, but wait a minute, why are we breaking the matzah? Ha lachma anya, lechem she'oni, dvarim harbeh. Now you see what Reb Shlomo Zalman is saying. The two reasons are combined, because it's actually, this is motzi matzah now. Motzi matzah is technically starting now, and I'll prove it to you. Tell me, we make kiddush, yeah? How much time goes between the kiddush and the seudah? That's what yeshiva, right? Depends what. Are you allowed to make such a big hefsek between the kiddush and the seudah? I want to know, how long? Could you wait 72 minutes between kiddush and seudah? I want to know, could you do a thing like that? Reb Shlomo Zalman speaks about it. It's very big. It's a very, very big she'eilah. How could you ever make kiddush... And then two hours later. Yeah, so it becomes the beginning of the seudah. Hagadah is a chelek of the seudah. You break the matzah, it's the beginning of the seudah, and then there's a din of lechem mishneh to explain. Why couldn't— Could you do it on other days of the year? It's necessary. Could you do it before Kiddush and then start making the food now? No, you start the preparation. Well, maybe if the Torah says, Lechem sheini... maybe. Why are you saying... start eating in the seudah? Why? We do it on Rosh Hashanah with the food. It takes a while also. To say that—I mean, I'm saying not everybody does it. Okay. Now listen to me carefully. I have to go now. I have to go now. But, okay, in this Haggadah, I have two, you know, I have two sefarim from Rav Shlomo Zalman, I show you. In this one he has the shtikel Torah that it's two lechem oni, and he says, Hatam shechotzin ha-matzah l'shtayim, because ma dakah shel ani, u'prusah, lechem oni, and then lechem sheini u'dvarim harbeh. This he says over here, okay? This is mitoch shiur shel Hilchos Pesach. And in the other one he has this shtikel Torah, that since it's the beginning of the seudah, ממילא you don't have a problem with the hefsek between the Kiddush and the seudah and the chuleh v'chuleh. So b'emes that was the vort I said yesterday. So it comes out I was right. Tchilas ha-seudah really means from what? You start with the matzah, you break it up, and actually this vort and that vort is really one vort. That the lechem she'onim, the prusa, and lechem she'ein dvarim harbeh, madak sheloi b'prusa, and that the seudah starts from here, is actually all one. Okay, we'll stop over here. So that's yachad.