Soft Matzah vs Hard Matzah: What Changed?

On the Shabbat Hagadol drasha, we spoke about the difference between hard matzas and soft matzas, thick matzas and the thin matzas which we are quite familiar with. We spent a long time in the details of the riot. I just wanted to give a quick synopsis of what we said. And that is that there is no question historically and I'm giving a little bit of a history lesson here that Yitziat Mitzrayim we took out nice pitas. They were thick matzas and they were not hard at all. That's what it says. We took out ugat matzot and Rashi says it's harara. Harara is a type of bready type of substance. As long as it was there for less than 18 minutes until it hit the oven and B we didn't put yeast in it to to to speed up the pace of the leavening, it remains matza even though you wouldn't picture it as being matza cuz it looks a little bit like a pita or what we call a mufletta or what you might call an esh tanur, one of those long bendable types of pitas. It doesn't make a difference. In the end of the day those are still considered a matza. And that's what we took out of Mitzrayim. And there are many riyas that that is what remained by us for thousands of years even during the time of the Tannaim and the Amoraim that happened later that was already a thousand and 1500 years later till the time of the Rama and the Shulchan Aruch. Because the mashal the Gemara in Pesachim daf zayin brings down that if a person finds a piece of bread and a piece of matza together and he doesn't know which one's chametz and which one's not. Tell me something. If you would find your matza and a loaf of challah together, would you know the difference between which one's matza and which one's challah? Who are you joking? It must be that they looked very similar. They were both a bready type of substance and therefore they can be mixed one with the other. And the Gamara also brings down the fact that they would bake it on Yom Tov every day. And the reason why they would bake it on Yom Tov every day, prepare matzos every day, is because the matzo which is soft gets bad after a day or two. It has no yeast in it. It only rises from its own watery substance that's within it, from its own moisture that's within it, texture, until it gets stopped by the oven when it gets heated and kills the bacteria that's inside of it, the enzymes that are making it grow. And by doing that, it gets bad within a day or two. It gets moldy. I one time had someone who bought soft matzos, and he called me a few hours before Yom Tov, and he told me, "I opened the box and they're all green and moldy." Oy vey, you should have kept in the freezer because these types of matzos don't last. So, they used to make matzos on a constant basis because they used to use these soft matzos. So, we see clearly that that's what was always that's what was always used. Also, we know that the Marsha brought in the Be'er Heitev brings that the proper place to hide the afikoman is behind you in between the care of a kesset, behind the pillow and your thing. Have you ever tried to put matzo behind you? It turns into matzo brei. Are you joking? You can't put matzo in your pillow behind you where you're sitting? That's You're not going to have any afikoman left afterwards. You'll have cereal for for breakfast. The answer is because they used to use soft matzo, and that is the appropriate place. There are many halachos, many proofs to this phenomenon that matzos were used that were soft. Now, how thick were they? So, that's already a Gamara on Daf Lamed Zayin, a machlokes Beis Shammai and Beis Hillel. Beis Shammai says, "Don't make them thick." Beis Hillel says, "You can make them thick." So, we see that Beis Hillel was Sefardi and Beis Shammai was Ashkenazi. No, I'm just joking. It's not true because over there the thickness that is being referred to, says the Gamara, is the lechem hapenim, Similar to the lechem upon him in the Beit Hamikdash that had the showbread. That was in the Beit Hamikdash where it was a tefach. A tefach is the size of your fist, 8 to 10 cm. That's what's called thick. Anything less than that, no problem, says the Gemara. Your biggest nightmare that you can make you can make matzah even if it's 6 or 7 cm wide. Like the language of the Gemara says, it's called a gluscoat. Rikiya is called a gluscoat. Gluscoat is almost the size of a lechem ani of a bun of a bun that you can have. So, we see that there's no question historically that it was used for that we had thicker matzot and that they were soft. However, as is brought down later in siman taf sameach, we have a machlokes between the Shulchan Aruch and the Rama. The Shulchan Aruch learned like the Gemara I just said that just make sure you don't make it a tefach. Please, just make it 6 cm. I know you really want to make it nice and thick your matzah. Just try to make it a little bit thinner. Don't make it 6 6 or 7 cm. Don't make it bigger than that. That's the Sefardi that's the Shulchan Aruch the that we they usually Sefardim go by. And the psak for the Rama, he says we were knowing these days to make them rekiki, make them thinner. What's thinner? So, says the Beis Hillel that's a piyus in the back of the Shulchan Aruch in Yoreh De'ah and others the Pricha Hadash and the Be'er Heiteiv brings it. Bring it How thick is that? The size of a finger. That's 2 cm. Meaning, even in the time of the Rama 500 years ago, we still see that even if they made a soft matzah, it still had the width of 2 cm which is nice and thick, 2 to 2 and 1/2 2 and 1/2 cm is the size of your thumb, the width the thickness of your thumb. That's how big it was. Now, that does not look like the matzot that we have nowadays. So, what's the reason where did it come by the matzot that we have nowadays? So, the answer is the Chasam Sofer says in a chuva where he's discussing there was a famine and he was trying to figure out how to make matzot. He says, "Don't make the matzot the size of the rib matzot." Rib matzot were thick matzot, more or less, and he says they made a strong zera. Now it became much more of a takana, a minag that they can't relinquish on in Ashkenaz by Ashkenaz, to use only the thin matzot. And what they're referring to there is the harder matzot. The Zalman brings that also. He says Ashkenazi is not permitted to buy soft matzot cuz it already become a minag, which is a din, even though it's not written officially anywhere. 100% of the time the Amora'im and the Amora'im and even the Rishonim, they used the soft matzot and even thicker matzot. But now that it's become a custom to use these types of matzot, through through thick and thin, they have used and they began to use these matzot. And Ashkenazim use these matzot. And Orach Shulchan also brings down one of the reasons for doing this is in order that it lasts a long time. In the olden days, when you lived in a cute little city with 50 to 100 people, guy at most, and everybody had the silversmith, and you had the guy who fixed the shoes, the you know, the the the the peddler and you always had the rich guy, the poor guy, and the doctor, and everybody everybody had their one position. So, you had the guy who made matzot and everybody together would make matzot in the big communal oven together. And therefore, you could make it all on Erev Pesach, which is brought in the Torah, that is the appropriate time to make matzot on Erev Pesach. But nowadays, where we're dealing with corporations, we're dealing with Australia matzot located with millions of Jews, there is no way that you can make the matzot on Erev Pesach. Besides the fact, how many people listening right now on the camera know how to make their own matzot? Do you want to make your own matzot? No way. Don't Don't get me anywhere close. We do not make our own matzot. We're interested in someone else doing it. So, they already start from Hanukkah time making matzot for Pesach. We've got 3 months of making matzot, and the only way that can be done, basically, is obviously with the hard matzot. The hard matzot are able to be contained for a longer period of time, and that's why these hard matzot are done. Another reason, and we go back another 100 years, or the Shulchan Aruch in the 1900s, the early 1900s, the Chasam Sofer in the early 1800s, and now we go back to the early 1700s to the Baal HaTanya, what's known as the Shulchan Aruch HaRav, the first Lubavitcher Rebbe. The original Baal HaTanya, the famous Lubavitcher Rebbe who was right around the Balshem, he was one of the latest talmidim over there. He lived in the early 1700s, early to this we all know he had an escapade with the Vilna Gaon during that time period. He has a shailos u'teshuvos at the back of his sefer in siman vav, where he discusses gebrochs, the chumra of not eating matzah that is wet. And they asked him, "What do you mean? It's clear as day in many places that they ate gebrochs in the time of the Gemara, in the time of Shulchan Aruch." The Shulchan Aruch talks about eating wet matzah on Seder night. And he says, "Don't do it." But you know why he says not to do it? Because you don't want to take away the taste of matzah. I love the taste of matzah. Why should you ruin it by putting water in it? That's why we don't dip it in salt. We don't want to put and ruin the taste of matzah on Seder night. But it's clear from here that getting wet matzah is beseder gamur, there's no problem, black and white. No questions about it that gebrochs did not exist. It came about approximately during the Chassidic period, when they started becoming more machmir about the fact that it has kemach, it has um there's leftover flour on top of the matzah. They were worried for leftover matzah. Says the the Baal HaTanya, "Since we make hard matzas, flour sometimes can be left on top of the matza. The fire is underneath the matza, and the flour on top of the matza doesn't end up getting cooked. That's what he says. Or during the matza baking, sometimes flour can be flying around there, and it could bump into a matza and not end up getting cooked properly after it was already baked. And that extra flour that we're worried about dipping it in your soup is because we're worried that it's going to become chametz. So therefore, no gebroks. That means no putting flour on top of no putting a any wet surface on top of on on your matza. You have to watch out for them. Like I said, putting it in soup or making kneidlach, classically going as kneidlach. This is the chumra that more or less the chassidim brought to the forefront. All chassidic dynasty basically holds of this chumra. Most Ashkenazim do not. There are different minhagim. All Sephardim basically do not hold of the chumra of gebroks. Especially nowadays that we are so technologically advanced, we are so ahead of the game. There is no flour flying around in any matza bakery. They give a completely separate room for where the flour is being displaced. And I had an and it's clear as many people who are bodeks and matzas, they clearly say on a constant basis that they you don't really find flour. Any of the soot you see on top of a matza, especially if you're in a matza bakery, it's usually charcoal or it's leftover residue from the from from the from the burn. That's usually where it's come from, and therefore it's Sephardim are not. Ashkenazim have different minhagim, and all chassidim are more or less makpid because it's minhagim. They keep to their minhagim, and they keep to it. Rav Moshe says something interesting. He says not to be machmir by hand matza, but he holds by machine matza, one should be machmir. He says over there, in the machine, sometimes the flour can get out of place, and it can fall on top of the matza after it's already been complete. Because you're dealing with a machine and therefore he held that maybe not to put machine matzah into the soup. These days Rabbi Shalom approximately 25 years ago, technology has become so advanced that even that is probably not existent anymore. It is so clear that there is no extra soot of flour on top of the matzah and therefore usually we're safe to go. But we know especially amongst Hasidic circles that people try to be extremely careful and get away. We don't do this anymore, but we would go many times to my wife's cousins at that time. We don't have very much family here in Israel. And they're marked on that my kids who don't know anything about what they should you know. So they would go when they were younger like I said my kids are already older, but back then when they were younger and back then you had to stay far away away from the table and every time they would go and try to pick a bite and you know a piece of matzah would fly onto the table. They don't You had an atomic bomb happening because the matzah might by accident fall into some type of wetness, some type of liquid content that might be contained on top of the table or might fall on the floor and who knows what's going on in the floor and then you'll end up having gummer as a result of that. So that is a little bit of what we understand of a Hasidic minig. All these extra they are definitely because the amount of probability of something like that occurring is extremely extremely nil. But that's the that we do on Pesach. that the women had a minute to scrape the walls you already be painting the walls doing spring cleaning. So we see that yes because in a time when birth is occurring when a woman is giving birth so we try to make sure she's in a room that is completely sterile. That there is no elements cuz it's dangerous because when you're giving birth everything can happen to that cute little child. He is in a very, very susceptible and delicate scenario at that time. Well, guess what? On Pesach, we were born. We're being given birth to. We were children that were coming goyimi care of We were swallowed up just like a lady has a a child in her stomach, but at the same time it is protruding every it's obvious. So too we were swallowed up in Tzuraim, but hayu metzuyanem sham, but we were also sticking out. Mamish like a pregnant person. And we gave birth on uh Kodesh Baruch Hu gave birth to us on Pesach. We were born on Pesach. And yeah, that's right. 7 days later, we broke waters, right? By the Kriat Yam Suf. The water was broken. But anyways, this birth that occurs, there we try to keep everything extremely sterile. We want to keep away from any viruses, any type of chidakim that can come around. Bacterial infection, so that's why we try to keep things as clean as possible. So that's the benefit of gebroks. Getting back to where we were discussing, so that goes back to the idea of the soft matzos. Because of this reason, the uh gebroks came about, but that's the reason why soft matzos turned hard and they became very strong because they wanted besides the fact that they wanted to start making matzos a month earlier, 2 months earlier, the soft matzos could be susceptible that inside there might be some gooey substance. It could still be a little bit doughy. And in order to avoid that problem, they wanted hard in order to make sure that there is no type of chametz that is still contained inside of it. And that's where this extra chametz came from. Both the same time period, if you notice. The gebroks and the hard matzos came at the same time period. One probably evolved from the other because we had these thin hard matzos, which the Baal HaTanya says they were they they were washed into quick. We work very very quick. So, because you're doing it so quick and it becomes hard, sometimes there are leftover pieces of kemach of flour that don't actually get cooked and that's why this other chomer came about from one built on the other. Very interesting cuz the going we always know they always tell these stories about the going never wanting to enjoy his food. He always dipped his bread in water to make sure he didn't enjoy his food. Well, guess what? They write about the going that he ate kneidlich in his soup on Pesach. I can't believe it either. He actually had matzah balls in his soup. I don't know what the going is doing eating matzah balls. That's not usually what we we hear about the Vilna Gaon, but he was clear about it. Add connect that his talmud of chaim volozhin was coming to check up on his rebbe to see are you allowed to have matzah balls because that's that's gabrochs. Are you able to do it? And he said, "Yes, you should do it." I definitely believe that he did it because the chassidim were not eating gabrochs, so he definitely said, "Yes, eat gabrochs." So, he threw matzah balls into his soup to make sure that we eat gabrochs to make sure that the litvish oilam doesn't go in that direction. Al kol panim, that is a basically an evolvement of this idea. It started as thick soft matzahs. During the time of the Rama, it started becoming thinner in order to make sure we don't get problems of chometz inside of the dough. That's during the 15 to 1600s and then in the 1700s, it evolved into the very thin hard matzot in order that we can make more of it to make it earlier in time and B to make sure to be as clean as possible to make sure that there's no questions about chometz that are going to be contained inside of the matzah at all. When that happened, automatically abrupt from there came the gabrochs minag. Chassidim all keep to this minag of of being makpid in gabrochs and obviously with the hard matzah. Ashkenazim have hard matzah, but not necessarily are makpid in gabrochs. Each one depending on his heritage. And Sefardim basically are not. Almost all Sefardim do not. The Kitzur Shulchan Aruch says it's a nice minhag, but the minhag by all Bnei Sefarad is basically not to do it. Yes, we talk about chumras and the concept of chumras, but you should realize that sometimes a chumra expresses love. When you do something extra, when you go beyond the letter of the law, you're showing that I care that much more about the power of the matzah. That's why we make the matzah to round because it's much quicker, it's efficient, and therefore it has much more of a level of being able to keep to it. There was a man, and we'll finish here, who got who was having trouble getting a job. So, the rav found him a job. He was able to find him a job. Baruch Hashem. And after a while, he checked up with the boss. The rav checked up with the boss and said, "Nu, how's my guy? Is he good or not?" The guy said he's fine. He's okay. And he was saying he's okay. He says, "What, he's not good?" He said, "He's good. He's beseder. What's wrong? I see there's something wrong." He says, "Look, the job is 9:00 to 5:00. The guy is here 9:00 and he leaves 5:00." He leaves 5:00. He leaves 5:00. He's on time, not a minute before, not a minute afterwards. So, to me, that shows that he's here because he has to be a job, and he's doing his reliable man to do the job. But is he one who cares about his job? No. When you work 5 minutes extra, that shows about the whole 8 hours that you were working that those 8 hours were authentic. They were real. They came from a place of love, of interest, that I really want to be there. Now, I'm not here vouching for overworking. I'm not a big believer of that, but I am showing that sometimes when you give an extra jargon, when you give a little bit extra, when you give a little bit extra push from the matzah, from the gebrochts, or from whatever other chumras that we have on Pesach, that shows a certain point of an interest in in in line, obviously, with with intelligence. But at the end of the day, if there's room for a chumra, and you are machmir in a certain place, you should know it comes from an extra, what we call it bituy of of building our relationship and our care with Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Okay.