[Avodah] Why Karpas should be less than a K'zayyis; an alternative svara Pt. 2

rabbirichwolpoe at gmail.com rabbirichwolpoe at gmail.com
Sun Apr 19 19:05:57 PDT 2009


In part 1, I was able to squeeze the following svara into the GRA as
understood by Mishna Brura...
Namely:  Since only a K'zayyis triggers a bracha on the netila for tibbul -
And since we are noheig to never make the bracha al netilas yadayim for
ANY Tibbul -
Therefore it is best to avoid a S'feik Bracha by consuming less than a
K'zayyis karpas.

The Rambam will show us a converse scenario;
Namely how it looks in the case when we DO say a bracha al netilas
yadyyim prior to tibbul.

Re: Karpas...
Rambam hil. Hametz uMatza 8:1 
...Mevareich al netilas yadayim v'noteil es yadav...
 
8:2 
Maschil umevareich borei pri ha'adamah... V'ocheil kezayis...

Running with the Mishna Brura's sevara -
then ONLY a k'zayyis of tibbul would trigger the bracha of al netilas
yadayim..

Extrapolating from there as per this read of Rambam:
If you are going to wash for tibbul anyway
Then ensure a bracha by ensuring a K'zayyis.
---------------------

Rambam - not having Tosafos - simply requires a bracha. The MB AIUI
would add the proviso that is ONLY true in conjunction with a K'zayyis

And since SA is mesuppak on brachah due to Tosafos, therefore it would
be best to avoid a K'zayyis because that would trigger a bracha according
to the Rambam. And so SA would prefer not to be in a position of safeik.

---------------------

Now: What if Rambam is really a red herring and does NOT hold like
MB and therefore would make a bracha al netilas no matter how little
tibbul would be eaten? Then you might need another reason for Rambam
to require k'zayyis. And there we already have alternate sevaros.

----------------------

Nevertheless this does not up-end this approach entirely.

Algebraically let's define a Rishon "R" who DOES hold one makes a bracha
al netilas and as MB posits only when there is a k'zayyis.

Then even if we must disregard the Rambam due to external difficulties,
if we can still find a Rishon. R who holds YES to bracha al netilas,
provided it's a k'zayyis, then it would behoove us to be chosheish for
this Rishon R and avoid the conflict by consuming LESS.

Or IOW we just need to find is a Rishon that holds like the MB claims
the GRA holds.

Superficially, I would have guessed this Rambam would fit. But as R
Chaim Steinmetz BEH show us, this Rambam is a difficult fit

And if can show that NO such Rishon R exists then we have a big tzarich
iyyun on my entire thesis which is No big deal.

However, this would also be a tzarich iyyun on the Mishna Brura, too!

KT
RRW
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