[Avodah] Shehecheyanu on Matza

[Micha Berger via Avodah]

On Thu, Oct 01, 2015 at 08:19:03AM -0400, Akiva Miller via Avodah wrote:
: I'm shocked, and I'm not exaggerating. Is there no Shehecheyanu on the
: mitzva of eating matza?

The Avudraham (on the Haggadah ad loc) says we don't make shehachiyanu
on Matzah only because Maggid just ended with a berakhah that included
"vehigi'anu halaylah hazeh le'ekhol bo matzah umaror."

He giest a second answer -- that it's covered by the shehechiyanu
in Qiddush.

There is a machloqes between the author of Liqutei Ta'amin uMinhagim
and R SY Zevin as to whether this premature shehechiyanu would be
effective. LTuM questions the Avudraham's 2nd answer because while we
have a chiyuv to keep the other mitzvos of Purim in mind when saying
shehachiyanu at megillah reading, there is no mention of a parallel
requirement here.

R' Zevin wrote the author suggesting chiluqim:

1- The Rosh says the shehechiyanu to apply retroactively to bediqas
chameitz, which there is also no mention of kavanah -- so later in time,
lo kol shekein!

2- The shehechiyanu at Megillah is by default only on megillah. One made
at qiddush is for the YT as a whole.

ROY (Chazon Ovadiah, Pesach vol 2, pg 23) tells you to have matzah,
maror and sippur yetzi'as mitzrayim in mind when saying shehechiyanu
in Qiddush. Apparently he assumes the Avudraham's 2nd answer does mean
a chiyuv exists.

IOW, there is a chiyuv to say shehechiyanu on the mitzvah of matzah,
it's just fulfilled in other ways.

As for not liking matzah... The berakhah would be on the mitzvah,
not the food. And mitzvos lav leihanos nitenu, so it should require a
similar shehachiyanu either way.


Tangentially: R' RY Eisenman spoke Fri night about whether there is
a chiyuv to make a shehechianu on a new gun. The literature discusses
swords. (Tie in to current events, and his son wanting to have a gun
when out in chutzos Y-m.)

R' Zilberstein says no, because it's not there for hana'ah, it's there
to avoid a threat. RREY didn't understand why that line of reasoning
wouldn't exclude making a shehechiyanu on a designer raincoat -- after
all, you only wear them to avoid rain.

(Li nir'eh RYZ was talking about a cheap utilitarian raincoat and in
our case, would only apply to a gun bought for function only -- and
not for an effieianado.)

I was wondering why RRYE was handling the question in terms of a
new keli, and not in terms of whether a hekhsher mitzvah gets a
shehachiyanu. After all, if there was no need to defend an attacked
Jew, he wouldn't be buying the gun...

All of which reminded me of this thread, which is why it got this belated
reply.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             The purely righteous do not complain about evil,
micha at aishdas.org        but add justice, don't complain about heresy,
http://www.aishdas.org   but add faith, don't complain about ignorance,
Fax: (270) 514-1507      but add wisdom.     - R AY Kook, Arpelei Tohar