[Avodah] Shehecheyanu on Matza

[Akiva Miller via Avodah]

I'm sure it will seem odd that I'm asking Hilchos Pesach at this time of
year, so I will explain how I got here: I was thinking about the sequence
of Kiddush on the first two nights of Sukkos (hey, Israelis! don't turn me
off yet! this is relevant to you too!), and how most in Chu"l say
Shehecheyanu last on the first night, but Leshev last on the second night.
To understand that better, I tried to construct a similar scenario under
other circumstances.

I figured that if one were to make Kiddush on Matza at the Seder, this
might be what I'm looking for. This could come about if one was at the
Seder, and had neither wine nor any other drink for Kiddush, and was
therefore forced to say the Kiddush on Hamotzi. (This actually happened to
me personally when I was much younger than now, and I was working as a
busboy in a hotel which had an excellent hechsher on the food, but a
kitchen manager who did not care much for those of us who wanted to
participate in a seder.)

It turns out that there is an entire siman (#483) in Orach Chaim on this
very situation, explaining what to do at the Seder if one has a very
limited amount of wine, or even no wine at all, or even no Chamar Medinah
at all. I expected that the proper procedure would be very similar to what
we do the first night of Sukkos. I expected the answer to be: Hamotzi,
Kiddush, Al Achilas Matza, and finally Shehecheyanu. But as it turns out,
Beur Halacha "Ad Shegomer" says: "See the sefer Maamar Mordechai, who is
machria that the bracha of Zman is part of Kiddush [birkas zman bichlal
kiddush hu], so therefore, say Zman and afterwards Al Achilas Matza." (The
Kaf HaHayyim 483:8 also says to say Al Achilas Matza after the
Shehecheyanu, and also refers to the Maamar Mordechai.)

I'm shocked, and I'm not exaggerating. Is there no Shehecheyanu on the
mitzva of eating matza?

We say Shehecheyanu on the mitzva of shofar, and on the mitzva of reading
Megilas Esther. Why not on matza?

We say Shehecheyanu on the sukkah and on the lulav. One could argue that
these are not on the mitzva itself but on the making of the objects, in
which case I'd suggest to say Shehecheyanu on the making of the matza! Why
not?

For decades, I've begun the Seder by telling the others that when we say
Shehecheyan, we should have all the mitzvos of the night in mind. I've
taken this to be a davar pashut, but now, I've reviewed my notes, and I see
it mentioned in only two of my hagados: Kol Dodi 7:5 (by Rav Dovid
Feinstein) who refers to the Siddur of the Yaavetz; and Yaynah Shel Torah
3:11:7 (by Binyamin Adler) who quotes Vayadeg Moshe 15:11. Is it possible
that these are minority opinions, who disagree with the Beur Halacha?

After writing the above, I found in the Halichos Shlomo on Moadim, vol 2,
chapter 9, footnote 151, that Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach used to announce
at his Seder, that the Shehecheyanuapplies to all the mitzvos of the night,
and that this is why there is no problem for the women to answer Amen, even
if they already said Shehecheyanu at candle lighting. On the other hand, he
writes in footnote 152 that if such a woman is actually saying the Kiddush
herself, she should omit the Shehecheyanu, because "they did not make a
takana to say Shehecheyanu on the mitzvos of the night on their own."

Apparently, RSZA holds that as long as one is saying Kiddush at the Seder,
and Kiddush does have Shehecheyanu, then that Shehecheyanu can include
matza too. But if for some reason one could not say Kiddush at the Seder
[let's say he has no hagada or no light and doesn't know the kiddush by
heart] he is not allowed to say Shehecheyanu directly on the matza. That
would fit the Bur Halacha very well. But now I am utterly mystified at why
we say Leshev Basukkah BEFORE Shehecheyanu. Why is Sukkos different than
Pesach?

Those who want to see the Maamar Mordechai itself, it is available online.
Go to http://www.hebrewbooks.org/20231  and then to page 408, and read
se'if 3. I did not see any clear explanation of why the Al Achilas Matza
should come last, but perhaps someone else can find a nuance that I missed.

(One last note: Some might suggest that the Shehecheyanu on matza is
included in the bracha on the second cup: "v'higiyanu halailah hazeh
le'echol bo matzah." But that seems dachuk to me.)

Akiva Miller
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