[Avodah] baking matzot by a goy/katan

[Eli Turkel]

The woman in question was rolling the matzos.  This job is not
halachically necessary at all.  One could just take a lump of dough,
of the size that is distributed to each roller (which is usually
thinner than a tefach), punch a few holes in it, and put it straight
in the oven, and it would be a kosher matzah.  The rolling is done,
not to make it a kosher matzah, but to make it a nice and useful
and edible one, and to avoid the possibility that the inside didn't
bake completely and could become chametz.  So even if this matzah
was rolled by that woman, and she is a goy, no real harm has been done.>>

I am currently learning shoneh halachot from RCK. He says that
lechatchila even the water drawn for the matzot (mayim she-lanu)
should be by an adult Jew, not a ghoy or a minor/chesh/shoteh.
All melachot connected with the baking of the matzo after cutting
the wheat should be done by an adult Jew.
Again this is lechatchila.

For the mitzvat matzah at the seder even standing over the goy and
warning them is not enough
Similarly if the mitzvah starts from grinding then the grinding cannot
be done by a goy or a minor even if someone is watching them.
According to the opinion that shmira starts from the cutting then the
cutting of the wheat has to be done by an adult Jew.


--
Eli Turkel

-- 
Eli Turkel