[Avodah] K'zayis as weight not volume?

[Zev Sero]

Micha Berger wrote:
> On Mon, Apr 14, 2008 at 08:10:40PM -0400, Zev Sero wrote:
> : In the case of matzah, the traditional conversion factor happens
> : to be 1.  It appears that experimental data contradicts that tradition;
> : if verified then the practise needs to be re-evaluated.  Maybe sefardi
> : matzot are denser than the ones Ashkenazim use today.
> 
> No baked good could be nearly as dense as a liquid. There is incomparably
> less gas disolved in water than air-holes in matzah. And soft matzah
> would have to be even LESS dense than our crackers in order to be soft
> (and yet made of the same material).

Density isn't just a factor of micro-holes (and macro holes don't count).
Liquids are not all the same density, and that is not a factor of how
much gas is dissolved in them.  The tradition is indeed to consider
both bread and matzah to have a density only negligibly less than that
of water; perhaps that tradition is wrong and has always been wrong,
or perhaps it depends on how one makes the dough.


> Picture it: ROY says the shiur if 27gm. He gave that assuming 1 gm means
> 1 cc, or IOW he was giving shitas R' Chaim Na'ah -- 27cc.

He is giving shitas haRamabam, and the centuries-old traidition of
Yerushalayim.  Which is the shita that R A.C. Naeh reported.

-- 
Zev Sero               Something has gone seriously awry with this Court's
zev at sero.name          interpretation of the Constitution.
                       	                          - Clarence Thomas