[Avodah] Soft Matza in the Ar HaShulchan, M Berura & ShO HaRav

[Zev Sero]

On 17/03/2011 5:20 PM, Micha Berger wrote:

> Of the three acharonim in the title, I had a hard time believing that
> the MB and the AhS assume soft matzos. The SA haRav (SAhR) I found more
> plausible, since matzos in his day were probably still too thick be
> lack squeezability and still be chewable -- and he does mention "afilu
> hi rakah va'asuyah kisfug" (se'if 2).

FWIW, RMF mentions that the minhag of using matzos big enough for
everyone at the table to get a kezayis from the smaller half of the
middle matzah of the baal habayis's ke`ara continued into the 19th
century.  This minhag went with the one of making the three matzos
from an issaron of flour, which again makes them huge.  Obviously
such matzos could not possibly be thin as ours but of huge diameter;
not only would they break under their own weight, what sort of table
would hold them?  So they must have been substantially thicker than
our matzos, and if they were thicker then they must have been softer
or they'd be completely inedible, not only for the old and the young
but for everybody.  Therefore the minhag of soft(-er) matzos must
have lasted into the 19th century.

-- 
Zev Sero                      The trouble with socialism is that you
zev at sero.name                 eventually run out of other people’s money
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