[Avodah] Chametz and Matzah

[Micha Berger via Avodah]

On Sun, May 22, 2016 at 07:12:19PM -0400, Akiva Miller via Avodah wrote:
: This thread is not about the details of that rule, but its source. The
: gemara there bases it on Devarim 16:3:

:> Lo sochal alav chametz
:> Shiv'as yamim tochal matzos

:> Do not eat chametz with it
:> For seven days you will eat matzos

: Unfortunately, I don't see any logical connection between the two phrases.

But this  is derashah, not sevara.

:                          .... Why should we resort to a lomdishe
: juxtaposition of phrases, when the Torah explicitly defines the words for
: us? The pasuk I'm referring to is Shmos 12:39:

:> Vayofu es habatzek asher hotziu mimitzrayim ugos matzos
:> Ki lo chametz
:> Ki gorshu mimitzrayim v'lo yachlu l'hismameah

:> They baked the dough that they took out of Egypt into loaves of matza
:> Because it did not become chametz
:> Because they were expelled from Egypt and couldn't delay

: Isn't the definition clear? "It became matza because it did not become
: chometz." Matzah is what you get when you take something that *could*
: become chometz, but you bake it before it gets to that point.

Except that this is a historical statement, descriptive, not prescritive.

Their wheat dough was matzah because it happened not to become chameitz
-- for reasons the pasuq wants us to notice. Teshu'as H' keheref ayin.
And peshat is a pasuq in chumash like in all of Tanakh is more concerned
with Mussar than halakhah. It's not a halakhah book at the expense of
being a Mussar book. As they say about ayin tachas ayin, peshat is values,
derashah exists to provide the halakhah givien the mapping of those
values to a limited reality and limited humans.

But does that "ki" mean that the lack of becoming chameitz is a defining
feature? Maybe a lack of sirchon would also be good lehalakhah, but
didn't come up. (Given how much more available wheat was in Egypt.)
"Ki" could refer to sufficient cause, you are assuming the pasuq means
necessary cause.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             Today is the 33rd day, which is
micha at aishdas.org        4 weeks and 5 days in/toward the omer.
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