[Avodah] The night of Makas Bechoros

[Zev Sero]

See Malbim, who suggests that according to R Yose Haglili, who says
that the issur chometz that year was only for one day, that one day
was the 14th, not the 15th, but since with kodshim the night follows
the day it was from the morning of the 14th till the morning of the
15th.  Therefore they started baking bread at daybreak, intending to
let it rise, but they were immediately ordered to leave and had no
time.

Alternatively, since most meforshim understand the one day to be the
15th, he suggests that they mixed the dough intending to bake matzos,
but they didn't even have time to do that and had to take the unbaked
dough, which would naturally have become chometz during their journey,
but miraculously it did not rise and when they got where they were
going they baked it as matzos (or, according to pseudo-Yonasan, the
sun baked it, which presents halachic problems of its own, since
sun-baked bread doesn't have the status of bread).

On 17 May 2018 at 23:51, Akiva Miller via Avodah
<avodah at lists.aishdas.org> wrote:
> .
> I had cited Shemos 12:39:
>
>> They baked the dough that they took out of Egypt into loaves
>> of matzah, because it did not become chametz, for they were
>> driven out of Egypt and could not delay. Nor did they prepare
>> any provisions for themselves.
>
> R' Zev Sero suggested:
>
>> ... my understanding is that they did not leave with unbaked
>> dough but with dough that had been swiftly baked into matzos.
>> I am positing that one may still call dough "dough" after it
>> has been turned into bread, if one is speaking from the
>> perspective of before it was baked.
>
> It is my opinion that this totally ignores the plain meaning of the
> pasuk. But that's just my opinion. If RZS wants to force those words
> to have that meaning, that's okay.
>
> But there's another pasuk we need to deal with, and that is Shemos 12:34 -
>
>> They picked up their dough before it would become chametz,
>> their leftovers wrapped in their garments on their shoulders.
>
> This pasuk is not reminiscing about "the dough that they took out of
> Egypt". The narrative is being told in real time. This pasuk is
> unequivocal: Whenever it was that they packed up to leave, the stuff
> they picked up was unbaked dough. Furthermore, the pasuk tells us that
> the dough was not yet chametz, yet still had the potential for it.
>
> Hence my question: If they didn't leave until morning (and I thank RZS
> for reminding me that this might mean "not until noon"), then why
> didn't it become chametz? I really don't understand.
>
> The only answer I can think of is that all night long, they did not
> make any dough, for whatever reason. (And if they left at noon, then
> they didn't make any dough in the morning either.) But then, just
> before they left, at some point between 1 and 17 minutes prior to
> departure, THAT'S when they decided to mix the flour and water
> together. ... Ummmm, no, I don't think so.
>
> Akiva Miller
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-- 
Zev Sero
zev at sero.name