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B’vrakhah,
Rabbi Spitzer
Vol. 2, No. 7
April 2008
A Responsum Regarding Erev Pesach Which Falls
on Shabbat1
by Rabbi David Golinkin
"But a threefold cord
is not quickly broken"
(Ecclesiastes 4:12)2
Question: Erev Pesach this year falls on Shabbat.
How should one go about preparing for the festival and
for the Shabbat meals?
Responsum:
I) The Essential Laws
The situation posed here is a relatively rare
one. Erev Pesach fell on a Shabbat only eleven
times in the 20th century as well as in 2005. After
this year, it will do so again only in 2021 and 2025.3
The essential laws appear below:
1. Fast of the firstborn: According to
one opinion cited by R. Yosef Karo, because the fast
is postponed, it is postponed altogether and therefore,
according to the Sefardic custom, there is no need
to fast at all. On the other hand, according to the
Rema (R. Moshe Isserles), the fast is moved up to the
preceding Thursday and therefore the Ashkenazi custom
is to have a siyyum massekhet4 on Thursday,
the 12th of Nissan, so that the firstborn may participate
in the festive occasion and eat (Shulhan Arukh
Orah Hayyim 470:2; R. Ovadia Yosef, p. 273; R.
Alfred Cohen, p. 127).
2. Searching for hametz (leavened
bread): The search for hametz is done
on Thursday evening, on the eve of the 13th of Nissan,
and the hametz is burned on Friday morning
(Orah Hayyim 444:1). While it is true that
the hametz may be burned all day long because
Friday is not Erev Pesach it is
preferable to burn it before the end of the fifth
hour of the day (11:16 a.m., Jerusalem summer time),
as is the case every year, so that one does not err
the following year (Orah Hayyim 444:2 and
R. Ovadia Yosef, p. 273).
3. The Shabbat meals: This is the main
problem when Erev Pesach falls on Shabbat.
On the one hand, according to Rabbi Levi in the Talmud
Yerushalmi, matzah may not be eaten on Passover
Eve in order to eat the matzat mitzvah (the matzah that
we are commanded to eat on the night of the Seder)
with a hearty appetite (Yerushalmi Pesahim 10:1, fol.
37b) and the great halakhic authorities ruled accordingly
(Rambam, Laws of Hametz and Matzah 6:12, and Shulhan
Arukh Orah Hayyim 471:2 in the Rema). On the other
hand, it is difficult to keep challot for hamotzi in
the home on Shabbat after all the hametz has
been removed. Furthermore, hametz may not
be eaten on Shabbat morning which is Erev Pesach after
the fourth hour of the day (9:56 a.m., Jerusalem summer
time).
Indeed, such a situation is mentioned in the
Mishnah (Pesahim 3:6 = folio 49a), the Tosefta (Pesahim
3:9, 11, ed. Lieberman, pp. 153-154) and in the Babylonian
Talmud (Pesahim 49a, 13a, 20b). But those sources are
not sufficiently clear5 and, as a result, five different
solutions to this problem have developed.
II) Five Methods Which Have Evolved Throughout
the Generations
1. R. Yitzhak ibn Giyyat (Spain, d. 1089) apparently
ignored the above-mentioned Yerushalmi and ruled that
regular matzah should be eaten at the Shabbat
meals. He is cited as follows in Shaarei Teshuva,
No. 93:
Rabbeinu Yitzhak ibn Giyyat wrote: the custom
in Lucena was to burn [all hametz] before
Shabbat, to bake matzah on Friday and eat
it on Shabbat and after Shabbat, they bake matzah and
use it to fulfill the mitzvah.6
R. Yitzhak ibn Giyyat does not give a source
for his opinion, but the Rishonim [=early
halakhic authorities] already noted the above-mentioned
Tosefta: "When the fourteenth falls on Shabbat,
[all hametz] is burned before Shabbat and
he bakes matzah for himself on Erev Shabbat".
Some of the Rishonim explained that he bakes matzat
mitzvah for himself on Erev Shabbat for
the Seder on Saturday night.7 However, R.
Yitzhak ibn Giyyat, R. Efraim of Kala Hammad, the Rivevan
and R. Aharon Hacohen of Lunel explained that he bakes matzah for
himself on Erev Shabbat in order to eat it
on Shabbat.8 Nevertheless, their opinion has all but
disappeared over the generations,9 apparently because
there were other interpretations of the Tosefta and
because their opinion was contrary to the above-mentioned
Yerushalmi.
2. The second
method is based on Pesahim 13a: "As
it is taught [in a beraita]: when the fourteenth
falls on Shabbat, [all hametz] is burned before
Shabbat and some of thefood is left over for two meals
that should be eaten before the fourth hour [on Shabbat]" (and
cf. ibid., 49a and 20b). Indeed, this is how the great
halakhic authorities ruled (Otzar Hageonim to Pesahim,
pp. 65-67; Rambam, Laws of Hametz and Matzah 3:3;
and Shulhan Arukh Orah Hayyim 444:1). R. Yosef
Karo adds that for seudah shlishit (the third
Shabbat meal), matzah ashirah (i.e., enriched matzah or "egg matzah" as
it is now called)10 should be used, provided that seudah shlishit is
eaten before the tenth hour of the day so that one
will have an appetite to eat matzah at the Seder.
Likewise, the hametz must be nullified by
reciting "Kol hamira vhamia" (the
Aramic formula for nullifying hametz) on Shabbat
morning at the end of the fifth hour (11:15 a.m.),
just as it is done every year (Orah Hayyim 444:4,
6).
This method has been in practice for generations,
but it causes discomfort. Below is a description of
it by R. Hayyim David Halevy, who is actually one of
its proponents:
And this is our custom: on Friday, the 13th
of Nissan, all of the hametz is burned and
all of the utensils used for hametz are concealed
as if it was the 14th of Nissan, and all of the cooking
for Shabbat is done using Pesach utensils. A small
amount of hametz is left over, preferably
pitas or rolls that do not make crumbs, and immediately
after kiddush [on Friday night], they crowd
around a designated corner on a separate table, eat
the amount of bread required at a Shabbat meal with
vegetable salad and the like, shake out their clothes
very well and remove the tablecloth and the table and
then they sit down at the main Shabbat table and eat
kosher [for Pesach] foods on kosher [for Pesach] dishes
and recite birkat hamazon at the
conclusion of the meal.
On the following morning, immediately after
the services, they eat as described above in a special
corner, etc., a regular and full breakfast using disposable
plates and cutlery and say birkat hamazon.
Afterwards, they destroy the hametz by throwing it
in a public place and then recite the normal nullification.
In the afternoon, minhah is recited at an
early hour (minhah gedolah) and then they
eatseudah shlishit [=the third Shabbat meal],
with meat and fish [without bread or matzah].
(Aseh Lekha Rav, Vol. 5, pp. 363-364, and
cf. Mekor Hayyim Hashalem, Vol. 4, pp. 76-77).
However, R. Eliyahu Hazzan, when he served
as Chief Rabbi of Tripoli, Libya, already noted the
difficulties in this method:
This year, 5636 [=1876], Erev Pesach falls
on Shabbat and my soul is so anguished over the prohibitions
which occurred this Shabbat due to the eating of hametz,
because they could not be extremely careful about the
crumbs and sweeping the house and the like, and in
addition, the joy of Shabbat Hagadol is prevented
because they will eat between the stove and the oven
and the like; also because on Shabbat they pray at
a late hour and we have to worry that the time for
nullifying the hametz will pass, God forbid
It is therefore desirable to seek another method
to the problem.
3. Indeed, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef proposed another
solution. He suggested using matzah that has
been cooked in chicken or meat soup as follows: after
the soup has been cooked, remove it from the burner
and, while the soup is still hot enough to burn the
hand, put several matzot, enough for ones
needs, in the soup one after the other in such a way
that the matzah fully absorbs the taste of
the soup, and then it can be used to fulfill the mitzvah
of three meals. It is best not to remove the matzot from
the soup until it cools off so that the matzot can
be removed whole and not fall apart in the soup, so
that they can be broken on Shabbat and used for hamotzi and birkat
hamazon Similarly, he may fry the matzot in
oil. He goes on to say that on Friday night it
is permissible to use regular matzah because
the prohibition in the Yerushalmi of eating matzah on Erev
Pesach does not apply to the night of the 14th
(R. Ovadia Yosef, p. 279).
Indeed, from a halakhic perspective, his method
is valid, but from a practical point of view, it is
hard to accept, because presumably most of the people
will not want to engage in the complicated process
described above.
4. The fourth method was suggested by R. Yaakov
Bezalel Zolti, Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem, in 1981. He
maintains that the Yerushalmi is only opposed to eating matzah on Erev
Pesach if that matzah could be eaten
at the Seder. Egg matzah may be eaten
on Erev Pesach because it may not be
used at the Seder. Similarly, if before baking
regular matzah for Pesach, we state
explicitly that it is not for the purpose of fulfilling
the mitzvah of eating matzah at the Seder,
then it may be eaten on Erev Pesach. He further
states that he and Rabbi Elyashiv actually arranged
for such matzot to be baked in 1981.
This method is not convincing for two reasons.
First of all, it is very ingenious, but ignores the
plain meaning of Rabbi Levis words in the Yerushalmi.
Rabbi Levi is opposed to eating matzah on Erev
Pesach because it ruins the taste of the matzah at
the seder. Changing our intent when we bake
the matzah will not address Rabbi Levis concern.
Secondly, even if some rabbi arranges to bake such
special matzah, most Jews will not have access
to it.
5. The fifth method is the simplest and preferred.
It is cited by R. Vidal de Toulousa in the Maggid
Mishneh (on Laws of Hametz and Matzah 3:3,
near the end) and it was even suggested by R. Yosef
Karo, who rejected it for technical reasons alone:
And it should not be said that one should destroy
[all hametz] before Shabbat and leave nothing
and on Shabbat eat matzah ashirah [egg matzah];
since not every person is able to make egg matzah for
all three meals, therefore the rabbis did not insist
on this (Beit Yosef on Orah Hayyim,
paragraph 444, catchword: umah shekatav vkhen hinhig
Rashi).
In other words, if it were possible for every
person to make egg matzah, R. Yosef Karo would
have agreed to this, because egg matzah is
neither hametz nor matzat mitzvah which
can be used at the seder, and therefore it may be eaten
on Erev Pesach (Responsa of the Ribash,
No. 402 and Noda BYehudah, Orah Hayyim,
No. 21). Indeed this was the custom in Izmir, Turkey
in the 19th century according to the testimony of Rabbi
Haim Palache. He favored the practice, because, if hametz remained,
it would be difficult to get rid of the crumbs and
a person would also not be able to eat calmly at a
carefully laid table with a clean tablecloth and the hametz foods
would be cold (Responsa Lev Haim, II, No.
88). This was also the practice followed by the above-mentioned
R. Eliyahu Hazzan. He refrained from "imposing
on the people to make egg matzah", but
he did disclose his practice to several scholars in
the hope that "perhaps in so doing, the custom
will work its way into practice". This was also
the practice of R. Yosef b. Walid (Sefer Shemo
Yosef, No. 136). Rabbi Moshe Feinstein also preferred
this solution in a responsum written in 5714 (1954).
He wrote:
Therefore it is good for those who do not wish
to leave hametz [in their house] on Shabbat
out of concern for possible obstacles that may arise
from this, to fulfill the mitzvah of the two
Shabbat meals using egg matzah (R. Moshe Feinstein,
p. 274).
He cites the above-mentioned Beit Yosef and
explains:
We have seen that it would be appropriate to
enact and institute the practice of destroying all hametz before
Shabbat and to fulfill the mitzvah of the
Shabbat meals using egg matzah and therefore
those who are able and want to take the trouble to
bake egg matzah for the two Shabbat meals,
that is preferable
This approach of Rabbi Moshe Feinstein was
well-received by various halakhic authorities, such
as my grandfather, Rabbi Mordechai Yaakov Golinkin
z"l, who was the Av Beit Din of Massachusetts
for many years; my father and teacher, Rabbi Noah Golinkin
z"l; Rabbi Shlomo Goren, Rabbi Alfred Cohen, Rabbi
Kassel Abelson and others.11
As for seudah shlishit, it is of course
possible to be stringent like the Rema and to eat only
fruit or meat and fish. However, here too one may be
lenient and use egg matzah because that is
what R. Yosef Karo (Orah Hayyim 444:1) ruled
in accordance with the custom of Rabbeinu Tam.12 Rabbi
Yehezkel Landau (1713-1793) ruled in the Noda BYehudah
(Orah Hayyim, No. 21) "that it is permissible
to eat [egg matzah on Erev Pesach]
all day if there is a small need, even if it is not
for a sick or elderly person". Therefore, it is
permissible to eat egg matzah even at seudah
shlishit.
III) Conclusion
In conclusion, on Erev Pesach which
falls on Shabbat one may not eat regular matzah and
it is difficult to eat hametz. As a result,
five possible solutions were proposed throughout the
generations. In our day, it is preferable to adopt
the fifth method. One should search for hametz on
Thursday night, burn and nullify the hametz on
Friday morning (R. Ovadia Yosef, p. 279) and eat egg matzah at
all of the Shabbat meals.
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