public service announcement

[cellio]

When Streit's writes, on the package of egg matzah (which is much tastier than the plain sort), "egg matzos may be eaten only by the infirm, aged or children according to Shulchan Aruch", what they mean is "...in order to fulfill the obligation at the seder specifically". Why they don't say that is beyond me. It confused me the first year I was paying attention (so I asked), and I was just reminded of it by the box of matzah sitting on my desk here at work. (The rest of the week you don't have to eat matzah at all if you don't want to; you just have to not eat chametz.)

Comments

[ichur72.livejournal.com]

Hmmm. I don't quite get the drop-of-water-in-juice bit -- as long as it's all cooked within 18 minutes, why would it be a problem. Maybe it takes longer to make egg or juice matzah. I dunno.

I don't think -- once again, don't quote me on this -- that this is a big deal at any time but seder night. You aren't supposed to eat matzah during the day that leads up to seder night (at a minumum -- some people have a custom to wait as long as a month prior to Pesach). But if you have a baby/small child who's hungry or are taking care of a sick elderly person who's hungry, you can feed them egg or juice matzah prior to the seder if that's all you have. (It's supposed to be easier on the stomach than matzah and therefore more suitable for babies and sick people.) I think you can eat it whenever you want for the rest of the week.

[cellio]

I don't quite get the drop-of-water-in-juice bit -- as long as it's all cooked within 18 minutes, why would it be a problem.

Ditto.

I think you can eat it whenever you want for the rest of the week.

That's my assertion (and someone gave me such a ruling once), but apparently some Ashkenazi sources actually say no egg matzah at all unless you're sick/old/a child. I'm having trouble understanding why, but I haven't spent a lot of time looking at it.