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

[estherchaya.livejournal.com]

There's also the no-matzah-and-liquid restriction, which I've forgotten the name of, but that's a small minority, I'm told

It's called gebrachts. I don't know that I'd call it a "small" minority, aside from the fact that it's slightly redundant to say. I think that the Chasiddische community is a substantial enough population to avoid stressing "small".

[cellio]

I thought it was a subset of the Chassidic community, but apparently I erred. I apologize. Certainly the word "small" is inappropriate for the Chassidic community in general.

[estherchaya.livejournal.com]

I think that a large majority of Chassidim (and at least a few Orthodox sects) hold to no gebrachts.
It's a large enough minority that there are plenty of products labeled as "non-gebrachts", which is telling, I think.

Lubavitchers are the most commonly known for not eating gebrachts, I think (though they will on the eighth night).

[cellio]

It's a large enough minority that there are plenty of products labeled as "non-gebrachts", which is telling, I think.

Yes, that is telling. I don't think I've ever seen that notation, though it's probably a function of the kinds of food I buy. (I don't buy a lot of matzah-based products like cakes, cookies, and cereals.)