Bais HaVaad on the Parsha, Parshas Metzora

Breaking Protocol 

April 18, 2024

Excerpted and adapted from a shiur by Rav Moshe Yitzchok Weg

At the Seder, at Yachatz, we break a matzah in two. The Smag and Rokeiach say to break the top matzah, because it is closest and ein ma’avirin al hamitzvos (one may not bypass a mitzvah opportunity). The Bach says that Yachatz is not that much of a mitzvah (“eino mitzvah kol kach”), so ein ma’avirin is not applicable, and the custom is to break the middle matzah.

We can explain the Bach’s view of the mitzvah status of Yachatz based on the Rishonim, including the Machzor Vitri and Rabeinu Yonah, that say the point of Yachatz is to imitate a poor man, who typically only has pieces of bread rather than a whole loaf. So the key is having a broken matzah rather than breaking matzah. But perhaps the other view holds Yachatz is a mitzvah because a poor man divides what bread he has in two in case he’s short later.

The Pri Megadim may support the second approach, because he says not to use a knife for Yachatz because a poor man wouldn’t, which indicates that the ani breaks his bread rather than obtaining only pieces in the first place. This may also be supported by the Shulchan Aruch, which says to give someone one of the pieces after Yachatz to safeguard it for the afikoman, which might be because Yachatz requires demonstrating that we, like an ani, are saving some of our bread for later.