• מצה ומרור בזמן הזה

Rava says: מצה בזמן הזה דאורייתא ומרור דרבנן – Matzah nowadays is [still a mitzvah] d’Oraysa, but maror [nowadays] is [a mitzvah] deRabbanon . The Gemara explains that maror is not d’Oraysa because the Torah requires that the Korban Pesach be eaten על מצות ומרורים – with matzos and bitter herbs, which we learn from this, בזמן דאיכא פסח יש מרור ובזמן דליכא פסח ליכא מרור – that when there is a Korban Pesach there is [a mitzvah d’Oraysa to eat] maror and when there is no Korban Pesach there is no [mitzvah d’Oraysa to eat] maror. Regarding matzah, on the other hand, a second passuk states, בערב תאכלו מצות – In the evening (that follows the fourteenth of Nissan) you shall eat matzos.

Rav Acha bar Yaakov disagrees and says that matzah and maror are both deRabbanon nowadays, and the passuk, בערב תאכלו מצות - in the evening you shall eat matzos, is coming to teach that someone who is tamei, or on a distant road, who cannot partake of the pesach, still has a chiyuv d'Oraysa to eat matzah.

• Matzah Throughout Pesach

The Baraisa that supports Rava states: ששת ימים תאכל מצות וביום השביעי עצרת לה' אלקיך – “For six days you shall eat matzah and on the seventh day it shall be a gathering for Hashem, your God;” from here we may infer מה שביעי רשות אף ששת ימים רשות – just as “the seventh day” is optional (meaning, there is no requirement to eat matzah on the seventh day), so, too, are the “six days” optional. The Baraisa explains how this inference was made.

• The Latest Time to Eat Korban Pesach

The Mishnah states: הפסח אחר חצות מטמא את הידים – The Korban Pesach makes the hands tamei after halachic midnight. The Gemara explains that at that point it becomes נותר – leftover, because it may no longer be eaten, and נותר is metamei one’s hands mideRabbanon .

Rav Yosef says that this Mishnah is only consistent with the view of Rebbe Elazar ben Azaryah, as it was taught in a Baraisa, that the passuk states, ואכלו את הבשר בלילה הזה – and they shall eat the meat on this night. Rebbe Elazar ben Azaryah says that it says, “on this night” and it says regarding the smiting of the firstborns, ועברתי בארץ מצרים בלילה הזה – And I will pass through the land of Mitzrayim on this night. Just as the makos bechoros refers to the night up until midnight, so too here, by the eating of the pesach, the proscribed time is up until midnight. Rebbe Akiva said to him, but is it not stated that you shall eat the pesach בחפזון – in haste, which implies that you shall eat the pesach up until the hour of haste, meaning until daybreak, when you will hasten to leave Mitzrayim? The passuk of בלילה הזה is coming to teach that one might have thought that the pesach could be eaten during the day, just like other kodshim. The passuk comes to teach, בלילה הוא נאכל ואינו נאכל ביום – it is eaten at night, but it is not eaten by day. We see from here that Rebbe Elazar ben Azaryah holds that it is an issur d’Oraysa to eat the pesach after chatzos.

Siman – Cook. The cook at the Economy Pesach Hotel, who refused to serve maror because it was only a d’Rabbanon and matzah for the last six days of Pesach because it is only optional, really infuriated the guests when he told them that they must finish eating by chatzos.