Parshas Vayakhel-Pekudei (HaChodesh) 5786
- Monsey Mevaser
- 1 day ago
- 2 min read
Relevant Psakim and Halachos of Chag HaPesach (1)
With Pesach arriving soon we should discuss a halachic concept relevant to the Pesach mitzvos, and really to every time a person eats or drinks, regarding beracha achrona - the after-blessing.
The Mitzvah Time-Span. When Hashem gave the written Torah to Moshe, he also added many verbal details, known as Torah Shebal Peh, or Halacha L’Moshe M’Sinai. One was that whenever there is a mitzvah, or punishable sin of eating, it must be done within a specific time-span to be considered eating. Otherwise it is considered only nibbling, and the mitzvah has not been fulfilled; the sin not punishable. This time-span is known as "כדי אכילת פרס" which means that one has to eat a k’zayis [volume of olive] in the time that it takes to eat half of a biblical loaf. This, according to some approximations, is the time it takes to eat 6-8 times a k’zayis. It is clear from this that no speedy gulping is necessary to fulfill the mitzvah. In minutes, there have been many estimations made. I heard from R’ Chaim Stein zt”l, that a common custom in Europe was to assume four minutes as the time-span. This was for mitzvos, and for the k’zayis time-span for bentching and beracha achrona. When starting a bread meal, one should always be careful to eat a k’zayis in a four-minute span during the meal, and when starting any other meal or snack, to have that amount for beracha achrona. The same thing applies when doing the mitzvos of matza, maror, korech and afikomen on the first two nights of Pesach.
Volumes of K’zayis in Ounces. There are 2 opinions (1) whether the biblical olive [zayis] is half an egg or approx. 1/3 of an egg size. There is also a question if our commonly used large eggs are the same as the old sized eggs, or as much as half smaller. The psak of the Biur Halacha (2) is to use a larger amount for the k’zayis of matza, and a smaller amount for the maror and korech. This also applies to the afikomen (3). A large egg is 2 ounces in volume which serves as the way to measure the size of half an egg.
In Practice. For the first k’zayis of matza, take the size of an average hand with the thumb and fingers, one half from the top matza and the other half from the middle matza. For korech and afikomen take the size of the palm of the hand. The publicized charts include chumros and the above is without chumros.
(1) או"ח תפו:א (2) ביאור הלכה רעא:יג (3) משנה ברורה תעז:ה