Please note that this is the last appearance of Halakhah in Brief until after Pesah.

Since the laws of Erev Pesah that occurs on Shabbat have become the central halakhic topic for this time of year (at least five different compilations of these laws have arrived in the mail—we here rely mainly on Rabbi J. David Bleich’s version), we would be remiss if we did not add our own brief version of these laws. A first point worth making has less halakhic than curiosity value: Rabbi Bleich notes that this circumstance occurs at odd intervals. For as long as twenty years, there can be no occurrences of Erev Pesah on Shabbat, and then two or three will occur in relatively close proximity. From 1954 to 1974, there were none, but then in 1977, 1981, 1994, 2001, 2005, and 2008, Erev Pesah occurred or occurs on Shabbat.

The main problem that this situation creates has to do with contradictory needs on Erev Pesah and Shabbat-- the need to stop eating hamets before a third of the day has passed (and to get rid of all hamets before five-twelfths of the day has passed), the need not to eat matsah (and some avoid matsah meal as well) on Erev Pesah, and the need to eat three meals over the course of Shabbat, one at night and two during the day. Since, generally, the definition of a meal for Shabbat purposes (and certainly for the first two meals) is a meal with bread or some other food that requires the blessing of hamotsi, the confluence of these factors forces us to make some decisions as to how to handle the situation.

First, let us remind ourselves of the reasons behind each of these three rules. The Torah demands that we remove all hamets from our possession before the advent of Pesah (and even, according to at least some authorities before midday, after which one was allowed to bring the Pesah sacrifice). Hazal, to avoid problems, pushed that time forward to the end of the fourth and fifth hour of the day, for eating and for owning respectively.

Those rules lead to problems because of our need to have three meals on Shabbat, at least two of them with bread. While there are some opinions that allow non-bread foods to qualify as a meal for seudah shelishit (such as meat, fish, or fruit), there is still a significant body of opinion that requires lehem mishneh (two loaves of bread) to start even that meal. The requirement of three meals on Shabbat, incidentally, is considered by some to be of Torah origin, derived from the threefold use of the word "hayom" regarding the manna and its not having fallen on Shabbat.

For someone who wants to eat three Shabbat meals with bread, then, both of the day meals would have to be eaten before the latest time for eating hamets. Those who take that path attend a very early minyan on Shabbat morning, so that they can eat a meal, take a break (Rabbi Bleich mentions "Torah study or a Shabbat stroll") and then eat another meal. We cannot simply end one meal and start another one, because those are not seen as separate enough for the purposes of shalosh se`udot.

Those who follow this path (or even simply having the second meal with bread), the disposal of the leftover bread can become a problem, as can the dishes used at the meal. For the bread, flushing is the best advice; another option is to give it to a non-Jew, although various halakhic complications arise there. If one uses regular dishes at that meal, they could not be washed clean on Shabbat unless they were going to be used again on that day. Otherwise, they could be wiped clean and put away for after Pesah. These issues lead some to use paper at this meal, to avoid problems. Others, who do not wish to force two meals into a very short period of time, will have one meal with bread and leave se`udah shelishit for later, assuming that a meal with meat, fish, or fruit can satisfy the requirement of se`udah shelishit.

A simpler option would have been to use matsah for these meals, but this is prohibited by a Yerushalmi that likens eating matsah on erev Pesah to having marital relations with one’s fiancee before the formal marriage ceremony. The point of the Yerushalmi seems to be that it is inappropriate to eat matsah in a non-mitsvah atmosphere when, by simply waiting a bit, one could have the same physical experience with more elevated spiritual content. Some Jews have the custom to extend this prohibition back a whole week before Pesah or even the whole month of Nisan.

Without matsah as a possibility, and with the cleaning-up problems inherent in using bread, some advocated using egg matsah, since that is not a form of matsah that healthy people eat on Pesah. Since most of us cannot use it as Pesah matsah, the Yerushalmi would not apply, and we could use it on erev Pesah. Here, too, however, most authorities think that one has to finish eating the egg matsah before the end of the time for eating hamets. In that view, the advantage of egg matsah is mostly in the cleaning up, since we do not think of egg matsah as hamets (indeed, the elderly or the infirm are allowed to eat such matsah on Pesah). A minority, however, do permit eating such matsah even after the fourth hour of the day, in which case the meal could be eaten at a more ordinary time.

Whatever strategy one adopts, we should make sure to see the forest beyond the trees of these halakhot, to remember that we are trying to experience Shabbat fully while still ridding ourselves of hamets and maintaining our anticipation of matsah shel mitsvah, of the full spiritual experience of the matsah yet to come. Shabbat Shalom and Hag Kasher ve-Sameah.