Siman 472, Se'if 14 · The words of the Mishnah Berurah

Shulchan Aruch, Siman 472, se'if 14

"Women too are obligated in the four kosos and in all the mitzvos that apply on that night."
(Shulchan Aruch)

The words of the Mishnah Berurah

"Women too are obligated - even though this is a mitzvah that is bound to a particular time, nevertheless they are obligated, since they too were part of that miracle."
(Mishnah Berurah, s.k. 44)

• A precision in the wording: Notice that the Mishnah Berurah writes "a mitzvah that is time bound" and not "a positive commandment that is time bound." He is being exact: the four kosos are not a Torah obligation but an enactment of the Sages, so the Torah's rule does not simply apply to them.

Women and time bound positive commandments

• The rule: Women are exempt from every positive commandment that is bound to a specific time, for example sitting in a sukkah, hearing the shofar, and taking the lulav.
• What Jewish women accepted upon themselves: There are mitzvos that women took on to perform anyway, such as hearing the shofar and taking the four minim. The Torah exempted them, but there is nothing forbidden about doing the mitzvah: if a woman wants to hear shofar or sit in a sukkah, there is no problem with that.
• Where the difficulty lies: The real discussion is not about performing the mitzvah but about reciting the berachah. If she is exempt and she makes a berachah, on the face of it that is a berachah levatalah, a blessing said in vain.

The dispute between Ashkenazim and Sephardim about the berachah

• The Sephardic position: A woman may perform the mitzvah, but she does not make the berachah, because she is exempt and the berachah would be said in vain.
• The Ashkenazic position (Rabbeinu Tam): She does make the berachah. The formula "Who sanctified us with His commandments and commanded us" is not limited to a personal Torah obligation; it also includes the general mitzvah to listen to the words of the Sages.
• The proof from Chanukah lights and washing the hands: Even though there is no Torah command to light the Chanukah lights or to wash the hands, we still say "and commanded us," because "with His commandments" does not refer only to Torah law but to rabbinic law as well. The same applies to a woman making a berachah on a mitzvah from which the Torah exempts her, having in mind the rabbinic obligation.
• A reservation: Some of the great Sephardic poskim came out sharply against this practice among Sephardim, since it entered their communities under Ashkenazic influence.

Why did the Sages obligate women in the four kosos?

• The starting point: The four kosos are a rabbinic mitzvah, and even so it is a mitzvah bound to a time, since it applies only on the night of the Seder.
• Whatever the Sages enacted, they modeled on Torah law: When the Sages make an enactment, they follow the pattern of the Torah. If the Torah exempted women from time bound positive commandments, one would expect the Sages to exempt them as well from a time bound enactment.
• Hence a special reason is needed: And to that the Mishnah Berurah answers: "since they too were part of that miracle."

"They too were part of that miracle" - two explanations

1. They were included in the decrees: The suffering and the slavery were not aimed at the men alone. "Every son that is born you shall cast into the river" touched the women too, who were pained by the decree, and so too "they made the Children of Israel serve with rigor," where the men's work was switched to the women and the women's work to the men. They were included in the slavery, and therefore they are included in the miracle.
2. They brought about the miracle: "In the merit of the righteous women our forefathers were redeemed from Egypt." After Pharaoh's decree against the sons, the men, exhausted from the crushing labor, said that they had no strength left and that there was no point in having children if the children would be thrown into the river. The women went out to the fields where their husbands were working, dressed in beautiful clothes and drew them close, and in that way the birth of children and the continuation of the generation went on. On this the verse is expounded, "Under the apple tree I awakened you." This is why we put apples into the charoses.

• The conclusion: For both of these reasons a woman is obligated in the four kosos on the night of the Seder.

"And in all the mitzvos that apply on that night"

"For example matzah, maror, and the recitation of the Haggadah."
(Mishnah Berurah)

• The difficulty with matzah: Eating matzah is not a rabbinic enactment at all; it is a positive commandment from the Torah, and it is a genuinely time bound positive commandment. The obligation to eat it applies only on the night of the Seder, as the verse says, "In the evening you shall eat matzos," while on the rest of the days of Pesach there is no obligation to eat matzah at all, only a prohibition against eating chametz. Once one has eaten a kezayis with the berachah "al achilas matzah" (and according to one view the kezayis of afikoman as well), the mitzvah is complete.
• Which raises the question: With the four kosos we can understand the obligation, since the Sages gave us a reason. But matzah, maror, and reciting the Haggadah are time bound positive commandments; where does a woman's obligation come from?

The source for a woman's obligation to eat matzah

"You shall not eat chametz with it; for seven days you shall eat with it matzos, the bread of affliction."
(the Torah)

At first glance the two halves of the verse have nothing to do with each other: someone who is not eating chametz could eat potatoes or tomatoes, so what does that have to do with eating matzah? From here Chazal derived two teachings:

1. What matzah is made from: The matzah must be made from the five species of grain, that is, from something that is capable of becoming chametz and which we nevertheless take care not to let become chametz.
2. Who is obligated in matzah: "Whoever is included in 'do not eat chametz' is included in 'get up and eat matzah.'" The prohibition of eating chametz is a negative commandment, and in negative commandments a woman is obligated exactly like a man, with no connection to time at all. Since she is bound by "do not eat chametz," she is also obligated to eat matzah.

• What emerges: Even though matzah is a time bound positive commandment, there is a special verse that obligates women to eat matzah on the night of the Seder.

Maror and reciting the Haggadah

• "Lechem oni" from the word to answer: One of the explanations of the term "lechem oni" is from the word "la'anos," to answer, since over this bread we recite and answer the words of the Haggadah, and not from the word "inui," affliction. So the matzah and the telling of the Haggadah are bound up with one another.
• Therefore she is obligated in all of it: Since the woman is obligated to eat matzah, she is obligated in everything that is bound up with the matzah, and so she is also obligated in eating maror and in reciting the Haggadah. That is what the Shulchan Aruch means by "all the mitzvos that apply on that night."

The question of Tosafos

• The question: If we already have the reason "they too were part of that miracle," why do we need a verse and a special derashah to obligate a woman in eating matzah?
• The answer: "They too were part of that miracle" is a reason of the Sages, and you cannot take a reason given by the Sages and apply it to a Torah obligation. The Torah did not spell out its reasons; it laid down a rule that women are exempt from time bound positive commandments, and we cannot say that the reasoning of the Sages is also the reasoning of the Torah.

Haseibah - the one thing women are exempt from on the night of the Seder

• The rule: A woman is obligated in every mitzvah that applies that night just like a man, except for haseibah, reclining.
• A precision in the wording of the exemption: Even the word "exempt" is not quite exact, since an isha chashuvah, a woman of stature, is obligated to recline.
• Who is an isha chashuvah: In practice women do not recline, and her husband regards her as a woman of stature even though she does not regard herself that way.

"Children who have reached the age of chinuch: it is a mitzvah to place a cup before each one of them."
(Shulchan Aruch, se'if 15)

The obligation of children in the four kosos

"It is a mitzvah to give - but it is not indispensable."
(Mishnah Berurah, s.k. 46)

• The character of the night: The whole thrust of the night is directed at the children, so it is fitting that they take an active part, not only in asking "Mah Nishtanah" but in the actions as well.
• The dispute: Children are obligated to ask "Mah Nishtanah," but whether they are obligated to drink the four kosos is a matter of dispute. So whoever wishes to give them a cup does so, and whoever does not, does not, and it does not hold anything up.

The age of chinuch

• A child who has not reached chinuch: He is not part of this discussion at all.
• The measure: Each one according to his sharpness, meaning each child according to his understanding: whether he grasps what is going on. Usually we are speaking of ages five, six and seven, and there are bright ones who are there already at three.
• The practice in the nurseries: They give the children little cups, and if the children understand what it is about, that is appropriate, though the mere fact that it was explained in nursery is no proof that they have grasped the matter.

How much a child must drink

"A child does not need to drink most of a revi'is, only a mouthful."
(Mishnah Berurah, s.k. 47)

• A mouthful: This does not mean the standard measure of most of a revi'is, but as much as he can hold in his mouth.
• Not indispensable: Here too it is not something that holds up the mitzvah; all of this falls under the heading of good advice.

A narrow mouthed cup and the time span for drinking

"And one should not take a cup whose mouth is narrow."
(the Rema)

• The reason: Because he will not be able to drink a revi'is all at once. This refers to a goblet that narrows at the top like a bottle.
• The time span in eating: Someone who eats half a kezayis of matzah, chats with his family in the middle, and only afterwards eats the second half, has not made one act of eating but two, and he has not fulfilled his obligation. When we say to eat a kezayis, we mean in a single act of eating; we do not mean that he must stuff his mouth all at once.
• A dispute over the permitted interruption: Some say two minutes, some three, some five, and some go as far as nine minutes. Since eating matzah on the night of the Seder is a Torah obligation, we are stringent and do not allow more than two and a half to four minutes.
• The same applies to drinking: One must drink most of a revi'is, which is at least forty four cubic centimeters, and the drinking too must be within a set time span. With a narrow mouthed cup each sip takes a long while, and if the drinking stretches over three or four minutes, it turns out that each time he drank less than most of a revi'is.
• A drinking straw: For this reason some say that one should not let children drink through a straw on the night of the Seder, since with a straw too it is hard to drink the measure all at once.
• Explaining the word "at once": Ordinarily, someone who downs his cup in one go is a glutton, but with a mitzvah it is different, because he is showing his affection for the mitzvah. Even so, the word "at once" does not come to require drinking in a single gulp; it means that it should be one act of drinking within the set time. So too with matzah: there is no obligation to put it all into one's mouth at once. Some do so because our matzos are hard and they are afraid the time will run out, and for that reason some have the practice of moistening the matzah.
• The same rule everywhere: This whole subject of measures and time spans applies to any eating or drinking on which a halachah depends, for example the measures of eating and drinking for a sick person on Yom Kippur.

The cup of Birkas Hamazon

• The words of the Rema: For the cup of Birkas Hamazon as well, one should not take such a cup.
• The reason: Because one has to set his eyes upon it, as the Gemara explains, that during Birkas Hamazon one sets his eyes on the cup. A cup shaped like a long glass tube, in which nothing can be seen, is not suitable.
• The connection to the kiddush cup: There are tzaddikim who specifically take a glass cup so as to see the red wine.
• Havdalah: On Motzaei Shabbos too there is a point in looking, and there are two approaches: some look at the wine and some look at the candle flames.

(The shiur stopped at the opening of se'if 16: "It is a mitzvah to distribute to the children.")

In passing · Taanis Bechoros and women

• The question about firstborns: If women too were part of the miracle, what is the law regarding a firstborn daughter and the fast of the firstborn?
• According to the Shulchan Aruch: A firstborn daughter should also fast, and likewise, if there is no firstborn son, the head of the household is obligated.
• In practice: Women do not have the custom to fast.

In passing · Stories from the Seder night

• And measuring which is bigger: The story is told of a Rebbe who asked a young boy to explain the signs of the Seder. When he reached "Yachatz," the boy explained that we break the matzah in two and hide the larger piece away for the afikoman. The Rebbe said to him: you have explained it, now do it. The boy broke the matzah and began measuring which half was bigger. His father said to him: if you have to measure whether it is big, it is not big. Years later the boy said that from that Seder night he learned how to appreciate people.
• "Echad" with the intent of Krias Shema: The story is told of the Rebbe of Kozhnitz, who went out on the night of the Seder to see how the Sedarim were being conducted, and heard a Jew reading in the Haggadah "echad chacham, echad rasha, echad tam," and at every "echad" he wept and drew the word out, because the only thing he knew was Krias Shema and he did not understand what was written. Said the Rebbe: since he said the word "echad" with the same concentration as in Krias Shema, he has been an advocate for all of Israel for good on the night of the Seder.
• The point of these stories: Even one who does not know and does not understand, if he sincerely intends something good, that itself has real value.