JHM Responsa 11 b

JHM Responsa 11 b

Pesah

V1306C

1935-12-26

Ets Haim – Livraria Montezinos, Foundation Stichting Cultureel Erfgoed Portugees-Israëlietische Gemeente.
We make the images available under a

Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Deed - Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International - Creative Commons

Joseph v David d'Ancona

d'Ancona

Orah Haim

TRUE

A community may find itself without unleavened bread (matzot) for Passover

The members of a small community purchased, as they do every year, matzot from a factory in another city. And the custom was to receive them the day before Erev Pesach and to pay for them upon receipt, for they were purchased cash on delivery. But in a year that Erev Pesach fell on Shabbat the matzot did not arrive before Shabbat and that Friday night all the members of the community approached the rabbi to learn what to do. It was still possible that the matzot would arrive the next day and what would they be able to accept and pay for them? And if they did not arrive would they be allowed to purchase wheat from the market to bake matzot after Shabbat was over in order to at least fulfil the commandment [of eating matzot] on the two nights of Pesach - it is well known that in our days we do not grind wheat into flour unless the wheat was first washed? Or would it be permissible to ask a gentile to telephone the factory requesting that matzot be shipped by plane?

[...] it is permitted for the gentile if he brings the matzot tomorrow to leave them in the house of the Jew [...] and he should give him the money through the gentile […but if the matzot do not arrive] it is permissible to purchase flour which is ground today [Shabbat] in a city which is mostly gentile [...] as long as one does not ask for a given amount of money or flour [...] if it is possible to purchase flour which for sure was made from unwashed grain [... then] the baking on the night of Yom tov is permitted [… but] it is forbidden to bake more than what they need for the first day. […but if no flour from unwashed grain is available] then for the need of a Mitzvah it is permissible to ask the gentile to speak on the telephone […] But I say that it is not appropriate to send the Matzot by plane on Shabbat because of Mar ‘it Ha 'ayin [it appears forbidden to others] for the people in the other city do not know why it might be permissible.