Reply To: Stealing the Afikomon

Nevelle, “every major acharon except the Baal Hatanya poskens that mitzvah habah b’averah is still yotzi b’dieved?”

Obviously, you do not consider Shulchan Oruch as a majot achron, nor the Mishne Brura – which both hold that you are NOT yotzeh with stolen matzah.

http://hebrewbooks.org/pdfpager.aspx?req=14165&st=&pgnum=99&hilite=

Mechaber in sif daled, M.B s”k 14 (and Biur Halacha).

But you could have corrected me on the mistake that matza does not need to be “lachem” (yours) as a lulov. THAT is incorrect (Rosh Kiddushin 54b siman 18) holds you are not yotzeh with stolen matzah because it still belongs to owner, so it isn’t yours – lachem.

Raabad (cited by Rabbenu Manoach to Rambam’s Chametz U’Matzah 6:7) therefore advises people who bake together to declare, “My matzos belong to whoever happens to take them.” By making this declaration, everyone will legally own whichever matzos he takes home.

The Mishnah Berurah (Orach Chayim 444:15) states that if a merchant demands immediate payment, the buyer person does not acquire legal possession of the matzos until he pays. Therefore, if he delays paying until after Yom Tov, he has not ful­filled the mitzvah because the matzos were not legally his.

The Sefas Emes (Sukkah 35a) states that a host who provides matzos for his guests at the Seder should explicitly transfer ownership of the matzos to them so that they legally own the matzah they eat. (Rav Moshe Sternbuch, in Responsa Teshuvos VeHanhagos vol. 2, Orach Chayim 240, cites the Shevet Sofer, who advised similarly in his Shabbos Hagadol derasha.)