Hand Matzos vs Machine Matzos

“Joynny, I appreciate your outright comment indicating your ignorance by making all who eat machine matzos considered eating chametz on Pesach”

I eat hand made matzo all of pesach, along with no gebrokts so I guess I’m ignorant as well.

lostspark > so I guess I’m ignorant as well.

I think objection is not to you eating handmade matzah, but to considering those who do not wrong.

The question of requiring being meikel on matza may be only for people who live off charity, they may need to ask the sponsors whether they approve the etra expense. I wonder what is halakha id the sponsor thinks that handmade matza is a luxury, while the recipient think it is halakha? Especially if Issahar considers himself more learned and frum than Zevulun. Can he lie l tzoreh mitzva? can he redirect funds from buying clothes, and walk in old ones, and buy matza instead?

AAQ’s observation makes the most sense. While it may happen in rare cases, I very much doubt R’ Belsky’s assertion that the large percentage of hand-mad shmurah matzos are baked by widows and the poor. And in those rare cases where that might be the case, it would make more sense to provide direct tzadakah that one knows will go directly to those in need rather than assuming it will trickle down to them by purchasing such shmurah from the owners of the market or bakery and relying upon their paying good wages to the widows and poor they’ve hired.
As to cleaning the machines, if the bakery has a good hashgacha that your rely upon year- around and for pesach otherwise, than there is no reason not to rely upon the rav hamachshir to supervise the cleaning. Ultimately, it depends on your hashkafah and budget. If you can afford it, go with hand-shmruah for ganz yom tov; if your are like many of us, save the hand-shmurah for the sedorim and use machine shmurah for the rest of pesach.

Reb E, thanks for sharing what Vien does – I assumed they (and most other heimishe) changed to hand matzos because of generally becoming more chasidish – are there still entire kehilos from oberland that eat machine, or is it individuals?

Until not that long ago, relatively speaking, all matzos were hand matzos, as there were no machines. It’s absurd to say hand matzos are worse than machine. Did 2500+ years of ancestors use a less than optimal matzah?

Gadol, I presume that at the time of the psak, selling of matza was much closer to the women who were baking them – and maybe even cheaper and better than the early machine matzah. And it is better to give someone a job thn tzedokah. I do not know what percentage of current matza price goes to poor women in Yerushalaim or Lemberg. If it is high somewhere, I would advocate buying from there. Anybody knows? Any company volunteering this information?

Was there ever an inyan about the higher level of kavanah among the guys doing each step of the hand-made shmurah versus the guy pushing the buttons on the machine-made stuff??

Shatzer bakery closed down this year because they can’t find workers. So I don’t think it’s taking any parnassa away from anyone who actually wants it.

“Rav Soloveitchick actually preferred the use of machine-baked matzot-shemurot to the traditional hand-baked version.

The risk of hand-baked matzot becoming chametz has not changed fundamentally in the past 3,000 years.

However, technological progress has resulted in a baking process that leaves almost no possibility of machine-made matzot becoming chametz.”

SOURCE: Rabbi Aharon Ziegler, The Jewish Press, 2009 March 27, page 31.

A generation of kids in BP did trips to Shatzer’s before Pesach to see the world’s finest shmurah being made

Gadol – it was indeed an experience; i visited shatzer a few times, once joining a chaburah there.

AVD: Aside from the unique “ruach” of the place during the busiest days before yom tov, their hand shmurah were absolute perfection00 round, crunchy, slightly charred from the brick oven it was baked in). At least in in the ‘ole days” (I haven’t been back in years), Shatzer generally had one of the lowest rates of broken matzos per box compared with any other bakery. They also had an incredible way of packing their matzohs so they survived a flight back home.

Was their hechsher any worse than OU?

Alot of people (me included) eat only hand matzos because that is our mesoirah and minhag. Pesach has that special flavor of eating only what your parents did even if it has no ryme or reason. Like alot of Hungarian descent yidden who eat only “falsche fish” aka chicken balls and not real fish because in the shtetle they put something soaked in chometz in the dead fish mouth to keep it fresh.
Some only use 3 to 4 spices…the one the Bubbes had in Europe.
Some only eat 3 or 4 types of vegetables and peel their grapes before eating it.
Or not “mishing” even by someone who you would trust 100% the whole year.
The list goes on and on……Its just the flavor of Pesach alot of us grew up on. Without that it just wouldn”t be Pesach.
Who besides me misses the walnut crackers?