1) more on haseiba and 2) a thought of the Brisker Rav on the closing words of Malachi

1) My son mentioned that he saw R’ Asher Weiss quote the following question from the Aderes: The mitzvah of haseiba is a takkanah derabbanan, so if you eat matzah without haseiba, it means you were yotzei the chiyuv d’orasya and are just missing the kiyum derabbanan.  Why does the Rosh hold in this case that you have to eat all over again?  Just have in mind when you eat the k’zayis matzah in koreich that you also are being yotzei the derabbanan of matzah.  B’shlama if you missed matzah d’oraysa, the mitzvah derabbanan of maror is mevateil the mitzvah d’oraysa of matzah that comes with it.  But the rule is that derabbanans are not mevateil each other, so you should have no problem.

Last week we mentioned the chakirah of the Brisker Rav whether haseiba is a separate kiyum from matzah and 4 kosos or part and parcel of those mitzvos.  I thought this would answer the question of the Aderes.  According to the Rosh, since haseiba is part and parcel of the mitzvah matzah, it means eating without haseiba is not a kiyum of anything.  The chachamim were metakein that if you do not do the mitzvah is the tzurah they enacted of having haseiba, you lose your d’oraysa kiyum of matzah as well.

This answer will not work 1) according to RYBS’s hesber in the Rosh that you are yotzei the d’oraysa of matzah but are missing the additional kiyum of sipur yetziyas Mitzrayim done through matzah; 2) it also will not work if you assume the Brisker Rav meant in the Rosh that you are missing the “mitzvah b’shleimusa,” but have the ikar kiyum, as R’ Sasson commented last week; 3) my son found it strange that Chazal should be mafki’ah your kiyum of matzah just because they want you to do an additional mitzvah of haseiba.  (This does not bother me so much because of Tos Sukkah 3 and the PM”G we discussed once before.)

2) Even though usually it is preferable to daven mincha ketana, I saw a chiddush quoted in the name of R’ Chaim Berlin that on erev Pesach it is better to daven mincha earlier, as we know the afternoon tamid was offered earlier to allow time for the korban pesach to be brought.

3) The haftarah of Shabbos haGadol ends with the charge of “Zichru toras Moshe avdi,” followed by the famous pesukim of “Hinei anochi sholeiach lachem es Eliya haNavi.”  Malachi was the last of the prophets; his closing words literally mark the close of an era.  We cannot imagine what that transition must have been like.  People must have wondered, “How can we live without nevuah – how will we know what G-d wants?”  The Chofetz Chaim explained that Malachi was answering that question with his closing words.  “Zichru toras Moshe avdi” – everything you need is already in Torah.  You just need to learn and you will discover the answers you need.

I saw a slightly different twist on this idea in the Brisker haggadah.  It seems the GRI”Z understood that the close of prophecy at the time of Malachi is not just a metziyus, but a din.  How do you know that the guy standing in Times Square who says G-d spoke to him is not for real?  The answer is because Malachi told us “Zichru toras Moshe avdi,” that all the answers are found in Torah and there is no more prophecy.  Malachi has to add “Hinei anochi sholeich lachem es Eliya haNavi…” not just because he wants to end on an uplifting note, but because he needs to add an exception to the rule.  There is no longer a “din” nevuah, but we still expect and anticipate one additional navi – Eliyahu haNavi, who will herald Moshiach’s coming.

4) On a final note, just to give those of us exhausted from cleaning a better appreciation for why we do what we do, I am going to plagarize a post of my wife's quoting a story from Nor the Moon by Night by Devora Gliksman:

 

On a fundraisng trip for the yeshiva, R' Shliomele visited R' Shimon Wolf Rotschild, of the wealthy and famous Rotschild family. R' Shimon Wolf showed R; Shloimele around his beautiful estate, finally pausing beside a house built of the main house.

"And this," R' Shimon Wolf gestured proudly, "this is my Pesach house. I built it jut to be used on Pesach. The rest of the year it is kept locked."

R' Shloimele just shrugged his shoulders. R' Shimon wondered why he wasn't impressed.
R' Shloimele explained that his holy grandfather -- the Sanzer Rav - though not a wealthy man would have spent anything any amount of money to perform a mitzvah properly. Had he felt hat keeping Pesach properly necessitated building a separate house, he would have done so. Therefore, if he feels he needs it, why shouldn't Baron Rothschild?"

Thinking on the matter further, R' Shloimele saw a downside to a Pesach house:
"The gemara says that chumetz can be interpreted as to the yetzer hu'reh. Our searching for chumetz and destroying it is a mushol for searching out and destroying the yetzer hu'reh, thereby doing teshivah. We know that the only way to do complete teshivah is to put ourselves again in the same situation where we have done an aveirah and, when the opportunity presents itself, not repeat that aveirah. Therefore, it is only fitting that the house where had eaten chumetz be cleaned out and used for mitzvos -- the mitzvos we perform at the seider, the mitzvos we perform during Pesach. Having a separate house set aside for Pesach does not accomplish that purpose."

 Have a chag kasher v'sameiach!