Last week I mentioned the Rogatchover's chakira whether the simanei kashrus of an animal are a siman or a sibah, i.e. is it the actual presence of simanim that make the animal kosher, or are the simanim just a means of identifying what species an animal belongs to, and it is being a member of a kosher species that makes the animal kosher. Nafka mina: what if you have a member of a kosher species that lacks simanin? What if you genetically engineer a non-kosher species so that it does have simanin?
Since it's shloshim yom kodem ha'chag, let's use the same chakira in hil chametz u'matzah. The Mishna (Pes 35) lists 5 species of grain that can be used to make matzah. The gemara explains that only grain which can potentially become chamtez is acceptable. Yesh lachkor: is this quality of being ראוי לחימוץ a siman to identify whether a grain is one of the 5 acceptable species, or is it the sibah that makes that particular grain usable for matzah?
There is a safeik of the MG"A that may reflect the 2 sides of this chakira. Rashi holds that one can use the shell of the grain, סובּין, in order to make matzah. (We don't pasken this way.) The MG"A (OC 454:1) writes:
סובין. פירש"י קליפת חיטים הנושרים בשעת כתישה ומורסן הנשאר בנפה ע"ש מוכח קצת דבא לידי חימוץ מדיוצאין בהם י"ח מצה לדעת רש"י ואפשר לומ' כיון שהוא ממין הבא לידי חימוץ יוצא בה י"ח
Does Rashi mean that סובּין can actually become chameitz, or does Rashi just mean that סובּין are part of a species of grain that can become chameitz?
Lichorah the safeik of the MG"A is this issue of siman vs sibah. If ראוי לחימוץ is the sibah that makes something usable for matzah, then סובּין must themselves be capable of becoming chametz. If ראוי לחימוץ is just a siman, a way to identify whether a grain belongs to one of the 5 acceptable species, than even if סובּין never turn into chametz, it doesn't matter, since we know that סובּין are a byproduct of wheat, which is one of the 5 acceptable species. (See Shu"T L'Horos Noson vol 14 #25)
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