Matzah

“ Furthermore, here the standard blessing type of 'for personal benefit' ('Brachas Hanehenin') is considered as a blessing over a Mitzvah since the sages have commanded the act. At any rate, it is very rare nowadays to be unable to obtain a vegetable of different type to use [for the first dipping] .
Section 14 The preferable performance when eating Matzah is to chew it with one's teeth so as to taste the Matzah. If one did swallow the Matzah without tasting it he has still fulfilled the obligation (Pesachim, 115.2 ) . ”

“ Afterward, the blessing on washing the hands ('Al Netilas Yadayim') is recited... then the Matzah and Maror are wrapped as one and dipped in Charoses. One then recites 'Blessed...Who sanctified us with his commandments, and commanded us on eating the Matzas and Marors'. He then eats them. If one eats the Matzah and Maror separately he recites a blessing on each separately. After that one recites the blessing 'Blessed...Who sanctified us with his commandments, and commanded us regarding the eating of the sacrifice', after which he eats from the 'Chagiga of the fourteenth [day] ' first. ”

“ Section 17 One who eats a olive-sized piece of Matzah will not being lucid and later returns to his awareness is obligated to eat again after he has healed, for his original eating was during a time when he was exempt from all commandments (not being one in control of his faculties) . This has nothing to do with the whether Mitzvahs require intent or not, rather it hinges on a more basic requirement - that one must be in control of his faculties [in order to be able to be obligated by the law] . ”

“ They therefore support the use of three matzahs for the Seder, and such is the widespread general custom.
Section 9 A plate is brought before the head of the household containing three matzahs, Maror, Charoses, Carpas (or some other vegetable) , vinegar or salt water, and two cooked foods - one as a remembrance of the Peasach sacrifice and one as a remembrance of the Chagiga sacrifice. The general custom is to use meat and an egg.
It is preferable that the meat is from the animal’s ‘arm’, which is its foreleg, as a remembrance of the phrase “and with and outstretched arm”. ”

“ Paragraph 4 - We do not make designs, like drawing the shape of an animal or a bird on the matzo. However, everything done with the comb so that it doesn't swell is permitted, as is putting holes in the matzos. In any event, one should hurry to make them and not leave them sitting. Rem"a: The matzos should be crackers, and not thick like other bread, because crackers do not rise quickly. ”

“ And all the more so a door that is not 10 tefachim high is exempt from the requirement of mezuzah. The practice which is widespread in these areas is that most of the world relies on a single mezuzah that they place on the door to their houses and this is incorrect, and they have nothing [no legal source] to rely on for this. Therefore, every G-d fearing person should fix his house according to the law [so that there will be mezuzot] on all of the doors that require [mezuzot] , as was explained. ”

“ The Matzes under his care are browning in the oven.
And Sossye takes it into her head to make her Matzes with one pointed corner, so that he may perhaps know them for hers, and laughs to herself as she does so.
There is one table to the side of the room which was not there last year; it was placed there for the formerly well-to-do housemistresses, who last year, when they came to bake their Matzes, gave Yom-tov money to the others. Here all goes on quietly; the laughter of the merry people breaks against the silence, and is swallowed up.
The work grows continually pleasanter and more animated. ”

“ The Ma’ázah is a Syro–Egypto-Bedawi clan, originally Arab, or rather Syrian, but migratory, as are all Arabs. It now extends high up the valley of the Nile, and it is still found in the Wady Musá (of Suez) and on the Za’faránah block. Even in Egypt it is turbulent and dangerous: the men are professional robbers; and their treachery is uncontrolled by the Bedawi law of honour—they will eat bread and salt with the traveller whom they intend to murder. ”

“ This concludes, as usual, with the Testification and the Fatihah. Pious men on such an occasion go to the Rauzah, where they strive, if possible, to shed a tear,a single drop being a sign of acceptance,give alms to the utmost of their ability, vow piety, repentance, and obedience, and retire overwhelmed with grief, at separating themselves from their Prophet and Intercessor. It is customary, too, before leaving Al-Madinah, to pass at least one night in vigils at the Harim, and for learned men to read through the Koran once before the tomb. ”

“ The dough stiffens, the horny old hands work it with difficulty. The dough gets stiffer every year, and the work harder, it is time for him to go to the asylum!
The dough is kneaded, cut up in pieces, rolled and riddled—is that a token for the whole Congregation of Israel? And now appear the round Matzes, which must wander on a shovel into the heated oven of Shloimeh Shieber, first into one corner, and then into another, till another shovel throws them out into a new world, separated from the old by a screen thoroughly scoured for Passover, which now rises and now falls. ”

“ A cellar that has an entry from the street, where they bring in wine in large barrels and it has a doorway from the house through which they enter and exit it constantly: If the small doorway [inside] is fit to have a mezuzah, then it requires it and the large doorway [outside] is exempt. But if the small one is not fit to have a mezuzah, then the large one requires it and the small one is exempt (BY in the name of an Ashkenazi responsum, which is found in Responsae Maharil #99) . בית שיש לו פתחים הרבה -- אף על פי שאינו רגיל לצאת ולבא אלא באחד מהם -- חייב לעשות מזוזה בכל פתח ופתח. ”

“ Seif 2 A house/room for straw, wood, livestock — require. But if women bathe there, since they stand there naked, it is not proper regard of Heaven for a mezuza to be there. (Rema: Only these specifically. But an actual [living] room, even if man and woman sleep and have relations there — requires mezuzah (in Responsa Maharil and the same wrote the BY) And some are lenient and say wherever women lie is exempt from mezuzah (BY in the name of Semak, the Kol Bo, and Mordekhai Hilkhot Mezuza end.) ”

“ And if one rented the house from an idolater, or rented the house to an idolater, one takes [the mezuzah] and leaves [with it when the lease expires] .
Rama: And an idolater who asks that one give her/him a mezuzah [because he/she] wants to affix it to his/her doorway, it is forbidden to give a mezuzah to the idolater. ”

“ The Pharaoh was lying rigid upon the marble floor and the hanging lamp overhead threw a weird, flickering light upon his livid, hideously distorted face. Beside him, ghastly pale, with eyes staring full of horror upon the dead body of her son, Queen Maat-kha stood silent, with arms folded across her bosom, her lips tightly set. She was listening to the high priest of Ra, who was speaking to her in slow and solemn tones, while he pointed upwards to the sanctuary of the goddess.
"Thy sin, Maat-kha, is beyond forgiveness. Thou knowest it; thy body and thy soul are doomed to eternal death. ”

“ This is done by putting all of the matzos in a basket, and the basket groups them together with regards to hallah. This is the best way. Rem"a: If the matzo had the minimum quantity for hallah, but one forgot to separate, he should separate afterwards, and the basket grouping is not necessary. ”

“ All are obligated in [the performance of the mitzvah of] mezuzah, even women and slaves. And we teach children to perform [the mitzvah of] mezuzah for their doorways.
הכל חייבים במזוזה אפילו נשים ועבדים. ומחנכין את הקטנים לעשות מזוזה לפתחיהם. ”

“ IT is recorded that one day el-Máhdy went out hunting, and his horse ran away with him until he came to the hut of an Arab. And el-Máhdy cried, "O Arab! hast thou wherewith to feast a guest?"
The Arab replied, "Yes," and produced for him a barley loaf, which el-Máhdy ate. Then he brought out the remains of some milk, and gave him to drink; after which he brought some wine in a bottle, and poured him out a glass. And when el-Máhdy had drank it, he said, "O brother of the Arabs! dost thou know who I am?" ”

“ The Gentiles call them "blood," and assert that Jews need blood for their Matzes, and they take the trouble to supply us with fresh "thoughts" every year!
But at Gedalyeh the baker's all is still cheerfulness. Girls and boys, in their unspent vigor, surround the tables, there is rolling and riddling and cleaning of clean rolling-pins with pieces of broken glass (from where ever do Jews get so much broken glass?) , and the whole town is provided with kosher Matzes. Jokes and silver trills escape the lively young workers, the company is as merry as though the Exodus were to-morrow. ”

“ The Tayyarah, or Flying Caravan, is lightly laden, and travels by forced marches. [FN#2] This Musafahah, as it is called, is the Arab fashion of shaking hands. They apply the palms of the right hands flat to each other, without squeezing the fingers, and then raise the hand to the forehead. [FN#3] On this occasion I heard three new words: Kharitah, used to signify a single trip to Meccah (without return to Al-Madinah) , Taarifah, going out from Meccah to Mount Arafat, and Tanzilah, return from Mount Arafat to Meccah. ”

“ We here saw some camels grazing, guarded by a Bedouin. Hassan spoke to him, and learned that he was of the Beni Omar Arabs, a tribe in subjection to Mahannah. We dismounted, ate a few raisins, and deliberated about passing the night with them, their tents not being above a league off: but at last it was determined to go on for Palmyra. We then entered a vast plain called El Mezah, bounded on the left by the White Mountain, and, on the right, by Mount Ayán. Vast as it was, its extreme evenness deceived the eye, and contracted its boundaries to the appearance of a valley. ”

“ The Pharaoh is dead ... Maat-kha is Queen, and thou art the holy Pharaoh, since thou art her lord."
"Nay, I would be alone with my counsellor. Go, Ur-tasen! 'Twere best that thou who wast witness to her crime shouldst tell Maat-kha that I know all."
"I am ever ready to obey thy commands, oh, beloved of the gods, and in all Kamt thou dost not own a more humble slave than Ur-tasen, the high priest of the Most High." ”

“ The reader will have remarked with astonishment that at one of the fountain-heads of the faith, there are several races of schismatics, the Benu Hosayn, the Benu Ali, and the Nakhawilah. At the town of Safra there are said to be a number of the Zuyud schismatics, [FN#9] who visit Al-Madinah, and have settled in force at Meccah, and some declare that the Bayazi sect [FN#10] also exists.
The citizens of Al-Madinah are a favoured race, although the city is not, like Meccah, the grand mart of the Moslem world or the meeting-place of nations. ”

“ When Matshaka left the mission for his home the rain had cleared off; the steep, green slopes of the Intsiza shone in the sunlight, and foaming cataracts shot down the gleaming crags. In his eyes was a new-born light, and his heart was the home of a virginal peace from whose gentle face the spirits of wrath had fled away—never to return.
Three Probably no more villainous and unmitigated fraud than the Kafir “isanuse” or witch-doctor cumbers the earth. Pretending to the faculty of divination, he trains his powers of observation and memory to an extraordinary extent. ”

“ Whereas the sect called the Mâtazalah [504] deny the attributes, and the ancients maintain them by arguments; the latter are called Sifátiah, and the Mâtezalah are entitled Mâtalah; but these last employ 326 exaggeration in their arguments to such a degree that they approach the boundary of a mere image. Some use more restriction with respect to the attribution, which is indicated by the actions of God. Information derived from the sacred book devolved equally to both sects ”

“ The goddess Maāt is carried by the arm at the shining of the goddess Neith in the city of Mentchat, and at the shining of the Eye when it is weighed. I am carried over by it and I know what it bringeth from the city of Kesi, [1] and I will neither declare it unto men nor tell it unto the gods. I have come, being the envoy of Rā, to stablish Maāt upon the arm at the shining of Neith in the city of Mentchat and to adjudge the eye to him that shall scrutinize it. I have come as a power through the knowledge of the Souls of Khemennu (Hermopolis) who love to know what ye love. ”

“ Just now he is reading aloud, and with a singing voice, from the Shastras (the Hindoo Bible) to a crowd of listeners, who eagerly and reverently seize on every word from the holy writings. Just behind me on a green spot in the park a dozen or more Mohammedans lie prostrate, their foreheads touching the ground, repeating their prayers; and if it happens to be at the setting of the sun hundreds of people are seen in the streets, shops, hotel corridors, or wherever they happen to be, turning their faces toward the holy city Mecca, reverently kneeling and saying their evening prayers. ”

“ Some of them are over a foot long. I have seen a householder after trying to hammer the key in with a stone, at last in despair climb over his own garden wall.
Perchance a shark-skin or wooden buckler may be picked up from a Bedou from the mountains, and there are chances of obtaining the products of many nationalities, for Maskat, like Aden, is one of the most cosmopolitan cities of the East. Here, as in El Matra, you find Banyans from India, Beluchi from the Mekran coast, negroes from Zanzibar, Bedouin, Persians from the Gulf, and the town itself is even less Arab than Aden. ”