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Comments on Why aren't we required to eat matzah every day during Pesach?
Parent
Why aren't we required to eat matzah every day during Pesach?
Shemot 12:15 tells us: "Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread". But our tradition (I don't know the source, sorry) is that we are required to eat matzah only at the seder(s). Otherwise, the command is understood as "if you eat bread, it must be unleavened bread".
Why aren't we required to eat matzah each day during Pesach? The language for Sukkot is very similar: "You shall live in booths seven days" (Vayikra 23:42), and that's what we do -- we are required to dwell in the sukkah each day, as well as taking the lulav each day (except when Shabbat overrides). Why is the Pesach case different?
Post
The Bavli (P'sachim 120) figures out from p'sukim that there's no requirement to eat matza after the first day. (Specifically, since the seventh day is listed as an "add-on" when work is forbidden but no mention is made of matza [Deuteronomy 16:8], it realizes matza isn't required then; and the other days are listed with it so have the same rule.)
That said, there are rishonim who hold that eating matza the rest of Pesach is an active fulfillment of the prohibition on eating chametz or of the command to eat matza. There's even been discussion of whether to recite the "who has commanded us…" benediction, though I don't think anybody nowadays rules to do so as a practical matter. But there are certainly people who are careful to eat matza on every day of Pesach.
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