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Text Excerpt
סלקא דעתך אמינא: הואיל וכתיב ״לא תאכל עליו חמץ שבעת ימים תאכל עליו מצות״, כל שישנו בקום אכול מצה — ישנו בבל תאכל חמץ, והני נשי, הואיל וליתנהו בקום אכול מצה, דהויא ליה מצות עשה שהזמן גרמא (היא) — אימא בבל תאכל חמץ נמי ליתנהו, קא משמע לן.
as it could enter your mind to say that since it is written: “You should eat no leavened bread with it; 7 days you should eat with it matzot” (Deuteronomy 16:3), one might have thought that anyone included in the obligation to eat matza is also included in the prohibition against eating leavened bread. And these women, since they are excluded from the obligation to eat matza, as it is a time-bound, positive mitzva from which they are exempt as a rule, I might say they are also excluded from the prohibition against eating leavened bread. Therefore, the verse teaches us that women are also prohibited from eating leavened bread.
והשתא דאתרבו להו בבל תאכל חמץ — איתרבי נמי לאכילת מצה, כרבי (אליעזר). דאמר רבי אליעזר: נשים חייבות באכילת מצה דבר תורה, שנאמר: ״לא תאכל עליו חמץ וגו׳״, כל שישנו בבל תאכל חמץ — ישנו באכילת מצה. והני נשי נמי, הואיל וישנן בבל תאכל חמץ — ישנן בקום אכול מצה.
The Talmud comments: And now that women have been included in the prohibition against eating leavened bread, they should also be included in the obligation to eat matza, even though it is a time-bound, positive mitzva, in accordance with the opinion of R' Eliezer. As R' Eliezer said: Women are obligated to eat matza by Torah law, as it is stated: “You should eat no leavened bread with it; 7 days you should eat with it matzot” (Deuteronomy 16:3). These two commandments are juxtaposed to teach that anyone included in the prohibition against eating leavened bread is also included in the obligation to eat matza. And these women too, since they are included in the prohibition against eating leavened bread, they are also included in the obligation to eat matza.
The Talmud questions this derivation: What did you see that led you to understand that the term anything [kol] comes to include women and to exclude leaven in its mixture? On the contrary, say that it comes to include in the punishment of karet one who eats its mixture.