According to the Torah and our Siddur the holiday that we celebrate from the 15th of Nisan until the 21st of Nisan (22nd in the Diaspora) and usually refer to Pesach or Passover is called the holiday of Matzot. As implied by the name, the point of the holiday is to eat matzot. On seven occasions the Torah records that one is to eat matzot for seven days. Shemot 12:15, 13:6,7 23:15, 34:18, Vayikra 23:6 and Bemidbar 28:18. Shemot 12:18 records that one is to eat matzot from the 14th at night to the 21st at night which is also seven days, but the Torah does not use the word seven. Similarly, by the holiday of Sukkot, the Torah says that one is to be in the sukkah for seven days, Vayikra 23:42.
On the other hand, Devarim 16:18 seems to imply that one is only obligated to eat matzot for six days. Hoffman (on Devarim 16:8) and Luzzatto (on Shemot 13:6) explain that Devarim 16:8 is not contradicting the usual rule of eating matzah for seven days since the verse is referring to the 15th of Nisan, the first day of the holiday, and then there are only an additional six full days left to the holiday. With this understanding, it would appear that one is obligated from the Torah to eat matzot on all seven days of the holiday of Matzot.
However, the Talmud (Pesachim 120a) quotes a barita that argues that Devarim 16:8 requires one to re-interpret all the other verses that refer to eating matzot for seven days to mean that the eating of matzot is just permissive but not obligatory for all the days of the holiday of Matzot, except on the first night (second night in the Diaspora) by the Seder. The logic is that as Devarim 16:8 refers to eating matzot for six days, this excludes the seventh day, which means that one is not required to eat matzot on the seventh day, only that one is allowed to eat matzah on the seventh day. Furthermore, once eating matzah on the seventh day is only permissive, then the law of eating matzah for the other six days of the holiday is based on the law for the seventh day of the holiday. With this logic, then one would not even have to eat matzah at the Seder, but the Talmud quotes another verse, Shemot 12:18, that one has to eat matzah on the first night of the holiday.
This derivation of Devarim 16:8 is difficult. Why do we not learn that one is eat matzah all seven days from the obligation to eat to matzah on the first night of the holiday, and why should we not learn to eat matzah for seven days from the seven times it is recorded in the Torah to eat matzah for seven days? Why would the Torah have to state that eating matzah is permissive on the holiday of Matzot, when one can eat matzah all year round? Regardless of the difficulty in the derivation of Devarim 16:8, according to the halakhah one is only obligated to eat matzah on the first night of the holiday, Shulchan Arukh, Orah Chayyim, 575:7.
Chazal's understanding of Devarim 16:8 has several implications. One, many people use hand shemurah matzah (watched from the time of harvesting) on the Seder, while for the remainder of the holiday they eat machine regular matzot (only watched from the time of grinding) since one is only obligated to eat matzah by the Seder. Two, on Sukkot, Vayikra 23:42 also requires one to be in the sukkah for seven days and R. Eliezer (Sukkah, Mishnah 2:6, Talmud 27a) states that one is obligated to eat 14 meals in the sukkah, two a day. However, Chachamim maintain that one is only obligated to eat in the sukkah on the first night of the holiday, and the basis for their opinion is that the laws of sukkah is derived from the laws of matzah since both holidays begin on the 15th of the month. Three, we only recite a blessing to eat matzah at the Seder night since this is the only eating of matzah which is obligatory.
This absence of making a blessing when eating matzah on the holiday of Matzot (Pesach), except by the Seder, differs from the law on Sukkot where one is obligated to recite a blessing, le-shev ba-Sukkah, whenever one eats in the sukkah enough food to qualify as a meal (bread), Shulchan Arukh, 639:2, Mishnah Berurah 639:16. Why should there be a difference between the blessings on eating matzah and eating in a sukkah if the laws that eating in a sukkah is permissive, but not obligatory, for the days of the holiday except the first night, is derived from the laws of matzah?
The Baal Maor (1125-1186, Provence, Pesachim, pages of Rif 26b, 27a) and the Meiri (1249-1306, Provence, Pesachim 120a, Sukkah 27a) explain that the difference is that one does not have to eat matzah for seven days, while on Sukkot one cannot go seven days without sleeping in the sukkah. Thus, on Sukkot one must enter the sukkah and hence one recites a blessing when eating bread in the sukkah.
Another possibility is based on two different understandings of the term permissive. One definition of the term is that a person is not obligated to do the action, but if he does it, then it is considered a good dead and he expects to be rewarded for his action. A second definition is that not only is one not obligated to do the action, but if one does the action then it is inconsequential and hence the person should not expect to be rewarded for his actions. With regard to eating in the sukkah, the Rambam (Laws of sukkah, 6:6) and the Shulchan Arukh (639:2) write that one who eats in the sukkah all the time is to be praised. Accordingly, the law that eating in the sukkah is permissible is the first type of understanding of the term since the eating is a praiseworthy act, and maybe this is why one recites a blessing by eating in the sukkah all the days of the holiday. However, by eating matzah, neither the Rambam nor the Shulchan Arukh claim it is praiseworthy to eat matzot all seven days. This is the second understanding of the term permissible, and as the act is inconsequential no blessing is said.
Yet, why should there be a difference between the definition of permissibility by eating in the sukkah and eating matzah? A possible answer is that since the initial derivation that eating matzah is permissible but not obligatory is from Devarim 16:8 which refers to matzah, the derivation is enough to transform the obligation to eat matzah to be completely voluntary, and no blessing is recited on eating matzah during the holiday except by the Seder. However, by eating in the sukkah, since the law that it is permissible and not obligatory is a double derivation (from Devarim 16:8, and then the connection from eating matzah to eating in the sukkah), the derivation is not strong enough to completely transform the simple reading of the Torah that one is obligated to eat in the sukkah for seven days. The double derivation makes the eating in the sukkah only permissible but still the ideal of eating in the sukkah remains, which means that one makes the blessing when one eats bread in the sukkah.
Note there is an approach that attempts to combine the simple sense of the Torah that one is required to eat matzah for seven days and Chazal's understanding that the eating of matzah is not obligatory except on the Seder night. Hizkuni (on Shemot 12:18) writes that even though there is no obligation to eat matzah outside of the Seder on Pesach, if one eats matzah then one has fulfilled a mitzvah to eat matzot for seven days. This approach has been associated with the Gra (1720-1797, Vilna) in Maaseh Rav (185), see Mishnah Berurah 475:45 and 639:24, and Sperber, 1991, Vol. 2, p. 143. Arukh Hashulchan 475:18 also quotes this idea but not in the name of the Gra. (The Mishnah Berurah, Biur Halacha 453, tov and Biur Halacha 460, matzot, also quotes that the Gra ate shemurah matzah throughout the week, though maybe this was to follow the Rambam's ruling that the law of shemurah matzah applies to all matzah on Pesach, and not because he thought the eating of matzah was the fulfillment of the verses to eat matzah for seven days.)
In conclusion, my understanding is that a person should make an effort to have some matzah each day of the holiday of Matzot (what we call Pesach), and a person should eat some bread in a sukkah to recite the blessing of leshev ba-Sukkah each day of the holiday of Sukkot.
Bibliography:
Sperber, Daniel, 1991 (vol. 2), Minhagei Yisrael: Sources and history, Jerusalem: Mossad Harav Kook.
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