Reply To: Interesting Customs on Pesach

Let’s put it this way: If the Vilna Gaon ate gebrots (and laughed about the custom not to), and the Chasam Sofer ate them, and the Chazon Ish ate them, and Rav Moshe ate them, and Rav Belsky ate them, and Rav Shmuel Berenbaum ate them, what is the point for me not to eat them? I should be a bigger tzaddik than the Chazon Ish?

[For the record, the Steipler, whose rebbe muvkah was the Chazon Ish, did not eat gebrots until it became impossible for him to eat regular matzah due to health reasons, but that is because the Steipler’s father was Chassidic. Another issue where the Steipler did not hold like the Chazon Ish is in the matter of krias Shema. The Chazon Ish holds you can rely on the Gra’s zman without a problem, whereas the Steipler was extraordinarily careful about following the zman of the MA and was even concerned about clocks being off in shul.]

I ate machine matzah as well as hand matzah by the seder.

I do not follow the opinion of the Liska Rebbe, but it does make sense to minimize the amount of matzah that one eats (like the Briskers are noheg) since the most dangerous food to eat on Pesach is matzah (especially hand matza), where if it wasn’t baked properly, it would be chametz gomur.