Reply To: Stealing the Afikomon

if you don’t want your children to be oiver on gneivah, (and which parent wants his kids to do avairos?!) you need to make the matzos hefker (remove your ownership from them) so the kids “steal” hefker matzos. Which is a good chumra that I recommend! It is so obvious, I am surprised others don’t do this!!

The problem then, if they are ketanim, is that they are koneh (acquire) the matzos and cannot relinquish ownership when they return the matzos (as by lulov, the koton is koneh but cannot be makneh back), so the parents are eating matzos which aren’t theirs. True, you don’t need “lochem” (not lechem – lochem: “yours”) by matzah (as needed by lulov on first day), but are you mekayim achilas matza (afikomon) with matzos that don’t belong to you? If they aren’t “yours” are they stolen matzos? I don’t think this is a strong kasha.