Q: I work in a matzah bakery. Am I allowed to eat from the matzos I’m baking without receiving express permission from the owner?
A: There is an issur in the Torah that prohibits preventing a laborer from eating a food item that he is working to produce (Devarim 23:25).
There are two main criteria that must be met for this prohibition to apply:
- the work must be done on something that grows from the ground (therefore, someone who collects eggs from chicken coops, for example, is not entitled to eat the eggs); and
- the production is still in progress. Once the production process is complete (gmar melachah), the worker is no longer entitled to eat from the food.
Gmar melachah generally occurs at the point when, in Eretz Yisrael, maaser would have to be separated from the food before it can be eaten, but if there are additional matanos (portions of food that must be given to a Kohen or Levi) that must be separated after maaser, such as challah that must be separated from a dough, then gmar melachah occurs only once the last of those matanos was separated (Shulchan Aruch, Choshen Mishpat 337:1-3).
Therefore, if a bakery is baking something from batter (blilah rakah), in which case the obligation to separate challah takes effect only after the item is baked, the worker may eat from the batter until it is baked (Tosafos, Bava Metzia 89a, s.v. Yatza Halash).
The prevalent custom of matzah bakeries is to prepare each dough with an amount of flour that would not require the separation of challah (ibid. Orach Chaim 456:1), and after a number of separate doughs are baked, the matzos are placed into a container that combines them. Only then must challah be separated from all of those matzos (ibid. 457:1).
Based on these circumstances, the poskim debate at which point the matzos are considered to have reached gmar melachah so that the workers may not eat from the matzos.
Some poskim say that if the plan was to make only small doughs that do not qualify for challah separation, with no intention to combine them, gmar melachah has already occurred, since no other matanos are relevant. But if the bakery plans to combine the matzos baked from several small doughs so that a challah obligation will eventually take effect, then the worker is permitted to eat from the matzos until the challah obligation applies (see Ohr Samei’ach, Hilchos Bikkurim 6:12; Chazon Yechezkel, Bava Metzia 8:3). According to these poskim, only when the plan is to combine the matzos from several doughs may you eat from the matzos even after they are baked, up until they are combined with other matzos to mandate challah separation.
Others argue that even if the bakery plans to combine matzos baked from several small doughs that did not qualify for challah separation, gmar melachah occurs when each one is still in dough form. They explain that the obligation of challah separation taking effect is a siman (indication) that gmar melachah has occurred, since the Torah mandates the separation of challah from the point of gmar melachah. It is not, however, the sibah (reason) that gmar melachah is determined to have occurred. Therefore, even if a dough does not contain enough to qualify for challah separation, gmar melachah is still considered to have occurred once the dough was formed, and a worker may not eat from the dough any longer (Shu”t Minchas Shlomo 1:68). According to these poskim, you are not entitled to eat from the matzos you are working on, even before they are combined to mandate challah separation.
Practically speaking, if there is a prevalent practice regarding whether workers are permitted to eat, or whether owners may stipulate that they may not eat, then that practice will determine whether you are entitled to eat of the matzos (Shulchan Aruch, Choshen Mishpat 337:17; cf. Magen Avraham 169:1 and Mishpitei Hachoshen note 179).
We should note that if someone asks a friend to help bake cakes, in the following case he may not stop him from tasting the batter (even if the friend is helping him voluntarily [Shulchan Aruch HaRav, Hilchos She’eilah 22]). If the batter contains flour (as opposed to Pesach cakes that do not contain flour), since the obligation to separate challah will apply only after it is baked, the person helping may eat from the batter, because it has not reached gmar melachah until that point. But that is true only if there will eventually be an obligation to separate challah (i.e., the batter was made with enough flour to require challah separation, or if the cakes will be combined to reach the minimum amount). Otherwise, it will depend on the discussion above as to when gmar melachah occurs.
