Good Mo'ed. It's interesting to note that according to the Avni Ezer Also, the Avnei Ezer the prohibition against eating only applies untill chatzos which is the time of the mitzva of eating the afikoman. If so, if a person eats the afikoman after chatzos then he does not have to be concerned about the taste of the matzah and could eat anything.
But the thorniest question that still remains is the idea of eliminating the taste of matza. Surely drinking water washes away the taste of the matzah, and even moreso tea, yet these are not a problem...
David Goldman, USA
1) Water is tasteless. It does not possess the power to eliminate the taste of Matzah.
2) Tea is also a fairly weak sort of drink. It may be for this reason that Shemiras Shabbos k'Hilchasah, by Rav Neuwirth zt'l, writes that it is only if one has no other choice that one may rely on the Poskim who are lenient and permit making Havdolah on tea. Tea is not an important drink with a very distinct taste.
Wishing you a healthy summer!
Dovid Bloom
Well, I was thinking that considering that the requirement is only of a kazayis which is so small, anything would remove the "taste" unless the concept of "taste" refers to something psychological, whereby a person thinks about matzah and not some tasty desert.
In any event, the entire discussion in Pesachim 119-120 about the word afikoman is not definitive even about the view of Shmuel himself. Not to mention the Yerushalmi. Either regarding after eating the kezayis korban or after the kezayis matzah.
In a way it makes the minhag of not eating after the matzah and TWO cups of wine/juice to be somewhat insignificant altogether.
A k'Zayis of Matzah is not necessarily that small. Some say that it could be more than half of a hand Matzah.
1) It should also be pointed out that the Mishnah Berurah (477:1) writes that it is better to eat two k'Zeisim. So the eating requirement may not be so small.
2) David, I did not understand what you meant about the view of Shmuel not being definitive. The Gemara (119b) states explicitly according to Shmuel that one may not eat anything after Matzah, and this is the Halachah as recorded in the Shulchan Aruch.
3) If one looks carefully at the Mishnah Berurah (478:2), one sees that aside from the question of becoming intoxicated, drinks do not take away the taste of the Matzah according to most opinions. Therefore, the fact that we drink two cups after the last Matzah is not contradictary to the idea that we may not eat after the Afikoman.
4) I looked up the Yerushalmi and it seems essentially similar to the Bavli and mentions the same foods that one may not eat after the Matzah according to Shmuel.
Dovid Bloom