Seven Days of Matzah and the Cutting Off of Leaven

"Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread" (Exodus 12:15) - unleavened bread that can be eaten all seven days, by which a person fulfills his obligation on Passover. This excludes the loaves of the thanksgiving offering and the wafers of the Nazirite, which cannot be eaten all seven days. "On the first day you shall remove leaven" - from the eve of the festival. [Or is it only on the festival itself?] Scripture says "no work shall be done on them"; and is not burning a kind of work? Why then does it say "on the first day you shall remove leaven"? From the eve of the festival. "You shall remove leaven from your houses" - by the Torah, removal is in the heart, and by the words of the scribes it is by clearance, and by what means? By burning. If the hour of clearance arrives and one has no fire to burn it, he crumbles it and scatters it to the wind or casts it into the sea. Rabbi Yehudah says: he waits until he reaches a settled place and burns it, for Rabbi Yehudah used to say there is no commandment of removal except by burning. He would reason: just as leftover sacrificial flesh, of which it is not written "it shall not be seen" or "it shall not be found," requires burning, all the more so leaven, of which it is written "it shall not be seen" and "it shall not be found," should require burning. They said to Rabbi Yehudah: every argument you reason begins with stringency and ends with leniency, and is no argument: for if one has no fire to burn it, he would have to sit and guard it and remain liable for "it shall not be seen" and "it shall not be found." The Torah said "you shall remove leaven from your houses" - you may remove it by any means. Rabbi Yehudah reasoned by another argument: leftover sacrifice is forbidden as food and leaven is forbidden as food; just as leftover sacrifice requires burning, so leaven requires burning. They said to him: let an animal carcass prove otherwise, for it is forbidden as food yet requires no burning. He said: there is a distinction - leftover sacrifice is forbidden in benefit and leaven is forbidden in benefit, so let not a carcass prove otherwise, which is permitted in benefit. They said to him: let an ox condemned to stoning prove otherwise, for it is forbidden in benefit yet requires no burning. He said: there is a distinction - for leftover sacrifice one is liable to excision and for leaven one is liable to excision, so let not the stoned ox prove otherwise, for which one is not liable to excision. They said to him: let the fat of the stoned ox prove otherwise, for which one is liable to excision yet requires no burning. He said: there is a distinction - for leftover sacrifice one is liable under "you shall not leave it over" and for leaven one is liable under "you shall not leave it over," so let not the fat of the stoned ox prove otherwise, which carries no liability under "you shall not leave it over." They said to him: let the suspended guilt offering prove against your words, for one is liable under "you shall not leave it over" yet it requires no burning. The Torah said "you shall remove leaven from your houses" - you may remove it by any means. "For whoever eats leavened bread" - from the general statement "for whoever eats what is leavened" (Exodus 12:19) I would know only of dough that became leavened on its own; from where do I learn of dough leavened by other agents? Scripture says "for whoever eats leavened bread." "That soul shall be cut off" - and not the community. "That one" - not one under compulsion, nor one who acted in error, nor one who was misled. "From Israel" - while Israel remains at peace. "From the first day until the seventh day" - one might think the first day and the seventh day are not included, as is said of the leper "from his head to his feet" (Leviticus 13:12) where the head and feet are not included; therefore Scripture says "until the twenty-first day of the month at evening" (Exodus 12:18). Rabbi says: its place settles the matter, "from the first day until the seventh day."