The Maharal did not specify to which halakha in the Rambam he refers, and attempts have been made to deduce this from various halakhot. (See Rav Y.B. Zolty’s Mishnat Ya’avetz, 16, for one possible source.) It seems fairly clear to me, however, that the Maharal referred to the Rambam in Hilkhot Chametz U-Matza 6:1. There the Rambam writes, “There is a biblical requirement to eat matza on the night of the fifteenth… Once one has eaten a ke-zayit, he has fulfilled the mitzva.” The Rambam could have said simply, that there is a mitzva to eat a ke-zayit of matza. By writing instead that there is a mitzva to eat matza and one need not eat more than a ke-zayit, he implies that all of one’s matza consumption constitutes a fulfillment of the mitzva, though the minimum requirement is a ke-zayit.
We have thus learned that, according to one view, there is an obligation to eat matza all week (Penei Yehoshua’s understanding of Rav Shimon), whereas another opinion maintains that although there is no obligation, one fulfills a mitzva by eating matza all week (Chizkuni, Vilna Gaon). This latter opinion was disputed by Me’iri and others. Lastly, we saw that the Maharal felt that although one fulfills the mitzva by eating a ke-zayit on the first night, all matza eaten that night is also a fulfillment of the mitzva.
By Rav Binyamin Tabory
Originally published at Israel Koschitzky Virtual Beit Midrash.