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Before eating the matza, everyone washes their hands and recites the handwashing blessing (23:6 above). The Seder leader then raises the matzot and recites two blessings. The first is Ha-motzi. (This parallels the Ha-motzi recited over bread at every meal on Shabbat and festivals, as we saw above in 26:22.) The second blessing is “Blessed are You, Lord our God, King of the universe, Who has sanctified us with His mitzvot and commanded us about eating matza.” The leader then passes matza to the other participants.
While eating the matza, everyone should recline (section 7 above). They should intend to fulfill the Torah requirement of eating matza. They should also keep in mind that the matza reminds us of the matza our ancestors ate when leaving Egypt.
To fulfill the biblical mitzva of eating matza, one must eat a ke-zayit (the volume of an olive) of shmura matza. There is some disagreement as to exactly how much this is, but it is fairly standard to follow the calculation of half the volume of an egg (25 ml.). This is about a third of a machine matza (or the equivalent size of a handmade matza). It should be eaten without pausing, and take no more than seven minutes. (The more stringent eat the volume of two olives, which is about two thirds of a machine matza.)
Afterwards, there is a rabbinic requirement to eat an additional ke-zayit of matza as part of Korekh (section 12), and yet another ke-zayit at the end of the meal for the afikoman (section 14). In total, fulfilling all three of the matza mitzvot requires one machine matza. (The more stringent, who double the amount for the biblical mitzva of matza, end up eating one and a third machine matzot.)
The matza and maror should be eaten by midnight. Ideally, the afikoman should be eaten by then as well.
