Editing Eating Matzah (section)

==== Women and the Mitzvah ====
Despite this being a time-bound positive commandment from which women are typically exempt, in this mitzvah both men and women are obligated because the Torah connects the prohibition of eating chametz to the commandment of eating matzah in the verse: "You shall not eat leaven with it; for seven days you shall eat with it matzos." Our Sages expounded: "Whoever is included in the prohibition of 'do not eat chametz' is included in the positive commandment of 'eat matzah,' and since women are included in the prohibition against eating chametz, they are included in the positive commandment to eat matzah."

Tosafos gives an additional reason to obligate women in the mitzvah of matzah: that they too were under Pharaoh's decrees, which is the same reason for their obligation in the mitzvos of Purim. However, they explain that the obligation from this reasoning alone would only be rabbinic, while their obligation in matzah is from the Torah. Alternatively, from this reasoning alone we would not have known their obligation because there is a gezeirah shavah (textual comparison) from Sukkos to Pesach, and we would have exempted them based on this comparison (as women are exempt from the mitzvah of sukkah). Therefore, a special teaching is needed to obligate women in the mitzvah of matzah.