Q. This year (5780) Pesach Sheni falls on Erev Shabbos. Our minhag is to eat matzos on Pesach Sheini both during the afternoon, as it was then the time of bringing the Korban Pesach, and also in the night after, when it was eaten. Is it better this year to eat the matzos only on Leil Shabbos, as others do, to avoid eating a seuda before Shabbos?
A. On question 160 regarding the correct time for eating matza during Pesach Sheni we wrote: “There are different traditions in regards to eating matza on Pesach Sheini, or the “second Pesach” given to those who were unable to bring the first sacrifice of Pesach.
There are those who eat matza at the time the korban would have been brought, which is in the afternoon of the fourteenth of Iyar, ( Avnei Nezer as quoted in Klei Chemda, Vaetchanan). This seems to be the prevalent custom according to Nitey Gavriel (Peasch 3,57)
Others (Dvar Yehoshua 4,5 et. al.) maintain that the proper time would be at night, as that would have been the time for consuming the korban, in the days of the Bais Hamikdosh.
Some ingest the matza at both occasions. (Mikdash Yisroel, Shavuos p.141, mentions that this is the minhag of many Chasidim).
S’fas Emes, (Pesachim 89) offers a novel opinion; namely that the korban of Pesach Sheini, unlike the first, could be eaten also during the day.
And finally, there are the many who do not keep this minhag at all (Most S’fardim, Hagra in Maase Rav 181, and Lithuanian Jewry according to Rib’bos Ephraim 2,129).”
Horav Shlomo Miller Shlit’a advised for the ones who do keep this minhag to eat a kezais matza right after chatzos (half day) on Friday afternoon this year, since there are still many hours left until the Shabbos seuda begins.
Rabbi A. Bartfeld as advised by Horav Shlomo Miller Shlit’a