Passover Gems for 2022

Jewish Legal Loopholes

Bedikat chametz is a ceremony of searching for leavened bread, instituted to ensure that not even the smallest particle of chametz remains in the house during Passover. The biblical injunction, “Even the first day shall ye put away leaven out of your house” (Ex. 12:15), was interpreted by the rabbis as referring to the eve of Passover, i.e., the 14^th of Nisan. The ceremony of bedikat chametz takes place on the 13^th of Nisan (or the 12^th if the 13^th should be on a Friday). It follows the Maariv prayer immediately after nightfall and before any other kind of activity is undertaken. The ceremony is preceded by the blessing: “Blessed art Thou O Lord our God, King of the Universe, Who hast sanctified us by Thy commandments and commanded us concerning the removal of the leaven.”

By the light of a wax candle, with a wooden spoon and a whisk made of several chicken or goose feathers tied together, the master of the house searches every corner in the house for stray crumbs. Every room into which chametz may have been brought during the past year has to be searched. Since a blessing must never be recited without good reason, a few crumbs of bread are deliberately left on windowsills and in other obvious places. The ceremony of bedikat chametz takes precedence even over the study of Torah on that evening. If the husband is not available, the ceremony must be performed by the wife or another member of the family.

The kabbalistic school of Rabbi Isaac Luria hid ten pieces of bread for bedikat chametz. Leaven to the mystics symbolized the ferment of base desires and evil impulses which had to be purged. Upon completion of bedikat chametz, the leaven collected is put away in a safe place and the master of the house recites these words: “May all leaven that is in my possession, which I have not observed, searched out or had cognizance of, be regarded as null and be common property, even as the dust of the earth.”

On the morning of the 14^th of Nisan, no later than 10 A.M., the leaven is burned, and a similar Aramaic formula is recited. This observance is called Bi’ur chametz – the removal or the burning of chametz. The laws concerning bedikat chametz are codified in Shulkhan Arukh (OḤ 431 to 445).

https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/bedikat-chametz

Reform Responsa to Searching, Burning, Selling Chametz

To destroy one’s chameitz becomes impractical and burdensome if one owns a large amount of leaven. The custom therefore arose for a Jew to sell his chameitz to a gentile before Pesach and to buy it back from him at the holiday’s conclusion. The roots of this practice extend back to tannaitic times. We learn in the Tosefta that “when a Jew and a Gentile are travelling on board ship, and the Jew has chametz in his possession, he may sell it to the Gentile and buy it back after Pesach, provided that the sale is a full and unencumbered transfer (matanah gemurah).”³¹ The development of this law, which apparently deals with a special case, into a regular and normal transaction is a long story that cannot be recounted here. We can simply point to the Shulchan Aruch and its commentaries, which accept as a matter of course that a Jew may sell chameitz to a gentile “even though the Jew knows the gentile and knows that the latter will guard the chameitz and return it to him after Pesach.”³² This custom is now universally practiced in traditional communities. In its most common form, all the Jews in a particular locale or congregation consign their chameitz to the rabbi or other notable, who then sells it all to a single gentile.³³

This device of m’chirat (sale of) chameitz is effective because it is “full and unencumbered.” Although the leaven remains physically within the Jew’s property, its ownership is legally transferred to the gentile buyer in a transaction that meets all the formal halachic requirements of an act of sale. As such, it allows the householder to fulfill the mitzvah of the “removal” of chameitz, not necessarily under the terms of Exodus 12:15, which as we have seen may demand the physical removal of leaven, but under Exodus 13:7, which is understood to permit one to “see” chameitz that belongs to a non-Jew even though it remains within one’s property.³⁴ Therefore, traditionally observant Jews hold that this form of sale is a perfectly valid means of discharging the Toraitic obligation to remove chameitz.

Reform Jews, of course, might well object to the fictitious aspect of this device. The sale may be fully “legal,” but it is not serious: neither the Jew nor the gentile intend that the chameitz be transferred to the latter’s permanent ownership. We might also ask whether the “sale” of chameitz is a better and more serious means of fulfilling the mitzvah than the process of bitul, nullification, described above. As is the case with sale, chameitz that is “nullified” remains within one’s physical—though not one’s legal—possession. Many authorities hold that the renunciation of chameitz fully meets the requirements of Exodus 12:15 and/or 13:7.³⁵ The traditional halachah, it is true, does draw a distinction: while a Jew may make full use of chameitz “bought back” from a gentile after Pesach, leaven that is “renounced” is forbidden for use.³⁶ The logic of this distinction, however, escapes us. The objection to bitul, say the authorities,³⁷ is that one might declare falsely that “I annulled my chameitz before Pesach” when in fact one did not do so; therefore, although renouncing chameitz fulfills the Toraitic requirement, the Rabbis impose this penalty to forestall the possibility that one might evade the law. Yet what is bitul but a formal legal act that effects the legal—but not the physical—removal of chameitz from our possession? Is the “sale” of chameitz any different in its purpose and substance? It may be true that some Jews do not seriously intend to “renounce” their chameitz; it is certainly true, however, that none of them seriously intend to “sell” it.

We might also object to the sale of chameitz on the grounds that it requires the participation of a non-Jew in order that we can fulfill our own religious requirements. While Jews have for centuries relied upon gentiles to serve in such a capacity (the institution of the “Shabbos goy” comes readily to mind), the practice is inelegant at best and demeaning at worst. We prefer to fulfill our mitzvot on our own, especially in this case, when most authorities agree that the method of bitul allows us to meet the Torah’s demand that we remove our chameitz without incurring severe financial loss.

Therefore, “Reform Jews rarely resort” to the sale of chameitz; rather, they “make leaven inaccessible in their homes.”³⁸ This is our way of renouncing our possession of chameitz, and we believe that we can do so with full seriousness and sincerity. While Reform Jews may wish to sell their chameitz, perhaps, again, out of solidarity with traditional Jewish practice, the standards of Reform Jewish observance do not require that they do so.

https://www.ccarnet.org/ccar-responsa/nyp-no-5756-9/

The Ultimate Dinner-Party-Jewish-Holiday

The seder and the Haggadah were developed by a group of ancient rabbis who lived in the Land of Israel under GrecoRoman cultural influence. They did some cultural borrowing in crafting the Haggadah, using the Greco-Roman concept of a symposium as a blueprint and filling in that structure with Jewish content.

A symposium was a meal with guests during which an important subject would be discussed and explored, and a specific number of cups of wine would be served. The hosts would issue invitations, which would state the topic for the evening’s discussion and the number of cups of wine that would be served. (The more potent the wine that a particular host served, the more he or she would be admired in community gossip). At the beginning of the evening, guests would arrive and be invited to get comfortable – reclining on pillows and cushions and preparing to eat and drink, talk and argue deep into the night.

What the ancient rabbis did in crafting the seder was to create a very Jewish version of the symposium. The topic for the evening’s discussion: the Exodus from Egypt and the meaning of liberation for our times. The number of cups of wine to be served: four. The meal: sumptuous, with symbolic foods representing different parts of the Exodus story. The rabbis who originated the seder envisioned the food, drink, and discussion continuing on as late as people would like – even until dawn. Passover is the ultimate dinner-party-Jewish-holiday.

https://18doors.org/wp-content/uploads/GuidetoPassoverforInterfaithFamilies-UPDATED-2019.pdf

The Impact Lasts Beyond One Night

This Story Is About You.

What special customs do you add to your seder to help fulfill this obligation to see yourself as PART of this ancient story and not just a passive reader or recipient of tradition?

Food for Thought:

1. What new symbol would you add to your plate to tell the story of slavery/restriction or freedom/redemption?

2. What do you want the next generation to remember about how you responded to today's challenges, restrictions, and limitations?