Another pre-Passover ritual done!

Today I sold my chametz. That sounds rather ominous, doesn't it? First, lets talk about chametz.

Chametz is any food product made from wheat, barley, rye, oats, spelt, or their derivatives, which has leavened (risen) or fermented. Jewish Sages have determined that flour from any of these five grains that comes in contact with water or moisture will leaven unless fully baked within eighteen minutes. As we are commanded by the Torah, if a food contains even a trace of chametz, we don't eat it, we don't derive benefit from it, and we make sure not to have any of it in our possession for all the days of Passover.

Since it is prohibited to possess chametz on Pesach, any chametz left undisposed must be sold to a non-Jew. [Any chametz remaining in the possession of a Jew during Pesach may not be used, eaten, bought or sold even after Pesach.]

Therefore, all chametz that will not be eaten or burned before Pesach and all chametz utensils that will not be thoroughly cleaned by then should be stored away.

The storage area should be locked or taped shut to be leased to the non-Jew at the time of the chametz sale.

Since there are many legal intricacies in this sale, only a competent rabbi should be entrusted with its execution. The rabbi acts as our agent both to sell the chametz to the non-Jew on the morning before Pesach starts and also to buy it back the evening after Pesach ends.

In order to see chametz, I had to fill out a form provided by a local synagogue detailing where my hametz was located, and then give it to the Rabbi. It is customary to leave a small donation along with your chamatz form, which I also did.

So now anything we haven't cleaned out or overlooked will be acceptable for consumption after Passover.

Jewish law require that your chametz be sold by the specified deadline for the location in which the owner will be on the day before Passover.

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[ READER COMMENTS ]

1

Karen is Thrifty said:

Wow. I had no idea about these Jewish laws and customs. Thanks for the info.

Posted at 10:38 PM, on March 31 2007

Another pre-Passover ritual done!

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