The Charlotte Jewish News - April 2007 - Page 30
Passover
Chametz: Out of Sight Out of Mind
By Batsheva Pomerantz
(Israel Press Service) — In
Israel, the pithy saying “Dust is
not chametz (leaven) and children
are not the korban (Paschal sacri
fice)” reminds homemakers to
• take pre-Pesach cleaning in their
stride and have patience with their
children when they unintentional
ly leave a trail of chametz.
According to biblical law, the
prohibition of chametz applies to
the fermented products of five
kinds of grain: wheat, barley, oats,
rye and spelt, which are not to be
found in the house during the fes
tival.
Israeli rabbis publish detailed
annual guides regarding Pesach
cleaning, all of which state that
thorough cleaning should take
place only in rooms where
chametz is located, including bed
rooms if people nosh there, the
living room, dining room and bal
cony. Work stations and cars are
also checked and cleaned or vacu
umed and clothing to be worn on
Passover should, be shaken and
brushed to remove specks and
crumbs.
The general obligation to dis
pose of crumbs, however, does not
• apply if the crumbs are less than
the size of an olive and are dirty
enough to prevent a person from
eating them.
The cleaning and. koshering
(ritual scouring) of the kitchen is a
most intensive task, requiring
flexibility and elbow-grease for
the scrubbing of countertops,
sinks, tables, chairs and kitchen
appliances. It should be noted,
however, that it is sufficient to
wipe an oven with a rag soaked in
detergent or clean it with a regular
oven-cleaner, then turn the oven to
its maximum temperature for at
least one hour in order for it to Be
Kosher for Passover. A microwave
simply needs washing down 24
hours after the microwave last
contained chametz, and a bowl or
cup of boiling water placed inside
for about ten minutes. The glass
tray should be'immersed in boil
ing water.
If chametz particles cling to
pots used throughout the year,
^.they can be soaked in bleach or
detergent to render any crumbs
inedible and therefore not consid
ered chametz. This does not, how
ever, mak^the vessel Kosher for
Passover so it must then be stored
away. In Israel many people take
*■' metal pots and utensils to a central
koshering location where they are
put into wire baskets and
immersed in boiling water.
Where possible, it is best to
have separate sets of dishes, cut
lery and pots for Passover, yet it is
possible to make some of these fit
for Passover use by this same
koshering process. A rabbi should
be consulted for specifics.
Businesses which have ware
houses stocked with chametz
stand to lose a substantial income
over Pesach. The institution by
Israeli rabbis of the legal sale of
chametz to a non-Jew for the week
of Passover, allows businesses,
both large and small, to survive
over Pesach. The stipulation that
Burning chametz in Jerusalem's ultra-Orthodox Mea Shearim neigh
borhood on the eve of Passover.
IPS photo by Mark Neyman, courtesy GPO.
the Jew repurchase the chametz
for a nominal fee after Pesach pro
tects his right to reclaim his pro
duce.
The sale of chametz for food
companies is sound business
sense. “We sell our chametz
through a rabbi from the
Rabbinate, who is also the plant’s
mashgiach (kashrut supervisor),”
says Eli Rapoport, director-gener
al of Mevushelet, a plant that pro
duces and distributes 18,000
meals a day to kindergartens,
schools, colleges, old-age homes,
etc. around the country. “We have
chametz ingredients in our store
houses that must be sold in order
to be used after the holiday. Our
religious clients inquire about this
after Passover.”
The procedure of selling the
chametz takes place a few days
before Passover, and goes into
affect before noon on the 14th of
Nissan, the day before Passover.
Throughout Israel the sale usually
takes place in the synagogue with
the local rabbi acting as a shaliach
(messenger) for the homeowner.
The rabbi then passes on the sale
document to the Chief Rabbinate
and the entire chametz of the State
of Israel is sold to one non-Jewish
person.
This year, for the eleventh year
in a row, Jaber Hussein, an Israeli-
Arab from Abu Ghosh near
Jerusalem, will buy the chametz of
the State of Israel in a business
transaction conducted in the
offices of the Chief Rabbis. As
Food and Beverage Department
manager at the Jerusalem Ramada
Renaissance hotel, Hussein was
originally approached by former
Chief Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau
regarding buying the country’s
chametz. “1 understand the impor
tance of this transaction. It helps
the Jews and is an example of
cooperation and coexistence
between us,” says Hussein, 42, a
father of four.
Most grocery stores and super
markets in Israel carry a certificate
attesting to their selling' the
chametz during Passover as after
the festival, observant Jews will
only buy in places that have such
certification. For the ultra-
Orthodox, however, the mass sale
of chametz is not sufficient, and
they wait until processed foods
appear on the shelves that were
prepared after Passover. In some
stores one can buy packages of
flour with a stamp, “ground after
Passover 5766 (Jewish year)” or
breakfast cereals, cookies and
pasta stamped, “Prepared after
Passover.”
During the holiday,' Israeli
supermarket shelves are lined with
paper on which Kosher for
Passover food is placed.
Sometimes shelves with chametz
packages are covered with broad
sheets of paper, so they’re oiit of
sight. The customer knows by the
certificate that the supermarket
does not own the food and that it
was sold before the holiday.
Some small eateries, like falafel
or pizza stands, close down during
Passover, since it’s not profitable
for them to make the complex
changeover. Others take advan
tage of the break to be on vacation
with their family.
Finally, with the house free of
crumbs, the essential bedikat
chametz search, which takes place
after dark on the 14th' of Nissan,
takes place. This search is on to
make sure that all parts of the
house are indeed clean and that no
remnants of chametz remain.
Candlelight is. used to provide
focused light for the search in the
darkened house. Ten small pieces
of bread are placed throughout the
■ house and family members make a
thorough search for chametz. The
ten pieces of bread are swept with
a feather or wooden spoon onto a
piece of newspaper and then into a
small bag. The head of the house
hold then recites a blessing and an
annulment of all chametz that was
found in the bedikat chametz.
Carefully wrapped, the package is
placed on the side, separate from
Passover dishes and food. The fol
lowing morning these last vestiges
of chametz are burned outdoors in
a small fire with a final annulment
of chametz that is in the home
owner’s possession, which he may
not have seen or be aware of.
With chametz now out of sight
and out of mind, the focus switch
es to preparations for the Passover
Seder in anticipation of having an
enjoyable and meaningful Seder
with family and friends. 4*
Searching for God at Passover
By Jeremy Deutchman
For a nation widely credited as
nurturing the most religious socie
ty in history, I am often struck by
our collective discomfort in envi
sioning - and believing in - God.
It is as though we hold two com
peting truths to be self-evident,
and mutually exclusive: We put
faith in our religious tradition
while holding ourselves at arm’s
length from it. Our role as educat
ed, rational thinkers allows us to
pray, but demands that we do it
with a nudge and a
wink, lest our neighbors
think we have been
taken in by snake oils or
charlatans.
If our enlightenment
makes us skeptics, it
also enables us to chan
nel our religious fervor
into tangible good
works. As a friend of
mine puts it, “Too many
people need food and
shelter. Why spend time
asking God to do some
thing that we can do our
selves?” And Judaism
commends - even com
mands - right action,
suggesting in a genera-
tions-old emphasis on tikkun olam
that we, not God, are responsible
for building the fabric of a healthy
community.
And yet, it has always seemed
to me that acts of social justice are
themselves evidence of God’s
hand in the world. What else
explains millions of people in
every nation on Earth volunteer
ing precious resources (whether
time, money or the sweat of their
physical labor) to alleviate suffer
ing and improve the lives of peo
ple they will never know? What
could be more divinely inspired
than strangers holding hands,
spanning oceans and spinning
webs of compassion and commit
ment that recognize our common
humanity?
This question of God’s pres
ence is particularly important for
Jews as we approach the Passover
season. That the ancient Israelites
in Egypt suffered at the hands of a
brutal oppressor is not in doubt.
Nor is their eventual liberation
from tyranny. Bu^ the. critical
question, the one that bears direct
ly on the issue at hand, is the link
between agency and outcome.
Were the Israelites freed because
God led them out of Egypt with a
mighty hand, or because, in a
forceful rejection of indentured
servitude, they motivated them
selves to get up and go? What are
the implications of a God who
simultaneously creates moral
imperatives and places them on
indefinite hold? Every Passover,
we relive the Exodus as though
we ourselves are experiencing
it first hand. And so these ques
tions, far from being abstract or
irrelevant, spill urgently from
our Jewish hearts and minds.
Of course no amount of col
umn inches will ever adequate
ly resolve this dilemma. But the
more I expose myself to the
challenges it presents, the more
convinced I become that the
answer is all around me.
Though I lack language and
understanding, still I can see
the exquisite beauty of an inter
dependent relationship in
which Man asks God and 'God
asks Man and it is hard to know
where one question stops and
the other begins. Our actions
make God manifest at the same
time that God makes our actions
possible.
For me, it is this sense of possi
bility, of our function as created
and creator, that makes this season
so resonant with meaning. The
Exodus calls to us each in our own
way, charging us with responsibil
ity and filling us with promise.
Will God show us the way home?
Will we find our own drive to get
there? Does God bear the burden
of spreading justice in the world?
Are our efforts capable of lighten
ing the load? The answer can only
be “yes.”
Learning to accept uncertainty
is both an uncomfortable proposi
tion and one of life’s most endur
ing lessons. But our faith acts as a
bridge, allowing us to reconcile
what is with what might be. We
will never know what God intends
or whether our decisions might be
divinely guided. Where does that
leave us? It is a difficult question,
and in the meantime, as my fnend
points out, “Too many people
need food and shelter.” But,
caught somewhere between sci
ence and faith, I am not ready to
accept his suggestion that we
leave God out of the picture.
Because I can’t be sure, but it
remaips my profound hope that, in
taking responsibility for our own
actions, we will come to find that
we are not alone, that we are
engaged in a holy partnership .with
a powerful spirit and that believ
ing in ourselves is a crucial first
step to experiencing the divine.
Jeremy Deutchman is the
Director of Communications and
Development, MAZON: A Jewish
Response to Hunger