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Chametz (also Chometz or Chumetz; Hebrew: חָמֵץ) refers to bread, grains and leavened products that are not consumed on the Jewish holiday of Passover, as well as all food items that are not specifically marked "kosher for Passover." According to Jewish law, Jews may not own, eat or benefit from chametz during Passover. This law appears several times in the Bible. The punishment for eating chametz on Passover is karet ("spiritual excision"), one of the highest levels of punishment in Jewish tradition.
Chametz is a product that is (a) made from one of five types of grains, and (b) has been combined with water and left to stand for longer than eighteen minutes without being baked.
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The prohibition
The Torah has several commandments regarding chametz:
- The positive commandment to remove all chametz from one's home (Exodus 12:15).[1]
- Not to possess chametz in one's domain (i.e. home, office, car, etc.) during Passover. (Exodus 12:19, Deuteronomy 16:4).[2]
- Not to eat chametz, or mixtures containing chametz, during Passover (Exodus 13:3, Exodus 12:20, Deuteronomy 16:3).[3]
The prohibitions take effect around late morning on the eve of Passover, or the 14th of Nisan. Chametz is permitted again at nightfall after the final day of Passover. Traditional Jewish homes which are strict are generally in a state of chaos in the days and weeks leading up to Passover, as the house must be totaly cleaned of every crumb in every nook and cranny.
What is chametz?
The five grains
The Talmudic enumeration (which has become the traditional list of those grains) is:
The concept of the five grains has applications to other areas of Jewish Law, including that they take a special blessing before and after their consumption. These are also the only grains suitable for the production of Matzo.
While oats are still generally accepted as the fifth grain, there is some linguistic and botanical evidence[specify] that what has been traditionally translated from the Talmud as "oats" is in fact a wild species of spelt. Although there have been no changes to normative Jewish law (in any denomination) to reflect this, some rabbis are stringent when the issue is biblical and discourage the use of oat matzo on seder nights, when there is a biblical obligation to eat matzo.
Chimutz ("fermentation")
Even products of the five grains are not considered chametz until the process of chimutz, typically translated as "fermentation", has begun. Despite these translations the concept is not identical to the technical chemical process of fermentation but is instead a concept formally defined in Jewish Law. Under the formal definition any flour from the five grains combined with water and allowed to stand for longer than eighteen minutes without being baked is chametz. Flour combined with pure fruit juice (that is, juice squeezed directly from the fruit, not reconstituted fruit juice), and no water, cannot become chametz, even if the bread is allowed to sit for hours and swells up to many times its size. Baked goods that contain only non-water liquids are called matzah ashirah ("rich matzah") or "egg matzah", and are eaten on Passover by Sefardim; Ashkenazi practice, for fear that a bit of water may accidentally have found its way into the mixture, only allows them for old or sick people who are unable to eat ordinary matzah.[citation needed]
Although any food of the five grains that has not undergone chimutz is Biblically permissible, by Rabbinic prohibition these grains may be consumed only in the form of matzo.
Once baked, it is universally accepted that dough can no longer become chametz; nevertheless, because of the stringency of the transgressions involved, some Jews do not eat matzo which has become wet for fear that it might contain a lump, so to speak, of flour that did not mix well with the dough, and which can subsequently become chametz should it come in contact with fluids. Such incompletely baked matzo is referred to as gebrochts.
Stringency
The Torah specifies the punishment of karet (spiritual excision) for eating chametz, one of the highest levels of punishment in Jewish tradition.
In addition, the prohibition applies even to the smallest particle of chametz, while most other Torah prohibitions on food only apply to larger quantities (though small amounts may be prohibited rabbinically). Moreover, usual non-kosher foods can be diluted by kosher food to one part in sixty and then be permitted; during Passover, however, eating chametz is prohibited no matter how insignificant it is in a mixture.[4] Sephardi Jews do not follow this stringency if the dilution happened before Passover.[citation needed]
Also, hana'ah (any benefit, such as selling) from some forms of non-kosher food is permitted, but no form of benefit may be derived from chametz during Passover. Mixtures containing less than 50% chametz, and which are not eaten by normal people, may be owned and used on Passover.
Removal of chametz
In addition to the Biblical prohibition of owning chametz, there is also a positive commandment to remove it from one's possession.[5] There are three traditional methods of removing chametz:
- Bi'ur: burning one's chametz. All appropriate methods[specify] of destruction are included in this category. On the night preceding the 14th of Nisan, a formal search of the house known as bedikat chametz ("search for chametz") is conducted by candlelight. The chametz found in this search is burned the next morning in a formal bi'ur ceremony.
- Bittul: nullifying one's chametz. On the night and again on the morning of the 14th of Nissan, at the formal bedikah and bi'ur respectively, the head of the household recites an Aramaic statement nullifying all chametz remaining in the family's possession. The statements conclude that the chametz "shall be nullified and considered ownerless as the dust of the earth." Bittul must be done before the prohibition of chametz takes effect; after midday on Passover eve, bittul is no longer an effective means of removal and any chametz one discovers must be burned.[citation needed]
- Mechirah: selling one's chametz. A Jew can avoid heavy financial losses if he owns much chametz by selling his chametz to a non-Jew, referred to as the Pesach goy.[6] One who keeps the sold chametz in his or her household must seal it away so that it will not be visible during the holiday. After the holiday, the non-Jew generally sells the chametz back to the original owners, via the agent; however, he is under no obligation to do so.
It is best to use both bi'ur and bittul to remove one's chametz, even though either of these two methods is enough to fulfill one's biblical requirement to destroy one's chametz.[7] Mechirah, which averts the prohibition of ownership, is an alternative to destruction.
Mechirah practices
In many Jewish communities, the rabbi signs a contract with each of his congregants, assigning him as an agent to sell their chametz.[8] This practice is convenient for the congregation and ensures that the sale is binding by both Jewish and local law.
For chametz owned by the State of Israel, which includes its state companies, the prison service and the country's stock of emergency supplies, the Chief Rabbinate act as agent; since 1997, the Rabbinate has sold its chametz to Mr. Jaaber Hussein, a hotel manager residing in Abu Ghosh, who puts down a deposit of 20,000 shekels for chametz worth an estimated 150 million dollars.[9] In 2009, the sale also included all guard dogs used by the state, because their forage contains yeast.[6]
Some rabbis encourage the non-Jew to visit the Jewish homes where his chametz is stored during the holiday, and make use of some of it, to make clear to the sellers that the chametz has genuinely been sold to the non-Jew.[citation needed]
Chametz found during or after Pesach
According to Halakhah, if chametz is found during Yom Tov, it must be covered over until Chol HaMoed when it can be burned. Chametz found during Chol HaMoed should be burned immediately.
After the holiday, there is a special law known as "chametz she'avar alav haPesach," chametz that was owned by any Jew during Pesach. Such chametz can only be burned; no benefit may be derived from it at all, not even by selling it to a non-Jew.
Chametz that was owned by a Jew during Pesach may not be eaten by Jews after Pesach. If a store owned by a Jew is known not to have sold its chametz, no Jew may buy chametz from that store until enough time has passed that it can be assumed the inventory has changed over since Pesach.
Additional customs
Because of the Torah's severity regarding the prohibition of chametz, many communities have adopted stringencies not biblically required as safeguards from inadvertent transgression.
Kitniyot
Among Ashkenazi Jews, the custom during Passover is to refrain from not only products of the five grains but also kitniyot. Literally "small things," kitniyot refers to other grains or legumes. Traditions of what is considered kitniyot vary from community to community but generally include rice, corn, lentils, and beans. Many include peanuts in this category as well. Many Sephardi Jews do not observe this prohibition.
The origins of this practice are not clear.[citation needed] Two common theories are that these items are often made into products resembling chametz (e.g. cornbread), or that these items were normally stored in the same sacks as the five grains and people worried that they might become contaminated with chametz. The most common explanation, however, has to do with the talmudic concept of Mirat Eyin (translated as "how it appears to the eye"). While not technically against the laws of passover to consume kitniyot, one might observe you eating them and think you were eating chametz, and thus think less of you as a Jew. To avoid this confusion, they were simply banned outright. This also explains why Sephardic Jews do not have the same restrictions: as products such as corn and beans were eaten far more often in that part of the world, one would understand that they were not derived from leavened bread.
While it would seem ideal to eat foods that cannot conceivably become chametz, there are authorities[who?] who are concerned that Kitniyos might in some way become confused with true chametz. First, cooked porridge and other cooked dishes made from grain and Kitniyos appear similar. Second, Kitniyos are often grown in fields adjacent to those in which chametz is grown, and these grains tend to mix together. And third, Kitniyos are often ground into a type of flour that can easily be confused with chametz. For these three reasons, these authorities suggested that by avoiding eating Kitniyos people would be better able to avoid chametz. The Vilna Gaon (Hagaos HaGra, ibid.) indeed actually cites a novel source for this custom. The Talmud in Pesachim (40b) notes that Rava objected to the workers of the Raish Gelusa (the Exilarch) cooking a food called chasisi on Pesach, since it was known to be confused with chametz. The Tosefos explain that, according to the Aruch, chasisi are lentils and thus, argues the Vilna Gaon, establishes the basis for the concern of Kitniyos.
While this practice is considered binding in normative Ashkenazi Judaism, these items are not chametz and therefore are not subject to the same prohibitions and stringencies as chametz. For example while there is a prohibition against owning chametz on Passover, no such prohibition applies to kitniyot. Similarly, while someone would not be permitted to eat chametz on Passover unless his life were in danger (since this is a Torah prohibition), the Rabbis prohibit kitniyot and therefore people who are infirm or pregnant, maybe allowed to kitniyot, on consultation with a Rabbinic authority. Furthermore, kitniyot is considered "Batel B'Rov" meaning that Ashkenazi Jews may eat food containing less than 50% kitniyot as long as the kitniyot are not distinguishable within the food and the food was not prepared to take advantage of such a "loophole". However, many Ashkenazi Jews today hold to a standard not to eat food containing any kitniyot. Jews with a Sephardi heritage from Israel, Syria, Iraq, and Iran are not subject to this and are allowed to eat kitniyot freely. Some Sephardi Jews from Spain and North Africa (for example, Moroccan Jews) have different restrictions. For example, Moroccan Jews avoid having rice during Pesach.
It should also be noted that there is some movement among observant Ashkenazi Jews to no longer observe the tradition of kitniyot.[10]
Gebruchts
At Passover, some religious Jews will not eat matzo that has become wet, including matzo balls and other matzo meal products. Such products are called "gebruchts" or gebrokts, a Yiddish word meaning "broken" referring to the broken or ground matzo used for baking or cooking. Instead of matzo meal, they use potato starch in cakes and other dishes. The Hebrew language term for gebruchts is "matza shruya," (מצה שרוייה, literally "soaked matza") although most Jews outside of Israel who observe the practice call it by its Yiddish name.
See also
References
- Shailut U'Teshuvot HaRashba Vol. 1.
- Hilchot Pesach (Laws of Pesach) by Rabbi Shimon Eider.
- Mishnah Berurah §431-453.
- ^ Sefer haChinuch §9
- ^ ibid. §11, 20
- ^ ibid. §12, 19
- ^ see Mishnah Berurah §442
- ^ Exodus 12:15
- ^ a b "Israel sold all its stocks of chametz and its army got rid of all guard dogs before Pesach". Aidishe.com. 10 April 2009. http://aidishe.com/en/news/73-israel-sold-all-its-stocks-of-chametz-and-its-army-got-rid-of-all-guard-dogs-before-pesach. Retrieved 2009-04-19.
- ^ Mishnah Berurah §434
- ^ "Laws of Selling Chametz". http://www.aish.com/passlaw/passlawdefault/Laws_of_Selling_Chametz.asp.
- ^ "The Muslim guardian of Israel's daily bread". The Independent. 6 April 2009. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/the-muslim-guardian-of-israels-daily-bread-1663404.html. Retrieved 2009-04-19.
- ^ "Va'ad Ha'Halakhah - English Summaries (Volume 3)". Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies. http://www.responsafortoday.com/engsums/engsums.htm. Retrieved 2009-04-19.
External links
- Etymology of "chametz" from balashon.com
- "The Symbolism of Chametz" by Rav Alex Israel, at the Virtual Beit Midrash
- Chametz Wizard at chabad.org
- How To Search for Chametz (Bidikat Chametz) by about.com
- Chametz FAQ by AskMoses.com
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