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Torah portion: Bo
What to do with hametz? Giving it to the poor might be beautiful solution
The Torah is pretty clear about getting rid of hametz on Passover; it should not be anywhere on your property. You can't even look at it. The punishment for violating this is karet – heavenly cut off from the Jewish people. This mitzvah is so important because it is tied to one of our most significant historical moments: God taking us out of Egypt.
How strange then, that Jews who observe mitzvoth today, put their hametz into a closet, close the doors and sell it to a non-Jew. How did we go from karet for having hametz on the property, to keeping it all in the kitchen closet?
In the Tosefta we are told that if a Jew and a Gentile are traveling on a boat and the Jew has brought hametz with him, he may sell it to the Gentile or give it to him as a gift, and then retake it from him after Passover, provided that he gives it as a complete gift.
What to do?
The Bayit Hadash (commentary of Rabbi Joel ben Samuel Sirkes to Rabbi Jacob ben Asher’s Arba’ah Turim) takes it further. He says that some hametz, like large wine casks, are not easily moveable, so it is permissible to keep the hametz in one room of the house – but it must be sold, and the owner must hand a key to the room over to a non-Jew.
But if the non-Jew considered the deal to be real and didn't return the key then what happens?
Therefore the Mishnah Berurah says that the hametz just has to be sealed off somewhere in the house - e.g. in a closet and not necessarily in an entire room – and that it is sold to a non-Jew.
That's the quick summary of how we got to today’s practice, but think of how amazing these changes are. The sale of hametz is one of the greatest examples of the development of Jewish law. The rabbis stretch and change the laws of the Torah not just for the spiritual health of the community, but for the financial health as well.
The message is no one should have to experience a "hefsed merubeh" - a devastating financial loss - due to the destruction or loss of all their hametz on Passover.
However, if each generation of rabbis intervened in the law to fit the realities of their day, then perhaps it is once again time to re-evaluate the issue of hametz.
Since very few of us own whiskey distilleries or have thousands invested in hametz products, why not eat down our reserves before Pesach each year to the best of our ability? The rest we can give away as full and permanent gifts to non-Jews. Find a needy foreign worker or family who might appreciate a donation!
This newest development in Jewish law is a return to a closer reading of the text and a return to the original intent of the mitzvah: To rid your house of all hametz.
Think of it as a reminder that we left Egypt to serve God. Or think of it as being mahmir (strict) in regard to the passage from the Passover Haggadah kol dichfin yeteh veyechol - “let all who are hungry come and eat.” Let everyone in the country, Jew and non-Jew, have food to eat this Passover.
Rabbi Paul Arberman, Rabbi of the Conservative congregation in Modi’in
