How to prepare a microwave for Pesach?
Is Ashkenazi prohibition on kitniyot (legumes) during Passover Jewish law or merely custom, and what about fresh legumes? Do you need to buy new baby bottles, and what do you do about a test scheduled for the day after the holiday ends?
A: Most Ashkenezim do not eat green kitniyot. If your family has a certain custom, follow it.
Q: Are toilet paper, laundry detergent, and disposable diapers kosher for Passover? (Dana, Tel Aviv)
A: Anything that doesn’t come into contact with food or with the mouth does not need to be certified kosher for Passover.
Q: Is it permissible to study during hol hamoed, the intermediate days of Passover? I have an important test on April 10, the day after Passover, at the Technion. Is it permissible for me to study during hol hamoed, or will I have to study before the holiday and hope to remember what I’ve studied? (Student, Haifa)
A: It is permissible to study for a test during hol hamoed.
Q: Is it permissible to bury someone on a holiday? To the best of my understanding the commandment not to leave the dead unburied overnight is very important, and on a yom tov (other than Yom Kippur) there aren’t the same problems as on the Sabbath with this issue, so is it permissible to bury someone on the holiday?
A: According to Jewish law it is forbidden to bury the dead on a yom tov or the Sabbath. When a dead person is buried you are carrying out one positive commandment, but when you dig the grave on a yom tov or the Sabbath you are doing many forbidden acts, and transgressing both positive and negative commandments.
Q: How do you dip a microwave in boiling water to kasher it? (Rotem, Jerusalem)
A: Not all poskim (adjudicators of Jewish law) agree that it’s possible to kasher a microwave. Those who do say you must clean all parts of the microwave well. Dip the plate into boiling water three times, and the piece underneath it once, and in a styrofoam cup boil a full cup of water with soap that will fill the inside of the microwave with steam.
Q: Is the Ashkenazi prohibition on eating kitniyot Jewish law or tradition? (Avner, Sharon region)
A: Jewish law has prohibited Ashkenazim from eating kitniyot on Passover for 600 years. The narrow definition of the prohibition on kitniyot for this purpose is eating a dry seed of an annual plant for which the seed is the main part eaten, like a sunflower seed or dry pea, but pumpkin seeds or soy oil are not included in the prohibition.
Q: Do you need to buy new bottles for babies before Passover? I want to know if the baby’s dishes need to be new for Passover or whether they can be cleaned well and used during the holiday? (You can’t kasher plastic dishes, after all.) I ask because of the high cost of the bottles and accessories. (Roni, Gush Dan)
A: You can kasher children’s bottles by dipping them in boiling water, both the bottle and the nipple, after cleaning them well.
(Rabbi Ahiyah Shlomo Amitai and Rabbi Yehiel Tzur answered the questions here.)
