Chametz

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Chametz or Chometz (חמץ Tiberian [ħaˈmesʕ], Ashkenazic: [ˈχɔmɛts]) is the Hebrew term for "leavened bread". The word is used generally in regard to the Jewish holiday of Passover. In Jewish law, the Torah prohibits one from owning, eating or benefiting from any chametz during Passover. The laws of Passover are mentioned in several places; for example the prohibition against eating chametz is found in Exodus 13:3. The Torah's punishment for eating chametz on Passover is karet ("spiritual excision").

Generally speaking, there are two requirements for something to be considered chametz:

  1. It needs to be of one of the five primary grains (see below).
  2. It needs to have fermented in contact with water for eighteen minutes.

Contents

[edit] The prohibiton

The Torah has several commandments regarding chametz:

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 are generally in a state of chaos in the days and weeks leading up to Passover, as the house must be cleaned of crumbs in every nook and cranny.

[edit] Stringency

The Torah specifies the punishment of karet (spiritual excision) for eating chametz, the highest level 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, chametz is prohibited no matter how insignificant it is in a mixture[4]. 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.

[edit] Removal of chametz

Bi'ur Chametz - April 2, 2007
Bi'ur Chametz - April 2, 2007

In addition to the Biblical prohibition of owning chametz, there is also a positive commandment to remove it from one's possession (Exodus 12:15). There are three traditional methods of removing chametz:

  • Bi'ur: burning one's chametz. All appropriate methods 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 Nisan, 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.
  • 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. In many Jewish communities, the rabbi signs a contract with each of his congregants, assigning him as an agent to sell their chametz. This practice is convenient for the congregation and ensures that the sale is binding by both Jewish and local law. 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. Some rabbis will 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.

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 fullfil one's biblical requirement to destroy one's chametz.[5] Mechirah does not fullfil the positive commandment of destruction; it only averts the prohibition of ownership.

[edit] 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.

[edit] What is chametz?

[edit] The Five Grains

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. The Talmudic enumeration (which has become the traditional list of those grains) is:

  1. Wheat
  2. Barley
  3. Spelt (More correctly, emmer)
  4. Rye
  5. Oats

While oats are still generally accepted as the fifth grain, there is some linguistic and botanical evidence 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.

[edit] Fermentation (Hebrew: Chimutz)

Even products of the five grains are not considered chametz until fermentation has begun. When the dough is allowed to sit, this process is reckoned to take eighteen minutes. Some factors, like the addition of fruit juice or application of heat, are thought to speed up this process while others, like constant kneading, are thought to delay it.

In Jewish Law, only water is considered a fermenting agent. Technically, 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 (though there may be rabbinic prohibitions involved).

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 the matzo can no longer become chametz, nevertheless some Jews don't eat matzo which has become wet. Such matzo is referred to as gebruchts (see below).

[edit] Additional customs

Because of the Torah's seriousness regarding the prohibition of chametz, many communities have adopted stringencies not biblically required as safegaurds from inadvertent transgression.

[edit] Kitniyot

Main article: 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. Sephardi Jews do not observe this prohibition.

The origins of this practice are not clear. 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.

While it would seem ideal to eat foods that cannot conceivably become chametz, there are authorities 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 wont 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. 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.

[edit] Gebruchts

Main article: 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 who actually observe the practice call it by its Yiddish name.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Sefer haChinuch §9
  2. ^ ibid. §11, 20
  3. ^ ibid. §12, 19
  4. ^ see Mishnah Berurah §442
  5. ^ Mishnah Berurah §434

[edit] External links

[edit] See also

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