LAWS OF PASSOVER, PART I, II and III

LAWS OF PASSOVER, PART I, II and III 

The Festival of Passover will shortly be upon us.  It begins Wednesday evening, April 8^th and ends in the evening of Wednesday,15^th of April.

In that regard, I would like to present some of the many Laws of Passover to help you get ready for the big event, the Festival of Our Freedom.  It is not meant to be an exhaustive presentation or for that matter an authoritative presentation, but something for you to talk about at your table and put you on the right track.

PROHIBITION OF CHOMETZ

On Passover, which begins on Wednesday evening the 8th of April to the 16^th of April, not only are forbidden to eat Chometz, but we must have removed any and all Chometz from our possession by the morning preceding the Festival.

The prohibition of Chometz on Pesach is an absolute one.  Not only are we forbidden from eating Chometz, we are even forbidden to feed Chometz to our pets.

What is the basis for the prohibition? Because it says so (Exodus 12:15):

“Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread; moreover on the first day you shall put away leaven out of your houses; for whosoever eats leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that soul shall be cut off from Israel”.

First things first: What is Chometz?

When either wheat, barley, rye, spelt or oats have come in contact with or even slightly combines with water, you get Chometz.  We are ordered to remove and/or destroy all traces of Chometz from our possession.

How do we get rid of Chometz?

There is a three step procedure:

1. Sell your Chometz to a non-Jew.

2. Search and destroy: Search on the evening before and destroy by burning on the following morning.

3. On the morning before Passover, declare any possible remaining Chometz to be nullified.

All prohibitions regarding Chometz apply to all the days of Pesach. The Torah prohibits any use of Chometz on Pesach, whether it is eaten, sold or even given away.  Chometz may only be destroyed.

After Passover You have to be careful.  It is forbidden to partake of or purchase Chometz from a Jew who did not sell his Chometz before Passover.  It is a fair question to ask someone if they had sold their Chometz.

* I was always under the erroneous impression that those of us who went to hotels for Passover were in part doing this to get out from under the preparatory laws of Passover.  And if truth be told, I was a little jealous.  But get this from the Rambam, Chapter 2:19 –

A person who sets out to sea or one who leaves in a caravan within thirty days [of Pesach] is obligated to search [for chametz].

 [If he leaves] before thirty days [prior to Pesach], he is not obligated to search. However, if he intends to return before Pesach, he must search before departing, lest he [be delayed and] return Pesach eve at nightfall, when he will have no opportunity to destroy [the chametz]. However, if he does not intend to return, he does not have to search.

COMMENTARY:

Any chametz which he knows about must be removed from his possession (Magen Avraham, Orach Chayim 436:1).

The search is made at night by candlelight before he departs (Magen Avraham). However, no blessing is recited (Shulchan Aruch).

Thirty days before Pesach, we begin "asking and explaining the laws of the holiday."  From that time onward, concern is shown for all the Pesach laws (Pesachim 6a).

SHMURAH MATZAH

Passover is called, Chag Hamatzot – the Holiday of Matzot,  חג המצות .

At Exodus 12:17 the Chumash says:

וּשְׁמַרְתֶּם אֶת-הַמַּצּוֹת, כִּי בְּעֶצֶם הַיּוֹם הַזֶּה, הוֹצֵאתִי אֶת-צִבְאוֹתֵיכֶם מֵאֶרֶץ מִצְרָיִם

“And you shall guard the matzot, for on this day I took your divisions out of the land of Egypt…”

The need for Shmurah Matzah comes from וּשְׁמַרְתֶּם אֶת-הַמַּצּוֹת , “And you shall guard the matzot”.

Why guard the Matzah?

A grain may become Chometz any time after reaping if it has come into contact with water. Therefore from the get-go it must be carefully guarded.  Although we eat matzah all during Pesach, you are only legally obligated to eat matzah on the first night of Pesach in Israel and the first two nights in the diaspora. Of course this does not mean that Chometz may be eaten.h

Personally, I like Shmurah Matzah, the look, the taste, and from a subjective point of view I feel “special” when I am eating it.  Maybe for that reason I have always purchased more than I need; it’s similar to prolonging Shabbos.

THE FOUR CUPS

On the first night of Pesach (first two in the diaspora) it is incumbent upon every Jewish man, woman, and educable child to drink four cups of wine in recognition of the four expressions of freedom stated in the Torah in connection with Y’tzias Mitzrayim יציאת מצרים, the going out of Egypt.

The four expressions are found in Exodus 6:6-7:

“Therefore, say to the Israelites: ‘I am the Lord, and I will bring you out (V’hotzeiti  וְהוֹצֵאתִי) from under the yoke of the Egyptians. I will free you (V’hitzalti  וְהִצַּלְתִּי ) from being slaves to them, and I will redeem you (V’go’alti  וְגָאַלְתִּי) with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment. I will take you as my own people (V’lakachti  וְלָקַחְתִּי ), and I will be your God. Then you will know that I am the Lord your God, who brought you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians.”

There is actually a fifth expression, that a minority opinion holds requires a fifth cup.  Unfortunately I have recently learned that the majority do not hold with this opinion.  It is forbidden to drink the fifth cup.  For many years I had been under the mistaken impression that drinking a fifth cup was tantamount to adding to a Mitzvah, a good thing, a godly thing and in a certain sense being “ultra”.  After all, the keynote of Pesach is freedom, and consequently as an expression of freedom the Cup of Elijah has always been, until now, fair game.   Live and learn.

FREEDOM

It is customary not to pour wine into your own cup.  Symbolically you are free, and someone else will wait on you as you will do for others. The main theme of the Passover holiday is, undoubtedly, freedom. But we must understand what this freedom is all about. Does it refer simply to the end of Egyptian slavery? Is it only political freedom or perhaps only religious freedom?

According to Rav Kook, the difference between a slave and a free person is not merely a matter of social position. We can find an enlightened slave whose spirit is free, and a free man with the mentality of a slave. 

Rav Kook continues: True freedom is when an individual is inspired to remain faithful to his inner essence, to the spiritual attribute of the Divine image within him. It is that quality which enables us to feel that our life has value and meaning.

On the festival of freedom, we openly demonstrate that we feel ourselves to be free in our very essence. Our lofty yearnings for that which is good and holy are a genuine reflection of our essential nature.

It is a very strong custom among Ashkenazi Jews, having the weight of Halakah, not to serve lamb at the Pesach meal.  However, Sephardi Jews often serve lamb.  And for both groups at the conclusion of the Seder meal, before we say the Grace After Meal (Bircas HaMazon we eat the Afikomen, a kind of ritual addendum to the Passover service.

MORE ON FREEDOM

It is customary not to pour wine into your own cup.  Symbolically you are free, and someone else will wait on you as you will do for others. The main theme of the Passover holiday is, undoubtedly, freedom. But we must understand what this freedom is all about. Does it refer simply to the end of Egyptian slavery? Is it only political freedom or perhaps only religious freedom?

According to Rav Kook, the difference between a slave and a free person is not merely a matter of social position. We can find an enlightened slave whose spirit is free, and a free man with the mentality of a slave. 

Rav Kook continues: True freedom is when an individual is inspired to remain faithful to his inner essence, to the spiritual attribute of the Divine image within him. It is that quality which enables us to feel that our life has value and meaning.

AFIKOMEN - LAMB OR NO LAMB

On the festival of freedom, we openly demonstrate that we feel ourselves to be free in our very essence. Our lofty yearnings for that which is good and holy are a genuine reflection of our essential nature.

It is a very strong custom among Ashkenazi Jews, having the weight of Halakah, not to serve lamb at the Pesach meal.  However, Sephardi Jews often serve lamb.  And for both groups at the conclusion of the Seder meal, before we say the Grace After Meal (Bircas HaMazon we eat a broken piece of Matzah, the Afikomen, a kind of ritual addendum to the Passover service.

The Afikomen is a representation of the Passover sacrifice in the form of Matzah.  The Passover sacrifice from our time in the dessert on up through the destruction of the second Temple was always a whole roasted lamb.  We read in the Haggadah that Hillel, who lived around 30 BCE, ate his lamb in a sandwich of bitter herbs and Matzah.

 On the other hand, in the Passover service we eat Hillel’s sandwich not with lamb, but with an extra portion of Matzah. The rationale for the Afikomen and Hillel’s sandwich not being lamb is said to do with the Temple’s destruction and that we no longer bring sacrifices, lamb or otherwise.  I can understand this.

But I have always wondered how to reconcile the difference between Ashkenazi and Sephardi Jews as to having lamb at the Seder meal.   I understand that lamb may be much more common fare in regions where Sephardi Jews have their heritage, and not so for Ashkenazi Jews.  But I do not think this is the complete answer.

Sephardi Jews, for the most part lived in Moslem lands under the Ottoman Empire where we were tolerated.  This was not the case for Ashkenazi Jews who lived in Christian lands.  It was a sad reality, but we were tortured and murdered for being “Christ-Killers”, and absurd or not Jesus was one of our very own.

Just read what Robin Williams has to say on the subject:

“And people say to me, they say Jesus wasn't Jewish. I say of course he was Jewish. 30 years old, single, lives with his parents. Come on! Work in his father's business, his mom thought he was God's gift! He's Jewish! Give it up”.

Sadly however It is not a stretch to imagine the Church portraying the eating of lamb at the Passover meal as tantamount to ritual deicide of the Lamb of God.  Disallowing lamb and substituting Matzah for Hillel’s sandwich and for the Afikomen probably went a long way in the saving of Jewish lives.  Today, being safe and secure in the Jewish State of Israel I wonder if we should update the Passover service.  What do you think?