Selling Chametz

At the end of most morning weekday services (on Zoom), we enjoy a brief teaching by clergy or layfolk. The range of views and styles is refreshing, and the presentations often spur some interesting discussion. Occasionally, someone will share an anecdote or reminiscence.

This morning, Cantor Ralph Goren (of Beth El) told of a long-ago episode of a congregation member who did not maintain a kosher kitchen yet felt compelled to turn in the form for selling her chametz for Pesach. At first, he said, he was amused; later, he came to a different understanding.

Many of the Jewish things we do have multiple parts that work together, and we often assume that they are of a piece — without the one we don’t do the others. For example, tallit and tefillin are often considered to be one mitzva when it’s actually two (and some say three — the tallit and each of the two components of tefillin, each with its own blessing).

Looking at Pesach, many mitzvot come together to create a full experience: cleansing the house of chametz, selling what’s left, searching for crumbs, burning chametz, telling the story, five-courses, four cups, three matzot, two candles, and one afikoman. (Okay, a couple of those aren’t commanded but I couldn’t resist!) Each is important in its own “rite.”

Even if you don’t keep a kosher kitchen, and/or you don’t “convert” your kitchen for Pesach, there is still spiritual value in selling your chametz: You are engaging with myriad Jews worldwide in a practice that can be traced back to Torah and, if you include a donations to “ma’ot chitin,” you are enabling those in need to more fully celebrate Pesach.

Click here, print, sign and get it to the Shirat Hayam office by April 9. It’s a mitzva