Observances

Observances

Removal and sale of chametz

In accordance with the mitzvah of not eating or owning leavened products during Passover, religious Jewish families typically spend the weeks before the holiday in a flurry of housecleaning. The purpose is to remove every morsel of fermented grain products (called chametz) from all the cupboards and corners in the home. The search for chametz is often a thorough one, as children's rooms and kitchens are cleaned from top to bottom and forgotten packages or pieces of cookies or crackers are uncovered under beds and inside closets. Although many ensure that not even a crumb of chametz remains, the Halakha only requires the elimination of olive-sized quantities of leavening from one's possession.

Meanwhile, the family attempts to consume or dispose of all edible chametz products (like bread, pasta, cookies, soup mixes, and even non-kosher-for-Passover matzo—which, being designed for year-round use, is allowed to rise for more than 18 minutes before baking) so as to have nothing left by the morning before the holiday begins.

Chametz that has a high monetary value (such as liquor which is made from wheat) may be sold rather than discarded. This sale of chametz is conducted via the community rabbi, who becomes the "agent" for all the community's Jews through a halakhic procedure called a kinyan (acquisition). As the agent, the rabbi will sell all the chametz to a non-Jew for a price to be negotiated after the holiday. In the meantime, the non-Jew is asked to put down a small down payment (e.g. $1.00), with the remainder due after Passover. As soon as the holiday ends, the rabbi will contact the non-Jew, to buy the community's chametz back from him. In practice, it is almost always bought back, with a small profit to the non-Jew[3].

This sale is considered completely binding according to Halakha, to the point that each householder must put aside all the chametz he is selling into a box or cupboard and assume that at any time during the holiday, the non-Jewish buyer may come to take or partake of his share. Similarly, Jewish store owners who stock leavened food products sell everything in their storeroom to a non-Jew with full knowledge that the new "owner" can claim his property. In the Eastern European shtetls, the Jews, who were often tavern keepers, would sell their chametz in this way to neighboring non-Jews, and risk having the non-Jews enter their cellars to drink all the liquor during the holiday—which they often did.

Matzo baking

The weeks before Passover are also the time for the baking of the matzos which will be eaten during the holiday. In Orthodox Jewish communities, men traditionally gather in groups (chaburas) to bake a special version of handmade matzo called shmura matzo ("guarded matzo", referring to the fact that the wheat is guarded from contamination by chametz from the time it is cut in the summer until it is baked into matzos for the following Passover). Since the dough is rolled by hand, shmura matzos come out large and round. Chaburas also work together in machine-made matzo factories, which produce the typically square-shaped matzo sold in stores.


The baking process is a time-consuming job, as each batch of dough can only be worked on from start to finish (from mixing the flour and water to removing from the oven) for 18-22 minutes, depending on custom. Consequently, only a small amount of matzos can be baked at one time. The chabura members are enjoined to constantly work the dough so that it is not allowed to ferment and rise. A special cutting tool is run over the dough just before baking to create the familiar dotted holes in the matzo. After the 18-22 minutes are up and the matzos come out of the oven, the entire work area is scrubbed down and swept to make sure that no pieces of dough are left behind. By definition, any stray pieces of dough are now chametz, and can invalidate the next batch of matzo if they come in contact with it.

Matzo by-products, such as matzo farfel (broken bits of matzo) and matzo meal (finely-ground matzo) are used as flour substitutes in the baking of Passover cakes and cookies.