The Sale of Chametz

 Each year, we send Sale of Chametz forms for you to return to the synagogue. I am also attaching the form to the bottom of this week’s Shabbat message as well.  I want to make sure that everyone understands what this Mitzvah is all about, and why it is so important.

Indeed, given the challenges we are all experiencing as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Sale of Chametz is perhaps more important and powerful this year than ever before.  With the various restrictions on our movement and following the warnings of our elected officials and public health experts to stay at home as we work to defeat the pandemic, we must not leave our homes to rid our homes of chametz in the way we normally might. 

Passover is far more than eating matzah, and buying special foods.  We are commanded to literally remove all chametz, (leavened products) from our homes.  Once, this was relatively easy.  Until several generations ago, people rarely kept significant quantities of food in their homes.  Food production was for simpler than it is today.  Yet with improved food technologies, the advent of refrigeration, and modern food production, that has changed.  Most of us have several days, if not several weeks of food in our home. And the way that food is produced today, and the complexity of the ingredients within them, ensure that much of this food we enjoy during the year cannot be used for Passover. Although we are commanded to remove all of these things from our home, it is virtually impossible to do so.

That's what Mechirat Chametz, selling our chametz is about.  After we do our best to remove and search for chametz in our home, we literally sell, that is, we transfer the possession of whatever chametz we are unable to fully remove so that we are able to fulfill this important aspect of Passover observance.

Is it a legal fiction? Perhaps. But does that make it invalid? Certainly not!  Passover, in many ways is the most important holiday.  We want to create the conditions that allow us to fulfill the words of the Passover Haggadah "in every generation, it is incumbent upon us to see ourselves as if we personally came out of the land of Egypt."  Selling your chametz is one of many important ways to help make that happen.  Please see the end of the message  for the form, and return it to the synagogue via US mail or email.

 


 


Jewish Community Center of Paramus

Congregation Beth Tikvah

~ HOW TO SELL YOUR CHAMETZ ~

Chag Sameach to all. 

I wish the entire community a Happy and Kosher Pesach.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there will be no in-person Sale of Chametz

 

1.    After you’ve discarded all your other chametz, put the chametz you wish to keep in a place you can secure, such as a closet, an extra freezer, a cupboard, etc. 

2.    Then seal or lock it that space, and do not open it until after the last day of Pesach. (It’s not yours all that time, anyway, since the space is leased out.)

3.    Sign the form below, empowering Rabbi Weiner to act as your agent in effecting the sale of your chametz and mail to the synagogue.

¨               All forms must be received before Wednesday, March 24, 2021.

¨               Traditionally, a small donation is enclosed, a part of which is used for the sale of the                   chametz.  The rest will be used for Ma’ot Hittin, helping poor Jews with their

          Passover needs.



I (we) _______________________  _______________________ designate Rabbi Arthur Weiner, as the agent of the Jewish Community Center of Paramus/Congregation Beth Tikvah, located in Paramus, New Jersey, to use any enclosed contribution in part to sell my chametz* as required by Jewish Law, at the specified time before Pesach 5781.  To this end, I empower Rabbi Weiner to affix my name and address to the empowerment register in his possession.  Remaining funds are to be set aside for Ma’ot Hittin. 

 

(* … wherever it may be in any of my properties and/or residences.)

 

 

Signature:    ____________________________   Date: ____________________________________

Address       _____________________________  ________________________________________

(All addresses, including place of business, are required.)
 
                    _____________________________  ________________________________________

 

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