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Removing Chametz From A Home On Passover

The tradition is ancient, the experience powerful. Starting as much as a week or more before Passover, the scrubbing, scouring, boiling and burning begins. The cleaning includes a thorough check for chametz in the pantry, fridge, freezer and cupboards. Things like opened boxes of cereal and spaghetti are packed into boxes alongside the various other non-perishable products. When we have separated out all the leaven and have cleaned everything imaginable from child's toys to book jackets, there is a final ritual of checking for leaven, called bidikat chametz.

MEDITATION

You bless us with the commandment to remove all chametz from our homes; may it be your will that we find the way to remove the chametz of our souls, by finding and sharing freedom.

RITUAL

The tradition of ridding the house of chametz includes a variety of practices. There are contracts for selling one's chametz to a non-Jew, candlelit searches for the last remaining leaven and the burning of crumbs in a bonfire the morning before the seder.

There is another way you can remove chametz from your home. Take all foods in closed containers that are traditionally not eaten on Passover and bring them to the nearest food pantry or shelter. Find neighbors who might appreciate the remains of your open containers and refrigerated foods. Explain that you are about to celebrate the Festival of Freedom, and that this is part of your "soul preparation."

A third way to remove chametz is symbolic, according to the Hasidic masters. The mitzvah of bedikat chametz (inspecting for chametz) teaches that the work of liberation begins with careful attention to the hidden "chametz" in us and around us, the oppression and slavery beneath our ordinary gaze. Each of us, in our own way, can remove those things which block our fullest freedom and the freedom of others.

BLESSING

(After you have distributed the foods)

All leaven in my possession, whether I have seen it or not, whether I have removed it or not, is hereby nullified and ownerless as the dust of the earth. Blessed O Lord our God, Ruler of the Universe, who has commanded us to look carefully for chametz (oppression) and to turn it into blessing for those around us.

You bless us with the commandment to remove all chametz from our homes; may it be your will that we find the way to remove the chametz of our souls, finding freedom.

TEACHING

Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread; on the very first day you shall remove leaven from your houses….(Exodus 12:15)

In preparation for Passover, traditional Jews totally eliminate chametz-not just bread but any and all forms of leaven-from the house and the diet. This is a symbolic statement of cutting off from the old slave existence and entering the new condition of living as a free person. The decisive break with previous diet is the outward expression of the internal break with slavery and dependence. For the modern celebrant, it is a critical step in the process of liberation that finally leads to freedom. (Rabbi Irving Greenberg, The Jewish Way)

Zman cheruteinu

The season of our freedom

(CLAL Faculty)

CLAL's National Jewish Resource Center develops and publishes rituals that help to bridge the gap between our contemporary lives and the ancient wisdom of the Jewish tradition.