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March 22, 2002

Preparing your home for Pesach

In getting everything ready, people shouldn't go overboard - remember the commandment to enjoy the seder.
SHARON KANON SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH BULLETIN

"I always go crazy before Pesach," said Gita Hoffman, a librarian administrator who begins the Pesach cleaning count down right after Purim. Hoffman said that she breaks her psychological block to getting started by tackling the mail and papers she has accumulated in her bedroom.

Hoffman is typical of Jews all over the world who equate Pesach cleaning with spring-cleaning. Cleaning out the crevices with a toothbrush, scrubbing away at greasy corners, emptying the closets, sanitizing toys - Jewish homes become the scene of frantic activity. Many people begin to "think Pesach" as early as Chanukah and get pre-Pesach panic symptoms even before Purim.

The pre-Pesach cleanup syndrome has its up side and its down side. Adrenalin-activated by the impending deadline, we are energized to get at the jobs we have put off. The downside is total exhaustion. Or, work hazards: I have friends who have fallen off ladders in their hurry to get things done.

Do we have to be such compulsive cleaners? According to the Torah, it seems that we should pick our targets. The Torah gives a strong specific directive: "For a seven-day period [eight days in the Diaspora], you shall eat matzot, but on the previous day you shall nullify the leaven from your homes; for anyone who eats leavened food, that soul shall be cut off from Israel, from the first day to the seventh day." (Exodus 12:15)

The commandment and punishment are repeated a few verses later:

"For seven days [eight days in the Diaspora], leaven may not be found in your houses, for anyone who eats leavening, that soul shall be cut off from the assembly of Israel, whether a convert or a native of the land. You shall not eat any leavening; in all your dwellings shall you eat matzot." (Exodus 12:19)
The reason for the no-no against leaven (a symbol of indulgence) is that the Jews did not have time to wait for the dough to rise before their unscheduled, impromptu exodus from Egypt. The flat bread was baked within a time span of 18 minutes from the time that the wheat was mixed with water. One more minute and the dough would have become chametz. It is interesting to note that the word lechametz in Hebrew means "to miss." (Pointing to the similarity between the words matzah and mitzvah, a good deed, the sages say that one should not postpone an opportunity to do a mitzvah.)

An even more obvious similarity exists between the words chametz and matzah, which in Hebrew have a one-letter difference. The slightest amount of leaven can make food chametz. Matzah, itself, has a dual association - as the bread of affliction, which the Jews ate as slaves in Egypt, and as a mark of freedom.

Sampson Raphael Hirsch, the renowned 19th-century Torah scholar and leader of German Jewry, wrote that matzah is a symbol of the purely Divine character of the Exodus, a symbol of our independence from the yoke of man. Hirsch specified three parts to the prohibition against leavened products: we may not eat them, we may not derive any use from them and we may not have them in our possession.

Diligence in eliminating chametz before Pesach was praised by Rabbi Pinchas ben Yair (18th century). During the big event, not even a small amount of chametz, an impurity likened to a spiritual defect (the yetzer harah, the evil instinct), can be tolerated. In other words, Pesach house cleaning is a spiritual as well as a physical task.

The accepted custom, the night before the festival starts, of putting 10 small pieces of wrapped bread in different parts of the house and "searching" for them by the light of a candle or a flashlight (bedikat chametz) draws attention to the need to eliminate chametz from our possession. The blessing said after the search takes into account any slip-ups: "All chametz, leaven and leavened bread, in my possession which I have neither seen nor removed nor know about, should be annulled and considered masterless, like dust of the earth."

The next morning, the little parcel is burned along with any remaining chametz.
The cut-off time for clearing out chametz and eating it is about two-and-a-half hours before noon on the 14th of Nissan, March 27. This is also the deadline for selling chametz to a non-Jew, a task usually taken on by rabbis.

Rabbi and professor of chemistry at Bar-Ilan University Aryeh Frimer, an expert on women and halachah, puts Pesach cleaning in perspective: "The lady of the house should not become a nervous wreck. Every woman must enjoy Pesach, not dread it. This is an obligation clearly defined in the Torah."

Thanks to the list of guidelines that Frimer hands out before Pesach, many women, including myself, are less exhausted than they once were. Frimer bases his guidelines on the responsa of Rabbi C.P. Sheinberg, the rav of Matesdorf:

• All property and possessions must be cleaned and checked to make sure that they are free from chametz.

• If chametz is not brought into a place during the year, that place does not have to be cleaned out or checked for chametz.

• Any article or place that is not used on Pesach, that is closed up and sold, need not be checked for chametz.

• Crumbs that have been rendered inedible by being soaked in a foul-tasting liquid, such as detergent, bleach or ammonia, are not considered chametz because an animal will not eat it.

• The general obligation to check for and destroy crumbs does not apply if the crumbs are less than the size of an olive and are dirty enough to prevent a person from eating them.

Frimer also provides simple instructions for cleaning:

The oven: Wipe it with a rag soaked in detergent. If you suspect that there are crumbs left, then clean the oven with any of the regular oven-cleaners and, afterwards, turn on the oven at its maximum temperature for 10-15 minutes. A self-cleaning oven is even easier since the grime and crumbs are destroyed after every cleaning.

The microwave: Twenty-four hours after the microwave last contained chametz, all you have to do is wash it down, put in a bowl or cup with boiling water and let the steam do the work for about 10 minutes. If it has a glass tray, it should be immersed in boiling water. In Israel and some Diaspora Jewish communities, many people take metal pots and utensils to a central koshering location where they are put into wire baskets and immersed in boiling water. Stainless steel sinks should be thoroughly cleaned and boiled water poured on them, or they can be lined.

Food cabinets: If the cabinet is going to be used on Pesach, take out all of the food, wash around it with a rag soaked in a detergent. Be sure the detergent gets into all the cracks and soaks into any crumbs that might be there, then line the cabinets.

Glassware that has been used for cold food is washed and put in water for a three-day period during which the water should be changed every 24 hours. The accepted practice is to have special Passover dishes, not used throughout the year, for everyday meals, including the seder. With so many inexpensive sets on the market these days, this no longer presents too much of a problem. And then there are always attractive disposable dishes for large seders, which more and more of my friends are using.

Zeroing in on the target - the chametz, not the dust - is the best rule-of-thumb before Pesach. Joanne Bodner, mother of seven including nine-year-old twins, said that is why she starts with the kitchen a month ahead of time, instead of leaving it for the end, which is what she used to do.

"The week before Pesach I go over the shelves I want to use and line them," said Bodner. "After Purim, the kids are not allowed to eat in the rooms: cracker crumbs, pretzels and cookies are the real chametz. Then I get them to clean their rooms and toys."

Declaring rooms off-limits to chametz during the year can make your job much easier before Pesach. A "no eating" rule in the bedrooms or playroom is legitimate anytime. Do all you can to make the big cleanup as easy as possible; after all, enjoying the Pesach seder is an obligation.

Sharon Kanon is a correspondent with the Israel Press Service.

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