Pesachim 13 – Chametz sign for the people

Ideally, one should consume the chametz and not destroy it, especially if this bread belongs not to himself but to someone else. For example, if Passover falls out on Sunday, so that one won’t be able to burn it on a day before, which is Shabbat – what is one to do with the Kohen’s portion of the bread in his possession? In this case, Rabbi Yehoshua allows him to burn it on Friday, but the Sages still require him to wait – perhaps a Kohen will chance to his house on Saturday.

Rabbi Yehoshua counters that if no Kohen was in town on Friday then he won’t come on Saturday – because one cannot travel on Shabbat, but the Sages say that a Kohen might be on the road close by. “If you are so careful,” – said Rabbi Yehoshua – “then why did you allow burning Kohen’s portion which may have become impure? Perhaps Elijah the Prophet will come and reveal that this bread is pure?” To which the Sages replied that it is well known that Elijah will not come on Friday when the Jews are busy preparing for Shabbat.

In the Temple, there was a sign for the people: two unused loaves of bread were lying on the roof while chametz could be eaten; one was removed when they had to refrain from eating, and the last was taken away when the time to burn chametz arrived.

Art: A panoramic landscape with travelers on a road, a town beyond by (after) Jan, The Younger Brueghel

Pesachim 12 – When does one finally stop eating chametz?

We learned before that it is prohibited to eat chametz (bread) already in the middle of the day before Passover. However, the Sages moved this time a little earlier, out of concern that the people won’t be precise with timing.

Rabbi Meir says that it is easy to tell midday by the sun. He, therefore, asks to stop eating chametz an hour before noon and requires all to start burning it in the sixth hour of the day. However, Rabbi Yehudah considers that on a cloudy day one may make a bigger mistake in estimating the time. He, therefore, permits eating chametz for four hours of the day, requires to refrain from eating it in the fifth hour, and to burn it in the sixth.

Art: Cloudy Day At Amagansett by Thomas Moran

Pesachim 11 – When one missed his search for chametz

If one missed the right time (night of the fourteenth of Nissan) to search for chametz, what is he to do? Rabbi Yehudah says that he can search in the morning of the next day, and even later, until midday, up until the time when chametz becomes prohibited. However, the Sages allow one search in the morning, and in the appointed time, and even after that. Why does Rabbi Yehudah stop the search after the chametz becomes forbidden? – Because he is concerned that people may accidentally put it in their mouths. And the Sages? – They say that since one is looking for chametz to destroy it, he will surely not eat it.

What is the “appointed time?” above. Rashi says that this is the time appointed for search, before Pesach. But the Tosafot say that this is the time of the Pesach celebration itself. Thus we have very divergent opinions, with Tosafot requiring to search for chametz all the way through Passover and even after that! What causes such a big disagreement? Rashi considered the purpose of the search to stop people from owning chametz on Passover; after Passover has started, chametz is legally not theirs anyway. But Tosafot say that the purpose of the search is so that people would not eat prohibited chametz, and chametz even after Passover can be prohibited if a Jew owned it.

Art: In Search of Medicine by Vladimir Egorovic Makovsky

Pesachim 10 – Rava, mouse, bread and weasel

Rava prepared the stage for his questions by stating what was obvious to him: if a mouse with a piece of bread in its mouth enters a house, and then the owner of the house comes in and finds this amount of bread crumbled into pieces, he cannot assume that this is the same bread – because mice usually don’t leave bread after having crumbled it. Therefore, it must be another bread, and one needs to search the house again to find the piece that the mouse may have hidden. Were it a child, we could assume that he just crumbled the bread and left it there – and no new search would be needed.

Then Rava asked his questions. If one sees a mouse with a piece of bread in its mouth enter his house, and then he sees a mouse with a piece of bread exit, can he assume that it is the same mouse and the same bread and therefore he need not search the house? Let’s assume it is the same mouse.

Next question: a white mouse with bread enters his house, and then a black one exits –is it for sure a different piece of bread, or perhaps the black mouse snatched it away from the white one? Let’s assume mice don’t snatch bread from each other.

Next question: a mouse with bread enters the house, and then a weasel with bread exits the house. If you tell me that the weasel took the bread from the mouse, I will answer that I would expect the mouse, not the bread, to be in the weasel’s mouth.

Next question: a mouse with bread enters the house, and then a weasel exits, and in its mouth, there is a mouse and a piece of bread. If you tell me that this is for sure the same bread, I will counter and tell you that the bread should be in the mouse’s mouth, and the mouse should be in the weasel’s mouth. To which you can still answer that perhaps the mouse got scared of the weasel and dropped the bread, and then the weasel picked up both. To this last question, the Talmud does not find a definitive answer.

Art: Grapes, pears and other fruit in a bowl, with a mouse by Johann Amandus Wink

Pesachim 9 – Weasel drags bread from house to house

After one searches his home for chametz, he does not have to worry that perhaps a weasel will now bring bread from another house. The same is true of one's room: once it is searched, one need not think that a weasel might bring it there from another room. This is true because if one is to be concerned, he would have to suspect that a weasel brought it from another courtyard or another town, and there would be no end to his worries.

However, as the Talmud notes, this rule is good only if one does not see a weasel or a mouse, going into his house with bread. If he does, then he has to be concerned. But why? Why not say that the mouse ate that bread?! After all, we have multiple rulings which assume that if a mouse or a weasel are found in a place where possibly ritually impure meat was dropped, then it was surely eaten, and the place is therefore ritually clean!? – True, they will eat the meat, but as for the bread, they will leave some over and hide it.

And yet, we do worry about weasels, since all food that is left over after the search for chametz is hidden and not put in an easily accessible place – obviously because a weasel may take it away. Abaye explained, “Yes, the weasel may hide it just before Pesach when soon there will be no bread available, but not earlier when there is plenty.” Rava objected, “Is a weasel a prophetess that she knows that soon there will be no bread?! – Rather, the danger is that the weasel will take it away in one's presence, and then he will have to search again.”

Art: A Weasel by Edward Lear

Pesachim 8 – The light of a candle

We mentioned before that one should search for chametz using the light of a candle. Why a candle? It comes through a chain of associations. Chametz should “not be found.” This leads to remembering Joseph who “searched and found” (a divining goblet in the sack of Benjamin). The “found” leads to the words of the prophet who promises that God will look for the errors of the people of the city of Jerusalem using the light of candles, and not “find” any. And finally “candles” leads to the words of King Solomon that “The soul of a man is the candle of God, which God uses to inspect the deeds of man."

Why do we need the last connection, from “candles” to “candle?” It is already pretty clear and close by then! – Because one might think that searching with candles is leniency, and God will overlook some errors precisely because of using candles. To show that this is untrue, we bring the last proof of the candle being the light of God.

Still, why not use a torch? First, because with the torch he will be afraid to examine nooks and crevices, since he may cause a fire. Also, a torch gives unsteady flame, while that of a candle is constant. Yet another reason is that one carries a torch behind himself, and the candle he carries in front.

Art: Boy with a Torch by Matthias Stomer (1600 - 1650)

Pesachim 7 – Right after searching for chametz…

After one finishes searching for and destroying his chametz, he must also declare whatever he missed as ownerless, the dust of the earth, and not belonging to him. Why is that? He just destroyed all his chametz anyway!?

One reason is that he might find a nice loaf of bread later. Since it is nice, he will desire it and in his mind own it, at least for a few seconds, and thus transgress the prohibition of owning chametz. Declaring it ownerless helps.

Still, why does he need to declare the chametz that is unknown to him ownerless? He might as well say this declaration the minute he sees the bread!? – By the time Pesach comes, it is not in his power to declare it ownerless.

Here we have an interesting paradox, as Rabbi Elazar puts it. There are two things that are not in the possession of a man, yet the Torah holds him responsible as if they were his. The first one is a pit in the street. If one opens it, then even though it does not belong to him, he still pays for the damages caused by the pit. The second one is chametz on Pesach: even though one cannot use it for any purpose or derive benefit from it (so technically it does not belong to him,) the Torah still considers it as if he transgressed “No leaven should be found with you on Passover” when it is found in his domain.

Art: Searching by Valentin Walter Bromley (1848-1877)