Q & A - WITH RABBI RISKIN
Question:
The sale of chametz on Pesach sounds
to me a bit like ‘foila shtick,’ a circumvention. Is it
really a sale? Can I really keep some boxes of corn flakes and
bottles of Chivas Regal?
Answer:
The Torah specifically commands, “But before
the first day of the Festival of Matzot, you must destroy [‘tashbitu’]
all the leavening which is in your possession.”
This is in addition to two prohibitions that no
leaven of yours may be seen or found within all your
habitations. Despite this positive commandment and the two
prohibitions, the custom has emerged within Israel that Jews “sell”
their chametz to a Gentile. The source is a tosefta in
Pesachim that speaks of a great sage on a ship who had chametz
in his house that he had not destroyed, and he sold it to a
Gentile. On this basis, in all the Jewish communities that I know,
the chametz is sold but still retained in many Jewish homes.
As your rabbi, I try mightily to make the sale
as legally valid as possible. For the past 25 years, I have sold to
a Gentile from Wadi Nis who understands the process completely. We
explain to him that a Jew cannot own any of the five grains which
have been in contact with water for more than 18 minutes even if
there is only a tiny amount of grain product and a much larger
amount of Passover-friendly ingredients.
Each individual Jew on our list makes me his agent to sell
his chametz – wherever in the world it may be - to the
Gentile. He gives me a deposit for all of the chametz, and by
virtue of the money that I receive from him as well as the other
transactions (kinyanim) that I make with him, he then becomes
the owner of all the chametz.
He can then come anytime to claim his chametz (he
receives the list of all the names, the places where the chametz
is located in the homes and the general value of the chametz),
and if and when he comes to collect his chametz, he must pay
the market value price. If there is a difference of opinion between
him and me about the market value price, he gives me the final word.
If he does not come to pick up the chametz by the end of the
chag, the chametz then reverts to the original owner.
Having said all of this, the assumption of any
sale is that both parties agree to this sale. If there is any
Jew who sees all of this only as a legal fiction and does not really
want to sell his chametz even if he were to receive the
market value, then the sale is null and void.
Moreover, there is a positive commandment to
destroy all of your chametz before Pesach, hence I personally
urge everyone to sell only questionable products; any real
chametz that you may own, such as grain cereals or whisky, ought
to be used up or destroyed before Pesach. Obviously there is an
understandable exception in the case of large supermarkets or
similar businesses which have a great deal of chametz in
stock. These storekeepers must at least agree in their hearts that
as long as they receive market value price, they certainly go along
with the sale.
Through the years, many of my ‘customers’ tell
me that they cannot bring themselves to actually destroy real
chametz. For these individuals, my suggestion would be to at
least remove the chametz from their homes – and there are
many organizations, such as Bnei Akiva, who will collect them – and
then disperse them to needy people after the festival.
With every best wish for a chag kasher
v’sameach!
