Pesach Cleaning for Women - Rabbi Menachem Mendel Harel shlita

00:02 Speaker 1 You’re listening to “Lema’an Yishme’u,” a podcast from Machon Halacha Chabad.

00:09 Speaker 2 One of the special things about Pesach is taking the chametz out of the house and bringing matzah in. Now, when I say “taking the chametz out of the house and bringing matzah in,” I don’t mean you have to wait until the house is clean before bringing in the matzos. Rather, the Torah says, “No leaven shall be found in your homes; for seven days you shall eat matzos.” We need to remove the chametz, the leaven, from the house. We need to bring matzos into the house. Often, when you start thinking about this task, it seems very complicated. And many people feel weak just at the thought of starting to clean for Pesach. So first of all, we need to know that cleaning for Pesach is something very, very important and meaningful for a person, too. First of all, it is said of these Pesach cleanings: “The Jewish people are holy.” It shows the holiness and merit of a Jew. At the same time, the halachic authorities wrote that a person should not say, “Oy, how much work Pesach is! How hard Pesach is!” On the contrary, a person should rejoice in fulfilling the mitzvah Hakadosh Boruch Hu gave us: to remove chametz from the house and bring in matzah, to bring light into the house; to remove chametz, pride and the yetzer hara from our domain, and bring matzah—which is holiness, light and the G-dly soul, with all its goodness—into our home. True, it takes some effort, and sometimes a lot of effort. But that does not detract in the slightest from the special privilege of “How fortunate we are, how good is our portion,” that we merit to be the ones who clean, sanctify and purify ourselves in preparation for Pesach. As the Rebbe mentions several times, the prophet says that Pesach is the birthday of the Jewish people: the day we were born, the day Hakadosh Boruch Hu established us as a people, imprinted His choice upon us, and chose us from among all the nations. So a birthday calls for some preparations. Of course, at the same time, we need to know that not

03:36 Speaker 2 every interesting idea—cleaning some particular place, or taking out all the furniture and then putting it back—is necessarily what needs to be done. That is why we are here, with Hashem’s help: to try to focus on what needs to be done when preparing to clean for Pesach. And most important of all, to ask Hakadosh Boruch Hu to give us heavenly assistance so that we succeed in cleaning and do it properly. Just as we clean the chametz out of our homes and our domain, may Hakadosh Boruch Hu help us clean our hearts of every form of chametz and remove all the spiritual chametz in the world, and bring in Pesach, matzah and the light of the true and complete Geulah. Prayer helps; prayer makes a difference. We should also know that the righteous Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev used to say that the merits of cleaning for Pesach are what pierce the heavens when the shofar is blown. The rubbing, scrubbing and scraping are what break through all the barriers. The good angels say to Hakadosh Boruch Hu, “Look at the effort, at the hard work Your Jews put into Pesach!” And that brings a good, sweet year to each Jew and to the entire Jewish people. We need to keep that thought foremost in our minds and remember: cleaning for Pesach is a matter of “How fortunate we are, how good is our portion.” And now, with Hashem’s help, we will try to discuss and explain what needs cleaning and how to clean it. The Torah commanded us to remove the chametz from our homes and our domain. What needs cleaning? What needs to be taken out? The chametz. Of course, along the way, we may really want to clean every corner and make everything shine, and so on. That is important, and if a person has the strength and the time, wonderful—let them do it. But the first priority is to focus on where the chametz is and remove any visible chametz, so that there is no visible chametz anywhere we will access on Pesach. All the other polishing and scrubbing is extra. Our Sages, of blessed memory, said: The places where people generally enter

07:00 Speaker 2 or bring chametz are the places that must be checked and cleared of chametz. In other words, where—or rather, on what places—should we focus? Places where chametz gets around. You might ask, where doesn’t it? Boruch Hashem, in any home with children, there is no place chametz hasn’t reached. True. So anywhere the children might have been, you need to check very carefully and remove the chametz. And again, I emphasize: remove the chametz. Anything beyond that is extra, if you have the time and energy. And indeed, adults and children alike handle things almost everywhere in the open areas of the house. That includes closets, drawers and the storage compartment under the bed. Yes, because sometimes children sneak into a bedroom with a little bag of Bissli and eat it, and the leftover Bissli and pretzels fall under the bed. And of course, a few KitKats, Pesek Zman bars or various wafers sometimes get hidden on closet shelves. These places need to be checked. What does “checked” mean? It means clearing the shelves and making sure there is no chametz there; opening the bedding compartment and removing any remnants of chametz; moving the beds and sweeping up all the visible chametz underneath. At the same time, it is very important to know that places we will close off for Pesach and whose contents we will sell to a non-Jew do not need to be cleaned. Let me give an example. Say we have kitchen cabinets where we store pasta, couscous, rice and, uh, all the good things we eat during the year. And we know we don’t intend to use those cabinets on Pesach. There is no need to take all the utensils out of the cabinets, clean them all and put them back. If you won’t be using them on Pesach, there is no reason to take them out and put them back. Close that cabinet securely; at least give it a general cleaning

10:10 Speaker 2 so there is no visible chametz spilling out of the packages. It is generally best to throw out open packages. Then close those cabinets, and that’s it. The same applies in the children’s room. If there is a closet or drawers there that you know you will close off on Pesach, that is perfectly fine. Clean around them, make sure no chametz is coming out of them, and close them securely. That is completely fine. So when cleaning the house generally, your attention should be directed to the places you will use on Pesach. Whether it is the bookshelves, clothing closets or suits, you need to check them and remove any chametz from them. So yes, that means moving the bed, opening the bedding compartment and opening the drawers—but only in the places you will use on Pesach. Let me give another example: the children’s schoolbags. Children use their schoolbags during the year, and those bags probably contain large amounts of chametz, whether crumbs or leftover sweets and the like. It is good to clean them, but will they be using those schoolbags on Pesach? No. So take the schoolbags as they are, put them in the storage room or on an upper shelf of a closet, close off that shelf and sell the contents to a non-Jew. Having discussed the general principles of what needs to be done and cleaned, let’s go into the details. I’ll start with the bedrooms, then move to the living room, and afterward to the kitchen. Although bedrooms are not places where people eat meals, nowadays people commonly bring all sorts of little chametz foods into them. And incidentally, those are the most problematic kinds of chametz. Why? Because they are usually sweets. If a person walks into a room and sees a nice KitKat, what is the natural reaction, the person’s first instinct? To take it, reach out, and—there you go,

12:47 Speaker 2 to eat. And on Pesach, that is the biggest concern. So in all these places in the bedrooms, the first thing is to check for leftover sweets in all sorts of places within reach: on shelves, in closets, in dresser drawers. You also need to open the bedding storage compartments. And you should know that even if we hired a cleaner, who cleaned and was paid for it, the cleaner—especially if she isn’t Jewish—doesn’t always know what we expect. She may not have opened the bedding compartment. Then we open it and suddenly discover a whole treasure trove, after the room was scrubbed for three hours. And you paid good money for it. We paid for it. And we paid good money for it. The cleaner simply didn’t know exactly what she was supposed to look for. She was told to clean thoroughly. So what did she do? She took cleaning products, scrubbed the floor tiles and baseboards, cleaned the closets and the windows. Fine, but what chametz is on the baseboards, and what chametz is on the windows? That’s important, as we said earlier, but the main thing is to remove the chametz from the room. So the instructions you need to give the cleaner are: Pay attention, look around, open the bedding compartments, bring a vacuum cleaner, vacuum them out, take everything out, so there aren’t any remnants of pretzels, chocolate, or anything else. Look through the closets to make sure nothing is left there. Move the beds to see that no wafers or similar things are hiding underneath. That’s what you need to look for and find. Of course, afterward we need to check that it was actually done properly. But if she thinks she was hired to make the mirror shine and the dresser look nice, then yes, that’s important, but she hasn’t done what we wanted her to do. So we need to

15:11 Speaker 2 give her clear direction and keep ourselves focused as well. Of course, it’s advisable to change the bedding before Pesach, both out of respect for Yom Tov and because sometimes crumbs remain on the sheets and pillows. So the bedding should certainly be changed. Once we’ve cleared the room of all visible chametz, we check the pockets of the suits and the bag we’ll be using on Pesach. Whether it’s a suitcase we’re taking to our parents’ home or using to travel from place to place, some other travel bag, or the handbag a woman takes with her, we open it, remove all the chametz, and check it in the sunlight to see that nothing remains inside. That’s what it means to remove the chametz from a room. We need to do this in every room, making sure no chametz remains. And I’ll repeat: as we said, there’s no problem with places we won’t use on Pesach. You can tape that drawer or closet shut and mark it as sold, so that you won’t open it on Pesach. Suits also need to be checked. Women’s suits generally don’t have pockets, but boys’ and men’s suits do. Sometimes a husband picked up a nice piece of cake to bring his wife from the farbrengen or event he attended, and when he got home it was already late at night, so he hung his jacket on a hanger and, for some reason, didn’t check it before Pesach. What happens on Pesach when he takes down the jacket to wear it wherever he’s going? Suddenly he feels something in the pocket. Oh no! So these are the places that need checking, because they’re places where chametz gets put. And the checking, as we said, means looking through them and removing all the visible chametz. From the bedrooms we move to the living room. In the living room, first there’s the main living area, and the bookshelves. Bookshelves also

17:47 Speaker 2 sometimes have chametz on them. True, they hold books, but sometimes someone leaves a wrapped sweet there. Children sometimes push things into all sorts of places, so bookshelves certainly need to be checked. If we’re certain that chametz hasn’t come near a particular bookshelf all year, fine, we don’t have to. But in most homes, it’s natural for family members to put some chametz on the bookshelves during the year. By the way, this practice of taking out the books and shaking them has no source. It serves no purpose, either. Poor books—it’s a shame to do that to them. On the contrary, the books should be taken out and studied during the year; then perhaps there would be a question. Maybe I studied from them while eating chametz—then it really is a good question. But books that stand on the shelf and weren’t used during the year don’t need to be taken out and shaken before Pesach. What mainly needs checking are the visible, accessible places where chametz might be found. And that chametz, of course, needs to be removed. If there are sections of the bookcase, or bookcase cabinets, that won’t be used on Pesach, then, as we said earlier, you can close them and mark them as sold to a non-Jew. There’s no need to take out everything inside. Tables and chairs are among the more challenging things to clean for Pesach. We eat chametz at the table all year, and sit on the chairs while eating, so they’re full of chametz. Then there’s the sofa or armchair: besides the fact that people sit there and eat all kinds of chametz, things sometimes fall down the sides, deep into the chair. These things, these pieces of furniture, need to be cleaned thoroughly. Clean the table well, scrub it with a scouring pad and soap, and remove any visible chametz stuck to it—on top, on the sides, and underneath

20:43 Speaker 2 the table. Sometimes children stick all kinds of food remnants under the table. Those need to be cleaned and scrubbed off well. Especially since this is the table where we’ll later eat on Pesach, so that, G-d forbid, we don’t inadvertently eat even a crumb of chametz. The chairs need a good cleaning. The seats and all the crevices where crumbs fall must be cleaned thoroughly, so that no chametz crumbs remain. For sofas, you generally need a vacuum cleaner. Get the nozzle well into the sofa’s crevices and vacuum up all the remaining chametz. You should know that sometimes a sofa has a double layer underneath, and something has fallen inside... You can hear something in there but can’t get it out. You should know that you don’t need to tear the sofa open to remove chametz hidden inside, somewhere even your hand can’t reach. Because in a place your hand can’t reach, the halacha says—the Sages of blessed memory say—you nullify it in your heart, and that is enough. When we say “Kol Chamira,” we mean to relinquish ownership of it. Because why do we clean? Let’s remind ourselves again why we clean. We clean so that we won’t, G-d forbid, come across visible chametz on Pesach. But if you’ve already cleaned everything visible, and that chametz may be somewhere deep inside where your hand can’t reach, then there’s no problem, because your hand won’t reach it. So in a case like that, you nullify it, and that’s it. You’ve cleaned what you can, and from that point on there’s no need to destroy, break, or tear anything. It’s a good idea; it’s recommended. In many homes, besides cleaning the sofa, people cover it with something—a freshly laundered sheet for Pesach or another special Pesach cover. That’s fine, that’s a good thing, but the main point, as we said, is to remove the chametz that’s there. When the halacha mentions crevices, you should know it doesn’t mean the grooves in our floors.

23:33 Speaker 2 There is no chametz in those gaps. Cleaning, washing with a mop, and even scrubbing with a broom gets everything out. You do not need to go between the floor tiles with a knife. There is no chametz there that needs to be removed. The gaps the halacha is referring to are things like drawers and spaces between cabinets, or the space between books and the bookcase—gaps where people tend to put chametz. The gaps between floor tiles are not those kinds of gaps. So there is no need to toil away, sitting with a knife or a putty knife to dig things out from between the tiles. That is not what we are talking about. After the general cleaning, clean the floor well. Sweep it thoroughly with a broom; you can also use the broom to scrub the floor, then wash it with water and a mop, sweep it all out, and that is that. The main work should be in the places I have mentioned so far: where there is visible chametz. And generally, that is much less than what we usually do and expend effort on. Again, I will say: on the contrary, if a woman has the strength and ability to do more and more cleaning, that is good and praiseworthy. But sometimes what happens? The effort goes into the wrong places. People put their energy into scrubbing, beautifying, and polishing, but by the time they reach the places where the chametz itself is, they have no strength left. So we need to start the other way around: first remove the visible chametz, and afterward, if there is strength left, do more cleaning and beautifying in other places. Alongside what we said earlier, it is important to emphasize that cleaning and making the house beautiful for Pesach is certainly very important too. The point was simply to put things in the right proportion and know where to focus. The main focus is removing chametz from the home—from the places we go to on Pesach and the places we touch during the... during the days of Pesach. Of course, if there is more strength and ability, then

26:05 Speaker 2 do more cleaning. The point is that things need to be balanced, so that the woman and the rest of the household can enter Pesach with joy and peace of mind. It is a festival of freedom, not, G-d forbid, an experience of heaviness, difficulty, or distress. From the living room, we move to the kitchen. If there is one place to focus on when cleaning for Pesach, it is the kitchen. We will try to go through the different areas of the kitchen and explain what needs attention and emphasis. But first, again, the emphasis must be that no visible chametz may remain on Pesach. Whether it is actual chametz, like a package of pasta, which certainly needs to be sealed away in a place sold to a non-Jew, or crumbs of chametz, which must not, G-d forbid, fall into a dish on Pesach—because on Pesach, chametz is not nullified even in a mixture of one part in a thousand. Since the kitchen is where the food that goes into our mouths comes from, it certainly calls for greater care and attention. Let us start with the refrigerator. A refrigerator generally has two compartments, the fridge and the freezer. Both have doors with rubber seals, as well as exposed surfaces and shelves. These areas need a thorough cleaning. Besides cleaning products, it is worth using tools that can reach into small spots, such as a toothbrush or a similar brush, to clean the rubber seals. In most cases there are chametz crumbs there, sesame seeds, and all sorts of things that get into the seals during the year. Just clean them with the brush. Once you have cleaned them and can see that nothing remains, thank G-d. Do this in both the fridge and the freezer. The fridge and freezer compartments should, of course, be cleaned thoroughly after unplugging the refrigerator. Pay attention, because refrigerators often have parts with a double layer, such as a sealing or closing piece

29:28 Speaker 2 where crumbs of bread, cake, and the like collect. There are various gaps that need to be opened gently—the visible gaps with some sort of grille over them, for example. Remove the grille and vacuum them. Anything you cannot reach by hand or with a brush, as we said earlier, does not need to be cleaned, because there is no reason for anything there to come out during Pesach. To be extra safe, you can pour bleach there, which renders any chametz present unfit for consumption. Once you can see that the whole area is clean, it is fine. That area is kosher for Pesach. The custom is, of course—we will discuss bedikas chametz, but I will mention it now as well—to check by candlelight at night and make sure no crumbs or remnants of chametz have been left in the fridge or freezer. All removable shelves should be taken out. People usually clean them in the bathroom, where there is more room, and wash the various shelves and compartments of the refrigerator very thoroughly. It is especially important to watch for double-edged frames on the shelves and compartments, where chametz often hides. So, gently, with a knife or a screwdriver, clean out all the chametz remnants. If necessary, carefully open them, clean them thoroughly, and put them back in place. It is customary, though not required, to put some kind of plastic, paper, or aluminum-foil covering on the shelves, so that Pesach foods do not sit directly on the same shelves that held chametz all year. But if that is not possible, you should know that a thorough cleaning is enough. Once you have cleaned it and seen that there is no chametz, checked it by candlelight at night before putting the refrigerator back into use, and seen that no chametz remains, then if you cannot put on an additional covering, that is perfectly fine. The refrigerator has been properly cleaned and made ready for Pesach.

32:13 Speaker 2 That is fine. Another place worth paying attention to when cleaning for Pesach is the refrigerator handles. Some refrigerators have grooves in their handles, with recessed spaces inside the door. Sometimes chametz remnants collect there, and they should be cleaned well. Why do those places need a good cleaning? After all, we do not put food there. True, but we put our hands there, and old chametz crumbs can sometimes stick to a hand. So pay attention to cleaning those spots. The next part of the kitchen, after the refrigerator, is the oven. Regarding the oven, I will say it plainly: our custom is not to kasher ovens for Pesach. So just give it a general cleaning, so that no chametz falls out of it, and close it securely and cover it for all the days of Pesach. We do not use our year-round baking oven on Pesach, so there is nothing more to do here beyond a general cleaning of visible chametz. After the oven comes the stovetop. Some stovetops are mounted on ovens, and others are built into the countertop. Of course, if someone has the option of switching to a Pesach stovetop, that is excellent. If that is not possible, it is important to know that a stovetop can be kashered—but we need to be clear about which kind of stovetop we mean. There are the standard gas stovetops common in homes. Clean the gas stovetop thoroughly all over. That means removing the grates, lifting off the burners, and cleaning the surface of the entire stovetop. Usually it is a kind of coated aluminum surface. Clean it thoroughly, vacuuming or brushing away any chametz crumbs that have fallen into the gaps. Pour boiling water over the surface; once it dries, put down a layer of aluminum foil. The burners

34:58 Speaker 2 The burners themselves do not need to be kashered, because generally there is nothing on them; the fire consumes whatever is there. The main attention needs to go to cleaning the grates. The grates that the pots sit on are where the most chametz accumulates throughout the year. These grates need to be cleaned very, very thoroughly. Use a degreaser and steel wool or a metal scouring pad, and clean them really well. Once they have been thoroughly cleaned and no trace of chametz or grease remains, they need to be kashered through libun, heating them with fire. The best thing is to go to a utensil-kashering station run by the rabbinate or a Chabad House and have the people there kasher the grates through libun. If you cannot go, or there is no utensil-kashering station in your city, call a rabbi who can explain how to kasher the grates in that situation. After kashering the grates, wrap the grates themselves in aluminum foil so that there is certainly no contact between the pot and the grate. If someone cannot wrap the grates in aluminum foil but has kashered them properly, that is perfectly fine; they can be used on Pesach. Of course, the best option, even for someone who does not have a new stovetop for Pesach, is to buy just the grates at a housewares store and keep them for Pesach. That costs less than buying an entire stovetop. She simply changes the grates for Pesach and, after Pesach, stores them for the following Pesach. That is the best option, but for someone who cannot do that, the procedure is as I explained. Nowadays there are also glass stovetops. There are two kinds of glass stovetops today. One kind has an electric coil beneath it, like a metal electric stovetop, except that it is made of glass. The other kind is called an induction stovetop. We do not kasher glass for Pesach. Sephardim have the practice of kashering glass

37:39 Speaker 2 for Pesach. We do not kasher glass for Pesach. So in that situation, you need a separate stovetop for Pesach. As for induction stovetops, the Scientific-Technological Institute has now produced a special silicone layer. I think it is called Sili Plus. You can put it on an induction stovetop, and it covers the surface from end to end, allowing you to use it on Pesach. Of course, before putting on this Sili Plus, which is made specifically for induction stovetops on Pesach, you need to clean and kasher the induction stovetop. Clean it, of course, with suitable cleaning products, and kasher it by pouring boiling water from a kli rishon over it. Then you can put on this special silicone layer and use the stovetop on Pesach. With a stovetop that is built into the kitchen counter, besides kashering the stovetop itself—whether it is a gas stovetop, as I explained earlier, or an electric one; I will now explain how to kasher an electric stovetop. A metal electric stovetop has a surface similar to a gas stovetop, except that you cannot detach the areas the pots sit on from the surface. What do you do in that case? Thoroughly clean the entire stovetop, both where the pots sit and the surrounding surface, and pour boiling water over it. Turn on all the electric heating elements at their highest setting for half an hour. Then it is kosher for Pesach. But when the stovetop is built in, cleaning the stovetop itself is not enough. What we have discussed so far is just one step. You need to remove the stovetop from its fitting and clean thoroughly underneath it, because a great many bits of chametz of various kinds usually fall there, and that area needs a thorough cleaning. If it cannot be removed because it is built in and sealed with silicone or some other material,

40:34 Speaker 2 then presumably no chametz has fallen underneath it, but clean carefully around it and along the joins. And let me mention again: Why must we be even more careful in the kitchen? Because on Pesach, even a crumb of chametz is not nullified, so we need to pay extra attention. Having gone through the kitchen and kashered it, let us now move on to the kitchen cabinets. Whether or not we intend to use the kitchen cabinets on Pesach, we need to make sure there is no possibility of chametz coming out of them on Pesach. In other words, on the one hand, there is no mitzvah to take out all the chametz utensils, pots, baking pans, and so on and clean them if we will not use them on Pesach. On the other hand, some cabinets are used to store food, and bits of food sometimes get scattered inside them: sesame seeds, breadcrumbs, couscous, wheat, oats, cookie crumbs, and plenty of other things. Those need to be cleaned out. Clean the cabinets and make sure there is no possibility of bits of chametz falling out of them. There is no problem at all with selling these cabinets and their contents to a non-Jew; that is perfectly fine. But chametz must not be able to come out of them. So they certainly need to be cleaned. After cleaning them, any cabinets we intend to use on Pesach need to be checked by candlelight at night, before putting the Pesach utensils inside. The cabinets we do not intend to use on Pesach should simply be closed securely, and their openings perhaps sealed with plastic or aluminum foil, so that no bits of chametz can fall toward the countertop where we prepare Pesach food. Of course, if there are lower cabinets containing utensils and bits of chametz that we

42:58 Speaker 2 do not intend to use on Pesach, those too should be closed and marked as sold to a non-Jew. In the cabinets we will use on Pesach, as I mentioned earlier, in addition to cleaning them, place some kind of barrier between the shelf we use all year and the utensils and other items we will use on Pesach. As I said, there are various materials you can put inside the cabinets, with the Pesach items placed on top of them. Now, with Hashem’s help, we will continue discussing how to kasher and prepare the countertops and sinks for Pesach, whether they can be kashered and, if so, how, as well as the other parts of the kitchen that require preparation for Pesach, whether or not you intend to use the cabinets, for example. Drawers, cutlery, and what to do if someone wants to use their year-round cutlery on Pesach. Let us begin this part of the discussion with the countertop. The countertop is the work surface we use all year. We usually think of it as a smooth surface, but a countertop also generally has at least two corners along the wall. At its end, too, there is a kind of lip or raised edge, where grease, chametz crumbs, bits of cooked food, and so on accumulate. The countertop needs a thorough cleaning. First, use suitable cleaning products to remove all dirt and traces of chametz from its surface. Use toothpicks or toothbrushes, or other suitable brushes, to clean the corners where bits of food accumulate. The cleaning must, of course, be thorough, and here that is especially important. Why? Because we will later prepare our Pesach food on this countertop, and even the tiniest crumb of chametz is not nullified on Pesach, even in a mixture a thousand times its size. In other words, even if we prepare a very large pot of food and there gets

46:22 Speaker 2 If even the tiniest crumb of chametz gets into the pot, the food cannot be eaten on Pesach. That is why this surface needs to be cleaned very thoroughly. The same applies to the tiles behind the countertop and the grooves there. If there are seams around the built-in unit we discussed earlier, those also need to be cleaned well. Make sure no trace of chametz of any kind remains—not even the tiniest grain of couscous. After cleaning the countertop, pay attention to the sink as well. It does not matter what kind of sink it is. We will soon discuss which sinks can be kashered and which cannot, but every type of sink needs to be cleaned. There is the sink itself, but sometimes the way a sink is installed leaves a ledge where the countertop projects over it. For Pesach, that is a problem, because a great deal of chametz residue can collect there. That area also needs a thorough cleaning to make sure no chametz food remains. It is also recommended, if feasible—it is not obligatory—to clean the drain cup beneath the sink that catches the water from washing dishes. Emptying that drain cup, if possible, is very important, because sometimes it contains actual chametz. If that cannot be done, at least pour in a substance that will make any residue there unfit even for a dog to eat. That could be bleach or another strong substance, in a sufficient quantity to render any chametz in that area completely inedible. After thoroughly cleaning the countertop surface, the seams, the tiles, and the

49:15 Speaker 2 sink, we move on to kashering. This is done by pouring boiling water directly from a vessel in which it was heated. Take a clean kettle and clean it. Bring a full kettle of water to a boil. It is preferable, to satisfy all opinions, to pour out this first batch of water into the sink, bathtub, or toilet. In this way, we have effectively kashered the kettle before using it to kasher anything else, leaving no question about it. Then boil water for the kashering. The boiling water must be poured directly onto the countertop. Usually the countertop is large and needs more than one kettleful. So simply work in order: start at one corner and pour boiling water, section by section, over the entire countertop and into the corners. Finished one kettle? Boil another and keep pouring until the whole countertop has been kashered. The water must flow straight from the kettle onto the countertop. Of course, make sure nothing is between the water and the countertop; if there is, move it. It is also preferable—and very important—to sweep away the water between pourings so the next section of countertop receives the boiling water directly. Once we have kashered the whole countertop, we turn to the sink. Can a sink be kashered? That depends on what it is made of. Older sinks made of porcelain and similar materials cannot be kashered by any form of hagalah or other kashering. In that case, after thoroughly cleaning the sink and kashering the countertop, use a plastic basin designated for this purpose. Today you can find a Pesach sink basin in any store. It is a square basin that sits inside the sink. In general, it is strongly recommended not to leave dishes in the sink on Pesach, because sometimes the drain backs up and residue can rise from below. Second, we are careful not to

52:18 Speaker 2 use hot water in the sink on Pesach. That applies to sinks made of porcelain. Today, stainless-steel sinks and sinks made of other stone materials that can be kashered are very common. These sinks need to be cleaned extremely well. After cleaning them thoroughly, and cleaning the drain cup underneath if there is one, take the kettle again and pour boiling water over every part of the sink, including all its corners. Once boiling water has been poured over the entire sink, then, if it is a type that can be kashered, it too is kashered and may be used on Pesach. There is no need to replace the sink or put a plastic basin in it. As for the faucet, there is no need to replace it for Pesach. Clean it well on the outside and all around, especially where it emerges from the countertop or wall, because food residue may have accumulated there over the year. Clean the faucet very thoroughly. Then, once it is clean, turn it to the hot-water setting, with the boiler on or the water in the tank hot—whether from a solar water heater or another source—and let hot water run through it for several minutes. While the hot water is running, take a kettle of boiling water and pour it directly over the faucet, its handles, and its entire structure. This kasheres the faucet for Pesach as well. It is strongly recommended either to replace the handles or, if they cannot be replaced—some faucets do not allow it—simply to cover them. Today you can buy suitable handle covers in any store, or just cover them with aluminum foil, and that takes care of it. After kashering, the custom is to cover the countertop with some insulating material as an additional measure. I deliberately say “the custom,” because it is not obligatory. Once we have kashered it, it is kosher; it has been kashered. Strictly speaking, there is no need for any further protection,

55:06 Speaker 2 because this sink and countertop have been kashered. But it has become customary, and if it can be done easily without much trouble, it is good to add another layer of protection with some insulating material. It could be PVC, heavy-duty aluminum foil, or corrugated plastic sheeting. Boruch Hashem, stores today carry many materials that can be bought to size. You bring scissors or a utility knife, cut the material to fit the countertop, and everything falls into place. It is important to clarify that there is no mitzvah to use aluminum foil specifically. People used a lot of aluminum foil in the past because that was what they had. But today, boruch Hashem, there are many good, convenient materials that do not cut your hands, can be saved for future years, and are friendly to the environment and to the people using them. You certainly may use them. The same goes for covering refrigerator shelves after cleaning them thoroughly: aluminum foil is not the only option. You can use many materials available today, such as large sheets of paper that you fold and lay on the shelves, plastic tablecloths cut to the right size, or other insulating materials, such as the PVC I mentioned earlier and the like. These products are on the market today and are much more convenient and pleasant both to prepare and to use. They certainly may be used. Let us now discuss kashering utensils for Pesach. Nowadays, many people generally buy disposable dishes for Pesach and use those. At the same time, some people prefer to use their year-round pots and cutlery. That is perfectly legitimate and permitted, provided they kasher the utensils as halachah requires. According to our custom, we do not kasher glassware for Pesach. Therefore, Pyrex baking dishes, Pyrex pots, and likewise

57:38 Speaker 2 Beyond that, they cannot be kashered for Pesach. Cutlery can be kashered by immersion in boiling water. Cooking pots can be kashered after a thorough cleaning, particularly between the handles and the pot. Grease and food residue build up there, so the cleaning has to be absolutely thorough. After that, the pot can be kashered by immersion in boiling water in a primary vessel. As for frying pans, in principle, a metal pan can be kashered by heating it with fire. But many pans today are made with additional materials, some of which cannot be kashered. So unless it is clear that the pan is made only of uncoated metal, the right thing is to buy a new pan for Pesach. Even for someone who wants to kasher their utensils, a frying pan may present a problem because of the material it is made from. Also, if we are concerned that a utensil will be ruined by the kashering process, it may not be kashered for Pesach, because we are concerned that the person will not kasher it properly. So if someone is unsure whether they can bring themselves to have their frying pan heated with fire, or their stovetop grates heated with fire, and so on, the answer is not to kasher them but to buy new ones. A utensil that has been kashered properly may be used on Pesach without any concern. But again, as mentioned, we do not kasher glassware for Pesach; we need entirely new glassware. It is important to mention that according to Sephardic practice, glassware can be kashered for Pesach. There is a procedure for doing so, but I will not discuss it here, since in this class we are speaking according to our practice in Chabad.