Laws of Selling Chometz - Rabbi Avraham Haroneyin shlita

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

00:09 Speaker 2 Welcome, in the name of Hashem. Yasher koach to Machon Halacha for providing this platform, and to the Rebbe’s shluchim for spreading Torah, and especially for spreading halacha. This time we’ll discuss the sale of chametz and everything it involves. The Torah says, “You shall remove leaven from your homes.” In earlier times, a Jew would simply remove it. Pesach would arrive, and he would have no chametz left in his home. That was how people lived then: they slaughtered an animal and ate it that day; they baked bread and ate it that day. Generally, there was no situation in which chametz remained. So when Pesach arrived, no one had chametz at home. But over the years and generations, the way people lived changed, until we reached a situation where today everyone has chametz left at home, especially large factories. And it’s not just a little chametz: they may have enough to eat for months. That’s partly because of how businesses operate today, and partly because today there are all kinds of preservatives that allow food to be kept for a very long time. A small example is a bottle of beer: it can keep for two to three years. That’s why, in the past, Jews—and certainly most of the Jewish people and factory owners—didn’t need what we call the sale of chametz. The Gemara does discuss various ways of giving chametz to a non-Jew, whether as collateral or as part of a loan, and it sets out various conditions so that it won’t be considered my chametz. The verse says, “No chametz of yours shall be seen throughout your borders.” Our Sages say: You may not see your own, but you may see that of others. In other words, once the chametz isn’t mine and I bear no responsibility for it, as with collateral, there’s no problem with its remaining in my possession. But evidently, as the way people lived changed, our Sages, the Geonim, and the early authorities began considering what to do with all the chametz that remained. Back then, each person really took care of it himself. Whether

04:02 Speaker 2 by selling it or giving it as a gift, he gave it to a non-Jew, and that way he did not violate the prohibition against owning chametz. Some eight or nine hundred years ago, the Terumas Hadeshen, one of the great early authorities, would give it as a gift. Now, let’s bring this into our own time. What happens today? Most people don’t know the methods by which ownership is transferred. For example, say to someone: You walk into a grocery store and pick up a bottle of wine—you’ve acquired it; it’s yours. He won’t understand: What do you mean I’ve acquired it? I haven’t paid yet. Most people aren’t familiar with the laws of acquisition. And I say “most people” because today, boruch Hashem, the vast majority do try to sell their chametz, but they don’t know how to do it. Another distinction is between acquisitions made between two Jews and those made between a Jew and a non-Jew. A non-Jew, for example, acquires through payment. He does not fully commit to the transaction until money changes hands. Here, too, most people aren’t aware of how to assess and appraise the goods. I personally take part in the sale of chametz every year. It takes almost a full hour to sit with a non-Jew who understands the matter. We chose a lawyer who really understands it, and you explain to him every step: how the acquisition through a property is made, how the acquisition through payment is made, and so on. So it takes almost an hour for rabbis; the ordinary person doesn’t know all the intricacies of halacha. There is kinyan odisah and kinyan situmta. Kinyan odisah is an acknowledgment—yes, he acknowledges that it belongs to him. Kinyan situmta is an acquisition based on merchants’ custom, like diamond dealers shaking hands and saying “Mazal u’bracha,” which is considered a full acquisition in halacha. We perform all these forms of acquisition with the non-Jew. So if we look at our generation, a person who wants

07:23 Speaker 2 to sell his chametz certainly cannot do it on his own. The leading rabbis stepped up, so to speak, and arranged for the sale of chametz to be conducted by the local rabbi, the mara d’asra. He is the one who manages the sale. In some places, people would come and notify the rabbi, appointing him as their agent, so to speak. The rabbi would receive their address and the other relevant details, including where they had put the chametz. Then, on Erev Pesach, while it was still permitted to benefit from the chametz, the rabbi would sell it. Until the ninth hour it is permitted to eat it; until the tenth hour it is permitted to benefit from it. So during the time when benefit is still permitted, we can still sell the chametz. In Chabad, the custom, as brought in Hayom Yom and elsewhere, is not merely to appoint the rabbi as an agent, but to make an acquisition. I don’t just authorize him; the rabbi acquires the chametz and then sells it to the non-Jew. There is another element in the Chabad sale of chametz. You could say that today almost most rabbinates do it this way, because it is an enactment of the Chief Rabbinate of Israel. The Chief Rabbinate of Israel saw fit to include this in the sale, as we’ll explain shortly, because it makes the sale a genuine sale, not a legal fiction as some people think. That means I come to the non-Jew and agree on a price with him. He receives all the lists. We sit and count the number of people selling their chametz. He pays at least the value of a prutah for each one, which right now is about seven to eight agorot. That is acquisition through payment, the first form of acquisition we mentioned. Now, people think that after Pesach he comes back and, as it were, regrets the sale. Does that mean the whole thing was a legal fiction? So that people won’t think that, but will understand that the sale is

10:52 Speaker 2 a sale in every sense, there are no retractions after Pesach. Rather, we buy the chametz back from the non-Jew with the payment we agreed to in advance, at a retail or wholesale price. But to the wider public it can still look as though... So the Alter Rebbe came and instituted an enactment. You can also find it in some of the early authorities, including Maharam Chalavah and others, but the one who introduced this practice was the Alter Rebbe. We appoint an arev kablan, a guarantor who can be approached directly. What is an arev kablan? When I go to a bank for a loan, they ask me for a guarantor. Who says I’ll repay it? I bring someone who will guarantee it. An ordinary guarantor means that if there is a problem with payment, the bank first comes to me to seize property and so on. If I have no means to pay, they go to the guarantor. That is an ordinary guarantor. With an arev kablan, as the term implies, the bank can go directly to the guarantor from the outset and demand payment. It doesn’t have to come to me first and only approach him if I cannot pay; it can go to him for payment right away. So with the sale of chametz, if the non-Jew comes during Pesach wanting to back out, or for any other reason—there is no such possibility. There is an arev kablan who has taken responsibility for the entire sale, and of course he cannot back out. When there is an arev kablan, everyone understands that the transaction is much more substantial and is not a legal fiction. On the contrary, consider selling to a non-Jew: once every seven years there is a practice called heter mechirah. The Chief Rabbinate of Israel makes arrangements for farmers who, for various reasons, cannot observe Shemitah fully, and they sell the field to a non-Jew. Once the field is sold to a non-Jew, the field the Jew works is no longer his. There are a number of problems with this. There is a difference between selling movable property and selling land: according to the practice in the country today, land, an apartment,

14:22 Speaker 2 With land, you need to transfer the title deed. With movable property, by contrast, it is enough for me to rent the non-Jew the place where the chametz is, and he acquires it. A few years ago, they went further with the heter mechirah as well, introducing a special law to avoid the problem of transferring title. So everyone started saying, “There, you see that apparently there’s some sort of legal fiction in the sale.” There was once a yechidus with one of the leading Torah sages, who came to the Rebbe, and the Rebbe asked him to look into how the sale was done there and how to establish it in halachah. For our purposes, though, when we speak about selling chametz, this is what the Alter Rebbe was concerned about: that the sale be a sale in every respect. That is why he introduced the arrangement known as an arev kablan, a guarantor who assumes responsibility for payment. A sale made with an arev kablan is a genuine sale in every respect. We’ll continue from there. So what do we do when selling chametz? What do we sell? Because of what we explained about how genuine the sale is, Chabad chassidim sell even actual chametz. It is related about our Rebbeim, including the Rebbe Rashab, that they would deliberately leave chametz over to show everyone that the sale is a real sale. They say the Rebbe Rashab would make Havdalah on chametz beer after Pesach to emphasize just how genuine the sale is. So we can certainly follow that practice and leave chametz over, even when the amount is too small to constitute a significant loss. In the wider community, people say, “All right, if it would be a substantial loss, as with business owners and the like, one can rely on the sale.” But according to Chabad custom, even when there is no loss—if there is chametz left over, a bag of macaroni, a bottle of beer, half a bottle of vodka, and the like—we sell the chametz and rely on the sale. We can use, benefit from, and eat that chametz after Pesach, once we have bought it back from the non-Jew. It’s worth knowing something else interesting. Those

17:49 Speaker 2 who, unfortunately, do not fully rely on the sale of chametz are very, very particular after Pesach to buy things baked or produced after Pesach. But they don’t realize that a month or two later, almost all of them, without exception, are eating chametz from before Pesach. Take the example I gave earlier: a bottle of beer, alcoholic beverages, and various dry foods like macaroni, whose shelf life is eight to ten months. True, they don’t eat them immediately after Pesach, but a month, two months, or three months later, when those supermarkets and large stores sell them to the public. Not everyone checks the production date, and sometimes it even creates utter confusion. You see products before Pesach labeled “produced after Pesach,” and unfortunately I have seen it more than once or twice: products from before Pesach marked “produced” or “baked after Pesach.” But everyone should follow the custom of their own teachers. I mention this only because it is a practical issue. What happens in practice? To sum up, our practice is to make a full sale of chametz. Another matter that the Rebbe discusses at length in Likkutei Sichos, volume 23, concerns utensils—utensils used throughout the year. Every homemaker washes them and puts them away. Some utensils are difficult to clean even with strong cleaning agents, beyond cleaning their surfaces. The Rebbe explains the basis on which we rely to sell the chametz in the utensils as well. Selling the utensils themselves would create a problem: they would pass into the non-Jew’s ownership, and even though I buy them back from him after Pesach, I would have to immerse them in a mikveh. That is something the public cannot be expected to do. So in the document for the sale of chametz, we include the chametz absorbed in the utensils, and in that sicha the Rebbe explains how this sale is effective. People are careful

21:12 Speaker 2 to sell the chametz on the utensils. This is another reason to point out that everyone should arrange the sale of chametz according to Chabad custom. There are the two differences I just mentioned: selling directly to the rabbi rather than merely appointing him as an agent, and using an arev kablan; and there is what we are discussing now, the chametz absorbed in utensils. So everyone should make the sale of chametz according to the custom of our Rebbeim. It is worth noting here that if I go to a grocery store whose sale of chametz was not carried out according to Chabad custom, particularly with an arev kablan, that creates a problem: I cannot buy from there, especially if the product is actual chametz. In light of what we’ve said, we need to prepare the house and the chametz for the sale, so that, G-d forbid, no one forgets and uses the things they sold. Cover them and write “Sold to a non-Jew.” Some write, “Sold to a person who is not Jewish.” Cover them with plastic or seal them with tape and the like, so that before someone opens them, they will remember that these things belong to the non-Jew and will not forget and, G-d forbid, use them during Pesach. The sale to the non-Jew, of course, prohibits us from using what we sold him—not only eating it, but benefiting from it as well. Take, for example, the utensils used for chametz all year. Strictly speaking, a utensil used only for cold food could be used on Pesach. But the Alter Rebbe says not to use it, lest a person forget. So once I make the sale, that is another reason not to use anything included in the sale of chametz. But things happen. For example, we sold chametz in a closet. So we wouldn’t forget, we taped it shut. In the middle of Pesach, I remember that my coat is in there, or a pair of shoes. I may open it and take the coat I

24:51 Speaker 2 need. The same applies to medicines. There is a list of medicines that are kosher for Pesach. Other medicines do not have Pesach certification, but halachically they may be used. People commonly put everything in the same cabinet. If, G-d forbid, someone needs one of those medicines during Pesach, since its use is halachically permitted, they may open the cabinet where they put all the items included in the sale of chametz. The sale of chametz includes two things. A. Actual chametz. B. Things containing a mixture of chametz. Three, things produced in places where chametz or kitniyos are also routinely processed. Let’s start with the last category and work backward. Rice, for example, or various kinds of kitniyos, chickpeas and so on, need Pesach certification even according to Sephardic practice, because chickpeas are processed in places where wheat is also processed. That is why, when we check rice, we sometimes find kernels of corn or grains of wheat and the like. These are among the things a person cannot simply dismiss as kitniyos. Yes, they are kitniyos, but they were processed using the same equipment. A mixture of chametz means a product made using chametz, though the product itself is not chametz. Actual chametz means things like bread, pasta, beer, and so on. In the sale of chametz, we detail everything. Rabbis are often asked a simple question about the sale: “We forgot to mention this item, or this cupboard, or this place.” The document for the sale of chametz that is drawn up and signed with the non-Jew is at least seven or eight pages long, and it specifies all the various possibilities for chametz, mixtures of chametz, or kitniyos processed with chametz equipment. So a person need not worry, “I didn’t list that particular item.” The same applies to locations. In the document for the sale of chametz, we mention every possible location.

28:13 Speaker 2 where someone might have put chametz. It happens because of the pressure before Pesach: people don’t plan things properly. I always tell the women and men running the household to make some order in the cleaning and plan ahead. First, do the thorough cleaning in the rooms, and then start looking in places that are less accessible and used less during the year. Strictly speaking, there may even be places that don’t need to be searched for chametz at all. When there’s a proper order, there’s no pressure. But things happen—or, as our Sages say, “The pot belonging to partners”: when two people share a pot, each relies on the other. The time for selling chametz has passed, and the wife asks her husband, “Did you sell the chametz?” He says, “No. What, you didn’t?” She says, “I didn’t either.” After the time for selling chametz, when it is forbidden to derive benefit from chametz, you can’t sell it. So there’s something I say that the public should know. This applies only if it is included in the chametz-sale document: we sell the chametz of everyone who comes to us every year, and we tell the non-Jew, “Listen, there are Jews who, because they were so busy, didn’t manage to come. So you should know that we are also selling you the chametz of those who regularly sell through us each year.” Then, when such a Jew comes and says, “I forgot,” we take a sheet we’ve kept and add those people’s names. I even had a case where a Jew came on the third or fourth day of Chol Hamoed, terribly upset. “Oh no, chas veshalom, perhaps I’ve violated the prohibition concerning chametz! ‘No chametz shall be seen in your possession’—kares!” I told him, “You sell through us every year, so come, give me the list.” We passed the list on to the non-Jew, and of course he had not violated the prohibition. But I stress that this applies only at that

31:14 Speaker 2 place, with the rabbi through whom the person regularly sells. Someone who lives in Kfar Chabad, for example, can’t call a rabbi in Lod and say, “Listen, I forgot,” because he can’t reach his own rabbi. It has to be the same place. The Rebbe gives us the privilege of taking part in the campaigns for each Yom Tov. One of the things the Rebbe asked regarding Pesach was to try to arrange the sale of chametz for as many people as possible. The halachic principle is that one may act on someone’s behalf, even without their knowledge, when it is to their benefit. That is, I can sell something belonging to another Jew if it benefits him, but I cannot do something to his detriment without his knowledge. Let’s give an example. The Alter Rebbe rules in the laws of Shabbos, section 306, that one may not give a gift on Shabbos. Among the wider public, there’s a custom to give a bar mitzvah boy a gift. The Alter Rebbe says you may not give a gift on Shabbos unless it is for the sake of a mitzvah. So how do I give a bar mitzvah boy a gift now, when it’s usually a siddur that, baruch Hashem, almost every Jewish home has today? What we do, as brought in the halachic authorities, is have a third person acquire the siddur on his behalf, and then on Shabbos we are simply handing it to him. That’s what it means to act on someone’s behalf, without his knowledge, for his benefit. But you cannot act to his detriment. You cannot give a woman a get without her consent or without her being present, because it is to her detriment, and one cannot act to someone’s detriment without their knowledge. Selling chametz is to the person’s benefit. The Rebbe says that even if there may sometimes be a situation where that Jew will use the chametz and thereby violate the prohibition against stealing from a non-Jew, it is better to arrange the sale for him so he does not violate a prohibition punishable by kares, which is much more severe than the prohibition against theft. So one of the things we all try to do before Pesach is, if possible, to inform the person: “Listen, I’m selling your chametz for you.” But unfortunately, sometimes

34:34 Speaker 2 there are people who, if you ask them, will tell you, “I don’t want you to sell my chametz.” Once he has explicitly said that, I can’t do it. But under the principle that one may act on someone’s behalf for his benefit without his knowledge, I can arrange the sale of chametz, giving his full address and first and last name, even though he doesn’t know about it. The sale takes effect because it is to his benefit. This is something connected with Pesach—one of our campaigns, one of our concerns before Pesach: to try to arrange the sale of chametz for the wider public as far as possible. Of course, this rules out what some people think: that the Israeli Chief Rabbinate’s sale covers the entire country, everyone, and so some people think, “Yes, we’ve sold our chametz.” Of course, that is fundamentally mistaken. The Chief Rabbinate sells chametz only on property belonging to the government, state property—not the private property of each individual. Under no circumstances can one rely on that. This brings me to another point that has been raised regarding the sale of chametz. Today, people go in and out of the airport, travel to the Rebbe and return from the Rebbe, and buy all kinds of products in the shops there, thinking that the Israeli Chief Rabbinate has arranged a sale. That isn’t true, because the shops there are the private businesses of the people who rent them, and not every one of them authorizes a sale of chametz. So buying alcoholic drinks there and the like is certainly a problem. Mixtures containing chametz: people who don’t know English certainly can’t understand the language written on every product, and it will be very difficult for them to determine whether it contains chametz, actual chametz or a mixture containing chametz. Even when we arrange a sale of chametz, we certainly don’t use any of the products I want to discuss. The Chabad custom in Lubavitch, and so on, is to make every effort to use what we prepare at home.

38:05 Speaker 2 Baruch Hashem, today you can obtain many things with the highest standards of kashrus, even things that make people wonder why they need kosher certification. Salt, for example—the simplest thing of all. How many stages does salt go through before it reaches our table? It’s hard to explain briefly, as I said, to people who don’t understand the details of preservatives and the like. Four years ago, three days before Pesach, Rabbi Landau announced that a certain salt could not be used, and people raised their eyebrows. They think you just take salt from the Dead Sea or the sea, dry it, and it reaches us. The differences in the texture of salt—the kind whose grains stay separate, what you call not sticking together. Some people may still remember when people would put rice at the bottom of every saltshaker so the salt wouldn’t form clumps and you could use it grain by grain. That’s just one example, with a product as simple as salt. The same goes for sugar. There’s a tradition that the Rebbe Rashab did not use sugar. A chossid, Rabbi Gurary, went and did everything to ensure that it would be kosher for Pesach. He brought a sugar cube to the Rebbe Rashab, and the Rebbe Rashab took one, broke it open, and a grain of wheat came out. Today, when production is much more complex, both in its processes and in the ingredients used, kosher certification for sugar is certainly more complicated. A few years ago, it was reported that in a country in Europe, sugar was washed with milk, which meant that sugar from there was dairy. The situation has changed since then, of course, so it doesn’t matter where that was, but today’s industry presents kashrus problems. Even when we have products with the highest standards of kashrus, that doesn’t mean we can use those products. And in connection with selling chametz, a person looks at a particular product and doesn’t see flour or gluten listed—yes? Fairly

41:26 Speaker 2 familiar ingredients that are produced from chametz. So he says, “Look, it isn’t listed; it’s perfectly fine.” Of course, as I mentioned, that isn’t true in practice. May we merit a kosher and joyous Pesach, the festival of Geulah, together with the Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach.