Laws of Pesach - Rabbi Shaul Silam shlita

00:00 Hello. A series of classes for Pesach by Rabbi Shaul Silam. First class: the blessing over blossoming trees. The Alter Rebbe writes in Seder Birchos Hanehenin: “One who goes out during the days of Nissan and sees trees putting forth blossoms must recite the blessing: Blessed are You, Hashem, our G-d, King of the universe, Who has left nothing lacking in His world and created in it good creatures and good trees for people to enjoy.” The Alter Rebbe adds: “He recites the blessing only the first time each year.” So what do we learn from this? First, the wording is “one who goes out during the days of Nissan.” We take this to mean specifically Nissan, not as some say, Iyar as well. That is the Alter Rebbe’s position. “And sees trees putting forth blossoms.” “Trees” is plural, so ideally we try to find several trees, at least two. But that is not essential. If there is only one tree, one may still recite the blessing with Hashem’s name and kingship. As for “putting forth blossoms,” the Alter Rebbe adds in Luach Birchos Hanehenin that even if the blossoms have fallen and the fruit has grown, one does not recite the blessing with Hashem’s name and kingship. That wording is a little unclear: the blossoms have fallen and the fruit has grown. Generally, we try to be careful on both counts: that there are still blossoms and that the fruit has not grown large. But the point about the fruit actually appears only in Luach Birchos Hanehenin, not here in Seder Birchos Hanehenin. And it is known that the halachah follows Seder Birchos Hanehenin. Here the Alter Rebbe leaves it unspecified. Some even say that perhaps the Alter Rebbe’s view is that there should be no fruit at all, as the Kaf Hachaim writes. So ideally, there should be blossoms specifically, and no fruit. If there is small fruit, one may also recite the blessing. Regarding the Alter Rebbe’s statement—he adds there, “He recites the blessing only the first time each year”—the point is not merely that we do not recite it twice in a year. Rather, we should recite it the very first time we look at the blossoms. And if we do not, as Rabbi Chaim Naeh deduces, if

02:17 we do not, we lose the opportunity to recite the blessing. So if we see blossoming fruit trees but do not want to recite the blessing just then—perhaps we do not have the wording with us—we should avoid looking closely at them. Only when we are ready to recite the blessing should we actually look and then, with Hashem’s help, recite it. And it must be fruit trees. That is brought in Halachos Ketanos and is the custom, because “for people to enjoy” means actual enjoyment through eating. Some hold that this blessing is not recited on Shabbos. Some write that it should not be recited over orlah fruit, and some write that it should not be recited over grafted trees. Ideally, we will certainly take care with all these things. Although these restrictions are not stated here, if we can easily observe them, we should. If it is the end of the month and the only opportunity is on Shabbos, we will certainly recite the blessing on Shabbos too. Otherwise, we will follow what they write. Moreover, Rabbi Tzvi Pesach Frank and the Or LeTzion hold that the blessing is recited specifically by day, not at night, because the text says “one who goes out during the days of Nissan.” Well, that reading may be a little strained, but if we can, we will observe this too and recite the blessing by day. Hello and blessings. A few individual halachos concerning Pesach foods. I want to speak now about frozen fish and meat. Frozen fish requires a good Pesach hechsher. As is well known, in Sweden, China, and many other places from which we import fish, they inject a lot of water into the fish. The fish is frozen and covered in ice; they simply perforate it. It passes through a bath where it fills with water. Now, when water is injected, the nutritional value drops because the fish is full of water. But the nutritional value of foods is checked, and they have to bring it back up. So to offset that added water, they also inject soy protein or starch. And these substances—the starch, yes—are

04:36 actual chametz. So throughout the year, even with good hechsherim, when we eat fish—and the same can apply to meat once it is frozen and has ice on it—it is quite possible that these products contain chametz. Therefore, they require a good hechsher, a mehadrin hechsher certifying that they are kosher for Pesach. One more precaution, something brought in the Alter Rebbe’s Shulchan Aruch that people forget: when we buy food for Pesach—all kinds of food—the Alter Rebbe says we should not say that we are buying it “for Pesach.” We should say it is for Yom Tov, for the days of the festival, or something similar. Saying “for Pesach” could sound as though we are consecrating an offering outside the Beis Hamikdash, so we should be careful about this. The third class here is about the special stringencies Chabad chassidim observe on Pesach. As an introduction to the great strictness we see regarding chametz: our Sages ruled that on Pesach, chametz is not nullified even in the tiniest amount. Why were our Sages so stringent about Pesach? There are several reasons. First, unlike most prohibited foods, eating chametz on Pesach carries the penalty of kareis. Blood does too, but most foods forbidden to eat do not. There is also the prohibition of having chametz seen or found in one’s possession. I am not allowed to own chametz on Pesach, something we do not find with other prohibitions. Another point is that chametz is permitted all year, so additional safeguards are needed. These are not foods we find repulsive. Chametz is not like shellfish, pork, or horse meat, which we would not go near anyway, so we really do need to be careful. In Chassidus, it is generally known that Pesach represents the beginning of our avodah. It is like a child. And at the beginning of our avodah, we must be careful about even the tiniest thing. As the Rebbe is especially particular about young children, because what they eat becomes their blood and flesh, we are even more particular about what we feed children than about what adults eat. So here, when we are like a newborn child, we certainly need to be very, very particular. These are the reasons for all the very far-reaching precautions we will see on Pesach. The first is shared not only by Chabad chassidim but by all Ashkenazi communities: the stringency regarding kitniyos. This already begins with the Tosafists. Dishes made from kitniyos resemble dishes made from grains, and sometimes the two are stored near each other. So already in the time of the Tosafists, and perhaps even earlier, people became very stringent about kitniyos. That is the ruling of the Rema and of the Alter Rebbe, and we certainly observe it. Another stringency we find particularly with the Alter Rebbe and among Chabad chassidim concerns matzah that has come into contact with water. Although matzah that has come out of the oven can no longer become chametz—even if there was a little flour on the matzah—the Alter Rebbe, in his responsa, takes into account one view among the early authorities that is concerned that matzah could indeed become chametz even after baking. Again, it is a fairly rejected view, but it exists, so we are very, very careful that our matzah not come into contact with water. The Alter Rebbe explains that this stringency began specifically in his time, because another stringency began then, one that has a certain drawback. According to the Gemara, one can knead dough from morning until evening, provided one does not stop. One can knead it for hours; it is specifically if one stops for more than eighteen minutes that it becomes chametz. And because of this, our Sages were concerned that sometimes we knead for several hours, and if suddenly

07:12 The Rebbe is especially particular when it comes to young children, because the food they eat becomes their very blood and bones. So we are even more particular about what we feed children than about what we feed adults. Here, when we are like a newborn baby, we certainly need to be very, very careful at all times. These are the reasons behind all the very stringent practices we’ll see on Pesach. The first one is shared not only by Chabad chassidim but by all Ashkenazi communities: the stringency regarding kitniyos. Yes, this already begins with the Tosafists. Dishes made from kitniyos resemble dishes made from grain, and sometimes the two are stored next to each other. So from the time of the Tosafists, and perhaps even earlier, people were very stringent about kitniyos. This is the ruling of the Rema and the Alter Rebbe, and of course we observe it. Another stringency found particularly with the Alter Rebbe and among Chabad chassidim concerns gebrokts—matzah that has come into contact with water. Even though matzah that has come out of the oven can no longer become chametz, even if a little flour remained on it, the Alter Rebbe, in his responsa, takes into account one opinion among the early authorities that is concerned that matzah can indeed become chametz even after baking. Again, this is a fairly marginal opinion, but it exists, and so we are very, very careful that our matzah not come into contact with water. The Alter Rebbe explains that this stringency began specifically in his time, because another stringency had begun then—one that has a certain drawback. According to the Gemara, you can knead dough from morning until evening, as long as you do not stop. You can knead it for hours; it is specifically if you stop for more than eighteen minutes that it becomes chametz. Because of this, our Sages were concerned that sometimes we knead for several hours, and if suddenly

09:41 A small piece of dough can tear away and then rejoin the dough twenty minutes later, after it has become chametz in the meantime. So, to prevent that, they decided to complete the entire kneading process in less than eighteen minutes. But because of this, there really is a concern that the dough may not be kneaded thoroughly enough and some flour may remain. That is the source of the whole issue of matzah shruyah. Now, it is well known that Chabad chassidim are very strict about matzah shruyah. We are also strict about not buying commercially manufactured products, or buying as little as possible—wine, milk—each person according to what he received from his parents. But really, we keep it to a minimum. And this is not an isolated practice. Its source is what Sefer Haminhagim brings in the name of the Alter Rebbe: on Pesach, we do not offer one another food and drink. So all the more so, as Nitei Gavriel writes, if we do not eat food from just any friend, we certainly cannot rely on commercially manufactured products. Another point: we are careful not to use any food or utensil that touches the floor again on Pesach. We also peel fruits and vegetables in case some chametz has stuck to them. Now, if we cook the fruits and vegetables before Pesach, then seemingly we have made it a mixture of liquid with liquid, as it is called. In halachah, with a mixture of dry with dry, if a little chametz became mixed with other things, it becomes prohibited again on Pesach, even if it had previously been nullified by a majority. But with things that really are liquid mixed with liquid—say chametz fell into a pot of potatoes—once we cook it, if the chametz makes up more than one-sixtieth, it is not

12:07 nullified. But if it makes up less than one-sixtieth—yes, there is more than sixty times its amount—then it is nullified and does not become prohibited again on Pesach. The Alter Rebbe cites an opinion that is strict about this too. Yes, there are opinions among the Rishonim—the Rashba, [unclear], [unclear], apparently the Rambam. But the Alter Rebbe says that someone who is strict should be strict for himself, not for others. So the basic halachah we follow is that things truly mixed liquid with liquid are nullified. Therefore, seemingly, if we are concerned about a little chametz that might be on the vegetables, and we cook them before Pesach, we need not be concerned, because it has already been nullified. So seemingly, we could leave unpeeled the vegetables we cook for Pesach. Even so, this leniency about peeling—of not peeling what we cook for Pesach—is fairly new. For generations, Chabad chassidim peeled even what they cooked before Pesach. So each person should act according to his understanding. Some people use a special knife for peeling fruits and vegetables for Pesach. For the same reason we mentioned, those of us who use sugar are accustomed not to use it dry, but to put it in water and cook it. Then we have a very concentrated sugar syrup to use on Pesach, and if there was any chametz, it was nullified before Pesach in a liquid-with-liquid mixture, as we said. There is a rumor that... Actually, it is not just a rumor; it is also brought in the Pri Megadim: a custom not to use garlic on Pesach. But that is not a Chabad custom. We certainly do not eat dried garlic, because it has undergone a drying process and we cannot know exactly how it was dried. But ordinary fresh garlic can certainly be used. The Rebbe writes that regarding food for children, if we need a particular food and they cannot manage with the food that is available, it is preferable to give them kitniyos rather than matzah—machine-made matzah or matzah shruyah or things like that. They

14:29 cannot manage with the food we have. It is important to know that although kitniyos may seem more severe—it is in the Shulchan Aruch, and the Rema mentions it—nevertheless, kitniyos are far from being chametz, unlike matzah shruyah. And we really do not use machine-made matzah or give it to children. Another point: suppose someone used to be lenient about kitniyos and this year decided not to eat them. What about his Pesach utensils? Although the book Hag'alas Keilim by Rabbi Tzvi Cohen, and many Ashkenazi poskim, say there is no problem with utensils that have absorbed kitniyos, the Chabad custom is to kasher such utensils and do hagalah before Pesach. This next subject may seem complicated, but we will try to simplify it, because people no longer know what they are required to dispose of, and they know that even a trace of chametz is prohibited. That rule about even a trace of chametz does not concern owning chametz; it concerns eating it. So let us spell out a few rules to make this clear. First, chametz that is unfit even for a dog to eat does not need to be disposed of or sold. Second, a mixture containing chametz that is unfit for human consumption. There are various medicines like that—not syrups, but medicines that are not fit to eat. Those, too, do not actually need to be disposed of or sold. Third, chametz that no longer imparts flavor to a mixture—there is less than one-sixtieth chametz in the mixture. That does not need to be disposed of either. Fourth, perhaps this is a qualification: if the chametz is very, very important to making the product—without the chametz, the product would not exist—then it does need to be disposed of by rabbinic law. So that

16:48 qualifies what I said earlier a little. And fifth, there are various things we do not eat, but they are not chametz—kitniyos, for example. We set those things aside too, but they do not need to be disposed of or sold. That is... Bedikas chametz. It is important to say at the outset that there is a fundamental difference between bedikas chametz according to Chabad and the Chayei Adam, and according to the Pri Chadash and Sephardic poskim, including Rabbi Ovadia. The question is what exactly we are looking for in bedikas chametz. There is a statement in a discussion in Maseches Pesachim that crumbs are not considered significant. On that basis, the Pri Chadash and, again, Sephardic poskim in general say: fine, crumbs are not significant. So in bedikas chametz we do not need to look for crumbs, only for more substantial pieces. The Ashkenazi poskim, the Alter Rebbe and the Chayei Adam, understand this very differently. The context there, after all, is the prohibition of owning chametz on Pesach. What the Gemara says is that although we do not violate that prohibition by owning crumbs, that does not mean we need not search for them, because we are concerned that someone might come to eat them. And eating crumbs on Pesach is certainly prohibited by Torah law. A person would not incur kares for a crumb, but it is certainly a Torah prohibition. So what I am about to describe is bedikas chametz according to Chabad, as all these halachos are. But you need to know that it really differs fundamentally from bedikas chametz according to many Sephardic poskim. After that introduction, you need to know that there is a difference between a place where crumbs are commonly found, a place where we normally eat, and a place where crumbs are not expected, though something might have found its way there, particularly when there are children. But not crumbs in holes and cracks. So in that case

19:19 Second, take a clothes closet, for example. All the checking and cleaning that we do—that a mother usually does from Purim until Pesach—that is the search. There is no need to check its shelves with a candle. By contrast, take a kitchen cabinet, where there are all sorts of chametz foods. There we certainly need to search by candlelight, as we’ll explain. A few more introductory points: Crumbs in a place where people walk are considered disposed of. They are no longer fit for a dog to eat, so they are not a problem. And crumbs in places a hand cannot reach—for example, if chametz fell into a crevice between the parts of a piano—that is like chametz buried under a collapse. There is no concern that we will come to eat those crumbs, so there is no need to take the entire piano apart to get them out. Because, again, with crumbs the concern is that someone might come to eat them. That is also important to know. Now, to make this more concrete, let’s take a kitchen cabinet as an example. If its shelves can be removed, you take them out and wash them. That’s it; nothing more is needed. But the bottom of the cabinet, which cannot be removed—that is where I’m concerned there may be chametz in holes and cracks. This is precisely what our Sages meant in the first Mishnah of tractate Pesachim when they instituted searching for chametz by candlelight on the night of the 14th. That is what they meant. So even if the area has been cleaned, you cannot cover it with paper without first searching for chametz. Now, as we said, the search for chametz must be done by candlelight on the night of the 14th. But because our homes are large and there are many things to check,

21:42 it is also possible to search on earlier nights by candlelight, without a blessing. On the night of the 14th, we search whatever remains, with a blessing. So those shelves that need to be searched must be dealt with a few days before Pesach, because the woman of the house wants to line them and start putting in the Pesach supplies; she cannot wait until the last moment. So on one of those nights, after cleaning the area, you take a candle and check the crevices to make sure there is no chametz, and then line it. This must be done. If necessary, you can also check for crumbs in daylight, provided the daylight reaches the spot directly, not through glass. This applies, for example, to the pockets of children’s clothes, which can be checked for chametz during the day. But it must be by direct daylight: you can go out to a courtyard or roof if possible, or open the window and use the daylight that way. In places where a candle really would be dangerous, such as a car, you certainly use a flashlight, and that is perfectly fine. As for a room or house being sold to a non-Jew, according to the Tzemach Tzedek, although the sale takes place on Erev Pesach and the obligation to search comes earlier, since we know we will be selling it, there is no need to search that area. And according to the Chayei Adam, someone whose only space is a small cabinet in a hospital room shared with several people, and that is all he has to search, does not have a home that requires a search with a blessing. He should search it, but without a blessing. Another thing to know is that once the time for the search arrives, we do not eat anything, and we must begin the search right away. Of course, if cleaning is still going on, that can continue after the search, but you must begin the search immediately. So much so

23:59 that the Alter Rebbe says that someone who does not search at the start of the allotted time is called a transgressor. Yes, that is what he writes, so it really is important. The Alter Rebbe also notes that from the time of the search, all the chametz must be put away. It makes no sense for us to be looking for the ten little pieces while all sorts of other chametz are lying around because we still need to eat the next morning. It must all be gathered in one place. That is straightforward. You can appoint an agent to search for chametz, but at the end of the process, the homeowner will need to nullify the chametz. Another point: the Alter Rebbe writes in his Shulchan Aruch that some are careful to wash their hands before the search. That is certainly a good thing. If a person has several places to search, even if he has to travel between them, the first blessing can cover both places; the journey is not considered a break in attention. Sefer Haminhagim describes the whole procedure: a search kit with a wax candle, a bird feather, a spoon, and a paper bag. In the end, we burn it all—including the candle, incidentally. As the Rebbe explains, the candle goes looking for chametz, so one who looks for chametz in others deserves to be burned. That is in the sense of the parable, of course—not the person. So we burn the candle too. What do we actually do with all this equipment? We use the feather to put the crumbs into the bag. We take those pieces—the ten pieces—and place them in the hollow of the spoon, fastening them there with tape. We put everything into the bag with the wooden spoon handle sticking out, close the bag around the handle, and burn it all, including the candle,

26:33 which was in the bag, as we said. Regarding chametz in a courtyard, halachah says that crows, animals, and birds eat it. But if I know for certain that I had chametz there, I still need to check that it is gone. As for the blessing, we say the blessing for the removal of chametz before the search, not before the burning, because the removal is the end of the process. There are two versions of the declaration of nullification: the one we say after the search and the one we say the following morning after burning the chametz. When nullifying, we really need to understand what we are saying—at least understand the general intent, that we are nullifying all the chametz. Shalom u’vrachah. Sixth: selling chametz. I want to focus here on one question: Can actual chametz be sold? Many halachic authorities would say no: only chametz whose possession violates the prohibitions against chametz being seen or found on one’s property by rabbinic law may be sold. After all, the entire practice of selling chametz is one big legal device. We do not exactly hand the chametz over to the non-Jew, and in the end we take it back. It is a legal device, so actual chametz cannot be sold through such a sale. The Alter Rebbe instituted a form of sale through which even actual chametz can be sold. He addressed everything that might pose a problem. For example, when I sell something to a non-Jew, he needs to pay me in advance. Otherwise, I cannot be fully confident that he will really pay me the entire sum, and that could undermine the whole sale. Here, too, I have not received payment for selling the chametz. So how can I say it is a sale in every respect? To address this, the Alter Rebbe instituted an unconditional guarantor: a Jew who guarantees that you will receive the money if the non-Jew does not pay when he wants to take possession of the chametz. And we also rent the non-Jew the place where the chametz is stored. Quite simply, the Alter Rebbe’s contract leaves no loopholes, and even actual chametz can be sold.

28:44 In recent decades, everyone has adopted the Alter Rebbe’s stringencies, so there is no real problem with selling actual chametz. If someone genuinely wants to be concerned and follows the rulings of other rabbis, fine—he should continue to follow what his rabbis say. But Chabad chassidim can certainly rely on the sale of chametz with peace of mind and sell even actual chametz. There is no problem with that. Another important point: when we sell the chametz, we sell not only the chametz in the designated places, as stated in the contract, but also chametz elsewhere. If I have chametz, it belongs to the non-Jew. So ordinarily, if I find chametz in the middle of Pesach, the Shulchan Aruch says that on Chol Hamoed I must burn it immediately; if it is Yom Tov or Shabbos, I cover it with a vessel, and after Shabbos or Yom Tov I burn it. But here, since the chametz I find has been sold to the non-Jew, if I find chametz on Pesach, I take it, open one of the places I sold to the non-Jew, put the chametz there, and that is all. Nothing more needs to be done. Another important point about selling chametz: the contract includes permission for us to take something that is not chametz—or even something that is chametz, if we genuinely need to take it for medical reasons—from a place sold to the non-Jew. Say there is a chair there, a clean chair with no chametz issue at all. If I suddenly need a chair, I can enter that sold room and take the

30:56 the chair and leave. Certainly not to sleep there or linger there. So even people who have chametz medications that they seemingly won’t need—but you can’t really know; they might need them—should put them with the chametz sold to a non-Jew, in a cabinet they sold to the non-Jew near the entrance. If they need them on Pesach, they can open it, take the medication, and use it. We’ll come back to this. Seventh lesson: matters concerning matzah. First, the Yerushalmi states—and this is cited by the Tosafists and in the Shulchan Aruch—that eating matzah on Erev Pesach is a very serious matter. The Yerushalmi says that someone who eats matzah on Erev Pesach is like someone who is intimate with his betrothed in his father-in-law’s house. He’s eating it before the time. It will be permitted very soon; why are you so eager to do it early? That’s the idea. Now, there are many opinions on this. Some say the prohibition applies only to shmurah matzah; others say it applies to all matzah; and some hold that the whole point is not to taste the flavor of matzah beforehand, in which case even matzah that is chametz would be prohibited. The Chabad custom is not to eat matzah from Purim onward, so on that basis we follow the stricter opinion. From Purim, then, one should not eat matzah, even matzah that is chametz, because of its matzah flavor. So it really is a shame when someone eats the matzos they bake in preschool and things like that. That’s the first point. Second, there is something called matzah ashirah. When does that come into play? Matzah ashirah is matzah kneaded not with water but with fruit juice, wine, or various other juices. Seemingly, one could eat such matzah even on Pesach, but according to the Rema, we do not eat it out of concern. After all, if there is even a little water in it, fruit juice mixed with water causes leavening even faster than water alone.

33:20 So according to the Rema and the Alter Rebbe, we do not eat matzah ashirah. But before Pesach, during the days when we don’t eat matzah, we can eat matzah ashirah. Then there is the matter of gebrokts. Avoiding gebrokts is an enactment of the Alter Rebbe, also cited by later halachic authorities: there should be no contact at all between water and matzah on Pesach. We don’t eat matzah that has touched water. We are very careful about this, so we eat matzah well away from the table, lest some fall onto a plate. That’s a subject in its own right. Yes, this practice arose in the Alter Rebbe’s time, when the practice of kneading and baking within eighteen minutes had come into use. So there are concerns, albeit remote ones. We’ve already spoken about that, and this is why it is observed so carefully in Chabad. There is also something called matzah meal. It is not the same as matzah ashirah: you take baked matzos, grind them into flour, and then bake things from that matzah meal. Of course, in Chabad we won’t eat that on Pesach. Since we avoid gebrokts, we cannot use matzah meal on Pesach; any contact between the matzah meal and water would make it gebrokts. Can we eat foods made from matzah meal before Pesach, during the period when we don’t eat matzah? It depends. If they are baked goods, no. If they are cooked foods, yes. As for eating shmurah matzah: as is well known, we are particular to eat matzah guarded from the time of harvest, handmade—the familiar round matzos. On the night of Pesach, we eat between three and five kezaysim of shmurah matzah. Why between three and five? Because at Motzi Matzah we eat two kezaysim; at Korech, the sandwich with maror, another kezayis; and at Afikoman, two kezaysim. Now, why do we eat two kezaysim at Motzi Matzah? It is not, as many people think,

35:43 one for Motzi and one for Matzah. Motzi does not require a kezayis; the kezayis of matzah is more than enough to allow us to say Birchas Hamazon afterward. Rather, there is a dispute among the early halachic authorities. We have three matzos, with the middle one broken. Which matzah do we eat to fulfill the obligation of eating matzah, the “bread of affliction”? Is it the broken matzah, or is the matzah used for the mitzvah the top one? Because this is disputed, we take a kezayis from the top matzah and a kezayis from the broken matzah. That applies to the three matzos. But someone who is not eating directly from the Seder plate—the Seder plate serves the head of the household, while everyone else is given a kezayis from the box—does not need two kezaysim. It makes no difference for them: their matzah comes from the box, not from the top, bottom, or middle matzah. So the head of the household takes two kezaysim, while the others, who do not have a Seder plate with three matzos, take only one kezayis for Motzi Matzah. At Korech, one kezayis. And why two kezaysim for Afikoman? Because the early halachic authorities disagree whether the Afikoman commemorates the Pesach offering or the matzah eaten with the Pesach offering. So we eat two kezaysim, one for each. But the Rebbe writes that one can also use a little workaround: take just one kezayis instead of two and make a stipulation: If I need to eat it in commemoration of the Pesach offering, let it serve that purpose; and if I need to eat it in commemoration of the matzah eaten with the Pesach offering, let it serve that purpose. Oat matzah: Some people, may we be spared, have a medical condition—celiac disease, may we be spared, an intestinal problem—and simply cannot eat gluten. Such people will need to eat matzos made from oats, which contain much, much less gluten, and a different kind of gluten, so they have no problem with them. But ideally,

38:04 the Alter Rebbe writes that a healthy person should specifically use wheat matzos, not spelt, oats, or anything else. Someone who genuinely needs something else for health reasons should use it. There are three letters from the Rebbe in volume 9 of Igros Kodesh in which the Rebbe explains that eating matzah is “the food of healing and the food of faith.” The Zohar describes it as the bread of healing and the bread of faith. Now, what is the bread of faith? The Rebbe says there that it means faith in Hashem and in Moshe His servant. “Moshe His servant” refers to the extension of Moshe Rabbeinu in every generation—that is, the nasi of the generation. Matzah gives us faith in Hashem and faith in the nasi of the generation. That is what the Rebbe writes, and therefore the Rebbe says we should be particular to buy matzah baked, or at least distributed, by the Rebbe’s office. So certainly we should prefer matzos from Kfar Chabad, matzos that truly come from Chabad, over other matzos. That is the Chassidus perspective. Of course, the Rebbe is not addressing someone whose considerations involve a higher standard of observance. The Rebbe is speaking about considerations of money or convenience, which are beside the point. If there is a higher standard—a group-baked matzah, things like that—the Rebbe did not address it there. There is something called a folded matzah. The matzos should be checked before the Seder. If a matzah has folded over a little so that the two sides touch, with nothing at all between them, the folded section is removed along with the required margin—meaning two centimeters all around. There is also something called a puffed-up matzah: a matzah with a bubble somewhere in it, about two centimeters across. In principle, this disqualifies the entire matzah, but some hold that with our thin matzos, it has the same status as a folded matzah: only that spot, plus two centimeters

40:24 Around it. There is a concept called matzas mitzvah. Matzas mitzvah is matzah baked on Erev Pesach after midday. It might sound like a very great stringency, but it isn’t a stringency. It is stated explicitly in the Alter Rebbe’s Shulchan Aruch. For the Pesach Seder, one should have matzos mitzvah baked on Erev Pesach after midday. If that isn’t possible, one may eat other shmurah matzos. But ideally, according to the Alter Rebbe’s Shulchan Aruch, those are indeed the matzos to use. There is also a concept called matzas chaburah: very G-d-fearing people gather and bake matzos, making those matzos special. But it is certainly good to form such a group only with people who are not just righteous, but also thoroughly understand all the laws of matzah and know how to clean under their fingernails and everything else—people who are experts in the matter. Otherwise, the benefit will be outweighed by the loss. There is a concept called tanur rishon, the first oven batch. This actually does not appear in the Alter Rebbe’s writings. It appears in Chayei Adam and several other halachic authorities. There are also several opinions about exactly what this concept of the first oven batch means. But basically, before baking matzos we heat the oven, and some people are particular to heat it before each batch. So the matzos from the first batch after the oven has been prepared are called tanur rishon, and there is indeed a special quality to them. It is known that the Frierdiker Rebbe and the Rebbe were particular to eat such matzos. Shalom and blessings. Lesson eight: kashering utensils by boiling and by direct heat. Perhaps we’ll start with a few introductions. First, in Chabad we try as much as possible not to kasher utensils. We have special utensils for Pesach, and that is certainly preferable for everyone. Simple things. Second, regarding kashering by boiling and by direct heat: As is known from Parshas Matos, from the war with Midian, we learn that to kasher a utensil, if the utensil came into direct contact with the prohibited food—in our case, chametz; a little oil still counts as direct contact—then it needs to be kashered by direct heat.

42:42 Direct heat with a blowtorch, real, thorough heating. But if the contact was through water, as with a pot in which chametz was cooked, then kashering by boiling is what’s needed. There is, however, a major dispute among the halachic authorities, between the Shulchan Aruch and the Rema: Do we go by the utensil’s primary use or not? If I have a pot in which I usually cook chametz, but occasionally heat bourekas over a flame, will it need to be kashered by direct heat, or do I go by its primary use? According to the Shulchan Aruch, we go by its primary use. At first glance, that may seem puzzling: How can we go by its primary use? After all, it came into direct contact once. That causes greater absorption, so it should need direct heat. But we need to understand that all these requirements are rabbinic. After twenty-four hours, Torah law would not require the utensils to be kashered. So the Sages who instituted the requirement to kasher utensils also instituted that it be done according to their primary use. That leaves fewer questions, since these requirements are rabbinic. So we said that the Shulchan Aruch rules that we go by the primary use, but the Rema and the Alter Rebbe take even occasional uses into account, and that complicates many things. That is also why the Chabad custom is not to kasher knives. With a knife, sometimes you cut a solid piece of food that came from a kli rishon, a vessel that was on the fire. It is solid and dry—a very hot kugel, for example. You cut it with a knife, and it is treated as though it were still in a kli rishon, because a hot solid piece is considered like a kli rishon. Yes, that is the stringent approach we follow. So that’s one example: The knife is usually used on a plate, but occasionally it comes into contact with something considered a kli rishon. Therefore, we would need to—and our custom is

44:49 not to kasher a knife. Yes, that is one consequence. Utensils that are to be kashered by boiling are not used for twenty-four hours beforehand. They are not used at all for twenty-four hours, not just kept away from chametz. This is a kind of precautionary requirement; it is the ideal procedure. With something that needs direct heat, though, there is no problem. Incidentally, by the letter of the law, kashering by direct heat can even be done during Pesach, unlike kashering by boiling, which cannot. Another point: As is known, glass utensils are the subject of a dispute. According to the Shulchan Aruch, glass does not absorb at all, and rinsing the utensils is enough. According to the Rema, glass utensils do absorb, and they cannot be kashered—certainly not for chametz. There is a discussion about meat and milk, which is a separate matter, but not for chametz. So we cannot kasher glass utensils. If a utensil has a handle, then when we kasher it by boiling, the handle also needs to be immersed. But this is not like immersing a utensil in a mikvah, where the whole thing must go in at once. It can be done in two stages. Another point: The kettle used to pour boiling water over the countertop, for example—we’ll discuss that shortly—raises a question many people ask: Is it a Pesach kettle or a chametz kettle? It would really be a shame to use a Pesach kettle, because the steam rising from the chametz, so to speak, would affect the Pesach kettle. On the other hand, if you take a Pesach kettle—a weekday kettle, a chametz kettle—then how can it be used for kashering? So you take a chametz kettle and kasher it. You don’t use it for twenty-four hours, and then you boil water in it until it overflows. To make it overflow, you need to add hot water or something boiling to the water while it is boiling.

46:54 Afterward, you pour out the water, rinse the kettle with cold water, fill it again, and then you can use the hot water for kashering. How do you kasher the countertop? According to the Alter Rebbe’s approach, there is a slight complication here. Because of this view regarding a hot solid piece of food, it is possible that a hot kugel once touched the countertop. In that case, strictly speaking, we would have to remove the entire countertop and put it in a pot to kasher it, which is obviously impossible. But pouring boiling water from a kli rishon over the countertop would not be enough. So the Alter Rebbe says to pour from a kli rishon and then take a heated stone and move it through the water so that the water boils on the countertop—as though I had put the countertop into a pot. Some people use an iron instead of a heated stone, but I do not recommend any of these methods. An iron really is dangerous. And today’s countertops, except for the very highest-quality ones, can crack and be damaged. So today, don’t use a heated stone anymore. But the Alter Rebbe requires a heated stone. That’s true. So what we do is both pour boiling water from a kli rishon and cover the countertop with PVC. With both measures together, there is certainly no problem. Arguably, covering it with PVC would have been enough even without kashering it. We don’t rely on that alone because we are concerned that it may not always be properly covered everywhere. But when you do both, you can be at ease. That is what we do, and it works very well. Now, how do we actually kasher the countertop? We don’t use it at all for twenty-four hours. We clean it—it has to be clean in order to be kashered—and it has to be dry. Okay, after that, we begin with the part of the countertop against the wall, the section that rises a little.

48:56 We start by kashering those areas, because the water runs onto the countertop. So we certainly start there. Yes, those tiles there. Now, when you pour water to kasher the countertop, there’s a problem. Say I have a countertop three meters long. You can imagine pouring from the kettle over fifty centimeters in one go: it reaches that area and kashers it. But what about the section next to it? Water has already run over. When you pour on the next section, there’s already water that ran from the first section, so it isn’t dry. That will immediately cool the water you’re pouring, and it won’t help. So you have to pour on the first section, say the one on the right, then dry everything; pour on the second section, dry everything; then the third, and so on. In section 452, the Alter Rebbe says that when we kasher utensils, we customarily rinse them afterward with cold water, so they don’t have time to reabsorb what came out of them. Even if they did absorb it, it would be absorbed when it’s already impaired, so that would be all right, but we are stringent about this. With a countertop, there’s no need to pour cold water. The countertop is large and cold; it already cools the water, so that’s really unnecessary. Once we’ve finished with the countertop, we deal with the pipe: run hot water through it and also pour hot water from the kettle over the faucet. I mean the faucet itself and its handles. After that, we deal with the sink. We also pour in a cleaning agent to nullify any chametz that might be in the drainpipes, and pour boiling water from a kettle into the sink, but

51:11 we won’t use the sink directly. It’s a good idea to put a plastic sink insert inside it, positioned so it doesn’t touch the bottom. If you don’t have one, take a slightly raised basin and put it in the sink. There’s also a concern about not using boiling water at all in the kitchen during Pesach, and that greatly reduces the problems. As for ovens, I really don’t recommend kashering them, even for someone with a self-cleaning oven. Without a self-cleaning cycle, an oven certainly cannot be kashered according to Chabad practice. A self-cleaning oven—I don’t know; I don’t recommend it. It’s best not to. You can manage without an oven if necessary, or buy a toaster oven. No, I don’t think it’s an option at all. As for stovetops, it’s also highly advisable to buy one for Pesach. You can get a four-burner gas stovetop for three or four hundred shekels. Some people bring in a cleaner to clean the oven and stovetop. Just think of the time spent on it, and then they pay that cleaner about two hundred shekels. After doing that for two years, you could already have bought a stovetop with four burners. So it’s very worthwhile. And to replace the gas hose, yes, it’s a good idea to bring in a technician or someone who knows what they’re doing—or if the husband really understands it. But it’s still a big responsibility. Now, for someone who really needs to kasher the stovetop: the early authorities say that for the burner grates, the flame itself is enough, or you can do hagalah. But their grates were small, round ones, where anything that fell landed near the flame and burned. Our grates, though, are grids that cover perhaps two burners. If a noodle falls in the middle, far from the flame, it won’t burn immediately. So the grate does absorb chametz, and hagalah certainly isn’t enough. The grates need libun if

53:30 you want to kasher them. Now, even if you don’t buy a stovetop for Pesach, you can buy grates. Yes, various places sell them, so you can have a set of grates for Pesach. As for the burners and the caps on top, they’re right in the flame. Hagalah is enough for them, or even something simpler: light the burners for twenty minutes, and that will be perfectly fine. For the white stovetop surface, pour boiling water over it, and it’s also advisable to cover it with aluminum foil. That’s fine. Now, around the stove, wherever steam rises and makes a surface hot enough that your hand would recoil from it, you need to cover it—attach aluminum foil there. Otherwise, during Pesach, steam will rise toward the wall or other surfaces there. If those surfaces reach that temperature, the steam can absorb chametz from them and carry it back to the pot. Not pleasant. So you really do need to cover those areas. Yes, glass stovetops are a real problem. According to Chabad practice, you can’t kasher one. With an induction stovetop, what people generally do is put on an induction-compatible pot and boil water in it until it overflows. But after that, it’s hard to manage without buying silicone mats that you place over the induction surface. That’s really important. Some are thick enough and have a hechsher, so you can rely on them. Yes, what I said about glass applies to ceramic stovetops too. That isn’t earthenware ceramic. Today “ceramic” means a composite material; it contains glass as well as other materials that can’t be kashered in any way. I think I’ve covered the main points here. A Shabbos hot plate—it’s also advisable to have one for Pesach,

56:11 but if you don’t, it’s very, very advisable to do the following three things, or at least the first two: heat it at its highest setting for an hour, and cover it with aluminum foil. Those are the two things you really need to do. If you can also pour boiling water directly from a pot over it before covering it with aluminum foil, that’s certainly preferable. But you must be careful, because there’s an electrical connection there, so you need to cover it. Another point: the Rema and the Alter Rebbe say that you may not use a utensil that needs kashering even for cold food. Yes, although in principle there wouldn’t be a problem, there is a rabbinic restriction against it. A Teflon frying pan is very delicate. A frying pan requires libun, and you can’t do libun to something that delicate, so you can’t kasher it. If I want to kasher a small pot, I can either fill it with water and let it boil over, or put it into a larger pot. Yes, that’s the idea. Even though a pressure cooker reaches very high temperatures, to kasher it, it’s enough to fill it with water and bring it to a boil. With a freezer, when we take everything out, we really need to defrost it. There might be bits of dough and other things, or bread in boxes, beneath the ice, so we really need to be careful. Another important point about the refrigerator: it’s very, very advisable to cover all the shelves and all the drawers at the bottom after washing everything. Although nothing there generally gets hot enough that your hand would recoil from it, there is the principle that food soaked for twenty-four hours is treated as cooked. Say liquids with chametz crumbs remain in a container for twenty-four hours. The walls of the container absorb from them as though they had been cooked. So things like that could happen in the refrigerator, and then on Pesach there might also be liquids from the vegetables kept there. Those liquids could draw out what’s in the walls. So we avoid that whole headache and cover everything. We don’t kasher a microwave; in fact, I don’t kasher a microwave at any time of year. A dishwasher, certainly not. It has crevices and all sorts of problems; we don’t kasher it. Teeth and dentures—those are indeed a problem. Rabbi Auerbach would kasher dentures. After all, putting them in boiling water could damage them, so he would wait until the water cooled to about seventy degrees, and then put the dentures in. As for teeth, that really is an issue. If a person has no fillings, dental plates, or anything else, there’s no problem. The substance of the teeth that Hakadosh Boruch Hu gave us doesn’t absorb, but the various materials that are added, especially metals, certainly do. So on Erev Pesach, after finishing eating chametz and brushing your teeth, you take water as hot as you can drink and rinse your mouth with it. That serves as hagalah for this purpose. As for a table, as we said, it would actually be enough to cover it thoroughly, with several layers over the top and edges. If it’s a table that won’t be damaged, some people nevertheless pour boiling water over it before covering it. But each person can decide whether to do that. Several layers of coverings are also fine, after, of course, cleaning the table. Another point—the question of h-how to...

58:32 The walls absorb it as though it were being cooked. So there could be things like that in the refrigerator, and then on Pesach there could also be liquids from the vegetables in there. Those liquids could draw out what has been absorbed in the walls. So we don’t get into that whole headache; we cover everything. We don’t kasher a microwave—in fact, we don’t kasher a microwave at any time of year. A dishwasher, certainly not. It has crevices and all sorts of problems, so we don’t kasher it. Teeth and dentures are a real issue. Rabbi Auerbach would kasher dentures, because putting them in boiling water could damage them. So he would wait until the water cooled to about seventy degrees and then put the dentures in. As for teeth, that really is an issue, because if a person has no fillings, no plates, nothing at all, then there’s no problem. The material our teeth are made of, which Hakadosh Boruch Hu gave us, doesn’t absorb. But the various materials that are put into teeth, especially metals, certainly do absorb. So on Erev Pesach, after finishing eating chametz and brushing one’s teeth and everything else, one takes water as hot as one can drink and rinses one’s mouth with it. That serves as hagalah for this purpose. As for a table, as we said, it would actually be enough to cover it well, with several layers, including its sides. If it’s a table that won’t be damaged, some people pour boiling water over it anyway before covering it. But each person can decide whether to do that or not. Several layers of coverings are also fine, after, of course, cleaning the table. One more matter: the question of how...

1:00:49 We do, in fact, kasher spoons, cups, and all sorts of other things. Yes, we said not glass, but other things. So how do we do hagalah? There are several things to know. First, I need to kasher the large pot in which I’m doing the hagalah. I fill it with water, bring it to a boil, and make the water overflow. To make the water overflow while it’s boiling, I add something hot to it—boiling water from a kettle, for example, or a heated stone. Okay, that kashers the pot. Afterward, I rinse it with cold water, as is customary, and the pot itself has been kashered. Then I fill it with water again and bring it to a boil. Using a basket, I put in the utensils I want to kasher. I move it around a little so the water reaches all the spaces between the utensils—for example, between the different teaspoons—and leave them in for just three seconds, no longer. I take them out because I don’t want them to stay in for a long time and absorb what was released. I take them out and rinse them with cold water, as we said. Afterward, if I want to use that same pot for Pesach, it’s simple: I need to kasher it a third time, discarding the water and kashering the pot again by filling it as I did the first time. One more point before putting in each batch of utensils. I’m going back to the middle stage, when I put in teaspoons, forks, and other things to kasher them. Before I put the utensils in, the water needs to be bubbling. Of course, when I put them in, the bubbling stops, but that’s fine—there’s no need to worry. That’s normal. I wait three seconds and take

1:02:45 them out. That’s fine; I don’t need to wait for the water to boil again while they’re inside. But after I’ve taken them out and rinsed them, and before putting in the next batch, I do need to wait for it to boil again. Then I put in the next batch, and so on. That’s it for this subject. Lesson nine: cosmetics, hygiene products, and cleaning products. Perhaps we should add something we forgot to mention in the last lesson about hagalah. A woman who works in the kitchen all year and wears rings may very commonly have had those rings come into direct contact during the year with hot soups and things that are effectively like a kli rishon. They have therefore absorbed chametz. If they again come into direct contact with something hot on Pesach, what they absorbed could be released. So it is very, very advisable for a woman not to wear on Pesach the rings she wears in the kitchen throughout the year. She should put them aside. That’s a suggestion. Now we’ll begin the subject of cosmetics and all those things, but first we need to establish one point. As we’ve already said, things unfit for a dog to eat are no longer chametz. It is true that if we eat them, halachah says that by eating something, you give it the status of food—you turn it into something you eat. But as long as you don’t eat it, it remains unfit for a dog to eat. Using it doesn’t mean that you now give it the status of food. That applies only to eating. So, seemingly, there’s no problem. Certainly, with something like that, we don’t violate bal yeira’eh or bal yimatzei. So what is the problem? Seemingly, there isn’t one. Even toothpaste that is unfit for a dog to eat—even if it tastes good, a dog won’t eat it. When I brush my teeth, even if I swallow a little of that tasty toothpaste, which might also contain chametz, since it’s unfit for a dog to eat and I didn’t intend to eat what I swallowed, I haven’t given it the status of food. So strictly speaking, there is no problem even with toothpaste, and one could use toothpaste that isn’t kosher for Pesach. But since some of it is nevertheless swallowed and enters the mouth, we are stringent about it. It’s important to know, though, that this is a stringency. And from this stringency we move on to others that go much, much further, which we are indeed accustomed to observing. If we’re stringent about toothpaste and require Pesach certification, then seemingly we can say the same about utensils: what’s on them might eventually reach the mouth too. Okay, so we’re stringent about that as well. Then there’s the rule in the laws of Yom Kippur that anointing is like drinking, which is why we don’t anoint ourselves on Yom Kippur. Some extend that rule, even though halachah seemingly doesn’t do so. One can actually demonstrate that from the Rema. Nevertheless, we’re accustomed to say: fine, we’ll be stringent on Pesach too and treat anointing as drinking, so we won’t anoint ourselves with an oil containing chametz. And we’re even more stringent than that. When I use shampoo, perhaps that, too, is considered anointing. Okay, so we require Pesach certification for shampoo as well. And soap—perhaps soap, too, involves anointing. Okay, so we use soap with certification. What about lipstick? It could reach the mouth, so we’re stringent about that too. Again, these are all stringencies; they’re not required by the letter of the law. What about perfumes?

1:05:06 Perfumes actually raise two issues. The first is whether they’re unfit for a dog to eat. But the fact is, some people even drink them. It has happened. There’s another point, though, which I’m about to explain. This is a very far-reaching stringency, but it does exist. It’s a position of the Maharam Schick and the Sho’el Umeishiv, so it does exist. They say this: with perfumes and similar things, it’s true that you rendered the chametz unfit for a dog to eat. But when do we say that you’ve nullified the chametz? When something was food and you made it no longer food. If the intention all along was to make perfume from it, however, you haven’t nullified it. It isn’t considered nullified; its intended purpose, becoming perfume, has been fulfilled. So it remains something from which one may not derive benefit, and enjoying the fragrance of something made from chametz is also forbidden. Even if the chametz belongs to a non-Jew, yes, one may not smell it. So this stringency also applies to perfumes and other fragrant products. That doesn’t leave many things. Generally, people are lenient—certainly with the floor and things like that. But it turns out that someone who really wants to be stringent—and generally that’s what people are accustomed to doing—will be stringent here too. Again, everything I’ve just said consists only of stringencies, but they certainly are established stringencies. Lesson ten: the laws of Erev Pesach. On Erev Pesach, we don’t say Mizmor Lesodah. From midday onward, we don’t do certain types of work, so laundry should be done before midday. There’s also bathing, cutting one’s nails, and getting a haircut; haircuts and nail-cutting should be done in the morning as well. Toward the end of the day, one should read the Seder Korban Pesach. Now let me go back. From the end of the fourth halachic hour, eating chametz is forbidden. From the end of the fifth hour, deriving benefit from chametz is also forbidden. One needs to dispose of the

1:07:10 So with perfumes, there are really two issues. The first is that perhaps they are unfit even for a dog to eat. But what can you do? There are people who even drink them. Yes, it has happened. But there is another point, which I’m going to mention now. It’s a very far-reaching stringency, but it does exist. It’s something raised by the Maharam Schick and the Shoel Umeishiv, so it is a consideration. They say this: With perfumes and similar things, you have indeed rendered the chametz unfit even for a dog to eat. But when do we say that you have nullified the chametz? When something was meant to be eaten, and you changed it so that it is no longer edible. But when the intention all along was to make perfume from it, you have not nullified it. That doesn’t count as nullification. The purpose of making perfume from it has been fulfilled, so it is still something from which it is forbidden to derive benefit. And it is also forbidden to benefit from the smell of chametz. A non-Jew’s chametz, yes, it is forbidden to smell it. So this applies to perfumes and other things that give off a scent, and this stringency exists as well. That doesn’t leave many things. Generally, people are indeed lenient. Certainly for floors and things like that. But it turns out that someone who really wants to be stringent—and that is generally the practice—well, again, everything I’ve just said consists only of stringencies, but they are certainly recognized stringencies. Lesson ten: The laws of Erev Pesach. On Erev Pesach, we do not say Mizmor Lesodah. From midday onward, we do not do work, so laundry should be done before midday. We also shower, cut our nails, and get haircuts. So haircuts and nail-cutting should also be done in the morning. Toward the end of the day, one should recite the order of the Korban Pesach. Now I’m going back a bit. From the end of the fourth hour, it is forbidden to eat chametz. From the end of the fifth hour, it is forbidden to derive any further benefit from chametz. One must dispose of the…

1:09:38 The chametz. Ah, that’s it. After that, selling the chametz is no longer possible either. The custom is not to eat, on Erev Pesach, any of the ingredients used in charoses, and not to eat maror either. We make charoses with apples, pears, and nuts, so on Erev Pesach we don’t eat apples, pears, nuts, or maror. But as for the other things on the Seder plate—people always ask whether they may eat eggs, chicken, and onions—yes, they may. For three hours before sunset, we don’t eat a large meal or drink wine. We are careful to observe all the stringencies of Pesach, even though the rule that chametz is not nullified even in the smallest amount begins only at sunset, on the night of the 15th, and not during Erev Pesach. But the Chabad custom is that from the end of the time for eating chametz, the end of the fourth hour, we already observe all the stringencies we observe on Pesach. Don’t forget to clean your mouth on Erev Pesach, as we already explained. Ah, that’s it for those matters. Now there is the Fast of the Firstborn on Erev Pesach. Regarding the fast, even someone who plans to fast—unless he is the one who... And someone who plans to make a siyum: instead of fasting, one may make a siyum on a tractate. So if he knows he is going to make a siyum, he may drink his coffee before davening, but other firstborns should not eat. A firstborn means specifically a firstborn through either the father or the mother. A firstborn through the mother is the first to open the womb; a firstborn through the father is the firstborn for inheritance. But someone born by Caesarean section is not considered a firstborn, either for inheritance or as the first to open the womb, so he has no obligation to fast or attend a siyum. Someone who is his father’s firstborn, but was born after a miscarriage, does fast. And yes, the custom is to bring even a firstborn who is not yet bar mitzvah to the siyum. There is

1:12:15 a halachah that when the father is a firstborn—only males fast, right? A mother who is a firstborn does not have to fast. A woman who is a firstborn does not have to fast. But if the father is a firstborn and he has a firstborn son, then the mother needs to fast in place of the son or take part in a siyum. Now, that is a little difficult. The mother is very tired, and attending a siyum on Erev Pesach, when she has a million things to do, is hard. So my friend, the distinguished Rabbi Yishai Mora[?], says that the woman can listen to the siyum over the phone. The father will be at davening and at the siyum, and afterward he brings her a little food from the siyum meal; that way, she fulfills her obligation. Some poskim hold that eating at the siyum meal is essential. There are different opinions on this, so ideally one should certainly be careful to eat a kezayis of mezonos. But shuls often don’t want to bring mezonos in on Erev Pesach. One can use matzah ashirah. One can also drink a revi’is of wine, and that fulfills the obligation as well. And yes, if someone did not eat right away, then as long as he has not turned his attention away from the siyum, he can eat later; that also counts as part of the siyum, and he fulfills his obligation. What can one make a siyum on? Ideally, specifically on a tractate of Gemara. If it’s an order of Mishnah or a book of the Rambam, there are various circumstances in which that is also permitted. That’s it. Lesson eleven: the Seder night. There was simply demand for this topic, so at the last minute we’re managing to cover it too. We’ll go through all the steps quickly and mention the important points. Kadesh, the matter of Kiddush. We take a cup that holds a revi’is; a revi’is is 86 cubic centimeters. But our Rebbeim used larger cups. They measured the Rebbe Rashab’s cup, and it held 100 cubic centimeters. Just so we know,

1:14:48 an ordinary plastic cup holds a little over 170 cubic centimeters, so 100 isn’t much. We drink four cups. The Ramban reads the wording “four cups” precisely: although according to most poskim, a cheekful is enough, and one does not have to drink it all—even though the cup itself must hold those 86 or 100 cubic centimeters, one does not have to fill it completely or drink all of it—our custom follows the Ramban: we fill the cups completely and drink all of each one. According to the Ramban, the four cups are four full cups, so it’s best not to use cups that hold 170 or 200 cubic centimeters, and so on. If drinking wine is difficult, it’s better to use smaller cups. As for the time limit, one must drink it all within the time it takes to drink a revi’is. In practice, we drink it all at once, while reclining. We specifically use red wine. Although the Shulchan Aruch does not mention that for Shabbos Kiddush, it does for the four cups, and it is stated explicitly in Tractate Pesachim. If someone did not recline, he does not repeat the cup, relying on the opinion that reclining is not required nowadays, when people sit rather than recline. Among us, by the way, women do not recline. So for the first, third, and fourth cups, if he did not recline, it’s all right; after the fact, the drinking counts. For the second cup, if he did not recline, he does drink again, because when he drinks again after the second cup, he does not need to make another blessing. When he made the blessing over the second cup, he knew he would also drink during the meal, so drinking again does not look like adding to the four cups. That is why it is not a problem. But according to our custom, we make a blessing over each cup, unlike the Sephardim, who make a blessing only over the first and third cups.

1:16:54 So if we had to repeat the first, third, or fourth cup, we would have to make another blessing, and that would look like adding to the four cups. Therefore, only with the second cup, if he did not recline, does he drink again, while reclining, without another blessing. According to Kabbalah, we use a cup without a stem. One more point about Kadesh: the Chabad custom is for each person to pour their own cup, rather than have someone pour it for them. That’s Kadesh. Urchatz, washing the hands: washing without a blessing. One really has to be careful. We’re used to making a blessing over other washings, but here we must be very careful. This is a proper handwashing, just like washing before Hamotzi, with a towel and everything else we’re used to, but without a blessing. It is because the karpas will be dipped in salt water, and food dipped in a liquid requires handwashing. We take less than a kezayis of karpas because there is a disagreement about whether an after-blessing is required afterward. To avoid that disagreement, we take less than a kezayis. After the fact, if someone ate more than a kezayis, he still should not make an after-blessing; when in doubt about a blessing, we are lenient. Yachatz. We split the matzah. We take the larger piece for the afikoman, break it into five pieces, put it in a napkin, and place it all between two pillows—that is our custom. But we must be careful that the other piece, which we leave behind, still contains a kezayis. That will be important for Motzi Matzah. Maggid. One must know that Maggid is a positive mitzvah from the Torah. There are two positive mitzvos from the Torah that night: Maggid and eating matzah. So we really must take great care with this and explain things at length to the children in terms they understand. As the Haggadah says, we should elaborate on the account of the Exodus from Egypt, the plagues, and so on. Rachtzah. Now we wash our hands before Hamotzi. We must be careful that from after the blessings over Hamotzi until the end of eating

1:19:09 Until korech, we don’t talk about unrelated things, not even about the passages in the Haggadah. The Rebbe recites everything connected with the stages up to korech before washing his hands. That’s regarding rochtzah. Now, motzi matzah. For motzi matzah, we take two kezaysim. It’s not that we need one kezayis for motzi and one for matzah; motzi doesn’t require a kezayis. Rather, there’s a dispute over whether the kezayis for matzah should come from the top matzah or the middle matzah. So we take a kezayis from the top one and a kezayis from the middle one. Those are the two kezaysim for motzi matzah. But the people at the table who don’t have the three matzos are given a little from each, with more added from the box to make up a kezayis. They don’t need two kezaysim. By the way, a kezayis of Chabad matzah is about a third of a matzah, and we eat it while reclining. There’s a dispute among the Rishonim about whether a kezayis is a third of an egg or half an egg. The Alter Rebbe rules that for Torah obligations we use half an egg, and for rabbinic obligations, a third of an egg. One kezayis here is a Torah obligation, but the Alter Rebbe says that, in any case, for all these things we should ideally use the measure for a Torah obligation. So ideally we take half an egg’s volume. With Chabad matzah, that’s about a third of a matzah. For maror, as is known, we take both lettuce and horseradish. But someone who has various blockages or other issues and doesn’t eat sharp foods on Pesach should make sure the horseradish is very finely ground, or not eat horseradish, or rely on the halachic authorities who are lenient about horseradish and say that it isn’t like asafoetida—it isn’t considered a sharp food. But apparently that doesn’t follow the Rema. As for korech, you have to be careful to use charoses that is completely dry,

1:21:32 because otherwise the matzah in it will become soaked matzah. At shulchan orech, we begin with an egg dipped in salt. We don’t eat the shank bone, and we don’t eat any roasted foods at the Seder—not roasted meat or pot-roasted meat. So we don’t eat chicken baked in the oven either, only cooked foods. Cooked meat and chicken are fine, but not meat or chicken roasted in the oven or in a pan. We don’t say Hallel while reclining. The Alter Rebbe’s Shulchan Aruch says that we recite Hallel seated with awe and reverence. Nirtzah is already the end. As is known, we don’t drink after eating the afikoman. We don’t drink wine so that we won’t become intoxicated and be unable to recount the Exodus from Egypt and all the miracles. We also have a custom not to drink other things, even water. Yes, the Arizal does write about the matter of water. We want to preserve the taste of the matzah, but the reason not to drink wine is so that we won’t fall asleep from drinking it and fail to recount the miracles of Egypt. So anyone who stays up afterward just chatting has really lost more than they gained. That’s not the point. A kosher and joyous Pesach to everyone.