So What is Different About Passover? Passover Preparations That's What!

This is the second of three articles. It deals with step two in summary form. A previous article lists the prohibited items and what to avoid. To review very briefly, the forbidden foods are known as chametz and include fermented grain products and leavening agents, whether in food or in non-food (like cosmetics or pet food). The prohibitions include eating, using or benefitting, owning or possessing any of them.

So how do you get rid of all that chametz? You sell it, destroy it or nullify it.

1) Start by cleaning your home, room by room and segregating your chametz. That way you will know what you own and where it is. Don't leave any place out, whether you rent or own. Look in your medicine chest, your child's sandbox and knapsack, your locker at the gym or elsewhere, your desk at work, your glove compartment and all those great little hiding places in the car. Hey! Passover preparations are serious business. If you own chametz or have it on your premises you have to get rid of it.

2) Sell your chametz to a non-Jew. That is one way to not violate the prohibition of owning chametz. This legal process can be done through a rabbi who acts as your agent in the sale. He sells it the day before Passover and buys it back on your behalf afterwards. Use the rabbi so that it's an actual sale and not a piece of legal fiction.

3) Collect and store all the sold chametz out of sight in a sealed or taped room or cabinet. The chametz should thus be inaccessible to you on Passover. Your rabbi may want a list of what you are selling, its value and location for inclusion in the contract.

4)Store real chametz, mixtures of chametz, possible chametz, kitniyos and utensils of any kind used throughout the year.

5) If you intend to use your stove and sink, or any of your pots and pans be aware that the taste of chametz is embedded in them. The process of removing embedded chametz is called kashering. Your Orthodox rabbi can advise what things can be kashered and how to do so.

6) The unsold chametz must be destroyed beyond usability no later than the morning before Passover. It can be eaten, given away to a non-Jew, fed to the birds, or taken to the city dump. The traditional method, used for small amounts of chametz, is to burn it. All of the methods work as long as the chametz is not in your possession after the allowable time.

7) A third process is called bitul chametz - nullification. You make a verbal declaration that any chametz that you didn't sell or destroy is ownerless. This is a back-up in case some chametz turns up unexpectedly. You will destroy it later anyway but you are not its owner retroactive to the nullification.

Once you have taken care of this very important part of keeping kosher on Passover, you can plan to get the foods needed for the seder meal. A third companion article discusses that activity. To be sure that you adequately relinquish your chametz - you For more information and an experienced mentor.