שֶׁבְּכָל הַלֵּילוֹת אָנוּ אוֹכְלִין חָמֵץ וּמַצָּה, הַלַּיְלָה הַזֶּה כֻלּוֹ מַצָּה.
On all other nights we eat hametz and matzah, tonight only matzah. (Mishnah Pesakhim 10.4)
Happy new year! The Jewish month of Nissan began on Saturday evening, and with it, the calendar year of our people.
The first of three harvest festivals is only two weeks away. The observance of Pesakh, also called Passover, obliges us to live differently (even as our other new year in the fall is marked by Yom Kippur, a day on which we live differently from the norm). Each year, throughout the Jewish world, the old is discarded or recycled, and the new is celebrated.
Pesakh begins at sundown on 14 Nissan, which is Saturday evening, the close of Shabbat, April 12 2025.
Here is a review of the most important aspects of our celebration:
Before Saturday evening April 12, all hametz is removed from the possession of any Jewish person. What you are unable to eat or give away should be packaged safely and put away in a designated area. Make a list of all that you have hidden away and sell it for the duration of the festival of matzah. You can do that using a handy on line form provided by our friends at Chabad here: Hametz Sale On Line
This year, the timing is the tricky part. Pesakh begins at the close of Shabbat this year. That means that we have to clean for Pesakh before Shabbat. Therefore: from Friday April at noon until Sunday evening April 20 at sundown, all Jews should have no leavening in their possession, except what you are planning to eat on Shabbat. The cleaning takes place before that, and should be done by Friday before Shabbat begins.
You should do the ritual blessing of bedikat hametz and bi’er hametz (looking for and getting rid of your hametz) on Friday afternoon. You can find the ritual in the first pages of many haggadot, or click HERE.
After you clean, your hallah or whatever other hametz foodstuff which you are having for Shabbat before Pesakh begins should be kept in one designated area of your living area; everything else should be cleaned of any hametz by then.
What is hametz? The Torah is specific:
שִׁבְעַ֤ת יָמִים֙ מַצּ֣וֹת תֹּאכֵ֔לוּ אַ֚ךְ בַּיּ֣וֹם הָרִאשׁ֔וֹן תַּשְׁבִּ֥יתוּ שְּׂאֹ֖ר מִבָּתֵּיכֶ֑ם כִּ֣י ׀ כׇּל־אֹכֵ֣ל חָמֵ֗ץ וְנִכְרְתָ֞ה הַנֶּ֤פֶשׁ הַהִוא֙ מִיִּשְׂרָאֵ֔ל מִיּ֥וֹם הָרִאשֹׁ֖ן עַד־י֥וֹם הַשְּׁבִעִֽי׃
Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread; on the very first day you shall remove leaven from your houses, for whoever eats leavened bread from the first day to the seventh day, that person shall be cut off from Israel. (Exodus 12.16)
Please note that outside of Israel Passover is observed for eight days, not seven.
But the Torah is not specific enough: what is leaven? The rabbis of the Talmud spell it out. We are to clear our homes of all the five types of grain that our ancestors used as food, and to make matzah from any of the five from the new harvest (unleavened because it is new, and there is no time for the dough to rise!) for the celebration:
These are the types of grain with which a person fulfills his obligation to eat matzah on the first night of Passover: With wheat, with barley, with spelt, with rye, and with oats. (Mishnah Pesakhim 2.5)
Because of our concern to fully rid ourselves of all products containing these five grains, many more foodstuffs have been added to the list of what is considered hametz.
what is forbidden and what is permitted:
- Whisky, beer, and other alcohols made from grains is forbidden
- Soy sauce and other condiments with wheat added are forbidden
- Yeast itself, as well as baking power and baking soda (although these are not hametz, they are too much like it) is avoided
- Rice, corn, beans and legumes are not consumed by Ashkenazi Jews, for no clear reason other than they 1. Look like flour, 2. Can be used to make bread, and/or 3. Swell when cooked (like when bread rises)
- Sefardi Jews eat rice, corn, beans and legumes; many Ashkenazi authorities also recommend that Jews not abstain from these foods, but old traditions are still very strong in many places, and each family should follow their own familiar minhag.
- Gluten free matzah is permitted, but it does not fulfill the halakhic obligation during the Seder to consume a single bite of matzah made of one of the five classic grains: wheat, barley, spelt, rye, oats.
Where possible, different plates and cooking utensils are utilized. Items like pots and pans and cookie sheets can be run through a dishwasher or put in an oven set to its highest heat to kasher them. The oven itself should be kashered in the same way; countertops can be cleaned with boiling water, and some people cover them with aluminum foil. A toaster cannot be kashered for Pesakh, but a toaster oven can be if necessary.
You do not have to eat matzah all week; the halakhic obligation is to eat an olive’s worth during the seder (about a bite, not even a mouthful).
If you are so completely gluten intolerant that eating one bite of such matzah would endanger your life or your well-being, you may not do so.
Spiritually, regardless of your regular dietary restrictions, it is important that this week be treated differently in terms of the way you eat. Matzah is so central to the holy day that it is literally called hag haMatzot, the Festival of Matzot. Since eating is life, and all life depends upon the harvest, this eight day festival of gratitude depends on our mindfulness of all we are taking into our bodies as sustenance.
רַבָּן גַּמְלִיאֵל הָיָה אוֹמֵר, כָּל שֶׁלֹּא אָמַר שְׁלֹשָׁה דְבָרִים אֵלּוּ בְּפֶסַח, לֹא יָצָא יְדֵי חוֹבָתוֹ, וְאֵלּוּ הֵן, פֶּסַח, מַצָּה, וּמָרוֹר
Rabban Gamliel always said: Whoever does not speak of these three things on Pesakh has not fulfilled the obligation: Pesakh, matzah, and maror. (Mishnah Pesakhim 10.5)
Torah for the 21st Century by Rabbi Ariel Stone 